Oh no! I’ve suffered enough with stupid lawsuits, but here I go again, annoying a litigious jerk. He hasn’t sued me (yet!), but I too have refused to advertise on Twitter and have gone so far as to not even look at ads on Twitter. Abandoning your account will do that for you. But now, Musk is suing people for violating his free speech by not advertising on his service.
Elon Musk’s X has accused a group of major advertisers of antitrust violations in a new lawsuit claiming the group conspired to “boycott” advertising on the platform.
The lawsuit claims an influential ad industry group organized “to collectively withhold billions of dollars in advertising from Twitter” because the group was concerned that the platform had deviated from brand safety standards after Musk’s acquisition in late 2022.
The group is the Global Alliance for Responsible Media, also known as GARM, a voluntary ad-industry initiative run by the World Federation of Advertisers that aims to help brands avoid having their advertisements appear alongside illegal or harmful content.
I would have thought it perfectly legitimate to want to avoid stinky bad sites that might alienate a business’s customers. I guess I don’t understand the finer points of free speech absolutism.
musk has the constitutional right to have people advertise on his shitty platform.
its right there in the 8th amendment: no cruel or unusual punishment.
don’t punish the musk!
An entirely appropriate Pepe to associate Musk with.
He TOLD them to go fuck themselves. Guess they decided to do just that.
Memo to nazis like Musk – your speech may indeed be free but our listening to it is NOT mandatory.
Musk’s Twitter ‘Boycott’ Lawsuit Is a ‘Hideous Joke’: Former FTC Official
I wonder if they get paid upfront or if they are working on contingency.
Funny how the champions of “non-coercion” and “The Marketplace of Ideas™️” want to force us to consume their bullshit.
Disturbing.
#3 @drksky
shhhh, you weren’t supposed to remember that! elon is the victim here, waaaahhhhh nobody wants to run ads next to his election interference and calls for mob violence!! so sad
“And so I come full circle on this response and just want to encourage you with some substance that we are in the process of the second American Revolution, which will remain bloodless if the left allows it to be.”
–Kevin Roberts, asshat
@ *
Again, I wish that what laughable passed for a “left” in America were as militant as these paranoid, greedy shits claim.
I mean, Democrats can only bring themselves to call the Republicans “weird” rather than what they actual are: Fascists. They fell over themselves to denounce Trump recent assassination attempt rather than curse the shooter’s poor aim. They wring their hands incessantly and annoyingly about how “violence never solves anything” even as the right use violence to make political gains.
And they think that libs (As we know, they don’t differentiate between actual leftists and liberals, i.e. capitalists who pretend to care about minorities.) are the ones out for blood. Humph!
Whoops: The should be @ 8
This obviously makes no *legal sense but does it make sense for mobilizing MAGA for the next election? Because manipulating he masses is one of Musk’s few actual strengths.
*What constitutes legal sense is a big unknown now due to the current SCOTUS.
I tawt I taw a fascist ass. I did! I did see a fascist ass!
Hmm, wouldn’t praising an attempted assassination be rather fascist?
Complaining that the Dems are simply cutting through the partisanship and mud-slinging by rightly calling all the MAGA nonsense weird, rather than engaging with it, is a very strange complaint considering that it’s obviously been effective.
Go watch the Harris/Walz rally in Philadelphia, which sounds more like the cheering and happiness of an Olympics audience when Simon Biles won her 6th gold medal.
I’ve never seen such enthusiasm at a rally in my life.
I might have even felt the strange emotion called pride in my country for their wholesome response to Walz for VP, and Kamala Harris as Madame President.
Aaaall right, so that’s two dickheads in terminal meltdown.
I know it’s too much to hope, but if the stars align in just the right way we may see El Baboon Mucho Mango lose the election and right after that enter terminal care (at long last), while El Otro Weirdo Musko X gets relieved of all significant business appointments/responsibilities and begins a much-needed drug detox (at long last).
I suppose we’ll see…
Akira @9
The Democratic Party are using weird because it works. Most people don’t really have a clear idea what fascist means, apart from we fought them in WWII, but they do know what creepy weird is, they know it when they see it and they don’t like it. While I agree fascist would be accurate and more precise it simply doesn’t work as well as weird. Do you really want the Democrats to put the precision of the politically interested above the gut feelings of the mass of voters?
Mano Singham says the Donald may soon be in an interview with the Musk.
It will be…”interesting”.
Neither has the sense to steer away from what the majority may perceive as ‘creepy’. (grabs popcorn)
Akira @9: Have you contacted your political representatives to tell them you support* laws against hate speech? As useless as you think that might be, it’s infinitely more constructive than repetitive anonymous moaning in blog comments.
*Yes, I know you ‘support’ much more than that, like liquidating those you see as the enemy, but ya gotta start somewhere, right?
Sorry, I have no reason to think Akira is anonymous.
@11: Given that the Supreme Court is infallible only because it is final/unreviewable — very much like theocratic hierarchies — I deny that when this Court changes something, that something “makes no legal sense.” Red Lion FTW!†
In general: El0n Mu5k’s‡ various laments remind me very much of a fabulous book title (for a not very good book, frankly, because I-D-Ol-ogee), Free Speech For Me — But Not For Thee; a necessary counterpart of free speech is free silence in which to ponder it.
† Sorry; this is very inside-baseballish, but an explanation would run around 2,500 words. Plus footnotes.
‡ Doesn’t his name just scream “leetspeak me”? With more layers of reflexive irony that even an internet tycoon who got there by luck can count?
Johnny Cash is not welcome here
Texas school bans all-black outfits, citing ‘mental health’
20 @Reginald Selkirk: That reminds me of when my high school finally allowed girls to wear jeans, as long as they were not blue.
@20 I wore the same flannel shirt to high-school for two weeks before someone finally decided to comment on it.
I swear it was washed everyday and let’s not speculate on my mental health.
LAURA INGRAHAM (HOST): “If you know Minnesota, and I know it well, especially Milwaukee, it’s changed. It’s never recovered from 2020. It’s not the same place. And Tim Walz was empathizing with all the DEI initiatives that were swirling about the controversies. ”
https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/laura-ingraham-if-you-know-minnesota-and-i-know-it-well-especially-milwaukee-its-changed
Thank you all for reminding me the difference between liberals and leftists.
@9 Akira: Weird actually works very well. The democrats have stumbled on a tactic that works for them and I hope they stick with it.
The far right doesn’t mind being called authoritarian or fascist or evil. They don’t have any respect for truth and expect their opponents to say vile things about them the same way they say vile things about their opponents. Calling them fascists often just validates that they are powerful in their minds. They hate being made fun of because it wrecks their carefully built image of power and respectability and it’s not something they can do back, they have no sense of humor.
The right in general likes to think of themselves as the normal. They are the “silent majority” and “average middle class” even when fairly extremist. For this group being called weird bothers them because it breaks their illusion of being common people, being normal.
Plus it doesn’t get censored by the press. The journalists can’t jump in and write articles about how Vance isn’t weird because he obviously is. They can’t call out Democrats for saying Trump is weird because it’s too mild of an insult.
“If you know Minnesota, and I know it well, especially Milwaukee, it’s changed. It’s never recovered from 2020. It’s not the same place.
Well, being relocated several hundred miles west will do that to a city.
She obviously meant Minneapolis, and she is right, it’s not the same as before the murder of George Floyd and the civil unrest that followed. The police are still missing a station, but otherwise the Twin Cities have recovered from the damage caused by right-wing race warriors descending on our cities.
@ 25
You may have a point. It’s just hate those fuckers so much. I want them gone. I want them out of the way so we can actually build the society we should be living in without their interference or retaliation.
I also want the right, especially Trump, to suffer and die for everything they done to humanity. They deserve it!
Akira @27 — I won’t disagree with you on what they deserve. I’ll also say you deserve space to be openly angry about all the evil stuff they’ve done. Certainly no harm in venting your frustration. I also want them gone, and as fast as possible at that. I think people should absolutely be more empathetic to your position, and your completely understandable anger and frustration.
The problem we run into is… ends and means aren’t separable. Killing the monsters won’t build the kind of world we need. If anything, violence that goes beyond strict defense would only validate their worldview. Building something new and better is hard — very hard. I’m not sure I know how. I’m not even convinced that I could meaningfully contribute, or that, when all’s said and done, I’d still be able to live in the world we built once we did. It’s so tempting to succumb to thinking that if we just eradicated the fascists, everything would work out somehow. That, at least, is a concrete goal to aim at. And yet, we know it isn’t true.
Jemolk, indeed.
cf. https://firefly.fandom.com/wiki/Operative
@ 29
My hero. 😈
Firefly is right wing trash that vilifies scientific and sophisticated civilization and makes heroes out of shit-smeared, inbred, libertarian hicks. If it were made today, Mal would be wear MAGA hats and the Confederate battle flag would have been painted on the Serenity’s hull like the General Lee from The Dukes of Hazard.
Do you know what I feel most of the time?
Worry, disappointment, and stifled, impotent rage.
What am I worried about? Everything: Politics. Religion. Culture. Civilization. My unemployment. My bills. My psycho right-wing father. The threadbare tires on my beater car. A broken tooth I can’t have looked at or fixed because so can’t afford it. Etc.
What disappointments me? Again, everything. I’m disgusted that the world and humanity aren’t better than they are. I was hoping we’d live in a futuristic near-utopia by know, but instead we’re on the verge of collapse and extinction. Most of all, I disappointed in my own failed and useless existence.
I want to scream. I want to break things. The want to rant and hit people until I’m finally spent or whatever is worrying me is gone, but I know I can’t because laws and morality. That only make things worse. The best I can do is vent my rage online even though it makes me look like a monster and an idiot. It’s the only release I have.
There’s also one other thing I feel. Despair. We’re fucking doomed by our own greed and stupidity. Reforms come to slowly and are piecemeal for ridiculous reasons. Climate change will kill us before long before liberal incrementalism makes any headway. That thought only worries and disappoints me more, leading to yet more rage.
I know what to do. I never did. I don’t even think there’s anything that can help me.
I just want it all to stop. I just want to feel “normal.”
Akira @31: If you start a GoFundMe, I’d be happy to donate what I can. Seriously.
I wrote this up for Wonkette yesterday morning, but it didn’t get published until today. The whole thing is terrifyingly weird, though one detail makes complete sense: The lawsuit was filed in Wichita Falls, Texas, where NONE of the parties are headquartered. Unsurprisingly, the WF,T court has only a single judge, who is a die-hard, whackaloon conservative. Pure judge shopping.
CD‘s Wonkette article. Good ‘un.
Meanwhile, in Canada
Jordan Peterson agrees to social media coaching after Supreme Court declines free speech case
@ 34
Thank you for the offer Rob. I know we’ve butted heads in the past, and I apologize for any insults I lobbed at you. I’ll talk it over with some friends and consider it.
@reginald:
The SCC is eminently more reasonable than SCOTUS.
@Akira:
<offers a hug>
@ 38
Thank you. (Hug hug hug)
Y’know, I wasn’t sure “weird” would work as a label for our opponents (I would have stuck with “deranged”), but it does get straight to something that needs to be said: we “liberals” or “leftists” or “progressives” or whatever you want to call us, really are the “normal” people, and we’re at least advocating doing the sane, decent and healthy thing most times. It’s the far right — despite pretending for over a century to be “normal” and “sensible” — who are, in fact, stuck in truly irrational and harmful thought-patterns, and basing most or all of their judgments on beliefs that have no connection to reality. And most times, the people who can handle reality are considered “normal” and “healthy,” and those who consistently can’t are called “weird” and “sick.”
So, yeah, “weird” works here, and it’s time sane and decent people started reclaiming labels like “normal.”
@Recursive Rabbit #2 – The Difference is: the cartoon Pepe was actually fun to watch.
Raging Bee:
Freethinkers, and there are fewer of us than appear to be.
Not too sure about you.
FWTW.
@ ^ John Morales : remidns me of tee old saying (?) :
“The whole world’s mad but for thee and me -and I ain’t so sure about thee! ”
From ..somewhere.
@31. Akira MacKenzie : I can relate – well, except for the reichwing father bit and I don’t think your existence is a failure either.
Sympathies and virtual (((hugs))) from me as well if you want them.
<clickety-click>
“All the world is queer save thee and me, and even thou art a little queer.”
― robert owen 1828
@ ^ John Morales : Ahh. Thanks.
Version I had of this in # 43 was from my Mum talking about what a friend / relative of hers used to say. Nic eto get the oiginal wording.
Akira @36: No apologies necessary. We’ll probably butt heads again, but some things are more important than heated exchanges on the internet.