Yawn… 
The Captain
It might be boring for you, but Musk is so agitated he’s in meltdown mode, lashing out at his customers because they refuse to support anti-semitism. It interesting seeing a CEO so unable to control his emotions in public.
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It’s even more interesting because Musk is very much not the CEO of X. Linda Yaccarino is. Or at least, purportedly is. She was named as CEO, in part, to assuage advertisers that someone with a lot of experience in the business of advertising and media would have their hand on the tiller. I think this interview, though, probably will dispel any illusions that those advertisers might have had that Yaccarino has much say in the direction of Twitter, or how it treats advertisers - or even that she’s a “real” CEO, rather than Musk.
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WWES
What would Elon say … to whomever tells Elon he does not know the definition of blackmail?
ralph
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Seems pretty obvious. If a kid says he has dyslexia or ADHD, we give him the benefit of the doubt in that we don’t hold him fully accountable for below average reading skills. If an obese child has obese parents, we don’t hold him fully accountable for his condition because of the likely genetic and environmental factors over which he has little control. Musk has said he is on the autism spectrum, specifically using the now obsolete term of Aspergers. If one looks at his behavior or reads the recent biography, he fits the profile. The brains of those on the autism spectrum are wired a bit differently.
A friend of mine has an autistic child who occasionally does or says things that would typically be considered rude or inappropriate. That’s the nature of his brain structure. We give him the benefit of the doubt. I do the same with Musk.
So what? This isn’t about consequences. This is about accountability. If you were to claim that it is the fault of poor people if they have children they cannot support, you will no doubt be skewered with the accusation of blaming the victim. Musk has stated he has a clinical condition that lends itself to socially inappropriate behavior yet he is held fully accountable by folks here for that behavior. Doesn’t seem consistent to me.
You are remarkably consistent at making arguments based on ignorance. Musk has stated that he has Aspergers. I take him at his word. This is his description of his experience with Aspergers as a child during a Ted Talk interview. This is Musk’s response to the interviewer question “I would love to understand how you think of Asperger’s, whether you can give us any sense of even you as a boy, what the experience was, or as you now understand with the benefit of hindsight. Can you talk about that a bit?”
Well, I think everyone’s experience is going to be somewhat different, but I guess for me, the social cues were not intuitive. I was just very bookish and I didn’t understand these. I guess others could intuitively understand what is meant by something. I would just tend to take things very literally, just the words as spoken were exactly what they meant. But then, that turned out to be wrong, because they’re not simply saying exactly what they mean. There’s all sorts of other things that are meant. It took me a while to figure that out. [inaudible 00:14:43] quite a lot. https://www.thestreet.com/markets/elon-musk-ted-talk
A common symptom of the Autism spectrum is not recognizing statements or behaviors that are considered socially inappropriate to most people. The brains are wired in such a way that such judgements are not intuitive. Whose fault is that?
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As it should. But remember, the old Twitter wasn’t profitable and had its share of critics. It was a failing business model. I am not a big fan of hate speech. But as a member of the ACLU, I tend to take a more absolutist position on free speech and was trouble by the old Twitter because I thought the censorship was arbitrary. I came to the conclusion that we Americans are too immature for an open forum like Twitter and that it was too flawed to have such powerful social and political impact. I therefore believe it is a positive for American democracy that the beast formerly called Twitter has been diminished. Though unintentional, Musk has done us a great favor.
Free speech is dying in America because of efforts from both the right and the left. The Right ban books that look favorably at LBGTQ. The Left ban books that are “culturally insensitive”, like Huckleberry Finn. Actors can only play roles within their ethnicity and skin color. Folks can only wear clothing consistent with their ethnicity of birth. We are a remarkably immature people.
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You have zero clue what that means. Does not matter if he says it or not. You do not know the man. No professional psychologist would be as arrogant as you or nearly as ignorant as you put it.
Tell us what Aspergers as a diagnosis specifically means to Elon Musk? Have you met with the man? Have you been trained to understand pathologies? Zero. Zero. Zero.
Musk is doing a lot better than all of us combined. What do you make of mental illness when that happens? You never thought of that because it does not work with your assumptions that mental illness is not his business problem. Nor is it his political problem.
You’re fault entirely. As Musk said it took him awhile but he figured it out.
You by accident are holding him accountable for a childhood problem he outgrew.
There are huge numbers of people on X who agree with Musk on a lot of things and are not autistic.
Some of us disagree with Musk. It is quite a liberty to throw his older problems in his face. If someone did that to you it would be cruel.
We might note that Asperger’s is not a real thing. It was only a billing code that got dropped 10 years ago from DSM 5.
When Asperger's Disorder Came Out - PubMed.
Background: In 2013, the American Psychiatric Association removed Asperger’s Disorder from the DSM, offering instead the new DSM-5 diagnosis: Autism Spectrum Disorder.
Note by me, the Autism Spectrum Disorder did not replace Asperger’s. It already existed. Asperger’s was simply dropped. The reason autism is a spectrum each case has its own pathologies. Asperger’s is not specific to anyone’s actual pathologies it was just a label for billing. Its definition is not specific to a diagnosis because people who are diagnosed fall all over the spectrum regardless of a narrower label definition.
Speak for yourself. If you were educated regardless of your Ph.D there would be an improvement in what you are saying most of the time. Generalizing about “we Americans” has nothing to do with anything. It is an abstract that does not discuss anything. Ironically you say you are a free speech advocate.
The first part of being educated is admitting mistakes instead of becoming arrogant.
Free speech is for political experimentation. The definition of freedom.
The definition of freedom does not mean I have to agree with another state’s laws.
For each banned book two dozen states do not ban the same book. The entire overarching reality is a battle for freedom of speech.
We have had blue laws on the books forever in this country. As the crisis passed laws receded in importance when socially they are wrong. I am sure the UK has crazy laws going back to 1600 on the books that are routinely ignored.
I am not advocating for any book to be banned. I am advocating for the battle not to ban books. That is a huge freedom.
I think you are overlooking something that is quite significant in your analogy.
There is a huge difference if a kid is on the spectrum and says something hateful or if the world’s richest person with the world’s largest megaphone is on the spectrum and says something hateful.
Same if a kid is a bully or a powerful person (governor or president) is a bully. Both are bad, but one is much more dangerous.
It is critical to hold powerful people to a different standard than others because of the exponential damage they can cause.
Is it fair?
“Who says life is fair? Where is that written? Life isn’t always fair."
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Fair enough you know it was dropped.
He was talking past tense about his problems.
He is just in a &issing match over his powers.
You still have zero idea what his specific pathologies are and they are not applicable in a larger public setting.
We know more that he is a weirdo dancer at car shows.
Bullying is part of the public forum. Pathologies are not part of the public appearance of people.
Psychologists and Psychiatrists can not responsibly assign the levers of power to pathologies. As we age we alter our lives. As leaders judge situations their responses become more complex than their initial pathologies.
Musk in the first instance agreed with antisemitism because it suited him. That is why people are offended.
Plenty of people agreed with Musk. Most do not agree with Musk. The word “intolerables” is astute. It is worn with a smirk by those who earn it.
BTAS is the opposite of TDS.
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Oh I agree completely. There should be consequences for doing or saying stupid things. I’m just suggesting that our response should also include an understanding that Musk has some degree of autism. If we are going to sit here and psychoanalyze why Musk says what he does and try to come up with all sorts of possible motivations and hidden agendas, the elephant in the room that needs to be taken into account is autism.
The Conversation has an article written by psychologists suggesting how autism might impact Musk’s behavior.
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The autism spectrum is not mental illness. It is merely being different.
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It is in the DSM 5 for diagnostic purposes.
What is considered mental illness is far-reaching.
Musk would be different either way. The rest of us are different in our own ways as well.
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However, autism is a developmental disability (and can qualify one for SSI, Supplemental Security Income).
DB2
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The “Conversation” is garbage. The writer has not sat down with Musk. There are no pathologies discussed. What a lousy source.
What one thing have you said that was in any way psychoanalyze of Musk? You have not said or possibly not even thought of one thing. Just labeling him does not mean you analyzed him.
What specific pathology do you see?
I see Musk as edging into white male supremacy. Someone who wants to be very candid and free to say what he wants. I see someone who sides with the market he wants for his ambitions. None of that is psychoanalysis.
No one else here has touched on anything that would be the psychoanalysis of Musk.
Once he realized he was thinking differently decades ago he has moved on in his processes. That said none of it is a psychoanalysis of the man by himself or by any of us.
Anyone’s thinking is too complex not to sit down with the person for an extended period of time to record and come to understand. We are not talking about political or business applications of thought and speech.
Not in all contexts. Depends on who “our” is in that “our response.”
Oh, sure, individual folks out in the world, when judging him personally, then maybe. Although my (admittedly limited) understanding of autism is that while having “some degree” of autism might lead you to have trouble in many social interactions, it’s not going to reduce your ability to make moral decisions about whether anti-semitism is bad. But we can recognize that he may not have the skills to manage his social “appearance” the way most other people can.
But for firms doing business with his companies? They don’t have to, and shouldn’t, care. If Musk is damaging their brands, it doesn’t matter whether that damage is happening because he’s a bad person or he has a condition that keeps him from acting appropriately. Either way, they have to cut ties. The most obvious recent example is Adidas’ decision to sever their business relationship with Kanye West. He has a personal history of grappling with mental health issues - but for his business partners, it doesn’t matter whether his behavior stems from personal failings or his mental health issues. He can’t be a brand partner and engage in that behavior. It doesn’t matter whether the harm he’s causing is one that he has full, or only partial, moral responsibility for - the harm is just as real either way.
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He just got through saying the American public is not mature enough for Twitter. Who are the “most other people”?
Plenty of people think Musk is acting appropriately. Namely bigots.
When people enter social media very often there is the feeling of now I will be heard. Musk is championing that very effectively.
Adding until those supporters of major infrastructure spending, factory buildout, climate management, and labor have most people feeling they are speaking out and being heard that part of the debate is at risk of failing. In that light SM is excellent as a democratic force.
Athenian mob rule is a bunch of unharmed couch potatoes. Unlike the actual Athenian face to face.
There are many conditions described there for which one does not use the term “mental illness”. That is the point.
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We are in agreement with one caveat. Musk being on the autism spectrum doesn’t concern me with his running what are engineering based businesses. In fact, it might be a positive as the characteristic of extreme focus and attention to detail is often good for technical development. But someone with autism running a social media company? That’s a bit of a challenge.
So I am invested in Tesla and would invest in SpaceX. But the former Twitter?..that’s unlikely. So I think his condition is relevant to those kind of business/financial decisions.
You say this applies to Kanye, but does it also apply to Dylan Mulvaney whose gender identity behavior is upsetting to enough people to tank Bud Lite sales? A lot of consumers were apparently upset that Ariel in the live-action Little Mermaid movie was black. Is there some limit to the pandering businesses do to optimize the bottom line?
No! SCOTUS officially made all corporations pure whores of the (supposed) bottom line.
david fb