As with many I think he’s more than a bit of a loon given his base beliefs. But as is also common to many I have thought – used to think – that at least he was reasonable with his loonness. If actual hard evidence slapped in hte face – say Fukushima and nuclear – then he was willing to change his mind.
And, well, no:
Elon Musk claims to be a “free speech absolutist”. But his absolutism seems to extend only to his allies. Since he bought Twitter and renamed it X, the platform has complied with 83% of requests by governments for the censorship or surveillance of accounts. When the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, demanded the censorship of his opponents before the last general election, the platform obliged. When Indian government officials asked it to remove a hostile BBC documentary, X did as they asked, and later deleted the accounts of many critics of the prime minister, Narendra Modi.
Last month, X blocked links to a dossier about Trump’s running mate, JD Vance, and suspended the account of the journalist who revealed it.
All of that first is a claim that Musk has been obeying the law in those varied countries. Indian law says that in India you may not do such and such therefore Musk – and X – do not do such and such in India. Imagine the shrieking if they didn’t follow local law?
The last is about doxxing. The report revealed Vance’s home address, in detail. That’s against X T&Cs. So, the post was taken down. And?
That is, Monbiot has now shown himself to be – and this is not the first time recently – just another propagandist willing to twist truth for political gain and rhetoric.
Oh Well.
But Trump’s election might also permit even greater opportunities. Musk controls key strategic and military assets, such as SpaceX satellite launchers and the Starlink internet system. As Ukraine discovered to its cost last year, he can switch them off at whim.
Erm, no. Musk didn’t turn on Stalink in hte Crimea at the behest of the Ukrainians. Because to do so would be a violation of US sanctions upon Russian re Crimea. See what I mean about party political rhetoric here?
Well, I must admit I feel Musk would make a better President than Kamala.
But perhaps this is because I’d like to see the settlement on Mars that my mouldering old SciFi books predicted so many decades ago. Provided that I don’t have to pay for it!!
Told you they’re looking to jail Musk. The media has been monstering him in anticipation of his arrest, but it looks like Donald J Trump is going to ruin all their plans. Sad!
I assume Monbiot is so far down the food chain, he probably doesn’t even know why he hates Elon Musk now. He looks gullible and – let’s be honest here – weak enough not to question things, as long as it’s told to him by one of his authority figures.
To the Gruaniaistas the solution is obvious. You must obey the law, but only when it’s THEIR law. Other people’s laws don’t count. This explains TTK’s popularity in some areas. He’s angling towards some religious laws that favour a certain religion. Hence the new law that has suddenly materialised that saying anything at all about a pending legal case, even if it doesn’t concern the case itself, is suddenly illegal.
The perfect example is in the case of the hard, far-right thugs. It’s perfectly fine for a Prime Minister to vocally act as judge, jury and prosecutor, because that’s the Left’s version of the law. But don’t utter a syllable about a case which may be dear to someone’s heart, because that’s THEIR version of the law…
Steve, it’s like TTK’s epiphany as regards sex. Initially, he was convinced some women had penises. But when one of the big boys said they didn’t he immediately changed his mind. So pre-Blair’s instruction TTK thought Lady Victoria was one of those women who had a vagina, now he’s been told how to think, he’s convinced she’s normal. This attitude starts to make more sense when you consider his friendship with Lord X.
’…Monbiot has now shown himself to be – and this is not the first time recently – just another propagandist willing to twist truth for political gain and rhetoric.’
Who on earth ever thought he was anything else?
How much do the Tories make through being His Majesty’s official opposition? Because they should send every penny of it to Musk, who is doing a far better job.
And in the same spirit, Musk should buy up that plinth in Trafalgar Square reserved for shitty modern art, and install a statue of Peter Lynch there.
The JD Vance thing is odd, but I think JD Vance is odd. Something about that guy just makes my spidey senses tingle, and not in a sexy way.
Here’s how odd it is:
X responded by blocking links to the material, claiming that it contained sensitive personal information such as the Ohio US senator’s social security number, and banned Klippenstein from the platform.
The materials published by Klippenstein on his Substack in September appear to be related to a hack of the Trump campaign earlier this year, which the FBI has linked to Iran
First off, the FBI claims Iran hacked Trump and Iran is also plotting to kill Trump. I think it’s more likely the FBI is up to its neck in both things.
Second, there was nothing of value in the JD Vance file. As the Guardian notes:
Documents from the hack have been shared with several media outlets, which have chosen to not publish them.
If there was anything they could use to Get Drumph, they’d have used it. And then the Guardian says, sniffily:
Media outlets did not reach the same decision when they gave significant attention to files from Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign that had been hacked and leaked by Russian intelligence before she ultimately lost that election to Trump.
The press covered the Clinton files because she blatantly committed federal crimes by setting up a private email server for transacting government business, and then deleted government emails in defiance of a court order. Anybody else who did such a thing would currently be serving several years in a federal prison.
They’re not covering the JD Vance files because it’s just a boring background check on the guy. But Vance also seems to be better connected than you’d expect a very junior senator who isn’t a nepo baby to be, I wonder if Trump has been sold another Mike Pence / Ritchie Rich type figure. Never trust a man who has initials instead of a Christian name.
Grist – it’s like TTK’s epiphany as regards sex. Initially, he was convinced some women had penises. But when one of the big boys said they didn’t he immediately changed his mind
Yarp, it’s not a religion. The reason why this matters is I think people will be surprised at how quickly the establishment will do a 180 on their “values” when it becomes convenient for them. They are all fakers trying to become makers, and they’re all busking it, all the time.
Even King Charles. If you felt secure in your position at the top of the social hierarchy, why the fuck would you go to Davos to kiss the ring of that weird old fruit, Klaus Schwab?
I watched Trump’s conversation with Joe Rogan and it was two normal blokes having a chat.
I watched the Vance interview with Rogan and it was just another striver pol who talks like a slick salesman. I’d hire JD Vance for a sales job, but I wouldn’t trust the guy too much. I don’t trust his eloquence, comes across as somebody who is too clever.
Question for the commentariat:
For the past week or so, every time I open a comment page on Tim’s site I get multiple instances of a “Jesus Creeps for Israel” advert (in English*). OK. Google targeted advertising. But why am I a target for “Jesus Creeps for Israel”? I can’t think of anything in my recent browsing history would indicate I would be a target.. I haven’t even read many articles about events in the Middle East. Just not that interested. And certain nothing would suggest I’m particularly interested in religion, either. Jesus Creep style or any other. I’ve even tried closing the ads & choosing “Seen this ad multiple times”in the resulting dialogue, with no result.
Some mystical influence by Steve our resident evangelist?
Not particularly bothered by it, just interested. Am I being particularly targeted? Or is this the result of some massive ad spending?
Yeah I do know about ad blockers, thank you. I use a browser w/o ad block for Tim’s site because I see it in my interest he benefits from any ad revenue going.
BiS – no idea, I usually get ads for Islamic charities, insha’Allah.
Hmmm… I must be doing something right as I don’t get any adverts at all. 🙂
Use the Brave browser and all that shit just disappears.
BiS
“He moves in a mysterious way
His wonders to perform.”
@BF
Steve?
– All of that first is a claim that Musk has been obeying the law in those varied countries. Indian law says that in India you may not do such and such therefore Musk – and X – do not do such and such in India. Imagine the shrieking if they didn’t follow local law?
Is this a local Indian franchise of X on Indian servers (and similar for other countries) then? Seems mighty dodgy otherwise, having foreign censorship of a US social media platform.
@ bloke in spain
I assumed BraveFart was referring to the Creeping Jesus.
@PJF, X ( and not just X) simply avoids the issue in those cases by simply making the specific account/information unavailable for the specific range of IP adresses.
If there is a valid court order or suchlike.
The account/information is still available for anyone outside that IP range. Which is why Busybody Governments hate VPN’s and other such IP redirection techniques…
Afaik X ( and competition ) only has to actually fully block/remove an account or info if there’s a US court order to that effect, but IANAL.
Hmmm… I must be doing something right as I don’t get any adverts at all.
Way I look at it, if you complain about paywalls you really shouldn’t be using an ad blocker.
Personally, I think everything on the internet should be pay to see. It’d shut out the Free Stuff Army, which is the bane of it & always has been*. But since the stuff on the net is funded by advertising it seems hypercritical to benefit from it whilst blocking it. If we all did it, there would be very little content.
*Yeah I know. It’d take system that debited one a fraction of a cent for each page load. But then distributing the yield on a world wide basis wouldn’t exactly be easy. The cost of doing so would probably consume most of the revenue. However the interweb was a much better place when people had to make some personal effort to participate. And you still got the cat pictures & the pr0n. Then, of course, it took some nouse to actually get on the web. A fairly effective cvnt filter. One I doubt the Sage of Ely could have negotiated.
“Celebrities who master the art of wearing transparent fashion”
that’s the ads I get and the woman in the promotional pic is a real woman and pretty too, so can’t complain
>bloke in spain
November 2, 2024 at 7:52 pm
But since the stuff on the net is funded by advertising it seems hypercritical to benefit from it whilst blocking it. If we all did it, there would be very little content.
The problem is the *amount* of adverizing.
I use a blocker on my phone and computer, but my tv is where I usually have Youtube running – and its every 5 minutes there’s a minute of commercials. Its as bad as radio. If I didn’t have it blocked on phone and computer half of my data-usage would be loading commercials and ads.
And they’re intrusive. Not just a link on a sidebar but popups, popunders, autoplay videos, etc.
Even sites I would like to whitelist are almost unusable once you do that.
I tolerate in-video, ads from the content creator on Youtube. But the mid-roll stuff is time-wasting garbage. Worse now since its election-season here. I can tell you that Ruben Gallego lost my vote because of the barrage of ads from his fucking ass telling me that he was a Marine. Over and over, ‘mi batalion, en Iraq’, like fuck dude, I was in the Navy, I served with Marines, I know military people – you being a former servicemember is in no way an indication of your capability as a leader. Whoever is running against Michel Pena has got me to vote for her too. If Harris wasn’t such a horrible candidate, her commercials would have lost her my vote.
That’s my new metric to judge politicians – how annoyed did your commercials make me;)
If it works on your telly: https://github.com/yuliskov/SmartTube
I’ve not seen a youtube ad in years…