The ongoing Elon Twitter saga: "insert demographic" melts down

[Mercenary Keyboard Warrior]

That was about suppressing a news story from an established US newspaper/freedom of the press.

Granted the way Elon has gone about doing this is in a total cake-and-arse manner but the general principle is sound (even if it took some lunatic jumping on a car with Elon's kid in it for the change to occur).

Posting real-time locations of public figures or indeed tracking their movements in real time is a bit iffy and so long as you can still report that same info with a delay then I don't really see a huge free speech issue, it is more of a safety issue.

The really dark side of this security issue is perhaps highlighted by the murder in September of a rapper after an Instagram post was made of his current location:

Instagram post of rapper PnB Rock at Roscoe's may have led to killing, LAPD chief says

The Philadelphia hip-hop artist, 30, was targeted for his jewelry while he was eating at the South L.A. restaurant, police said.

www.latimes.com

In that case it was his gf who posted the location but this can just as easily be posted by fans and the danger is there, people like rappers in the US are an obvious "rich person" target for low-level gangbanger types. Ditto to footballers in the UK, they're already in danger of being burgled when it's known they're playing a match and have been targeted by burglars based on that but they can just as easily be robbery targets too.

Lastly, there is the stalker issue, one of my Twitter mutuals has a 7 figure following on various platforms, she's posted a fair bit on her alt about both creepy male celebs in her DMs and stalkers, one time she posted a pic from a real-time location and someone rapidly geolocated it and DM'd her.

I think for some of these celebs it's not necessarily people who actively want to harm them but mentally ill people who want to get close to them for whatever reason or believe they know each other or have some sort of relationship, there was an interview with a Royal Protection officer I saw recently and he stated their biggest issue was dealing with mentally ill people who'd turn up trying to get access to the Royals, pretending they had an appointment etc..

Its evolution of whats always been a difficult balance for public figures who want and seem to believe they should be able to make themselves widely known and followed, and yet the moment they want privacy they expect all those they have been grooming to follow them should go "ok then I won't take any notice any more until the next time you want your hit of being public"

The simplest solution to not being harassed as a public figure, is to not make yourself a public figure.

The mental angle is certainly the main risk/issue. Its possible to be a remote fanboi/gal and do little harm, but there is a line that some will just not see and readily cross.

Some elon fans on twitter are sickening. For some reason I keep getting shown one and shes just 100% cult. She posts completely imbalanced comments, I suspect to try to draw the Ubergods attention.

 

[Penfold101]

Because it’s a working progress? It’s using data from drivers everytime they drive to improve

I’ve been watching the FSD videos over the years and it has come a long way

It'll never be as good as the claims that were made - no-one will ever trust a vehicle to do everything by itself, cope with any possible situation, make all the right decisions and be able to adapt to evolving circumstances where a human can 'think on their feet', as it were. Monitored autopilot is one thing, like mine has assisted braking and lane keeping, but you simply can't program a machine to do the same thing. Musk's claim of full robotaxis and getting in a car to drive from one side of the country to the other without touching anything is just a sales pitch to sell the cars he currently has with a promise that they'll get better in the future. It's literal snake oil.

 

[plasmahal]

Why do you guys worship him is my question? It just seems a bit suss.

You guys??? what does that mean.

Feel free to to quote one of my post where I worship Elon....

I know you won't and I'm happy to provide the definition of what worship means.

 

[Colonel_Klinck]

Because it’s a working progress? It’s using data from drivers everytime they drive to improve

I’ve been watching the FSD videos over the years and it has come a long way

Them problem is he's been charging $15k for something that didn't do what it said on the tin. No one is criticising Tesla for trying to get cars that can drive themselves, the criticism is for the lies that Elon has been telling for years that they've already been able to do it.

 

[dowie]

The simplest solution to not being harassed as a public figure, is to not make yourself a public figure.

That can work to some extent for some businesspeople (depends perhaps on their line of business too) and indeed even some actors, I can't remember who it was but I remember seeing a British Hollywood actor stating that he's not really had an issue with the press/photographers as he doesn't go to the big celebrity parties or hang out at the obvious bars/clubs etc.. I guess social media can be seen by some as only essential for TV actors or reality stars, for some of the A-lister Hollywood types they like to maintain a bit of mystery and social media it's kinda optional, I think the stalker issue is still there though.

For pop stars, footballers etc.. I'm not sure it's so easy, you could shun all the celeb parties but just as your house is at risk on match days your personal risk is there too if tagged - those same armed gangs would happily lay in wait and rob you after someone has posted that you're in a particular gastro pub/restaurant etc.

 

[Jono8]

The simplest solution to not being harassed as a public figure, is to not make yourself a public figure.

Indeed. They know there are weirdos and predators out there. Why do they put themselves in that position?

 

[Colonel_Klinck]

That was about suppressing a news story from an established US newspaper/freedom of the press.

Granted the way Elon has gone about doing this is in a total cake-and-arse manner but the general principle is sound (even if it took some lunatic jumping on a car with Elon's kid in it for the change to occur).

Posting real-time locations of public figures or indeed tracking their movements in real time is a bit iffy and so long as you can still report that same info with a delay then I don't really see a huge free speech issue, it is more of a safety issue.

The really dark side of this security issue is perhaps highlighted by the murder in September of a rapper after an Instagram post was made of his current location:

Instagram post of rapper PnB Rock at Roscoe's may have led to killing, LAPD chief says

The Philadelphia hip-hop artist, 30, was targeted for his jewelry while he was eating at the South L.A. restaurant, police said.

www.latimes.com

In that case it was his gf who posted the location but this can just as easily be posted by fans and the danger is there, people like rappers in the US are an obvious "rich person" target for low-level gangbanger types. Ditto to footballers in the UK, they're already in danger of being burgled when it's known they're playing a match and have been targeted by burglars based on that but they can just as easily be robbery targets too.

Lastly, there is the stalker issue, one of my Twitter mutuals has a 7 figure following on various platforms, she's posted a fair bit on her alt about both creepy male celebs in her DMs and stalkers, one time she posted a pic from a real-time location and someone rapidly geolocated it and DM'd her.

I think for some of these celebs it's not necessarily people who actively want to harm them but mentally ill people who want to get close to them for whatever reason or believe they know each other or have some sort of relationship, there was an interview with a Royal Protection officer I saw recently and he stated their biggest issue was dealing with mentally ill people who'd turn up trying to get access to the Royals, pretending they had an appointment etc..

So the kid calls himself a citizen journalist and its cool right?

He's been looking to ban this kid for a while now, this incident was just the final excuse he needed. I wonder how many celebs have similar incidents happening on a weekly/monthly basis?

So if I was to walk down a street in Chigwell and see a famous footballer, take a pic of him and post it on twitter with a easy to identify location in the photo or just say "just seen Harry Kane on Chigwell High Road", I could fall foul of this new rule?

Elon is making a privacy rule that I don't disagree with, I think the US should have a right to privacy but they don't and he seems to be doing it just because he doesn't like public information on him being posted online. Its just another case of him talking crap and then walking it back.

 

[C Kent]

It'll never be as good as the claims that were made - no-one will ever trust a vehicle to do everything by itself, cope with any possible situation, make all the right decisions and be able to adapt to evolving circumstances where a human can 'think on their feet', as it were. Monitored autopilot is one thing, like mine has assisted braking and lane keeping, but you simply can't program a machine to do the same thing. Musk's claim of full robotaxis and getting in a car to drive from one side of the country to the other without touching anything is just a sales pitch to sell the cars he currently has with a promise that they'll get better in the future. It's literal snake oil.

But I want Jonny cab now

 

[GordyR]

See for all of your posting about folks applying a critical eye to each individual event, you then go ahead and post this little snippet. You aren't entering into a debate with them from a neutral point of view,

Having a working assumption that your mild criticism was genuine, is being fair; which is precisely why it was assumed in my post.

You know... To be fair to you... As opposed to dismissing it out of hand as dishonest.

Sorry, but this is a very strange thing for you to take umbrage with.

so it doesn't matter what they post you'll just hand wave it away as you've already made your mind up purely because they aren't on your side of the twitter/elon argument.

Made my mind up about what? What have I hand waved away? What side am I on?

I suspect that this is classic projection.

The fact that you are even mentioning sides at all, suggests that that's precisely the lens that you view this through.

As opposed to considering the actual actions of Elon Musk over recent weeks, your words here suggest that you consider this little more than a team sport.

If that's true, then I think that's a shame, because you're unlikely to be able to be remotely objective.

You have zero idea if I've been critical of anything else musk has done regarding twitter because you had no clue I was critical of the banning of flight path information accounts.

Yes I did, because you told me. And I worked on that assumption, remember?

To be fair, I've no idea if you've posted anything positive about the purchase even though there have been a couple of 'big wins', but I'm willing to give you the benefit of the doubt.

If you're interested in my general view of Elon Musk, it's become one of sad disappointment. I'm naturally attracted to people that I consider to be visionary or exceptional in some way and Musk appeared to fit overwhelmingly into that category.

However beyond the highlights and the headlines, I never really knew all that much about him personally; as such, my opinion of him six months ago would have been very limited and largely born from ignorance.

Since then, as I've learned more about him and his business practices, I've moved towards thinking that he is a classic authoritarian, which is not at all unusual or necessarily a bad thing in a CEO; but sadly, that he is not one who is self-aware enough to acknowledge that all leadership styles have their share of strengths and weaknesses, and that his own shortcomings have led to him surrounding himself with yes-men who are afraid to be honest with him.

A good leader knows their own weaknesses and surrounds themselves with people who fill those gaps; he may have started off that way but it's beginning to look as though his time at the top has resulted in him thinking he can do no wrong; and without people being able to be honest with him, that feedback loop will have only intensified over time.

I think that for the first time over the last few weeks, he's seeing extremely strong public criticism of his business decisions; which is something that he probably isn't used to; and I don't think that he's taken it particularly well. I think that his flirtations with conspiracy and his embrace of what people refer to as the alt-right, are likely the result of him seeking a return to public adoration. i.e in the same way that his leadership style in business seems to have ended with the removal of anyone prepared to be critical of any of his ideas and his cosying up with yes-men; his public persona seems to be going through a very similar transition.

Only this time, because he cannot physically remove his detractors, his only course of action left has been to slide further in line with an in-group that's prepared to continue their sycophantism and excuse any mistakes that he happens to make; because the truth is, that group aren't particularly interested in whether or not something is a good or bad idea, or whether a claim is true, accurate or justified; they're simply interested in him as an ally in what they perceive to be a culture war. In reality it's just the latest in a long line of each generation's attempt to slow inevitable social change, but that's another topic altogether.

Anyway, I have no idea if any of the above is true, we're all so far removed from knowing him on a day-to-day basis or on a personal level to ever really know; but that's definitely the impression I get, and it's certainly a fairly common path that people in his kind of position have travelled historically.

To say it's disappointing is an understatement. Hopefully over the coming years he can change my mind back as easily as he changed it the first time.

This again rolls around to my original point in that you need to stop seeing things so black and white.

Sorry that's a meaningless retort. Where exactly have I lacked nuance?

 

[Colonel_Klinck]

Some elon fans on twitter are sickening. For some reason I keep getting shown one and shes just 100% cult. She posts completely imbalanced comments, I suspect to try to draw the Ubergods attention.

I see so many of these probably because I have been reading a lot of his tweets. So many are "I'm all in on TSLA stock, sold all my Google stock and bought more TSLA!" Even saw one dude saying he's sold his house to buy more Tesla stock and they always tag Elon in their tweets. Its a cult of personality.

 

[Colonel_Klinck]

It'll never be as good as the claims that were made - no-one will ever trust a vehicle to do everything by itself, cope with any possible situation, make all the right decisions and be able to adapt to evolving circumstances where a human can 'think on their feet', as it were. Monitored autopilot is one thing, like mine has assisted braking and lane keeping, but you simply can't program a machine to do the same thing. Musk's claim of full robotaxis and getting in a car to drive from one side of the country to the other without touching anything is just a sales pitch to sell the cars he currently has with a promise that they'll get better in the future. It's literal snake oil.

What made me laugh is when he said the cab would pay for itself in a year and the crowd cheered. At that point you know they are ****** idiots.

 

[Jono8]

I see so many of these probably because I have been reading a lot of his tweets. So many are "I'm all in on TSLA stock, sold all my Google stock and bought more TSLA!" Even saw one dude saying he's sold his house to buy more Tesla stock and they always tag Elon in their tweets. Its a cult of personality.

It is probably all the people who bought TSLA stock at the ATH, who are now desperate for it to go back up again.

 

[C Kent]

So if I was to walk down a street in Chigwell and see a famous footballer, take a pic of him and post it on twitter with a easy to identify location in the photo or just say "just seen Harry Kane on Chigwell High Road", I could fall foul of this new rule?

Potentially yes by the look of it

X's private information policy and doxxing | X Help

Learn about how X handles unauthorized posting of private information, also known as doxxing, and how to report it.

help.twitter.com

 

[Colonel_Klinck]

It is probably all the people who bought TSLA stock at the ATH, who are now desperate for it to go back up again.

Oh yeah its people who bought at $400 and are staring down the barrel of their investment being in the bin. They still believe in Elon, even though he sold at the top and they bought the stock he sold

 

[Skunkworks]

OcUK Woke Squad:

Looks like the whole crew are here! Must have been an urgent update sent out.

 

[GordyR]

Looks like the whole crew are here! Must have been an urgent update sent out.

***snip***

I could never have imagined a more perfect example of precisely what I described in my previous post; and certainly not only a handful of posts later.

Absolutely wonderful.

Only this time, because he cannot physically remove his detractors, his only course of action left has been to slide further in line with an in-group that's prepared to continue their sycophantism and excuse any mistakes that he happens to make; because the truth is, that group aren't particularly interested in whether or not something is a good or bad idea, of whether a claim is true, accurate or justified; they're simply interested in him as an ally in what they perceive to be a culture war.

 

[Skunkworks]

GordyR perfectly describes GordyR in post-2016 SC.

 

[GordyR]

GordyR perfectly describes GordyR in post-2016 SC.

That's about as insightful a contribution as I've come to expect.

 

[Penfold101]

What made me laugh is when he said the cab would pay for itself in a year and the crowd cheered. At that point you know they are ****** idiots.

THERMONUCLEAR EXPLOSION PROOF GLASS!!!!!

 

[Colonel_Klinck]

THERMONUCLEAR EXPLOSION PROOF GLASS!!!!!

I mean why would anyone want such glass in a vehicle that runs on electric including the door opening mechanism? The battery decides to burst into flames and you can't open the windows or doors and the glass is thermonuclear explosion proof. You can sit there and say what a genius Elon is as you burn to death.