Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt

Techdirt

from the so-sayeth dept

This week, our first place winner on the insightful side is Anathema Device responding to the notion that Elon Musk’s behavior can be explained by his claim that he has Asperger’s Syndrome:

1. Asperger’s is an outdated diagnosis
2. I doubt he’s been anywhere near a psychiatrist or psychologist for a proper assessment since like all narcissists, he believes the problem is other people, not him
3. I have what was once called Asperger’s syndrome and I don’t treat people like this, or behave like this. Elon is just a rich, entitled dickhead who’s never had to face consequences for his behaviour in his life. He’s exactly like Donald Trump in that way, and for the same reasons.

Stop insulting autistic people by comparing them to Elon Musk.

In second place, it’s BernardoVerda with a take that throws cold water on the Fox-Dominion settlement:

Fox won. It cost them almost $800 million, but they won…

… Fox doesn’t even have to admit on air to their viewers, that Fox knowingly, deliberately and repeatedly lied to their audience, on a major issue of national importance and vital to American democracy.

A daily public airing and nightly news coverage of the court proceedings, including the testimony of some of the leading figures in this fraudulent and anti-democratic propaganda exercise, would have been far, far more valuable to the nation and to American public, than a measly $800 million.

For editor’s choice on the insightful side, we start out with Kevin A. Carson and a shorter version of the first place winning comment:

A lot of us are on the spectrum. What Elon has is called being an asshole.

Next, it’s Stephen T. Stone responding to pushback on our post about Substack CEO Chris Best’s worrying answers about content moderation, questioning the idea that anything he said (or failed to say) actually implied bigots and Nazis would be welcome:

That’s the point being made by the article: Best could’ve said “we won’t allow racist garbage on Substack Notes” or something to that effect and moved on. That he tried his best to weasel out of answering those questions in that way tells me (and many other people) that he’d rather risk Substack Notes(/Substack as a whole) being seen as friendly to bigots and fascists than risk alienating conservative users (including those that Substack paid to write content).

His answers to the questions about moderation suggest he wants “unfettered free speech” on Substack but also wants to have the service seen as a place where everyone is welcome. But as you note, trying to hold both positions at the same time is untenable. Best can’t somehow balance the flourishing of hateful speech with the flourishing of marginalized voices⁠—and I’d like to think that, deep down, even he knows he can’t do that.

Over on the funny side, both our top winners come in response to Parler shutting down and its new owner admitting that “Twitter for Conservatives” isn’t a viable business model. In first place, it’s thecleric with an affirmation:

Yeah, everyone knows the real money is in “nutritional supplements”

In second place, it’s Thad zeroing in on the phrase “Twitter for Conservatives”:

I think you can just say “Twitter” now.

For editor’s choice on the funny side, we start out with Evil Matthew M. Bennett and some thoughts on Elon Musk’s fanboys:

Once saw a tweet that went something like “I don’t feel bad for all the people Musk fired because they were woke lefties censoring conservatives” but then also tried to argue that they never showed up for work or did anything.

I don’t know how you could go through life like that — with a brain that could spin around in a peanut shell for 1000 years and never touch the sides.

Finally, it’s an anonymous comment about Elon Musk’s untrue claim that federal agencies had “full access” to Twitter direct messages:

“Full,” as in “full self driving?”

That’s all for this week, folks!