PaulT 's Techdirt Comments

Latest Comments (29334)

• On the post: Yes, The First Amendment Protects Displaying The ‘Thin Blue Line’ Flag Even In Publicly Owned Buildings

  

  PaulT ( profile ), 01 Dec, 2023 @ 02:32pm

  When the flag's meaning is "we are more important and valuable than the public"? Probably.

• On the post: Elon, After Personally Driving Away Advertisers, Tells Them To Go Fuck Themselves (Repeatedly), And Says ‘Earth’ Will ‘Judge’ Them For Killing ExTwitter

  

  PaulT ( profile ), 01 Dec, 2023 @ 02:31pm

  I'm sure that on some level he realises that destroying a brand that's successful enough to have a verb in the dictionary named after it wasn't a smart business move. But, he's obviously a childish narcissist who's had a big thing for "X" since his body matched his age of maturity, so he won't admit it directly.

• On the post: Elon, After Personally Driving Away Advertisers, Tells Them To Go Fuck Themselves (Repeatedly), And Says ‘Earth’ Will ‘Judge’ Them For Killing ExTwitter

  

  PaulT ( profile ), 01 Dec, 2023 @ 02:29pm

  There's the term "glass cliff", which essentially means that a woman is promoted to leadership so that she can take the blame for failure, securing future positions for male successors. I'm fairly sure she was aware of the problems before she took the job, she maybe just underestimated the degree in which Musk would continue to publicly interfere while she was in the role. But, she's also pushing 60 and assuming she gets the money she's likely owed, she might not be expecting anything other than a huge retirement fund.

• On the post: Elon, After Personally Driving Away Advertisers, Tells Them To Go Fuck Themselves (Repeatedly), And Says ‘Earth’ Will ‘Judge’ Them For Killing ExTwitter

  

  PaulT ( profile ), 01 Dec, 2023 @ 02:24pm

  Social media won't go away just because Twitter dies, and the underlying problems with it are human, and that's even before you consider that it's not 100% negative.

• On the post: Elon, After Personally Driving Away Advertisers, Tells Them To Go Fuck Themselves (Repeatedly), And Says ‘Earth’ Will ‘Judge’ Them For Killing ExTwitter

  

  PaulT ( profile ), 01 Dec, 2023 @ 02:22pm

  "What use is you writing 500 words explaining what an idiot/asshat Musk is when we’ve all known this for years?"

  What use is you writing 100 words to complain about someone else's blog?

  "Just install the Unspoiler extension in your browser to block all mentions of Musk, Twitter, etc, and get to writing about those other topics already."

  Or... we continue to observe the failures in order to discuss the implications and recognise how to avoid future problems. From the escapade where he tried getting servers moved without considering the logistics to the disastrous rebranding to just being a toxic fool unable to understand even the sector in which the business operates, there's lessons here.

• On the post: Elon, After Personally Driving Away Advertisers, Tells Them To Go Fuck Themselves (Repeatedly), And Says ‘Earth’ Will ‘Judge’ Them For Killing ExTwitter

  

  PaulT ( profile ), 01 Dec, 2023 @ 02:18pm

  My understanding is that there have been people literally employed by SpaceX to distract Musk from any actual engineering decisions, and he's mostly been a mascot to get them funding. I'm sure that there will be some serious concerns, but decisions will be results based.

• On the post: Elon, After Personally Driving Away Advertisers, Tells Them To Go Fuck Themselves (Repeatedly), And Says ‘Earth’ Will ‘Judge’ Them For Killing ExTwitter

  

  PaulT ( profile ), 01 Dec, 2023 @ 02:16pm

  "90+% of those he asked to fuck off will return, renewing their advertising spending."

  How much, though? The last time there was an exodus, there was news of advertisers returning but one of them (VISA) spent a total of $10 in the period they were said to have returned.

  "Why is ADL on X, advertising after Musk blamed them for anti-Semitism and wanted to boot them off."

  Posting isn't the same as advertising. There's an argument about whether they should remain there, but we're still in the process of the network effect and until the audience has dissipated there's still value in non-bigots posting among the bigots, if it reaches the people who need to hear the arguments.

• On the post: Elon, After Personally Driving Away Advertisers, Tells Them To Go Fuck Themselves (Repeatedly), And Says ‘Earth’ Will ‘Judge’ Them For Killing ExTwitter

  

  PaulT ( profile ), 01 Dec, 2023 @ 02:12pm

  Translation: actual journalists no longer post there, and I'm happy with the bots who agree with me.

  "Great diversity of viewpoint"

  Unless, you know, you're one of the people with "those" viewpoints.

• On the post: Elon, After Personally Driving Away Advertisers, Tells Them To Go Fuck Themselves (Repeatedly), And Says ‘Earth’ Will ‘Judge’ Them For Killing ExTwitter

  

  PaulT ( profile ), 01 Dec, 2023 @ 02:10pm

  Twitter is no longer a publicly traded company, and it's arguable that some investors intended this outcome (e.g. did the Saudis expect a profit? Or, the dismantling of a service used by dissidents along with access to its database?). I don't think Musk intended to publicly disintegrate in this way, but I think it's possible that the people who enabled him to follow through with his poorly thought out purchase were expecting it to fail.

• On the post: Elon, After Personally Driving Away Advertisers, Tells Them To Go Fuck Themselves (Repeatedly), And Says ‘Earth’ Will ‘Judge’ Them For Killing ExTwitter

  

  PaulT ( profile ), 01 Dec, 2023 @ 02:07pm

  Neither did the original Nazis before the term was coined...

• On the post: Elon, After Personally Driving Away Advertisers, Tells Them To Go Fuck Themselves (Repeatedly), And Says ‘Earth’ Will ‘Judge’ Them For Killing ExTwitter

  

  PaulT ( profile ), 01 Dec, 2023 @ 02:06pm

  Basically, this: https://i.redd.it/77hm7i54uxdb1.jpg

• On the post: Elon Says Copyright/AI Lawsuits Don’t Matter Because ‘Digital God’ Will Arrive Before They’re Decided

  

  PaulT ( profile ), 01 Dec, 2023 @ 02:02pm

  "The more he speaks, the more he destroys his own “genius” mystique"

  I think that's long gone at this point, outside of a small number of cultists. I forget who originated it, but there's a quote that goes something like "I know nothing about cars, people said he was a genius with cars so I believed them. I know nothing about rockets, so when people said he was a genius I believed them. I know a lot about software, and Musk has said the dumbest things I've ever heard about it, so I now know he's not a genius and will avoid his cars and rockets". He's probably even destroyed the mystique around CEOs generally as well. At one time I might have conceded that there's some work involved even if they tend to earn too much money even while failing, but this guy is CEO of several companies and seems to spend his whole time shitposting on Twitter. At least others tended to pretend to work for a living.

• On the post: Elon Musk Says Only Those Who Pay Him Deserve Free Speech

  

  PaulT ( profile ), 01 Dec, 2023 @ 01:50pm

  "Another day, another anti-Musk piece"

  I'm sure the articles will stop the moment Musk stops doing and saying stupid things, but that's not a factor in Mike's control.

• On the post: Elon Musk Says Only Those Who Pay Him Deserve Free Speech

  

  PaulT ( profile ), 01 Dec, 2023 @ 01:49pm

  Confusing one Trey Parker/Matt Stone property for another might be the least deluded thing he's done in several years, so I'll allow it.

• On the post: Elon Musk Says Only Those Who Pay Him Deserve Free Speech

  

  PaulT ( profile ), 01 Dec, 2023 @ 01:48pm

  I remember it. You just have to remember that to these people "free speech" means they are free to say anything without consequences from anyone (and preferably a guaranteed audience). Which is nonsense, but the point is that they think they have a freedom to speak and nobody else has the freedom to speak negatively in response.

• On the post: Yes, The First Amendment Protects Displaying The ‘Thin Blue Line’ Flag Even In Publicly Owned Buildings

  

  PaulT ( profile ), 01 Dec, 2023 @ 01:45pm

  "Should police cars be allowed to say “To protect and serve white people?”"

  From what I've seen, they're apparently free to have badges of The Punisher displayed, which should be concerning to anyone who knows the character.

• On the post: Once Again, DOJ Fails To Convict Backpage Boss Of Sex Trafficking Or Prostitution

  

  PaulT ( profile ), 23 Nov, 2023 @ 04:59pm

  "exploits vulnerable women and ruins them such that no man would want to marry them" Interesting here that your only stated value for a woman is their desirability to a man for marriage, but you don't place any blame on the men who pay for sex, only the person you claim is a victim. I think you said more here than you realised, and it's not good...

• On the post: Copyright Bot Can’t Tell The Difference Between Star Trek Ship And Adult Film Actress

  

  PaulT ( profile ), 23 Nov, 2023 @ 03:11pm

  "the name La Sirena which also happens to be the name of an adult content creator"

  It's also the Spanish for "the mermaid". Not quite enough to get Disney's wrath ("the Little Mermaid" is "la sirenita"), but enough to cause problems with perfectly innocent content across the world.

  "And the team at Automattic wasn’t happy about the reports as they manually investigate each notice of copyright infringement which takes a lot of time"

  Sadly, I suspect a feature rather than a bug. The legacy industry don't want fair, accurate investigations, they want instant takedowns and payment no matter the guilt.

• On the post: Yet Another ‘Social Media Trend’ That Only Went Viral Because Of The Media

  

  PaulT ( profile ), 18 Nov, 2023 @ 02:31pm

  I mean, I've not seen her make any decisions appropriate to her advertised role. I've seen flailing cover for Elon's latest gaffe, but nothing that suggests she's the actual functional CEO.

• On the post: Parents Sue Gaming Companies Over ‘Video Game Addiction’, Because That’s Easier Than Parenting

  

  PaulT ( profile ), 18 Nov, 2023 @ 02:28pm

  "G.D. played or plays the following video games: Fortnite, Rainbow Six, Battlefield, and Call of Duty."

  So did many people who didn't have the same problems. These arguments tend to fall apart in the same way as previous attacks on music, movies, comics, etc. did once you realise that even if true, the person described is an extreme outlier. But, yeah, this kid apparently has more gaming devices than I do and is allowed to play way more than I was allowed to as a kid. That might be a clue.

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