Thursday, April 6, 2023

We are several months into Elon Musk's multi-billion-dollar-sized vendetta against trans people

"When Musk bought Twitter," Naomi Klein writes in Doppelganger, "he described it as 'the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated.'"

Elon Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion in part because he has a personal vendetta against trans people.

electric chair

"Owner X bought Twitter in part because the Babylon Bee had been suspended for misgendering U.S. health official Rachel Levine, and once he bought it he reinstated the Bee and removed the policy that made misgendering an offense, and he said that this was because he was a free speech absolutist, but then later he declared that calling somebody 'cis'—which is just a way of distinguishing somebody who identifies as the gender they were assigned from somebody who is trans and identifies in a different way than they were assigned—is a slur and would result in suspensions. So much for being a free speech absolutist, I suppose, though we can argue over whether Owner X is just profoundly ignorant about basic rhetoric and thus fails to recognize the obvious hypocrisy, or whether he is not being honest about his intentions and is therefore deliberately malicious.

His actions when it comes to trans people, which are multifarious and upon which I’ve only touched upon here, suggest malice, but I’m told that it is very bad to assume the worst of people, so I’ll assume the best of him, which means assuming that he really means what he says, which unfortunately also means that his rhetoric is so flimsy and his ignorance about his own internal philosophy is so profound that I’d find it pathetic, if, that is, his wealth didn’t give him such outsized power over the lives of others.

— A.R. Moxon, "The Dipshit Paradox": Profoundly ignorant? Deliberately malicious and lying? Does it matter? The demand to engage in good faith with supremacists in a musky age, The Reframe newsletter on Substack, July 26, 2023

Cori Bush June 22, 2023: 'Cisgender' is not a slur. It is a term used used in scientific, legal, medical, and everyday contexts. The attempt to make 'cis' a slur is a blatant attempt to erase trans identities from a supposed 'free speech absolutist.' Trans people exist. Cis people exist.

Months later

In April 2023, Twitter deleted its prohibition of deadnaming, misgendering, or otherwise being hateful toward trans people. Parker Malloy wrote about it.

On April 20, 2023, Twitter finally got rid of legacy checkmarks that represented verified identities, and only paying users had the checkmarks displaying.

April 20, 2023 tweet from Brian Klaas: It appears that Elon Musk has decided to personally intervene to provide blue checks to Stephen King and LeBron James, falsely saying they paid for Twitter Blue, because each made high profile tweets saying they definitely wouldn't pay for it. Billionaire manchild.
Apr 22, 2023 tweet from Scott Hechinger None of this is funny. Musk has purposefully destroyed one of the most effective tools of local movements & advocates to be heard & connect with journalists, decision makers, & those with power to amplify critical messages and perspectives.

On April 23, 2023, the Auschwitz Memorial wanted to make it clear they weren't paying for Twitter.

Auschwitz Memorial tweet: After two days our account got the blue tick back. It seems it has something to do with 1M+ followers accounts changes made by Twitter. Yet, we seem obliged to clarify that the Memorial never subscribed and paid for the Twitter Blue as it might be implied. Some person named Alex tweets: When the Auschwitz Memorial doesn't want to be associated with you, it might be time to reevaluate your life
Ben Collins on Twitter: Been on BlueSky for hours now and have not been called a pedophile for saying I like sandwiches yet. It's euphoric. Kind of incredible how low the bar is for me to be happy online.
Erin Reed, Twitter, June 2, 2023: In the 1st day of Pride, Elon Musk proclaimed he will lobby to criminalize doctors giving care to trans youth. He then supported removing trans people from the LGBTQ+ community and shared Matt Walsh's anti-trans documentary.
Erin Reed, Twitter, June 1, 2023: He proceeded to support the exclusion of trans people from the LGBTQ+ community. Reed shares a screenshot of a graphic saying 'LGB don't even want pride month anymore. We just want to be separate from the TQ.' It was originally shared by [@]theLGBgroup. Musk replies to the LGB Group: Totally agree.

To support Erin Reed's work, subscribe to her on Substack.

Elon Musk is a climate denier:

Prof Julia S  #ClimateAction #FightFascism @JKSteinberger The owner of this website, the largest (dis)information platform on the planet, is a climate denier both in terms of causes and consequences. @elonmusk is a climate denier. Plain and simple. End of. (Responding to an image of Elon Musk's tweet saying that farming doesn't cause climate change, only fossil fuel extraction and burning will do so 'over time, if we keep doing this')
Jeff Tiedrich on Bluesky, Nov 22, 2023: I've done a lot of stupid shit in my life but I never poured gasoline all over 44 billion dollars and set it the fuck on fire

This happened:

"Before Musk purchased Twitter, I had come forward as a whistleblower to the House select committee on the Jan. 6 attack. I had also revealed my identity as a Black queer woman."

I Received Death Threats After Elon Musk Put A Target On My Back. Here's The Truth Of What Happened. "With liberal usage of the N-word and homophobic slurs, they said that I, along with my family, should be hanged for treason." Anika Collier Navaroli. Dec 15, 2023

"Elon Musk is bad at nearly everything, but something he’s good at is turning left wing things into right wing things. When Tesla started shifting towards being an explicitly right-wing brand, many customers who’d bought the car to signal left-leaning liberal values were shocked and conflicted." — Ketan Joshi, You are the fuel that energises Elon Musk’s hate machine, April 19, 2024

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