Musk’s Twitter/X has recently lost a lot of big advertisers after some seeming endorsements that Musk made on some anti-Semitic posts. Do I think Musk is anti-Semitic? No. I just think he is a cuck, frankly. Like, he will say one thing if the wind is blowing that direction, and then say the other thing if the wind starts to blow otherwise. He cares what Xi Jinping thinks which is pretty consistent, and cares about the political tide in the US which blows back and forth. His recent anti-Semitic confirmations were likely just an instance of him leaning too quickly in one way, and being caught out on it. He tried to be vague but it didn’t work. And then he backpedaled. Meanwhile, Musk also actively caters to leaders of countries that request (and receive) the most content takedown requests on Twitter/X, like Modi and Erdogan, as long as they are potential markets for SpaceX and Tesla. Under the leadership of Musk, Twitter/X statistically agrees to government takedown requests for content at a much higher rate than the company previously did. It’s just mostly outside of the US now, so all of our domestic discourse is about freedom. https://www.forbes.com/sites/katherinehamilton/2023/04/27/twitter-has-complied-with-almost-every-government-request-for-censorship-since-musk-took-over-report-finds/ Musk previously catered culturally more to woke folks, like in 2021 when he said Tesla would resume accepting bitcoin payments only when bitcoin was over 50% “clean”. He needed those ESG vibes back then. But now that the woke trend turned into a based trend, he shifted to ride more on that one instead. He posts way less about the environment and way more about socio-cultural issues now. Musk is likely not dumb/small enough to be personally against any particular ethnicity or religion of people as a group. He clearly thinks bigger and more pragmatically than that. Instead, he is just trying to stick his finger in the air, measure the winds, and lean in any momentum direction culturally. Meanwhile the large corporate advertisers like Apple and Disney advertisers who dropped Twitter/X for advertising are also doing similar. They are pulling back in the heat of the moment to gauge public perception, and then will move forward slowly based on polls and research. It’s the same vibe as when they put up rainbow flags on their domestic Twitter/X accounts but then of course don’t dare do the same for their Middle East accounts. Region by region polling and brand management. Never genuine, always calculated. Anyway, good morning.