When you’ve already offended customers, is it a good idea to tell them: “go f**k yourself”?

This blog often talks about Elon Musk,  but then it also looks at the activities of Mark Zuckerberg, Richard Branson and more. They all share several things: billionaries, visionaries, autism and a yearning to open a bank or destroy banking. Just four months ago, I asked the question ...

Q: Can Elon Musk create PayPalX? A: Unlikely

... and two months later ...

How Musk trashed twitter

The latter entry was all about how the tool I’ve used for fifteen years for my main news sources has been reorganised, and is now much harder to navigate than it used to be. Most news people feel this way. So, why am I writing about this guy yet again?

I guess because he keeps hitting the headlines for doing something stupid. The latest is that Elon, as owner of X, is supporting antisemitic views. This was a tweet on August 15 where he agreed with this string of tweets.

The original tweet from @CWBOCA read:

To the cowards hiding behind the anonymity of the internet and posting "Hitler was right": You got something you want to say? Why dont you say it to our faces…

Accompanied by a video from the Stand up to Jewish Hate campaign, who inform us that 70,000 posts asserted that thought over the last year.

One of the most actively viewed replies came from @breakingbaht:

Okay. Jewish communties have been pushing the exact kind of dialectical hatred against whites that they claim to want people to stop using against them. I'm deeply disinterested in giving the tiniest shit now about western Jewish populations coming to the disturbing realization that those hordes of minorities that support flooding their country don't exactly like them too much. You want truth said to your face, there it is.

Not very nice, but it’s all a storm in teacup until Elon jumped in and said:

You have said the actual truth

Now we all know that Elon can be outspoken but, as a CEO of several multibillion dollar companies, you would think someone could reign him in. The SEC have tried, after he tweeted stuff about Tesla that should not have been shared, and then he just ignores them and go does it again …

Two Elon Musk tweets have violated SEC settlement agreement, report says | CNN Business

… and there was that big hoo-ha about calling the British diver during the Thai cave rescues a pedo ...

Elon Musk wins defamation case over 'pedo guy' tweet about caver - BBC News

... but the astonishing thing that happened this week is that he not only offended everyone, but that the revenue stream for the company he is destroying is even worse as many big advertisers with X pulled out their support. This is after many have already fled the platform. Ad spending on X in the United States from January through October this year declined 64%, compared with the same period in 2022, according to data from media analytics firm Guideline, which tracks advertising spending data from major ad agencies.

At this point, you would think he might apologise and remove the tweet, but he doubled down on it.

Elon Musk Just Told Advertisers, ‘Go Fuck Yourself’ | WIRED

Elon Musk says that advertisers fleeing X after his endorsement of an antisemitic post could “kill” the platform formerly known as Twitter. And he has a simple message for those companies, which include Disney, Apple, and IBM: “Go fuck yourself.”

Can no one control this man?

I guess with $250 billion, he can use X as his plaything. Just a shame that for the millions of us who use it, it won’t be around for much longer (I’ve switched to LinkedIn).

In October of this year, X employees were awarded stock grants at a valuation of $45 per share, valuing the company at $19 billion—less than half of what Musk paid for the platform a year ago.

Not only that, but he has lost all respect he may have had before. Dickhead.