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> Musk is pretty irrational when it comes to backing down

What from the outside looks "irrational", from the inside may look like "not compromising on principles".

Money is not the main variable that Musk is trying to maximize at this point.



> "not compromising on principles"

which almost always is immature behavior, whereas adults think solution-oriented, which sometimes is called "Realpolitik" (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Realpolitik).

Doesn't get better in this particular case where musk is opposing to officially agree to common worker protection rules, wages, ... he already follows. Just another case of "dumb behavior".


Most things are iterated games so "not compromising on principles" can be a really good strategy if you can afford it.


I should add that that is true both for Tesla (and Elon personally) and for the Swedish unions (and the other Nordic unions).


> not compromising on principles

Yes, I'm not talking about money here. Irrational means making bad decisions. The bad decision here is to continue playing with a bad hand against someone who isn't going to fold. Sweden is not going to fold so either Musk folds now to avoid more embarrassment & costs, or keeps going and folds in the future. It'd be more rational to just pull out of Sweden than fight a losing battle, as you said money isn't that much of a factor here.


> not compromising on principles

Not compromising on free speech worked well... Until he started banning journalists from Twitter.


It worked well for his own free speech.


Which journalists has he banned from Twitter/X ?


Just look up the events surrounding ElonJet.


Doesn't answer my question.

I would actually like to know if there have been any. I'm quite open to criticising things that he has actually done, and have made criticisms of him plenty of times. But I'm not aware of any journalists that he's kicked off twitter/X. The closest to such a scenario that I'm aware of is him (so far) not allowing Alex Jones back on, but he didn't actually kick him off.


It's not that hard to Google.

https://www.theverge.com/2022/12/15/23512004/elon-musk-start...

> Twitter has suspended the accounts of several prominent reporters who cover Elon Musk, including Ryan Mac of The New York Times, CNN’s Donie O’Sullivan, The Washington Post’s Drew Harwell, The Intercept’s Micah Lee, and Mashable’s Matt Binder, Aaron Rupar, and Tony Webster.


Thanks for that link. I wasn't aware that he suspended journalists at that time. However, I do note that they were only suspended and not banned. And this is consistent with what he has said on a number of occasions, that people might get 'timeouts' (in this case for doxing) but he's against permanent bans. Just checked two of the accounts (Ryan Mac, @RMac18 and Aaron Rupar, @atrupar) named in the article and they are active today.

I would like to know if there are any journalists he has permanently banned. As used to happen quite often on twitter, pre-Musk acquisition.


Here's one that has been permanently banned: https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2023/04/elon-musk-twitter-st...


Ok, this particular case is interesting and certainly looks concerning.

Checked his handle [1] and yeah, it's still "suspended" over 6 months later. And while it only says "suspended" there, according to this thread [2], the message he originally got was that he had been "permanently suspended", which does imply a ban. And is also somewhat disingenuous because a suspension should imply temporality.

Appreciate you providing the link. Perhaps I've been living in a bit of a bubble because I hadn't heard of this.

[1] https://twitter.com/dellcam

[2] https://twitter.com/stevanzetti/status/1648785112748662784


>I do note that they were only suspended and not banned.

This distinction is meaningless until someone is un-suspended.


Certainly if you are suspended you should be told the time period the suspension will last for, yes.


Don't make assumptions.


The principle that he should be able the run the company as a dictatorship and not have to negotiate with anyone.




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