Elon Musk Was Just Expressing a “Point of View” by Telling Advertisers to “Go F–k” Themselves, Says X CEO Who Likely Shat Herself as He Did
When Elon Musk declared in a Wednesday interview that the advertisers boycotting X in response to his endorsement of a wildly antisemitic post should “go fuck” themselves—and specifically called out Disney chief Bob Iger in doing so—he wasn’t committing corporate malpractice or further inflaming tensions because he’s pathologically incapable of introspection. No, he was, according to the person who made the unfortunate decision to succeed him as CEO five months ago, simply expressing “an explicit point of view.”
Yes, in an post shared on the platform formerly known as Twitter, CEO Linda Yaccarino insisted that what many people saw—that is, a public tantrum by a guy who would rather light a company’s revenue on fire than admit he was wrong—was actually a totally normal articulation of an organization’s official POV. As a reminder, when asked at the DealBook conference by Andrew Ross Sorkin about his response to the advertiser exodus he caused, Musk replied: “Don’t advertise. If someone is going to try to blackmail me with advertising? Blackmail me with money? Go fuck yourself. Go fuck yourself, is that clear? Hey, Bob, if you’re in the audience. That’s how I feel, don’t advertise.”
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Yaccarino reportedly “sat stone-faced in the front row as Musk commented”—and then, hours later, responded with a statement that very much feels like it was drafted while she asked herself, “What the hell am I doing with my life?”
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(While it’s unsurprisingly the “go fuck yourself” part of Musk’s remarks that have gotten the most notice, it cannot go unsaid that the richest man in the world apparently has no idea how advertising works—and that choosing not to advertise with an online platform is not, in fact, “blackmail.” Perhaps in the days ahead, someone can make him a PowerPoint presentation.)
Musk acquired Twitter (and then inexplicably changed the name to X) in October 2022, and under his stewardship the company has gone from a valuation of $44 billion to $19 billion, which is not considered good in the business world. Speaking to Sorkin on Wednesday, Musk said: “If the company fails because of an advertiser boycott, it will fail because of an advertiser boycott. And that will be what bankrupt the company and that’s what everybody on earth will know…. Let the chips fall where they may.” At no time did he reflect on what caused advertisers to boycott, i.e., him and the cesspool of hate he’s ushered in. (In a similar vein, his response to a Media Matters report that said it found ads alongside posts supporting Nazism—which came out around the time he approvingly responded to a post attacking Jews—was to sue the outlet.)
Elsewhere on Wednesday, Musk shared his anti-union point of view and called interviewer Andrew Ross Sorkin “Jonathan.”
Elon Musk called for a boycott of The View, calling it “a meeting place for ignorant women.” Immediately after, the entire cast responded fiercely.
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