Only silence is nice; all the remaining is weak point, stated the French poet Alfred de Vigny in his work “Les Destinées.”
This maxim appears to be Elon Musk’s angle towards Mark Cuban.
Since his affect and energy have reached ranges by no means seen for a CEO, Musk has turn into nearly untouchable.
Politicians are afraid to assault him publicly, his peer billionaires and CEOs much more so. It’s not that they worry sanction or lack of privilege. Their reticence is due merely to Musk’s character.
Like former Republican President Donald Trump, the techno king — Musk’s nickname at Tesla, which he runs — doesn’t maintain again.
He is abrasive. He usually fires off insults, and he has mastered, just like the ace of social networks and the influencer financial system that he’s, using memes, together with the cruelest ones, to go after whomever he perceives as his enemies. Ask Bill Gates, co-founder of software program large Microsoft (MSFT) – Get Free Report.
Musk Sends Loud Messages to His Enemies
In May 2022, Musk protested as a result of Gates had a brief place of $500 million towards Tesla, the flagship of his empire. Short gross sales are bets {that a} inventory value will drop.
“Sorry, but I cannot take your philanthropy on climate change seriously when you have a massive short position against Tesla (TSLA) – Get Free Report the company doing the most to solve climate change,” Musk wrote to Gates. It was the top of a dialogue the 2 billionaires have been having about working collectively for widespread causes.
The mogul later accompanied his criticism with an unflattering and harsh tweet aimed toward Gates: “In case u need to lose a boner fast,” he mocked, with break up display of a photograph of Gates on one facet and an emoji representing a pregnant man on the opposite.
The message was clear: He will cease at nothing when feeling attacked.
And his “enemies” have gotten the message.
As a consequence, it is no shock that it is exhausting to search out somebody who will publicly criticize Musk. What criticism is leveled at him comes principally from analysts, and it pertains to the efficiency and prospects of Tesla, which is a public firm.
In late 2022, a handful of Tesla shareholders publicly took the mogul to job when Tesla’s market capitalization plummeted by greater than $600 billion, a collapse they attributed to him resulting from his involvement with Twitter.
The billionaire purchased the social community in October for $44 billion and determined to make it a middle without cost speech, of which he says he’s an absolutist. In doing so, he scared away advertisers by eliminating all safeguards towards racist, hateful and antisemitic remarks and the unfold of disinformation. He additionally censored journalists who criticized him.
It is even more durable to search out criticism of Musk on Twitter, the place his thousands and thousands of followers — he has 140 million followers — lash out at any persona or medium that dares to publish unfavorable details about him.
One Who Hits Back at Musk: Mark Cuban
Then enters billionaire and superstar Mark Cuban.
The star investor of the hit actuality present “Shark Tank” is without doubt one of the few who’ve dared to contradict Musk in latest months.
In December, he requested Musk to outline what he meant by free speech, so that each one Twitter customers knew what to anticipate and would not be stunned in the event that they have been censored, banned or suspended. Musk did not reply.
Cuban has simply put additional stress on Musk by hitting him the place it hurts. The Dallas Mavericks proprietor says Musk just isn’t a champion of free speech. Rather, he sees him as a monarch ruling a kingdom, on this case Twitter. He repeated these assaults in tweets on May 18, forcefully pushing again towards Musk’s followers.
“Everyone has access. But @elonmusk has the ultimate reach and control. Who he supports or denigrates is the Twitter equivalent of State intervention,” Cuban stated to a Twitter person who informed him that he’s “baffled by the notion that free speech doesn’t refer to allowing/respecting all viewpoints, but rather ‘promoting’ them.”
Referring to Musk, Cuban argued: “He owns the platform, he can do what he chooses. But it’s disingenuous to say Twitter is the home of free speech when he chooses to often put his thumb on the scale of reach.”
“It’s a difficult position for him to be in. He is opinionated and has every right to be and to tweet what he damn well please. But rather than saying Twitter is the home of free speech, I wish he would just call it like it is. Twitter is his platform and he is going to use it to support and influence the positions he wants to support and influence.”
Musk’s Response: a Deafening Silence
This scathing criticism of Musk didn’t please Musk followers, who noticed it as a sort of private vendetta.
“You didn’t seem to care so much when it was Jack, why so much now?” requested one Twitter person, referring to Jack Dorsey, Twitter’s co-founder and former CEO.
“I DMed Jack all the time,” Cuban responded.
DM means sending a non-public message.
“So did that give you extra influence during his time? Just curious about your thoughts on that?” quipped one other Twitter person.
To which Cuban responded: “Nope. He didn’t like my ideas,” including “he told me why he didn’t like them.”
Musk just isn’t Dorsey, who stays a Twitter shareholder.
The solely response Cuban has obtained from Musk to date is a deafening silence, which means that the tech mogul needs nothing to do with Cuban. Similar earlier criticisms Cuban made towards Musk additionally went unanswered.
This was additionally the case final December and in latest months when Cuban challenged Musk on synthetic intelligence and his efforts to revamp Twitter. Musk ignored him.
Considering the Tesla CEO’s monitor report, it’s stunning to see him stay silent when he is being attacked by somebody, particularly when Cuban is questioning what has just lately made him a conservative hero.
Source: www.thestreet.com