> If Musk fails to deliver on free speech, his persona will be on stake.
His past actions show he isn't a believer in free speech and that almost all his principles are transactional. An example of this transactional behavior is calling out Saudi Arabia for lack of free speech while owning twitter which is interesting because he didn't have much problem with SA when they held 4.x percent of Tesla a few years back.
His beliefs appear to be built on a sand, not rock.
It's not a matter of "he must do X every time" but the obvious juxtaposition between two countries that are economic powerhouses with questionable records on free speech: Saudia Arabia gets criticism for for its dubious free speech record and China, seemingly more restrictive on personal liberties overall, gets none.
If he has offered any criticisms of the CCP's relationship with free speech, I apologize for missing it. Otherwise, it's hard not to be cynical about people like him that claim to care deeply about freedom of expression while playing up business interests in countries that do not share such a value.
If he truly cared about free speech, he would have criticized the CCP at least once. I did not say he has to criticize them everytime he mentions them.
Tesla is a car company, not a speech platform. Not sure why he should have a problems SA holding a % in Tesla? His comments were specifically targeted towards how their prince was opposing selling twitter without holding a vote from the shareholders.
I expect people who hold very public positions of specific rights to keep those positions and moral values in mind when making decisions every time they make such decisions, not just when it is best for them.
I mean US is the one which gives arms to SA. US also destroyed Syria, Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia and so on. No one’s hands are pure when it comes to the military industrial complex.
Not really. Unless you propose that he completely stops doing business with everyone, shuts down spacex and Tesla etc, not sure what’s your point.
SA, a major energy country, having a stake in Tesla is a pretty remote thing as compared to their prince having a stake in a speech platform.
> An example of this transactional behavior is calling out Saudi Arabia for lack of free speech while owning twitter which is interesting because he didn't have much problem with SA when they held 4.x percent of Tesla a few years back.
Tesla is a public company and anyone can buy stock. What did you expect Elon Musk to do if Saudi billionaires buy stock?
> An example of this transactional behavior is calling out Saudi Arabia for lack of free speech while owning twitter which is interesting because he didn't have much problem with SA when they held 4.x percent of Tesla a few years back.
what are you even expecting here? he should've called them out for lack of free speech when they owned tesla? was there some instigating event during that time period which he ignored more than every other public figure? (i don't think we expect all public figures to make annual condemnations of every nation that does anything we consider appropriate. do we?)
as far as i know, he was snarking at saudia arabia's involvement in twitter because they commented negatively on his buyout proposal.
I expect people who says that specific freedoms and/or principles are important to them to let such beliefs guide all their actions not just when it is convenient for them.
I expect them to also live under the same sort of rules and regulations they would have the rest of us live under.
Being honest and not lying often would be nice too.
His past actions show he isn't a believer in free speech and that almost all his principles are transactional. An example of this transactional behavior is calling out Saudi Arabia for lack of free speech while owning twitter which is interesting because he didn't have much problem with SA when they held 4.x percent of Tesla a few years back.
His beliefs appear to be built on a sand, not rock.