Elon Musk suggested that The Wall Street Journal reporter responsible for uncovering a DOGE employee's racist tweets should be fired on Friday.
Summary
Elon Musk called for the firing of Wall Street Journal reporter Katherine Long after she exposed racist tweets from Marko Elez, a Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) employee who later resigned.
Long’s report revealed Elez had posted remarks promoting racism and eugenics.
“Just for the record, I was racist before it was cool,” Elez posted in July, according to the Journal’s review of archived posts.
Musk, who claims to support free speech, labeled Long “disgusting and cruel” and demanded that she should be fired.
Critics noted the hypocrisy of Musk advocating for a journalist’s removal over accurate reporting on a public official’s misconduct.
how are some people still hypnotized to believe this man is a genius? GOD i will forever resent the media for glazing this man for 15 yrs and convincing the public that he's anything more than a trust fund baby who could by companies and play pretend.
I dunno. His kids are just going to inherit his wealth and feel entitled to have our kids serve them.
Think we need to take note of Luigi's heritage if we're truly going to go after these oligarchs; the Italian mob would also go after their families so there's nobody left to seek revenge.
No can do, stinky Musky boy. First amendment explicitly protects criticism of government agencies and employees. Which is exactly what you're claiming DOGE is.
She can try, but I expect the Trump admin is expecting to lean really hard on that thing where you need the permission of the federal government to sue the federal government.
he’s part of the government, but congress never vetted
So just like the rest of the Trump kakistocracy, then.
With the way the Dems, King, and even Bernie are rolling over and letting them do almost everything they want, they're not gonna start bothering with vetting now.
I mean, I think it's specifically more targeted at freedom of the press, and the 1A really only prevents Congress from passing laws to limit free speech or the press. So while I agree with you 100% in principle, I don't think what Musk is doing is illegal here, he's just a fucking asshole.
Clearly 1A also limits the executive branch. For instance If an executive order infringes on freedom of speech this can be challenged with an appeal to 1A.
Is there a Lemmy fednews? I've been lurking on reddit solely for this news, but noticed a distinct change in tone in the past few days, and I think they may be drowning in muskrats before too long.
Oh my, this is how you destroy and erode democracy ever faster. Dismantle the media and stop any criticism of the leaders, and reporting of true events.
I saw this in a country once who’s name is North Korea.
He is really, REALLY becoming fucking absolutely unhinged VERY fast. He is trying to suppress any form of overlook VERY fast and very aggressively. He hasn't acted like this before. While it is expected, he needs to be told that he can go to hell.
What I fear is that he won't be asking for people to be fired, he will be soon asking for arrests and I am very, VERY confident he will brazenly calling for hits on people very openly.
always has been, he is the son of a slaver in apartheid SA and iirc grandson of a nazi. of course he is racist too.
now that he is the literal dictator of the biggest empire in the world, i don't think he needs to worry about softening it anymore. its logical that fascism will serve him judging from the... gestures hes been making. or the casual fascist shit hes been saying for years at this point. or the alleged attempted coups. or the fact hes a billionaire. or ...
i think your hunch is correct though. he didnt bother climbing onto that throne not to use it. the silver lining is that he already showed himself incompetent.
I mean if there is no recourse for social murder of that scale, what do they expect? The original era of leftist terrorism (the propaganda of the deed) was in the 19th to early 20th century, but it was actually ditched for humanitarian reasons (all the while the first fascist regimes ramped UP their violence) and it was done more to bring about change.
What Luigi did (and he was not a leftist) is far more personal than political. While he did mention political reasons, the events in his own life really got him so pissed at the system that he shot that low-level CEO (He was a CEO. But the conglomerate that is United Health is so large that he was practically a middle-manager in terms of the internal predatory chain). It was mostly very personal, and I think this is what is even scarier to them than a revolutionary feeling. People killing for personal reasons will do so regardless of their overall political reasons.
“Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit: There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect.”
Oh no I know, and he hates me because he believes in a version of his daughter who is a gay fashion-loving stereotype who is Musk's token "Queen" friend, and instead of realizing this person never existed even prior to transition, he's blaming people like me for taking her from him.
One problem would be that he'd expire happy, because he was doing "cool exploration stuff".
Perhaps it would be more environmentally friendly (which would upset him) if he was "retired" in a more traditional, boring, normal manner (which would upset him), on Earth.
He could then be composted and used to grow flowers, in some kind of "All-Nations LGBTQ+ Peace Garden" (which would upset him).
We should fire him into an irretrievable orbit with enough food, water, and oxygen for months. Put cameras everywhere inside the capsule and live stream his descent into madness as he runs out of supplies.
I got warnings and a ban on reddit for saying he needs to be subject to capital punishment. Which I believe he does. Musk needs to be arrested and sentenced to death. He needs to be made an example of in that manner.
The fucker started carrying one of his kids everywhere with him after Mangione did a Luigi on a POS. The poor tyke's name is "X Æ A-Xii". People are saying the kid is being used as a human shield...
Not that I am discouraging you or anyone from joining the Mario Party. It just highlights the sheer depravity that is Musk.
Billionaires and their boot licking lap dogs are all beyond sick, its time we sharpen the guillotines, they live like royalty on our backs. Ive been on a strike for the last 5 years living in abject poverty because i will not work for wages not even providing me an existence worth living for. I would rather be broke and free than live as a slave deluded to believe in an illusory freedom while our lives are controlled by those who spend more money on weekend vacations than you or I could earn in a dozen consecutive lifetimes. All while dozens of homes per every unhoused person sit empty to artificially increase the value of property to the point where even renting a shitty 1 bedroom apartment is unaffordable and 1/3 of all food produced is thrown away because it cant be sold fast enough to make someone else more fucking money. I would rather die free and destitute then wake up and be psychologically whipped into obedience to make someone else passive income while i despise every second of my existence and wake up feeling psychological dread after the brief 1 or 2 day respite of the weekend or the 8-16 hours of sleep food and household chores between shifts. Thats not living its slavery with extra steps all these sick deluded fascist fucks and this system theyve built by destroying the social progress made in the 40’a 50’s and 60’s and worked tirelessly to eradicate to install a technocratic feudalist surveillance and police state it all needs to be violently dismantled and burned to the ground. Ballot box idealist bullshit doesnt work, they own the ballot boxes and the ballots, they own the news outlets they own the printing presses putting out educational material and have abysmally lowered the standards of what constitutes education today. There is only one side of the political spectrum in America. The democratic parry is right wing and blatantly enables the far right super fascist gop. But weve been so dumbed down that we believe the democrats are left, they arent, we live in a class dictatorship. There is no true democracy without economic democracy.
I am MaGGA- MAke Guillotines Great Again.
Why keep specific humans constantly on your land like animals? When they finish their work you can send them off to feed and wash themselves and leave you alone. If one isn’t working you throw it back and grab another from the pool. I mean obviously YOU don’t, but somebody you enslave does.
When I hear stories like yours, I think revolutionary_fighters++.
No, they are just two colors on a putrid rainbow of sin. We got jerks like Yarvin, and I am willing to bet a $1,000 that Bezos is going to join up with this lot.
He was at the inauguration, he already has. I'm still wondering what that yacht raid was all about, it totally got lost in the deluge of news and I don't believe the official story for one minute.
You can't lay a finger on an oligarch, so no one bothers.
Law: He'll get pardoned, pre pardoned and whatever other bullshit he can think up.
Pitchforks: People have to unwillingly partake in the machine or the machine will crush their family. They can't risk going up against the security detail of one of the richest people alive.
Marijuana: sorry that's about as far as I can type for the night.
Main takeaway: That is a very good question that too few people will ask themselves before it affects them.
Unfortunately propoganda is very effective and most of the people who would outright call for groups to be placed in concentration camps simply for their existence can't see any coorelation to them being like NAZI's.
Person I work with today, "I wouldn't want to to go the Superbowl because someone would drop a nuke on our heads". To which I responded, thankfully that has never happened. To which they responded, "Well people don't even know what sex they are anymore."
So attempting to unpack any of that leaves me starting with the fact that they apparently mistrust transgender people so much that they fear they have the means and motivation to launch a nuclear attack on the President of the United States. Kim Jong Un really might want to meet these people.
This person also calls every person of Hispanic descent we drive by an illegal that thankfully Trump will round up soon.
It's all blatant bigotry, but they can't see it themselves.
zero chance that dude resigned because of those tweets..
He realized how far over his head he was, and rather than admitting that to his overlord musk, he takes this lucky break, whines about harassment, and resigned.
when i saw the pictures the first thing that came to mind was how fucking terrified some of these kids might be. imagine just coming out of school and being appointed to be one of the main analysts for an oversight department to your favorite dictator in a major world power.
then getting access granted to major, and i say major, governmental systems with the expectation you fix it along with a handful of other kids with absolutely no prior experience doing it?
I have no sympathy for any of them, and neither should anyone else. The choices they have made will result in the suffering of millions. Whatever fate they ultimately meet will proportionally be infinitely merciful by comparison. They do not get some special dispensation for being naive.
It is possible to be both immature and abjectly evil. That is, most likely why Musk picked these young men. They have the hallmarks of sociopathic tendencies with the inexperience to be led into a fucking minefield. Here is hoping they trigger some explosions that don't take a billion of us with them.
My Chrystal ball says that Elon keeps realizing agenda 2025 until the resistance within their own ranks becomes unbearable. While Elon makes news Trump makes legislation to fuck over whoever he can. Only then, goat Elon gets scaped by savior Donald to appease Maga and everything is in shambles.
It will never happen. Vance is a tool, an the GOP has been clear, there is only one man they bend over for and it's Trump, I'm surprised Musk is this involved without him being shoved aside by Trump, but it is pissing people off and making people deeply anxious about if they have a country or not next week or so, and the panic and pain is the thing Trump loves most while he's looting the country, so many this is all just gravy for him.
3yrs ago, I was 39, if you found a racist tweet from 3 yrs ago, I should be responsible, who cares if 3 yrs ago the kid was in diapers and shouldn't have had access to the internet, that is likely a good enough reason they should never have been allowed near government systems. Wtf did Elon do, walk into a highschool graduation like "you boys wanna see the inside of the government?"
A short while ago (like less than a month) he asked for people who are willing to work for no pay and are super diligent. What he was looking for were people who were rich enough to not need to be paid (their families anyway) and at the same time were his complete and absolute simps and will do ANYTHING for him and to prove their worth to the guy.
All of his young cronies need to be arrested and given at least a mandatory minimum of 20 years and a lifetime prohibition on using computers.
Any sane country that wants to remain that way should be banning Twitter immediately.
It feels like insanity to me that they're watching what he's doing to America right now and not immediately reacting by banning the tools he used to do it here.
I find it very funny how the Internet switched from "net neutrality at all cost, websites shouldn't be banned!" to finally realizing that actually yeah, some websites are just bad for social cohesion and should be banned or at least under strict regulation!
Network neutrality, often referred to as net neutrality, is the principle that Internet service providers (ISPs) must treat all Internet communications equally, offering users and online content providers consistent transfer rates regardless of content, website, platform, application, type of equipment, source address, destination address, or method of communication
That’s not the same as net neutrality, more a free speech concern.
I used to be a free speech absolutist, partly on the grounds that people recognize lies, hatred, racism, sexism, and bs of every kind, so are generally not affected. We always ostracized the nut cases, so why wouldn’t we online as well? I had faith in my fellow citizens that letting extremists speak out would just shine the light on that extremism., expose the truth, correct the facts.
But we’re clearly in a world where none of that is true. We have people spewing forth all sorts of extremism, and people believe it. They’re gullible, naive, easily manipulated. Hatred, anger and lies have done serious harm to our society, economically, socially and politically.
The right to free speech only applies to government, and does not guarantee freedom from consequences. The root of the problem is online speech without consequences, but that’s a commercial entity, not government . If the service won’t rein in the worst speech, or provide consequences for speech that harms society then society doesn’t need the service. Shut ‘em down
Goodness Gravy, you mean an investigative journalist did the fucking job they were hired to do? I know its surprising to Elon, because he's never actually done any work and doens't understand the concept, but holy shit he's earning that upcoming lead implant
But it's so much work writing emails to tell your underlings what they need to spend the next 2 years struggling to accomplish without overtime pay, flying on a private jet between public appearances with known criminals, and spending hours a day reposting misinformation on Twitter. It's so hard! Nobody understands how hard he works!
Trump doesn't mind Elon being the president in the press, because they convinced him this time around that he's the fully insulated mob boss. Layers of others around him getting their hands dirty, so he claims "oh, I didn't know that. That's bad, you should probably arrest whoever did that crime".
That is if our systems survive them flooding the zone with bullshit and making weak attempts to dismantle them.
Is there a Lemmy fednews? I've been lurking on reddit solely for this news, but noticed a distinct change in tone in the past few days, and I think they may be drowning in muskrats before too long.
I suspect think he’s consciously chosen to be a villain because he’s er seen it gets him more power, money, and notoriety than the techno savior thing he tried first. Or maybe he’s been planning this story arc for years.
He seems broken in the right sorts of ways to see life as an actual game of genetics, resources, and popularity.
He may have a fault or two but his work in USAID has been uncovering some serious corruption. If you refuse to acknowledge that then i don't know what to tell you.
Well, if you want to take it from the horses mouth , its supporting DEI and LGBTQ+ rights internationally. Which sounds less like "corruption" and more like "the point", but what do I know?
And to save everyone a click, here is the link I posted's full list of "corruption" :
Here are only a few examples of the WASTE and ABUSE:
$1.5 million to “advance diversity equity and inclusion in Serbia’s workplaces and business communities”
$70,000 for production of a “DEI musical” in Ireland
Hundreds of thousands of dollars for a non-profit linked to designated terrorist organizations — even AFTER an inspector general launched an investigation
Millions to EcoHealth Alliance — which was involved in research at the Wuhan lab
Funding to print “personalized” contraceptives birth control devices in developing countries
Hundreds of millions of dollars to fund “irrigation canals, farming equipment, and even fertilizer used to support the unprecedented poppy cultivation and heroin production in Afghanistan,” benefiting the Taliban
The list literally goes on and on — and it has all been happening for decades.
Under President Trump, the waste, fraud, and abuse ENDS NOW.
edit: they say the list goes "on and on", but I couldn't find anything. Presumably stuff not added to the aforementioned post were even less convincing, and as such didn't make the cut.
While USAID definitely funds/funded many ridiculous things (such as this) they also provide much-needed food and medicine to a lot of people - for cynical politically-motivated soft-power reasons, but still. It seems very likely that abruptly cutting off those programs will cause some people to die. I really hope someone (the PRC seems likely) will step in and replace some of those programs!