"Is Elon Musk stupid?" - a question I saw posed recently. Yes, I know he's massively rich, but, like Trump, he inherited huge wealth (his father owned an emerald mine). He wouldn't be the first successful businessman to not be the sharpest tool in the draw.
A few items of evidence (there are many more):
The next one is my favourite example. I wonder what, PRECISELY, ruined Netflix for him. I really can't imagine, having enjoyed, for years, the vast choice Netflix provides.
The persecution he must suffer, from communism and woke! Really shocking. 🤣
Verdict 4 months on? I still think he's basically a decent guy, but after presenting himself as a "free speech absolutist" and saying that his Twitter crusade was against censorship, he then started banning journalists he didn't like, on the fly, like a kind of petulant social media Napoleon, which alienated even some of his fans.
Good NYT article from Jaron Lanier on Musk, Trump and social media behaviour manipulation.
In answer tour first question whether Elon Musk is stupid, it’s both yes and no today. He posted and then deleted a tweet regarding an unfounded theory on Paul Pelosi attack.
Along with the Duke & Duchess of Sussex and Jussie Smollett, I’ll add the J.K. Rowling controversy to the list of woke era disasters.
Replying to Tourist
I agree that the relevant worry with PC/woke is the authoritarian aspect - not just censorship, but imposition (ie forcing things on people), etc. The Dave Chapelle example you mention is interesting, because of what happened after Netflix decided to run Chappelle's shows. Netflix users complained! Apparently Netflix can't win, either way.
But Netflix isn't really in the censorship (or imposition) business - because it's BAD for business. That seems clear. The controversial (eg non-pc) stuff gets big audiences/bucks. Suppressing stuff draws terrible publicity. I don't blame them for doing what other businesses do - thinking always of the bottom line. Netflix abides by national censorship law (and would probably cave to overwhelming public outcry on issues not covered by law), but then so does Elon Musk (he's said as much). That's nothing to do with "woke", of course.
A university professor of media I'm acquainted with says the trajectory of the international streaming platforms (eg Netflix, Amazon) is towards greater global freedom of choice and less censorship than ever before in humanity's history. That makes sense when you think about it. And it's why I found Elon Musk's remark so remarkably dumb and short-sighted.
So suppose Netflix runs a hypothetical documentary titled "Why you must support other-abled transgender pansexual neuro-atypicals with the intersectionality of blah blah blah"...
Do I want to see it? Jeeesus, no. Are they forcing me to see it? Absolutely not. Do I want to prevent other people from seeing it, who want to see it? Certainly not - I'm no censor, no authoritarian dictator over other peoples' choices. So, is Netflix being intolerably woke by running a woke documentary? Emphatically not - no more so than it's being mean to transgender people (or whoever) by showing Dave Chappelle's shows. Elon Musk gives every indication of being too stupid to appreciate this point.
Regarding your interesting Royals (Harry & Meghan) example. I think with some consideration you'll see it's a weak example. Harry & Meghan may well be horribly woke and "virtue-signalling" (as you put it), and I haven't the slightest interest in them. However, there is huge public interest in the Royals which translates into viewers and money for Netflix. And I certainly wouldn't want to prevent others from watching it. Because I'm not a censor. As long as I'm not forced to watch it, I really don't care. Just because the subject (or maker) of the documentary is intolerably woke, doesn't make Netflix intolerably woke - any more than it makes Netflix into hardline Trump supporters for funding and making a Roger Stone documentary.
Here's Netflix's front page on my browser right now. Not very woke:
I’ve come to accept ‘woke’ in cable television drama. I just know what Musk’s referring to. I’m of the age where in the early 1970s, it was about inclusion and because the psychedelic era wasn't too far in the past, it was psychedelic inclusion, like Sly & The Family Stone, which I loved. There seemed to be something in the air and the aesthetics were great.
In the early ‘70s, though there was also pressure on us kids to loath things like John Wayne films because his characters represented everything we were supposed to be appalled by. I found the pressure understandable but I liked John Wayne films nonetheless simply because the way he spoke caused everything to slow down.
In the early 1980s, I’d still sometimes watch cartoons on Saturday mornings, usually with friends’ slightly younger siblings, feeling nostalgic for my childhood of five to 10 years before. There was the short-lived animated version of ‘Our Gang’ by Hanna-Barbera called ‘The Little Rascals.’ This was updated from Hal Roach’s late 1920s to early 1930s comedy movies.
The Buckwheat character was in if not the leadership role then the logical, problem-solver role. Buckwheat as Spock. Buckwheat The Whizkid. This seemed equally heavy handed as it did necessary. It gave me a smirk, not a cringe or sneer, just a smirk.
“You are precisely as big as what you love and precisely as small as what you allow to annoy you.”
― Robert Anton Wilson
I don't disagree with him about Netflix. I think he's too young to know much about Communism, full-on or not. I think even Putin and the gang must be too young to know who Nazis were or are.