Musk reinstates Jones on X
Elon Musk proved long ago that he is to business what Donald Trump is to politics. Both revel in defying norms and conventional wisdom.
Yesterday, Musk proved it again by reinstating Alex Jones on X, formerly Twitter. Jones gained infamy by spreading wild conspiracies, including that:
- a “New World Order” is sacrificing children;
- the US government is using “weather weapons” to trigger catastrophic floods; and
- FBI Director Robert Mueller is a demon.
Jones was permanently banned from Twitter in 2018, with the platform citing a pattern of behavior violating its harassment policies. At the time, Jones had already been sued by the parents of the victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook shooting for spreading lies about the massacre and harassing survivors. Jones had about 900,000 followers when he was booted off the platform.
(Vanity Fair, December 10, 2023)
Birds of a feather
Musk reinstating Jones mirrors Trump dining with Kanye West and Nick Fuentes. It’s a gathering of minds so bizarre that Hollywood would reject it as too far-fetched if pitched as a sitcom plot. After all, what could a racist president, self-hating, Black antisemite, and neo-Nazi have in common? Oh, right: hate.
Of course, Musk and Jones have that in common, too. But this reinstatement smacks of Musk, like Trump, just courting controversy or defying norms for the sake of it – a “damn the torpedoes” approach to public relations.
What will advertisers do?
Jones is arguably the most notorious hatemonger and conspiracy theorist in America. Musk knew reinstating him would cause even more advertisers to flee X.
But this is the Musk who has been publicly whining lately that squeamish advertisers could kill X. So you might say to him,
In case you haven’t noticed, you’re in a hole, Elon, stop digging.
Except that Musk clearly thinks he can show advertisers the kind of contempt Trump shows Republicans. In this case, it might be that the more Elon tells advertisers to “f*ck off,” the more the more they will want to stay on.
Then again, like Trump, Musk defies customary practice by threatening bankruptcy as a business strategy. Except that, he seems hell-bent on driving X into bankruptcy at this point. And clearly, the sooner he cuts his losses, the better.
The X Paradox: the reputable platforming with the deplorable
Simply put: Ask not why is Elon Musk inviting Alex Jones back on X – ask why are so many reputable people still on X.
A year ago this week, I urged President Biden to lead an exodus from the platform, to no avail. Mind you, Musk relishes trolling Democrats on X. Yet, virtue-signaling Democrats decry X as much as they use it.
Frankly, this is like attending a party where the host walks about spewing racial, antisemitic, homophobic, misogynistic, xenophobic, and other types of offensive slurs. Yet, the guests are schmoozing as if they couldn’t be less bothered.
Surely, such a scene would say more about the guests than the host. Likewise, the hellscape Musk has turned X into says more about the users than the owner.