The Richest Man in the World Sued My Former Employer
It's a bit surreal to be watching this from the outside.
Hey all,
I hope you had a fantastic Thanksgiving and a low-stress start to your holiday season. My parents stopped by my place for Thanksgiving. It was delightful. Before I get started with today’s newsletter, just a reminder that there are still a few days left for new subscribers (and anyone else interested in upgrading from a free subscription) to get 20% off annual plans for your first year:
Last week, the richest man on the planet declared war on Media Matters for America, one of my former employers, repeatedly calling them “pure evil” and filing a “thermonuclear lawsuit” against them.
The tl;dr about that lawsuit is that Elon Musk is angry that Media Matters has been publishing stories about the spread of hateful content on Twitter; Musk’s own racist, antisemitic, and transphobic tweets; and why major advertisers have been rushing to the exits.
I’m not a lawyer, but it seems to come down to Musk being angry that advertisers don’t want to spend money putting their products next to posts from things like whites-only dating apps that post non-stop about racial purity and use the n-word in images. Musk is framing this as Media Matters being anti-“free speech,” but there are two important truths here:
Musk absolutely does not believe in complete and total “free speech” on Twitter. A lot of the defenses of the content on Twitter come down to people going, “Sure, there’s a lot of really bad stuff on there, but this is a free speech platform.” The reality is that while Musk has emboldened transphobes and racists to be the worst versions of themselves, he’s outright banned words and phrases from the platform if they go against his personal beliefs (declaring the word “cis” a slur, for instance) or if he thinks bans will help him politically (banning discussion of decolonization and the use of the phrase “from the river to the sea,” seemingly in an attempt to keep the Anti-Defamation League from criticizing a recent antisemitic post of his).
A series of images from an account pretending to be Judith Butler that is entirely dedicated to bashing and wishing death on trans people. As you can see, this didn't violate Twitter's "safety" rules. Advertisers are not obligated to continue advertising on a platform that went from being a low-simmering cesspool of hate to a full-on 4chan replica. As I wrote in April 2022, “While Musk is certainly welcome to turn Twitter into 4chan, I don’t think people will like it. … Some people will really like it, but the rest of us? Not so much.”
I also can’t quite get over the double standard here. Musk’s far-right friends have turned “Bud Light” into a verb that roughly translates to “We’re going to destroy any brand that acknowledges the existence of people we hate” after losing their minds about the brand advertising one (1) time on trans influencer Dylan Mulvaney’s Instagram account and terrorizing Target stores across the country in sudden outrage over the chain’s truly inoffensive Pride section. Those tactics are far, far more extreme than simply being like, “Hey brands, you know that you’re advertising next to stuff like this?”
So good luck to Media Matters and everyone who works there in all of this. They’re certainly in the right.
All of this got me thinking about how long it’s been since I’ve had a “real job.” I left my job as an editor at large for Media Matters in June 2021, with my final day being right before I launched this newsletter. Since then, I’ve made a living with this newsletter and freelance writing jobs here and there. It’s not the most financially stable way to live, but I can pay my bills, which is all I can ask for.
Working exclusively from home can be a bit isolating. When I worked for Media Matters, I’d do most of my work from home but would spend a week or so at the MMFA offices in Washington, D.C., a couple of times a year. Generally, I enjoyed it, and I left there on good terms and wouldn’t necessarily be opposed to working there again in the future if they asked me back.
I genuinely wouldn’t mind having a “real job” again, especially if it had similar mostly remote but sometimes in-person conditions like when I was at MMFA and if I could continue writing TPA as I do now. Honestly, it would probably be a good thing for both my finances and my mental health. But hey, I’m just thinking out loud.
That’s all I’ve got for you today. As always, thank you so much for reading, subscribing, and sharing this newsletter. You all are why I can keep my head above water these days.
Parker
P.S. As it’s now officially the time of year when it’s okay to listen to Christmas music, I’m going to recommend everyone take 3 minutes and 10 seconds out of their day to listen to “I Don’t Know What Christmas Is (But Christmastime Is Here)” from last year’s Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special by the Old 97’s:
That song was worth the price of admission.
I worked exclusively in an office until lockdown in 2020. Prior to that, I had one WFH job, and I did not like it. It was isolating and the work wasn't fulfilling. I expected lockdown to no different, but after a year, I was converted to permanent WFH. My current employer is fine with WFH and the quality of life I experience is a joy. It does mean that I have to actively seek out social interactions (those were freebies at in-office jobs), but after adjusting, that has proven to be well worth the effort.
On topic, I can believe that Musk is stupid enough to sue Media Matters, but I still find it galling. I wonder if he thinks the controversy is good for Twitter, but I don't think he's that smart. Plus, discovery is going to be so damning. IANAL, but I think that getting this moved to anti-SLAPP state, like CA (where Twitter is headquartered) is a no-brainer. My thoughts are with Media Matters. They are in the right, obviously. Good luck to them.