Or in any world, really. In Christianity, though many are sure to disagree, Paul is sort of the poster child for a reactionary ruining things for everybody who doesn’t agree with him. And he pre-dated the Catholic Church itself (well, at least under some definition for what the Catholic Church even is, given various theological debates, schisms, and such).
Aah yes, Paul.
Asshole primer peris. The rest is just details.
Also, amazingly, the man whose words he identified as his opinion became dictates.
I just posted this on the other Musk/Twitter thread and realize that it may be better here. Sorry for the duplication, let’s see what Discourse says:
If Twitter ever was a place to get the news faster, it no longer is. Now there is a LLM AI Chatbot called Grok, owned and developed by Elon Musk himself, and it makes news up, puts them in a “newly updated Explorer page” (that is, as I understand it, the new name for the trending news section curated by Twitter) and heralds those made up news as true. Yesterday Grok claimed that Iran had started bombarding Tel Aviv with missiles. Heavy Missiles, to be precise:
In view of the great success of Grok Linda Yaccarino anounced that Grok will be enabled for all premium subscribers:
I wonder whether Twitter (or X, or whatever it is called) could be sued for damages if such made up news moves the markets in a significant way. Which seems totally possible to me. Even if an investor does not act on the made up news, because they have read the small print:
“Grok is an early feature and can make mistakes,” reads the tiny note from X underneath the written context provided on the Explore page. “Verify its outputs.”
damage could result if others don’t read the fine print and act foolishly.
This being now in The Pit should allow me some insulting of the despicables Mr. Musk and Ms Yaccarino, but I feel futile right now. May come back to it later.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I give you Elmo, self-proclaimed free speech absolutist, savior of humanity from nuclear apocalypse, defender of mankind from the dangers of AI.
Did you mean to post an “example” of that?
I suspect he was referring to the news about Grok just above his post.
If I’m right, @Dissonance’s idea being that Musk has long claimed to be a free speech absolutist (and totally isn’t). AND has long claimed to be a savior from nuclear apocalypse (and totally isn’t). AND has long claimed to be a savior from AI, but has just now with the release of the stock-market manipulating Grok system, proven he isn’t that either.
Ta Da! And with that the empresario Dissoance takes his bow and leaves the stage.
I really like the idea of an AI rumor monger that can be subtly “guided” in an utterly untraceable way to spew bullshit that can be front-run by the insiders to truly insane levels of profit.
That is pure evil, and best of all represents Musk sowing the seeds of his own demise; if the stock market becomes just another totally (not partially) crooked casino, lots of capital formation is going away. Or going underground.
For a guy whose wealth is substantially all in publicly traded stock, that sounds like a real nice foot-cannon he just built.
Indeed. And empresario, I like that. You are absolved of making the typo in my name.
Coming soon, the combining of the trinity and the birth of Skynet: Grok unleashes a nuclear holocaust by becoming sentient and utilizing its free speech to create “news” in the NATO that Russian nukes are headed for DC, London and Paris, “news” in Russia that US, French and British nukes are headed for Moscow, “news” in Pakistan that Indian nukes are on the way to Islamabad, “news” in India that Pakistani nukes are on the way to New Delhi, and in China that everyone is sending nukes to Beijing. Hmm, I’d include North Korea but that would require a functioning electrical grid in Pyongyang.
It could have been worse; you might now be Discodance.
IMPRESARIO.
Empresario means something else.
That’s what I get for typing on my damned phone.
Are you assuming that @Dissonance hasn’t taken responsibility for settling Coahuila y Tejas?
Saw this thread on Reddit and found it kinda interesting to see when the public stopped liking Musk. I figured even those who like Musk (cough, Sam) might enjoy it.
People who liked Elon Musk but no longer do, what was the turning point?
Two things. 1. When he called the cave rescuer a ‘pedophile’ and doubled down on it, after lying about sending a rescue ‘mini-sub’. 2. During the height of Covid, he claimed he was retrofitting his production and said he sent 1000 ventilators to desperate US hospitals. He actually sent a few useless…
I don’t think I was ever exactly dazzled by Musk, though his twitter takeover has been eye-opening. I acknowledge that he one of the greats who started or catalyzed 3 successful innovative, game-changing, and welfare-enhancing companies. He’s had his misses, his claimed engineering prowess is mostly PR, and he’s made an utter jackass out of himself, but he’s also made substantial contributions to humanity. Rockets don’t launch without funding.
John Oliver had a balanced take on Musk a few weeks back.
I guess we can agree that considering yourself* above the law is a symptom of a deeply flawed character:
And calling for the dismissal or impeachment (a figure of law that does not even exist in Brazil, as far as I know: only elected oficials can be impeached and judges seem not to be elected) of the judge you don’t like is not free speech, it is rebellion, sedition and grounds for being court martial’d, drowned in boiling oil and being hung head down in the sun to dry. At least in some countries Mr. Musk proclaims to admire.
* Funny that my keyboard decided to spell that Xourself.
My apologies for posting a naked link. It’s a comic with an amusing reference to the Watchmen vis-à-vis Twitter.
I read Penny Arcade regularly and I’m glad you posted this with the reference. Not sure I would have immediately understood it just from the comic and title.
I would only have gotten it in the final panel, one thing I always admired (for a deeply flawed character) about Ozymandias (the character) is that he doesn’t monologue about what he’s doing until it doesn’t matter anymore. 
When I think of PA and Twitter, I will always think of this one.
“I’m a twitter shitter!” kills me every time. 
And now 16 years later, Gabe deletes his Twitter account.
So now he’s a Xitter shitter instead. Holy alliteration, Batman!