I can’t prove it, but I’m pretty sure dyslexic dudes named Ned are statistically more likely to self-harm when they drive by a “Dead End” sign every day. (Subliminal advertising, you know.) So, if your name is Ned, buy your next home carefully.
Actually, it’s more myth than fact: Despite its popularity as a pop-culture concept, most studies on subliminal advertising are underwhelming. It doesn’t seem to ring registers or increase sales.
Yet we stubbornly believe in it.
That’s because the concept makes sense, even if the actual stats don’t reflect it. We know how we make decisions: It’s not always cut and dry, but a hodgepodge mix of facts, emotions, impulses, and desires. Sometimes, our emotions matter most; other times we’re highly analytical. We’re not always sure why the heck we make certain decisions; it’s as much a mystery to us as it is to everyone else.
But that’s not the telltale sign of subliminal influence. Instead, it's how our brains absorb and interpret data: it’s never just one thing.
Everything matters.
Our brains run on electrical currents, and electricity moves extremely fast. More often than not, we’ll make a decision lightning-quick and then justify it later with the facts: “Well, of course I had to buy that car — it has great safety features. Very reasonable price, too. In today’s economy, I couldn’t afford not to buy it.”
But truthfully, you thought that car was sweet as [EXPLETIVE] when you first laid eyes on it.
There are all kinds of political and/or marketing theories on how to capture hearts and minds. In the old days, when Amazon, Google, Facebook, and Netflix didn’t exist (we elders call it “The Before Time”), there used to be these wacky things called “bookstores.” Each town had several of ‘em! And in these “bookstores,” there used to be an entire section dedicated to business and marketing books.
Each book told you to do something different.
Some told you to be a purple cow and stand out. Others preached the virtues of conformity. They all had a different shtick — and depending on the context, each one truly, legitimately offered amazing advice.
That’s because life is messy and chaotic. One size does NOT fit all. Whenever there are even the slightest changes to either the message, the medium, the audience, the messenger, or the environment, the end result will look dramatically different. Depending on the situation, each of those books was exactly right.
It’s the PR version of the “three-body problem” — only with way more than three variables.
And this brings us to Elon Musk: super-genius, super-patriot, and super-rich.
Not to mention super-sensitive.
Since embarking upon his MAGA-friendly ideological journey, Mr. Musk has been a net positive — and overwhelmingly so. Indeed, you can make an excellent argument that without his deep pockets, political courage, and personal sacrifice, Trump never would’ve been elected.
Without X leading the charge for free speech, Kamala Harris would probably be our next president. Under the 2020 rules, Trump’s YouTube uploads of “The Joe Rogan Experience” would’ve been censored for challenging the COVID orthodoxy and questioning the results of the 2020 election. Instead, it was viewed 50 million times.
And that’s just one example.
If Mr. Musk was willing to limit his influence on X to supporting free speech, expressing his personal opinions, and returning fire against his critics, I’d have no complaint. I still wouldn’t advise him to hurl F-bombs at conservatives during immigration debates, but if that’s how he feels, so be it.
That’s very different than Musk putting his finger on the scales by demonetizing his critics’ accounts, revoking their blue verification badge, freezing their features, and suspending journalists from posting.
I’m glad Elon Musk isn’t a pro-left censor. (It’s refreshing!) But that doesn’t mean I want him to be a pro-right censor, either. Those shouldn’t be our only options.
I want him to be the free-speech absolutist he always claimed to be.
A journalist by the name of Jacqueline Sweet just had her X account suspended after writing an article for a UK magazine about a man named Adrian Dittmann. There was speculation that Adrian Dittmann might not actually exist — rather, "he" could be a “burner account” of Elon Musk. (For those of you old enough to remember the Reagan administration, a burner account is a secondary social media account untied to your main one.) Dittmann, apparently, agreed with Musk an awful lot on X and had a similar writing style.
“Outing” Musk as being so insecure that he created a backup X account to agree with himself and salve his own ego would’ve been embarrassing. (Although, amongst celebrities, it happens more than you might think.) It’s certainly understandable why Musk would find the speculation annoying.
But if you’re gonna be a fair, responsible custodian of a free speech haven like X, you can’t ban accounts for being annoying.
Turns out, Adrian Dittmann lives in Fiji. He’s a real human being. Big fan of Elon Musk. And his real name is… Adrian Dittmann.
At first, Musk handled the so-called controversy exactly right:
I am Adrian Dittmann. It’s time the world knew.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 5, 2025
But then he had journalist Jacqueline Sweet suspended from X for doxxing.
It’s absurd. When Adrian Dittmann has an X account under the name Adrian Dittmann, there is no doxxing.
In 2020, all the leading social media platforms — including Twitter/X — censored a slew of important news stories. Botched pronouns, COVID talk, Hunter Biden’s laptop, certain jokes, and election questioning could get your account suspended. That’s not the road we want to go down again.
The right side of the slope is just as slippery as the left.
Related: The Age of Covfefe Has Officially Begun!
Very clearly, Elon Musk is a man with many, many strongly held beliefs. And he’s right about an awful lot of ‘em! X is a wonderful platform for expressing his beliefs.
But he must also be a man of principles. Free speech is a principle that needs to be protected — even when journalists use their speech in ways you dislike. When you begin cherry-picking the application of the rules, tilting the playground, and punishing your enemies, you lose the moral high ground.
It costs you hearts and minds down the road. And that’s too valuable to squander.
Even for the world’s richest man.
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