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(Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue)
“In authoritarian and totalitarian regimes, in both the past and the present, freedom of speech is radically curtailed, particularly the voice of those who do not agree with the political regime, its laws, as well as the public morality they reflect.”
Above is an excerpt from Aniceto Masferrer’s The Decline of Freedom of Expression and Social Vulnerability in Western Democracy, but it would serve just as well in the onboarding materials provided to SpaceX employees. Read the fact pattern from HuffPost and see for yourself:
SpaceX illegally fired eight workers who wrote an open letter laying out their concerns with the management and culture at Elon Musk’s rocket company, according to prosecutors at the National Labor Relations Board.
The NLRB officials allege in a complaint filed Wednesday that SpaceX interrogated workers about the letter and pressured them not to distribute it, according to board spokesperson Kayla Blado. The letter had directly criticized Musk’s behavior on social media.
This is exactly the sort of retaliation you should expect from a billionaire who openly opposes unions because they create a Lord and peasant dynamic:
Why do you people keep complaining about sexism, harassment, and discrimination instead of seeing the big picture? We all use the same elevator and parking lots, unlike at General Motors! No, seriously: those were his go-to examples for why unions ought be shunned as sites of power imbalances.
…Which seems to be the issue that the employees who were fired for criticizing his social media posts are experiencing anyway.
Such a silly bunch. If only the SpaceX peasants employees understood that at-will employment with no bargaining rights at the behest of a CEO whose social media posts are a common source of company value drops and lawsuits is the only thing separating them from top-down abuses.
Just remember, if anything is ever wrong with Elon’s cars, his HR skills, or his ability to accept (valid) criticism, the problem isn’t him. It’s you. The door is that way.
SpaceX Illegally Fired 8 Workers Who Criticized Elon Musk: Feds [HuffPost]
Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord™ in the Facebook group Law School Memes for Edgy T14s. He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boatbuilder who cannot swim, a published author on critical race theory, philosophy, and humor, and has a love for cycling that occasionally annoys his peers. You can reach him by email at cwilliams@abovethelaw.com and by tweet at @WritesForRent.
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