Elon Musk has the ear of one of the most powerful people in the world – President Donald Trump – making him one of the most powerful people in the world, too. He’s been given unfettered access to adjust the federal government’s budget and headcount.
So what’s he doing posting a slur multiple times targeting the disabled community on social media?
No armor required as no blows are being thrown my friend.
Not a physical attack. It’s literally just a word.
I think you’re being intentionally reductive, and you think that that reductionism is appropriate (i.e., only physical pain is valid pain). But I don’t agree, and most people wouldn’t in 2025. Psychological pain is pain, and you can likewise inflict it in a morally culpable way. You probably agree with that premise - you wouldn’t defend someone being actively abusive, like a psychopathic partner - but we’re just debating where the line is.
There’s still a valid debate about the limits of freedom from mental pain in the public sphere and our corollary duties to each other - I get that, it’s not “any pain is too much,” nobody reasonable thinks that - but this is entirely foreseeable, preventable and to doggedly insist that you have a right to inflict it doesn’t mean that it’s right to inflict it.