It's a loyalty test. And he's given his supporters permission to classify anyone who doesn't follow along as 'the enemy' aka 'the other'. It's a shortcut so his supporters know they don't have to give any credence to anything else they say, since now they assign all the other labels and insults he's hurled at 'his enemies' to the person they are talking to.
He's been doing this for years. Change the name from something widely used/adopted to something brand new and watch who follows along. Anyone who starts using the new name is a friend, and anyone who doesn't is an enemy.
Trans people typically whose a new name, referring to their old name as their “deadname”. People who insist on using the deadname when they know the person has a new name are deliberately mocking, and even being cruel to, the person who has changed their name.
Musk continues to refer to his trans child by their birth name and gender. I can’t understand how someone would do that to their own child (much less anyone at all).
After purchasing twitter he chose for it a new name and wants everyone to use it, but by not bothering to I’m simply following his example.
I make it a rule to refer to companies by the name they least want to be named by and making sure to tie the old and the new name at every opportunity. More often than not these are attempts to whitewash some crime.
In this case though it appears to be a desire to promote the name as part of committing moral crime.
(Most ppl have forgotten that X was the name of one of the two failing companies forcibly merged by their respective investors to form PayPal. I remember musk being a dick back then too)
That's pretty par for the course - at least, as far as authoritarian regimes go. It's getting very difficult to think of the US as anything but, at this point.
It's meant to be embarrassing, that's part of the control strategy. Once you start doing embarrassing things on Trump's behalf, everyone will know you've done a shameful thing, and you can only escape the shame by digging your way deeper into his cult where it becomes a virtue.
