The answer to tyranny is that nobody follows the tyrant’s orders, and they lose power. It’s that simple. Except in practice it so rarely happens that way, because if you stop and other people don’t, you stand a good chance of getting killed. It’s noble to try but hardly something you could demand of everyone.
This is obviously an incredibly less dire situation, so let me give a second analogy. Bad working conditions. We all know how to fix them, you form a union to negotiate and if you don’t get what you need then you strike. Companies can’t do anything without workers. It’s that simple. And yet there are good reasons not everyone thinks they can afford to try.
Saying one can simply avoid the products that have become standards in our society is ignoring a lot of social and economic pressures people face, especially when lots of the alternatives have their own serious problems. You can opt out but some might be genuinely sacrificing a lot to do so. Try to have some compassion instead of just waving it away as easy.
I think people non-ironically see that as a possibility, and there are cases of people who live off the grid, for a time, sometimes even years… but the reality is that many of those off-the-grid livers still end up relying on the system to some degree.
Vonu : A pseudoacronym from Voluntary and Not Vulnerable A method of obtaining individual liberty by escaping from society into the wilderness and only coming back for cheeseburgers and other necessary supplies. More preached than practiced, but for a while it was an important part of apocalyptic libertarian thought.
Right now it’s not really his choice. If the board accepts his tender offer, he’ll be expected to make the purchase per the tender offer. If this wasn’t something he was serious about, he wouldn’t have had his lawyers send over an official offer.
At this point, the board has to do what’s in the best interest of the shareholders, which… 18% above the biggest high in the last two quarters? A valid offer with likely cash being offered that’d make it a done deal? Multiple higher-ups in the company already communicating with the prospective buyer in positive ways? I would be surprised if they didn’t send this to the shareholders for a vote. At which time, the money will be put into escrow and the sale will be on rails.
If he wasn’t interested, it’s too late now, unless the board decides not to. Even then I can foresee a shareholder lawsuit.
It’s all fun and games until you put things in writing.
From what I read the offer is contingent on him coming up with the money so he has an out.
Experts are all saying he would need loans or investors to come up with that kind of cash. Those same experts say loans would require him pledging Tesla stock or selling part of the rocket business.
This being Boing Boing, I can’t help pointing out that one of the characters (and brother of the human-ish protagonist) in a Cory Doctorow novel that I just read is quite literally an island. But metaphorically he wasn’t, as he still had a supportive relationship with the rest of his family, so your point still stands.
Supposedly the book is a work of fiction but now that I’m thinking about it I’m not sure it wasn’t autobiographical. There’s always been something a little odd about Cory…
Last night Dan oingoboingo was going about how this is a slam dunk for Musk. At that price, all of the shareholders would make bank, and so the board has a fiduciary responsibility to make the shareholders money. Refusing the deal would be a violation of that duty and open them up to law suits. And if they don’t take the deal, Musk sells his shares and tanks the stock. Goes on rant about how the woke left really just cares about money and has no morals, so of course the board will cave. It is funny how twitter is both “Woke leftists” but also apparently hardcore capitalists.
And then Musk will take it private, which means the investigation by the SEC into him manipulating Twitter stock would go away (Though I am not sure that would actually be the case. Just because you own the company now, didn’t mean you didn’t manipulate the stock.)
Anyway - this is all supposed to be some big win for the constitution and free speech.
In the tech world, I can tell you, a lot of people are “woke left” and running numerous “side hustles” and can tell you when their options vest , etc. It’s strange to see tankie liberals, basically, but there are plenty enough. Especially in tech. People wearing pride pins but complaining about how their $3.5 million dollar duplex has a homeless camp two miles away and how the neighbors are just poor black people who refuse to move despite the rest of the area gentrifying around them.
Haven’t read it, so I cant comment other than to say that I was speaking literally in regards to the real world which we currently inhabit.
Outside of leaving the planet entirely, we’re all still connected and we still have an impact upon one another and our environment… whether we like it or not.
Yes, I’ve seen a lot of NIMBY and pearl clutching racists liberals. At least conservatives are more honest with their disdain. Not everyone, of course.
But this just illustrates that the right has this cartoonish depiction of any one left of center-right, while they have made cartoons of themselves sliding to the far-right.
I mean, if you wonder why people who listen to talk radio are 100% convinced “liberals” hate and want to literally destroy this country, it is because that is what is being said literally every 5 minutes, if not more.
So, this is the board not just saying “no” to the tender offer, but telling Elon to go fuck himself and if he tries a hostile takeover, they’ll dilute the shares so massively that Elon will lose the takeover and collapse twitter stock.
