At this point Musk seems like what Trump would have been like if everyone in his administration quit and left him to rant incoherently in the Oval Office by himself…
The thing is, I’m not really seeing any difference in how Musk is behaving now and how he was before, though. At no point was he acting like any of this was real - all along, it was like he was driving trollies, and then being caught in the consequences, and everyone kept expecting him to start treating it seriously, but he never has. He jokingly said he was going to buy Twitter. Well, he’ll treat it seriously when he’s negotiating the contract. Nope. Well, he’ll treat it seriously once he’s taken to court for violating the contract. Nope. Well, he’ll treat it seriously once he’s taken over the company. Nope. Well, he’ll finally start treating things seriously when he realizes how much trouble he’s put the company in… Nope.
He’s clearly not all the smart, but beyond that, I don’t know if it’s because he’s just high all the time, or he’s got some serious personality disorders… (beyond the obvious narcissism).
I think it’s also out of control privilege - as shown by his complete disregard for any of the regulations, contracts, laws, etc that apply to all of this. He really thinks he is not only above the rest of us but above the law as well.
(Or he has no understanding of how business actually works - that is also very possible)
When it was still up in the air whether he was going to buy Twitter or not, I hoped Musk would waste his money on it and sink it immediately, killing two birds with one stone (or killing one and wounding the other, at least). But wow, he’s “succeeding” beyond my wildest dreams. Every boneheaded move he makes just makes my heart swell with joy. Entertaining as it is, I do hope Twitter burns to the ground quickly enough to minimize the actual damage caused by all this mayhem.
At this point a number of my friends and myself are convinced that Elon’s trying to destroy Twitter. Yes, he can be “not a good businessman” and that explains most of it, but he’s done his level best to basically remove the people, infrastructure, and support structures that hold twitter up in such a calculated way that if it was just “how he runs all his businesses” we wouldn’t have a Tesla or a SpaceX.
I have no idea. Other than , when Trump got kicked off, a number of GOP big money people swore to destroy Twitter. It seems a very high price to pay to punish a bunch of tech employees and scare them into thinking it could happen to them too, and maybe there’s more than a couple groups of people interested in seeing Twitter fail that’s helping bankroll this. My bet is since it’s all tied up in twitter’s debt structure that Elon’s going to walk away pretty much scot-free, and the banks are going to be left holding the bag.
I think you are mistaking incompetence for malice. Musk doesn’t want twitter to go away, he’s hopelessly addicted to it. He just doesn’t understand the business at all, not only doesn’t understand advertisers; he has never been one (none of his companies have advertised), thinks that all of the users on it want to use it in the same way that he does, and he has a very thin skin while enjoying seeing others suffer abuse and harassment
There is nothing going on here that I see as planned or malicious, just a not very bright dog choking to death on the tire of the car he finally caught
As crappy as Twitter can be, it’s still a free and popular way for people to circumvent mainstream media and share information, support each other, and organize for change.
During the pandemic, I got information from real doctors and scientists that directly contradicted the “it’s just the flu” propaganda. I’ve seen information spread on which brands to boycott during labor strikes (and those worker efforts were documented and praised on Twitter.) Hell, I can’t count all the “vote blue” posts on my timeline before the election that contradicted the “Red Wave” narrative.
Yeah, Twitter is a shitshow (my blocklist proves that)… but it can be used as a tool against the status quo, if utilized carefully. As such, I’m sure there quite a few authoritarians who’re drooling over the though of Twitter crashing and burning.
Again, he owns the thing. He could shut it all down immediately if that was really his goal. No need for Machiavellian schemes in which he pretends to be a fucking idiot (and undermines his other companies in the process).
All these theories about Elon destroying Twitter on purpose are reminiscent of the times people insisted Trump was really playing Nth-dimensional chess when in fact he was exactly as big a buffoon as he appeared to be.
I suspect that Mastodon is going to be like the Linux of social media. And moderation will still be a problem on any Mastodon instance that comes gets within a 5% of the users that Twitter has. These aren’t insurmountable problems, and, indeed, there’s something to be said for small, tightly knit social networking communities. But they won’t be as accessible for those who need it, without a lot of effort directed at solving the moderation problems that Twitter has.
Everyone needs that browser extension that replaces the blue tick with a dollar sign, because that’s all it means now, but the twits have been convinced that it still means “verified”.
Yes, and maybe no? I haven’t taken the plunge yet, but if I understand it correctly, Mastodon is a network of individual servers (kind of like Discord.) So what starts in one server stays in that server unless there’s a distinct effort to spread it across instances. Twitter has/had the capability to reach just about everyone everywhere if a post went viral enough… there were less barriers to content spread.
So, if I’m getting it right (and I know I might not)… Mastodon could work in a similar way, but it’s not as effortless?
(I’ll join up eventually, I’m sure. I’m usually dragged kicking and screaming into new social media, this won’t be any different. I’m not sure where to start yet, which server to call home, and I’m making a list of where my Twitter mutuals are heading, so I’ll be joining more than just one, if I’m allowed.)
I’m thinking some combination of the two definitely plays a large role here… but then how it comes across is as if he doesn’t think it’s real. (Because on some level, because of that privilege and lack of understanding, it isn’t, for him.)
I’m not sure where to start yet, which server to call home, and I’m making a list of where my Twitter mutuals are heading, so I’ll be joining more than just one, if I’m allowed.)
