this post was submitted on 20 Aug 2023
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Because he's doing everything to make it fail and destroy the platform, isn't it obvious?
No, you don't throw away $44 billion just for shit and giggles, not even if you are as rich as Musk. Musk is (probably) a narcissist who thought he could make it work in his delusional mind.
He wanted a mouthpiece for the MAGA crowd, and he probably thought the desire in the population for it, would make it succeed, if he made the platform embrace that. He probably envisioned himself as a great liberator, who would be celebrated for bringing free speech back to America.
Musk has been losing it for a long time, and it seems to only get worse.
Also, I don't think a narcissist would intentionally and publicly humiliate themselves the way Musk has done (Not a psychologist).
Absolutely true, being humiliated is just about the worst thing for a narcissist.
An example of that, was when Elon Musk called the diver who actually rescued 13 children in Thailand a pedophile. Imagine that, calling the hero of the day a pedophile because you are butthurt!!
No they definitely don't like to be humiliated, they probably feel that a lot more deeply that non-narcissists. But at the same time, they lack the self-awareness that would help them avoid getting into situations that would lead to humiliation.
I think a lot of “hardware” people underestimate software. Historically, hardware was way more complex but the hardware problems have kind of been solved. There’s only so many ways to design a phone or laptop. Software, meanwhile, has only become more complex and challenging.
I agree, but I don't see the point in this context?
The software to build and run Twitter, is probably not worth much besides for running Twitter. No Twitter means no value in the software for it either.
Why not? Elon Musk is famously on ketamine, ambien, and a whole slew of mind-altering substances.
Given how the contract was written, and given how much Elon Musk fought against the contract, it was obvious that he made a short-term decision (likely while high on some substance), and then quickly regretted buying Twitter. Within a week or two, he started a court case to NOT BUY TWITTER, despite signing an ironclad contract.
In my mind, its really fucking obvious what happened. Elon Musk partied a little bit too hard with some mixture of ketamine+ambien+alcohol, it mixed weirdly in his brain and he made a bad decision. A few days later, when he sobered up a bit, he realized how shitty of a decision he made but it was too late to roll things back.
Everything else Elon Musk has done is just... shitty reputation management. He's trying to convince the world he's still got it, despite making a bad (possibly drug-induced) decision
I wonder if he ever had it.
"He cannot be that self deluded."
Narrator: He was.
I truly think this is all his fucking up, nothing else. He was trying to take away features that probably align with the people who gave him money, but had no idea how to make it work and make money and is desperate. Desperation makes you even more stupid.
I don't see the conspiracy.
My assumption is the investors immediately got what they wanted. They are not stupid.
Money men don't hand over money to these front men based on promises. This isn't a Hollywood movie. There was an immediate pay off.
They got SpaceX stock.
Investors will absolutely hand over money to front men making bad, even obviously insane, promises, though. People are always more easily manipulated than they like to believe, but people who've convinced themselves they're infallible titans of industry are even more vulnerable to it. (Especially the ones who think that they see through the scam and won't be left holding the bag.)
I didn't say it was a conspiracy. I said they gave him money after he was already fucking up by paying around 30 billion more than it was worth, firing all the people that did stuff, and generally being a bad CEO so he would do what they want. More of a typical business deal really.
Actually they may not be worth much either.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYURUiOjZSw
Thunderfoot has spend a lot of time analyzing most things Musk, and SpaceX specifically does not have a market (TAM) to achieve what they claim.
So you've never heard of theranos or we work?
the only not-on-purpose piece was him having to buy it. idiot was forced to buy twitter, and then turned it into a "lets burn down a bastion of liberal speech" amongst his friends. he knows he wont suffer in any conceivable way, the saudis who fronted a huge chunk get what they want.
this was all setup shortly after he was forced to buy it. every step he has made since is in the playbook of "ruining your business", including mistakes he has personally made before.
I don't know. The way it's going down, it really makes him look like an idiot. He could have just flipped the switch and turned it off as a massive demonstration of power.
Instead he's making one mindboggingly stupid decision after another, showing the whole world how utterly incompetent he is.
The most logical explanation for me is the easiest one: if he's making stupid and incompetent decisions, maybe he's just stupid and incompetent.
You're saying the guy that has done nothing but look like a total fool for years could actually be a total fool? By the gods, I think you're onto something!
It is tremendously obvious, I agree. At one point it felt kinda hyperbolic to say, but not for awhile now.
I'm not knowledgeable enough to be able to speculate what's in it for him, but it's 100% obvious that's what's being done.
He might call him self pro free speech, but he actually hates it (as long as it's not his own free speech). Getting rid of Twitter is a massive blow to free speech. One less platform where he and his companies can get outed and criticized on.
I subscribed to the conspiracy theory of the banning of the jet tracker
It’s less nefarious than that. He wants to be a championed business leader. He’s just a fuck up who was forced to buy a platform that he never actually intended to buy (except for maybe a couple of days when he first suggested it). Sure, it will help his side when he runs it into the ground, but that’s not his intent despite being the cause.
Like others have said, bullshit. He'll drive it into the ground and pretend that was his plan the whole time, like he's some undercover genius three steps ahead of everyone, when really he's just constantly playing catch-up with his narcissistic outbursts.
That's like saying "my car may fail after I poured sand into the gas tank and replaced the electrical with speaker wires"
I keep thinking there must be some high level plan here to destroy twitter for the good of humanity. I mean it's that or Elon actually just is that stupid. At this point the latter seems the most likely ...
If he was destroying it for the good of humanity he would have to somehow destroy the concept of it rather than a single platform.
Probably best spending 40 billion on education in the harm social media can do lol.
I really do think he's just delusional. I won't call him an idiot because there is clearly intelligence and talent in his head, but he's gone off the rails in some capacity whether it's mental health issues or power crazed or who knows.
It's probably drugs. He changed a lot the last few years.
You answer jibes with what I have seen plenty of while working with and funding serial entrepreneurs in the Valley: micro-dosing, coke, molly, steroids, random herbal shit, off-label usage of pharmaceuticals, trendy nootropics, blood transfusions, ayahuasca, and Adderall.
Lay off the Kava Elon!
No he hasn't. The management of the old x.com (the one that got bought by paypal) threatened to walk if Elon wasn't removed from the office. He was always this incompetent.
Definitely.
You've got it back to front imo. Twitter was a useful tool for disseminating info, whether for protest movements, political movements, whatevs. Pre-Musk, there was a degree of control on twitter re disinfo, harassment, hatred etc. Now, it's no longer a useful tool for leftwing people to gather and share their thoughts; it's no longer a useful tool to disseminate information; it's no longer a tool for rallying protestors.
Look at who invested (Saudi kingdom); look at when Musk took it over (mid-terms); it seems pretty obvious to me that the takeover was a very expensive purchase to make the actions of oligarchs & despots that much easier.
Never ascribe to malice what can be ascribed to stupidity.
A bad rule of thumb. Weaponized incompetence is a thing.
What if Elon was encouraged to buy twitter by people who knew he would fuck it up in short order for them?
If you want to take down a corporation, there's two main ways right now. Have Elon take charge, or have Ken Griffin short them into the cellar.
What about Elon Musk makes you think he'd do anything for the good of humanity?
That was my original thought when he came on and immediately fired 75% of the staff. It's not some savvy slimming down or cost-cutting. It was more like a wrecking ball.
It was fairly clear that his overall desire was the make the platform less useful for liberals and more for conservatives. It seems like he is content to destroy it if he can't achieve the latter.