14 Comments

I kinda got the impression the offer to buy Twitter was never serious, it was just Musk flexing, but then Twitter called him on it and didn't let it go, so he was forced to buy the thing he never wanted and is now floundering wildly while pretending not to. Nicely played ex-Twitter folks.

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So can we NOW all at least agree that clearly Mr Musk is not a genius.

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I work for a large US tech company, and a few years ago was talking to one of our top people who is very well connected in Silicon Valley . I asked what the perception of Musk was in his world. It was a very short answer:

"He's a fucking bullshit artist"

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He’ll make his money back by tweeting bitcoin predictions and riding the wave of stupidity that follows.

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What is the real solution though? For most of human history you could ignore most of the people who's opinions you didn't like by the simple expedient of not speaking their language, or living beyond their ability to broadcast their thoughts. Very few people are upset by sky after dark because very few people watch it. Certainly, watching it isn't compulsory.

Perhaps the disintegration of "social media", to be replaced by little groups on signal or wechat or discord or whatever is the answer? (or email?)

It seems to be a sad truth that we live in a world full of people who have awful opinions. Seems to have always been thus. Some live in regions where those opinions become normalized from time to time, so who are we to say that they're awful anyway?

No, I don't know the answer, and I don't know how twitter could be reformed to become less awful, short of doing away with auto-suggested tweets, and relying only on your manually-curated follow list. That probably doesn't drive enough "engagement" to be commercially effective.

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Instead of looking at Musk's latest indulgence, it pays to look back on his previous claims and crimes.

Firstly, the fraud charges by the SEC were settled by him paying forty million in penalties, he's a convicted fraudster, for starters.

There are too many, not bold, but ludicrous claims that flow from his mouth, one example, his electric cars will be able to self-drive from LA to New York, without touching the wheel by 2020. The list of his other claims is long, varied and equally preposterous.

When the veil of his Elizabeth Holmes-like claims falls away, the true nature of this narcissistic fantasist will be a subject of debate, among the psychiatric community, for a long time to come.

The only upside of this affair is that the negotiations for Twitter became so protracted. If the deal had been sealed early, then the outcome of the American Mid-Term Elections would have been catastrophic, with all the off-the-planet, even the universe, Qanon, Proud Boys, Oath Keepers and MAGA maniacs, would be given a voice on the "Town Square" of free speech.

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Pharcking hell looks like my social media days are over.

Do you think you'll see a down turn boob.

I'm only dragging my arse here bc of that platform?

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With the saudis being the next biggest investors, not sure they give a flying bats arse what happens to twt 1 less play toy to monitor

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Clearly this “genius” has a mouth bigger than his brain. He’s been had, IMO. Now THAT’s a genius grift 😈

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