this post was submitted on 25 Jul 2023
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On purpose.
Only clearer by the day that this was all an exercise to intentionally kill Twitter to the benefit of billionaires, fascists and other extremists.
Twitter existed as a relatively free and open public space to communicate, organize and assemble to take actions for and against things at scale before musk (e.g. The Arab Spring, a terrifying moment for the Saudis especially - the second largest shareholder behind musk).
When people collectively laughed at elon and his cringe, inbred, emerald boy antics or his humiliating divorce and other routine failures, Twitter was the bullhorn.
Now elon and his desperate far right Toadies will work to try to rewrite reality so they can eventually have this conversation:
"Twitter? What's a Twitter? Wait, are you talking about blork? A bird? No, blork's logo is a dinosaur with chainsaw arms... and everyone wants to be his best friend... and it's against the law to divorce him... and he's cool... and..."
What an everlasting tool history will remember you as, elon. If they remember you at all, it will be to laugh at you - you'll never outrun that.
I'm inclined to agree with others here in the thread. I honestly don't think this was an intentional action designed to tank Twitter. It may well be doing just that, but frankly, Elon has proven time and again that he's a world-class idiot.
Musk did not pay $44 billion to buy Twitter. He paid $26 billion, underwritten by stock in Tesla, which subsequently lost significant value. $5 billion was from other investors including the Saudi Prince.
The remaining $13 billion was a loan Twitter took out to buy itself on Musk's behalf. Even before Musk started tanking the revenue, Twitter could not afford that debt - the interest alone was comparible to its revenue. That debt is probably about what Twitter is worth right now after the name change, making it pretty much unviable as a business.
You don't have to look at Musk's antics to conclude that the intention was to kill the company. You only have to look at the financials.
Leveraged buyouts almost always lead to the business closing. It's how Toys R Us, and many other staple brands, were brought down.
Stop giving Musk so much credit, he's shown historically that he's just massive narcissistic fuck up who got lucky in the dot com bubble. There's no reason to think there's some far right conspiracy here, he only bought the website because he got in a pissing match and couldn't get out when he tried.
Biggest tool in the history of tools.
When I initially heard about Elon paying what he did for Twitter my first thought was he's buying it to kill it, then I thought nobody in their right mind would spend that kind of money to carry out a personal vendetta. Now I think that's absolutely what's going on.
I believe he's killing Twitter purely for personal reasons (he hates it because people gave him shit there). I don't think there's some kind of grand social agenda. It would require an assumption he cares about someone other than himself. Unlikely as the guy's ego extends past Planet 9.
He needs daddy's approval and the other billionaires are surrogate daddy. That would be the social agenda influence you're referencing. Look at how desperate and odd he was on stage with dave chapelle, that was a core view into his base self, he needs to be praised. He's also a eugenics/natalism cult member and sees the wealthy as his equal, superior "race" of people - so he would 100% sacrifice a lot for even their passing approval.
Twitter isn't and never was useful as an organizing tool. Arab spring was a failure. Twitter is actually more useful to the ruling class than not because it gives a way for the masses to expend it's restless energy without changing anything.
Of course there are degrees of usefulness and different types of organizing, but generally, your wrong here in your first point. Some merit in your second claim, but overall, it's something they likely feared to a degree as a point of connection and amplification of information.