6 ms·

This is the biggest thing to happen to twitter since the trump presidency. Both big for twitter, and awful for society.

by dmamills 5y ago

yosito 5y ago
In what ways do you think having Elon Musk on Twitter's board will be bad for society?
cloutchaser 5y ago
- freedomben 5y ago
  Is Elon a Republican or Conservative? I've seen variations of this regarding balancing ownership and improving free speech, but aside from a few cryptic tweets about cancel culture, has Elon ever said anything? In interviews (especially the famous Rogan interview) he seems pretty disinterested in politics.
  - dahfizz 5y ago
    Anyone who isn't an outspoken liberal is a conservative. Welcome to American politics.
    - md2020 5y ago
      In America, progressives/leftists actually lump in “liberals” as “conservative” now since traditionally “liberal” means support of typical Enlightenment values, democracy, and free market capitalism. But I’ve noticed that people who vote Republican refer to progressives/leftists as “liberals”, so it’s all very confusing.
  - orblivion 5y ago
    I think he's even claimed to be some variant of anarchist. Not that I take that specifically to heart. I just think he's politically eccentric. Though to the "conservative" or maybe libertarian angle don't forget the "coronavirus panic is dumb" tweet.
- mynameisvlad 5y ago
  Be civil. That is the most uncharitable reading of a comment I’ve seen today.
mattbrewsbytes 5y ago
And both might be related. Motivation for any billionaire to back Republican top candidates is to repeal all Billionaire Tax legislature that might pass soon.
- SantalBlush 5y ago
  I see this move as an opportunity to gatekeep politicians on his platform in exchange for favorable treatment.
- bequanna 5y ago
  > ...Billionaire Tax legislature No such thing will ever happen. This is just political theater for the sake of appeasing the "sour grapes" faction on the left. There is no political will to tax unrealized gains, tax wealth, etc.
- seibelj 5y ago
  Considering we only have 2 political parties in the US, if you oppose the policies of the party in power you only have one other option. I'm a libertarian and don't have a team I root for, but it's a fact that plenty of hyper-wealthy people support the Democrats.
m463 5y ago
So society is that dependent on twitter?
- dmamills 5y ago
  I don't know where the implication that society is dependent on twitter is hidden in my comment. But no, society isn't dependent on twitter, is it relevant to society? Certainly.
  - loceng 5y ago
    Luckily your stating something with no actual argument points to support your statement doesn't hold any weight whatsoever to whether it has any truth to it or not.
    - dmamills 5y ago
      You want argument points to support the idea that Twitter is relevant to society? It is the fourth most visited site on the internet. It has well over three hundred million active users. It was one of the main methods of communication for the last sitting president of the united states. It is worth more than three billion dollars. It is currently what this subset of society in this thread is discussing because we find it relevant.
      - loceng 5y ago
        My bad, I was thinking of your "and [Elon buying 10% of Twitter is] awful for society" comment - unless I misunderstood what you that was awful for society.
        dmamills 5y ago
        Well, the definition "awful for society" is fairly anecdotal, so my reply won't be able to be built upon hard facts. But in my opinion, Elon Musk is a very smart man who not only sees, but has reaped massive value from Twitter. He is notable for tweeting misleading information to affect the stock price of his companies. These actions resulted in a lawsuit from the SEC in 2018. The ripple effects of stock manipulation are hard to directly tie to the concept of "awful for society". But it certainly feels like when money is given one place, it is taken from another. When that transfer of money is based on misinformation, it creates pain. I personally am doubtful that the billionaire feels any of it, but someone else will. I also don't believe that Musk has learned any lesson from the lawsuit either. He is currently trying to fight the tweet pre-approval stipulation in the courts. Putting a financial investment into the company to me personally, looks like someone who has found, or is looking for a loophole.
memish 5y ago
How so? A more transparent twitter would be better for society. That's what he and Jack are pushing for.
- lp0_on_fire 5y ago
  > Jack are pushing for. Twitter went further down the ideological rabbit hole with Jack at the helm.
  - memish 5y ago
    Which he's not happy about. https://twitter.com/jack/status/1510314535671922689 https://twitter.com/jack/status/1510314535671922689
pzh 5y ago
What’s good for the goose is good for the gander. That’s why free speech policies shouldn’t be dictated by partisan concerns. You never know who will be in control of your social media platform in the future.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- turdnagel 5y ago
  Twitter doesn't have "free speech policies". It has moderation policies. They're not enforced evenly, but no platform has solved this.
  - convery 5y ago
    I mean, there's a difference between platforms trying solve the issue and Twitter that gives a badge repeat offenders as long as the target of their bigotry is deemed acceptable..
- philosopher1234 5y ago
  Suppose the president got up every day and issued a presidential address in which he said "we should kill all mintorities". Would you be opposed to this? Thats an extreme example, but the point im illustrating is that in reality, as a society, we do not approve or endorse all speech, and it is obviously true that censorship is useful. You can see quite clearly that were the president to do this, it would have consequences. Does that mean we should make certain speech illegal? Not necessarily. Does it mean we should curtail the reach of certain speech? I think it is good for Twitter to do this. The distinction is that speech being possible is different than speech being emphasized or broadcasted.
  - lovecg 5y ago
    If we elect a president who does this we already lost as a country.
- rc_kas 5y ago
gnicholas 5y ago
This development makes Trump being reinstated on Twitter more likely. His reinstatement would make a Trump presidency less likely, IMO. Most people (or at least HNers) would agree that decreasing the likelihood of another Trump presidency would be a good thing.
- dragonwriter 5y ago
  > This development makes Trump being reinstated on Twitter more likely. Maybe. > His reinstatement would make a Trump presidency less likely, IMO. That's...an interesting opinion, but I don't see any strong reason to believe it is true, or even more likely to be true than the opposite effect. > Most people (or at least HNers) would agree that decreasing the likelihood of another Trump presidency would be a good thing. For people (at least, US voters) generally that appears to be less true of Trump than literally every other potential candidate, as Trump currently is both the strongest by far polling candidate for the Republican nomination in 2024 against other potential Republicans and the strongest against potential Democratic opponents, winning my most general election head to head polls.
  - gnicholas 5y ago
    I understand he polls we’ll head to head, but most Americans would prefer he not be the next president (whether they prefer a democrat, republican, or something else). And I cannot imagine that most HNers want another Trump presidency. I would speculate that part of the reason he’s polling so well (relatively speaking) right now is that he’s been off twitter for the last year.
    - dragonwriter 5y ago
      > I understand he polls we’ll head to head, but most Americans would prefer he not be the next president That's true of literally every possible candidate; no candidate is preferred by the majority of people, and Trump is preferred by the largest minority. > I would speculate that part of the reason he’s polling so well (relatively speaking) right now is that he’s been off twitter for the last year. I would speculate that almost the entire reason is that he successfully took over the Republican brand and people are dissatisfied with the present conditions, largely due to economic conditions, particularly inflation.

This is the biggest thing to happen to twitter since the trump presidency. Both big for twitter, and awful for society.

yosito 5y ago

In what ways do you think having Elon Musk on Twitter's board will be bad for society?

cloutchaser 5y ago

freedomben 5y ago
Is Elon a Republican or Conservative? I've seen variations of this regarding balancing ownership and improving free speech, but aside from a few cryptic tweets about cancel culture, has Elon ever said anything? In interviews (especially the famous Rogan interview) he seems pretty disinterested in politics.
- dahfizz 5y ago
  Anyone who isn't an outspoken liberal is a conservative. Welcome to American politics.
  - md2020 5y ago
    In America, progressives/leftists actually lump in “liberals” as “conservative” now since traditionally “liberal” means support of typical Enlightenment values, democracy, and free market capitalism. But I’ve noticed that people who vote Republican refer to progressives/leftists as “liberals”, so it’s all very confusing.
- orblivion 5y ago
  I think he's even claimed to be some variant of anarchist. Not that I take that specifically to heart. I just think he's politically eccentric. Though to the "conservative" or maybe libertarian angle don't forget the "coronavirus panic is dumb" tweet.
mynameisvlad 5y ago
Be civil. That is the most uncharitable reading of a comment I’ve seen today.

mattbrewsbytes 5y ago

And both might be related. Motivation for any billionaire to back Republican top candidates is to repeal all Billionaire Tax legislature that might pass soon.

SantalBlush 5y ago
I see this move as an opportunity to gatekeep politicians on his platform in exchange for favorable treatment.
bequanna 5y ago
> ...Billionaire Tax legislature No such thing will ever happen. This is just political theater for the sake of appeasing the "sour grapes" faction on the left. There is no political will to tax unrealized gains, tax wealth, etc.
seibelj 5y ago
Considering we only have 2 political parties in the US, if you oppose the policies of the party in power you only have one other option. I'm a libertarian and don't have a team I root for, but it's a fact that plenty of hyper-wealthy people support the Democrats.

m463 5y ago

So society is that dependent on twitter?

dmamills 5y ago
I don't know where the implication that society is dependent on twitter is hidden in my comment. But no, society isn't dependent on twitter, is it relevant to society? Certainly.
- loceng 5y ago
  Luckily your stating something with no actual argument points to support your statement doesn't hold any weight whatsoever to whether it has any truth to it or not.
  - dmamills 5y ago
    You want argument points to support the idea that Twitter is relevant to society? It is the fourth most visited site on the internet. It has well over three hundred million active users. It was one of the main methods of communication for the last sitting president of the united states. It is worth more than three billion dollars. It is currently what this subset of society in this thread is discussing because we find it relevant.
    - loceng 5y ago
      My bad, I was thinking of your "and [Elon buying 10% of Twitter is] awful for society" comment - unless I misunderstood what you that was awful for society.
      - dmamills 5y ago
        Well, the definition "awful for society" is fairly anecdotal, so my reply won't be able to be built upon hard facts. But in my opinion, Elon Musk is a very smart man who not only sees, but has reaped massive value from Twitter. He is notable for tweeting misleading information to affect the stock price of his companies. These actions resulted in a lawsuit from the SEC in 2018. The ripple effects of stock manipulation are hard to directly tie to the concept of "awful for society". But it certainly feels like when money is given one place, it is taken from another. When that transfer of money is based on misinformation, it creates pain. I personally am doubtful that the billionaire feels any of it, but someone else will. I also don't believe that Musk has learned any lesson from the lawsuit either. He is currently trying to fight the tweet pre-approval stipulation in the courts. Putting a financial investment into the company to me personally, looks like someone who has found, or is looking for a loophole.

memish 5y ago

How so? A more transparent twitter would be better for society. That's what he and Jack are pushing for.

lp0_on_fire 5y ago
> Jack are pushing for. Twitter went further down the ideological rabbit hole with Jack at the helm.
- memish 5y ago
  Which he's not happy about. https://twitter.com/jack/status/1510314535671922689 https://twitter.com/jack/status/1510314535671922689

pzh 5y ago

What’s good for the goose is good for the gander. That’s why free speech policies shouldn’t be dictated by partisan concerns. You never know who will be in control of your social media platform in the future.

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
turdnagel 5y ago
Twitter doesn't have "free speech policies". It has moderation policies. They're not enforced evenly, but no platform has solved this.
- convery 5y ago
  I mean, there's a difference between platforms trying solve the issue and Twitter that gives a badge repeat offenders as long as the target of their bigotry is deemed acceptable..
philosopher1234 5y ago
Suppose the president got up every day and issued a presidential address in which he said "we should kill all mintorities". Would you be opposed to this? Thats an extreme example, but the point im illustrating is that in reality, as a society, we do not approve or endorse all speech, and it is obviously true that censorship is useful. You can see quite clearly that were the president to do this, it would have consequences. Does that mean we should make certain speech illegal? Not necessarily. Does it mean we should curtail the reach of certain speech? I think it is good for Twitter to do this. The distinction is that speech being possible is different than speech being emphasized or broadcasted.
- lovecg 5y ago
  If we elect a president who does this we already lost as a country.
rc_kas 5y ago

gnicholas 5y ago

This development makes Trump being reinstated on Twitter more likely. His reinstatement would make a Trump presidency less likely, IMO. Most people (or at least HNers) would agree that decreasing the likelihood of another Trump presidency would be a good thing.

dragonwriter 5y ago
> This development makes Trump being reinstated on Twitter more likely. Maybe. > His reinstatement would make a Trump presidency less likely, IMO. That's...an interesting opinion, but I don't see any strong reason to believe it is true, or even more likely to be true than the opposite effect. > Most people (or at least HNers) would agree that decreasing the likelihood of another Trump presidency would be a good thing. For people (at least, US voters) generally that appears to be less true of Trump than literally every other potential candidate, as Trump currently is both the strongest by far polling candidate for the Republican nomination in 2024 against other potential Republicans and the strongest against potential Democratic opponents, winning my most general election head to head polls.
- gnicholas 5y ago
  I understand he polls we’ll head to head, but most Americans would prefer he not be the next president (whether they prefer a democrat, republican, or something else). And I cannot imagine that most HNers want another Trump presidency. I would speculate that part of the reason he’s polling so well (relatively speaking) right now is that he’s been off twitter for the last year.
  - dragonwriter 5y ago
    > I understand he polls we’ll head to head, but most Americans would prefer he not be the next president That's true of literally every possible candidate; no candidate is preferred by the majority of people, and Trump is preferred by the largest minority. > I would speculate that part of the reason he’s polling so well (relatively speaking) right now is that he’s been off twitter for the last year. I would speculate that almost the entire reason is that he successfully took over the Republican brand and people are dissatisfied with the present conditions, largely due to economic conditions, particularly inflation.