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It’s amazing to me that people really think someone like Musk would a good steward of free speech. This idea that the obscenely wealthy are going to come in and
by enumjorge 4y ago
It’s amazing to me that people really think someone like Musk would a good steward of free speech. This idea that the obscenely wealthy are going to come in and save us from ourselves, if only we can let them be in charge, is a tale as old as time, yet people keep believing it.
- ajmurmann 4y agoDidn't he also try to shut down a Twitter bot that publishes flights of his private jet? I also recall him firing people who supported unionization and employees who talked to reporters.
- tedivm 4y agoYup. He's also removed people from Tesla beta programs if they say anything negative about the company. He's also accused people of being pedophiles for saying negative things about them- going so far as hiring people to try and prove the baseless accusations. Elon is not a free speech advocate. He'll pretend to be occasionally, but that's not the same thing.
- NaturalPhallacy 4y agoIf by "tried to shut down" you mean "offered the kid running it $5,000 to stop" then sure. But the way you spin it is way worse than what actually happened.
- emptyfile 4y agoJust a different kind of strongman political fantasy.
- naoqj 4y agoAs if the current board of directors were “ourselves” when they are nothing but rich people just like musk, just a left wing political leaning.
- pphysch 4y agoThe current "stewards of free speech" on Twitter appear to be from the military-industrial complex (recalling when Twitter implied "undermining faith in NATO" is a bannable offence, since confirmed, and unironically citing ASPI as an "independent source" on which accounts to ban), so I personally view an eccentric oligarch as an upgrade. Of course, he might just continue this trend.
- rebuilder 4y agoIt seems like a “bad king, good king” argument when the problem is that maybe a monarchy isn’t that great in the first place .
- pphysch 4y agoThe current regime is not a monarchy (who do you think the "king" is...?), it's a shadowy extension of the MIC, apparently with the primary purpose of monitoring and managing narratives of importance to them.
- rebuilder 4y agoI meant it as an analogy. My point is, a better person at the wheel won’t fix a systemic problem.
- edgyquant 4y agoElon Musk isn’t an oligarch that word has a specific meaning
- pphysch 4y ago"Our billionaires, their oligarchs. Our trade associations, their cartels. Our corporate lobbying, their corruption..." Some people like to define oligarch to mean "non-American billionaire" but I personally don't. Musk has a lot of de facto political influence. Even if you don't think he is one right now, he would certainly become one after owning the platform that censored the sitting POTUS.
- memish 4y agoThe obscenely wealthy control it now. He would be a much better steward of free speech than they are, that much is obvious. Don't let perfect be the enemy of good.
- BlargMcLarg 4y agoI would like to know on what basis this is objectively true rather than subjectively. If he's a better choice, surely you can defend it.
- whynotminot 4y agoHow would he be better? Is he just your preferred asshole? I don’t see anything in his tweeting patterns to give me any sense that he’d be an improvement.
- memish 4y agoHis tweeting patterns reflect free speech ideals. I'm surprised you don't see that. He's also one of the ACLU's biggest donors.
- whynotminot 4y agoMaybe you're the first to derive high-minded ideals from `Delete the w in twitter?`
- cinntaile 4y agoElon Musk IS the richest man in the world right now, there is nobody more wealthy than him.
- mattcwilson 4y agoDo you have a counter-proposal?
- cinntaile 4y agoWhy would he need a counter proposal?
- mattcwilson 4y ago> This idea that the obscenely wealthy are going to come in and save us from ourselves, if only we can let them be in charge, is a tale as old as time, yet people keep believing it. This sentence implies that we are being duped and should not let such people be in charge. I’m wondering what GP would have us do instead. It’s unhelpful to make an observation about what someone should not do if it’s not obvious what would be better to do.