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Afaik, he views Twitter as the closest thing we have to a genuine public square on the web, and he thinks it’s poorly managed and ideologically captured. Musk a

Afaik, he views Twitter as the closest thing we have to a genuine public square on the web, and he thinks it’s poorly managed and ideologically captured. Musk also uses Twitter a lot, so it’s believable that he wants it to be something better than what it currently is.

mirceal 4y ago
better how? what experience does musk have to make twitter better and why is this expensive unique so that twitter itself cannot make the changes? twitter back in the day was awesome until they turned hostile to the 3rd party developers.
- MrMan 4y ago
  Twitter devs - dumb and lazy Elon musk - smart and crazy This is all you or Morgan Stanley need to know, besides Elon claiming he doesn't care if the venture makes money.
  - mirceal 4y ago
    lol. some of the smartest people i’ve worked with had twitter on their resume.
jimkleiber 4y ago
> Afaik, he views Twitter as the closest thing we have to a genuine public square on the web, and he thinks it’s poorly managed and ideologically captured. For me, this is the thing that bothers me the most: if he thinks it is the closest we have to a public square, why does he think that the richest private individual in the world should decide how it is run? It seems he's saying "the oligarchy is not running this well so we should make it a dictatorship, not a democracy," which is in his right to say or believe, I just wonder how much we have lost faith in democracy if we agree.
- skellington 4y ago
  Who is running it now? A Saudi prince and a bunch of other tech oligarchs? Why would Elon be worse than that? How is twitter a democracy now? Did you cry this much when Bezos (the then richest person) bought the Washington Post? Isn't the fact that twitter is NOT part of our democracy the crying call of the left? "It's not censorship because it's a private company and they can do what they want (as long as they only censor anything I don't agree with)!" Oh NO, Elon might make twitter a free speech platform where differing views can be expressed!
  - jimkleiber 4y ago
    I was talking about the structure of its governance, which I think is currently more like an oligarchy and if Musk buys it, might be more like a monarchy or dictatorship, not like a democracy. I don't claim that the current oligarchy is doing it well, I don't claim that a Musk monarchy would not do it better, and I don't claim that even a democratic structure would do it well. I was merely trying to point out the different governance structures and question our collective faith in democratic structures.
    - sebastos 4y ago
      To be honest, I think you are exactly on the right track. We _do_ have reduced faith in democratic structures. Allow me to steelman this position a bit for you though. I think the root, gut feel that many Americans have is that they are sick of being pushed around and mismanaged by ineffective, small-minded, out-of-touch bureaucrats. This affliction seems to affect every aspect of our lives. If you have a problem with Comcast, you have to go through a robo call center that makes it physically impossible to actually talk to the people that are authoring your pain. You can't get mad at the person on the phone, because they can rightly say that it's not their fault your bill doubled. And yet, what's left unsaid is that things are specifically arranged this way on purpose. The social architecture of our society is so "democratic" that there is no responsibility, no human spirit, no .. humanity in the way we deal with things. You can bet that Twitters internals follow this rule, and I'm sure when they talk about the failings they've had as a company, the blame is blandly smeared around. As a democracy fades into a bureaucracy, politics and corporate culture just descends into tee-totalling, cover-your-ass box checking that you're doing everything "by the book". It is the soulless HR department in place of actual values and kinship. So you might see this newfound lack of faith in democratic structures less as a vote against democracy and more like a vote _for_ humanity. If you put Musk in charge, one thing you know is that there is a dude - a fully human dude, foibles and negative qualities included - who is running things. Looked at from this perspective, you can almost even get your head around what it would be like voting for trump. Okay, maybe not, but maybe you can get a few steps closer.

mirceal 4y ago

better how? what experience does musk have to make twitter better and why is this expensive unique so that twitter itself cannot make the changes? twitter back in the day was awesome until they turned hostile to the 3rd party developers.

MrMan 4y ago
Twitter devs - dumb and lazy Elon musk - smart and crazy This is all you or Morgan Stanley need to know, besides Elon claiming he doesn't care if the venture makes money.
- mirceal 4y ago
  lol. some of the smartest people i’ve worked with had twitter on their resume.

jimkleiber 4y ago

> Afaik, he views Twitter as the closest thing we have to a genuine public square on the web, and he thinks it’s poorly managed and ideologically captured. For me, this is the thing that bothers me the most: if he thinks it is the closest we have to a public square, why does he think that the richest private individual in the world should decide how it is run? It seems he's saying "the oligarchy is not running this well so we should make it a dictatorship, not a democracy," which is in his right to say or believe, I just wonder how much we have lost faith in democracy if we agree.

skellington 4y ago
Who is running it now? A Saudi prince and a bunch of other tech oligarchs? Why would Elon be worse than that? How is twitter a democracy now? Did you cry this much when Bezos (the then richest person) bought the Washington Post? Isn't the fact that twitter is NOT part of our democracy the crying call of the left? "It's not censorship because it's a private company and they can do what they want (as long as they only censor anything I don't agree with)!" Oh NO, Elon might make twitter a free speech platform where differing views can be expressed!
- jimkleiber 4y ago
  I was talking about the structure of its governance, which I think is currently more like an oligarchy and if Musk buys it, might be more like a monarchy or dictatorship, not like a democracy. I don't claim that the current oligarchy is doing it well, I don't claim that a Musk monarchy would not do it better, and I don't claim that even a democratic structure would do it well. I was merely trying to point out the different governance structures and question our collective faith in democratic structures.
  - sebastos 4y ago
    To be honest, I think you are exactly on the right track. We _do_ have reduced faith in democratic structures. Allow me to steelman this position a bit for you though. I think the root, gut feel that many Americans have is that they are sick of being pushed around and mismanaged by ineffective, small-minded, out-of-touch bureaucrats. This affliction seems to affect every aspect of our lives. If you have a problem with Comcast, you have to go through a robo call center that makes it physically impossible to actually talk to the people that are authoring your pain. You can't get mad at the person on the phone, because they can rightly say that it's not their fault your bill doubled. And yet, what's left unsaid is that things are specifically arranged this way on purpose. The social architecture of our society is so "democratic" that there is no responsibility, no human spirit, no .. humanity in the way we deal with things. You can bet that Twitters internals follow this rule, and I'm sure when they talk about the failings they've had as a company, the blame is blandly smeared around. As a democracy fades into a bureaucracy, politics and corporate culture just descends into tee-totalling, cover-your-ass box checking that you're doing everything "by the book". It is the soulless HR department in place of actual values and kinship. So you might see this newfound lack of faith in democratic structures less as a vote against democracy and more like a vote _for_ humanity. If you put Musk in charge, one thing you know is that there is a dude - a fully human dude, foibles and negative qualities included - who is running things. Looked at from this perspective, you can almost even get your head around what it would be like voting for trump. Okay, maybe not, but maybe you can get a few steps closer.