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I feel like people have invested in Elon in large part because of his alignment with i) moving humanity away from fossil fuels and ii) making life multi planeta
by pyaamb 4y ago
I feel like people have invested in Elon in large part because of his alignment with i) moving humanity away from fossil fuels and ii) making life multi planetary. He is obviously free to do as he pleases with this new wealth but I cant help but feel this as a huge redirection of resources (in terms of both capital and focus) from those goals
- coffeeblack 4y agoA necessary one. The ideologues among the Tw leadership were doing a lot of harm to Western society (and therefore more generally to democracy and the rule of law). I hope Musk will be able to fix it now.
- JaimeThompson 4y agoIn instances where Musk has power to make speech more open and free when has he done so?
- coffeeblack 4y agoEvery time.
- JaimeThompson 4y agoI can't find any reporting to support that position, can you provide hints so I can review it?
- coffeeblack 4y agoWhen didn’t he?
- JaimeThompson 4y agoOne would think that you, having made the claim, could provide supporting evidence of said claim. He didn't make speech more open and free when he canceled a car order because someone pissed him off nor when he tried to get that flight tracker shut down.
- coffeeblack 4y agoProbably his security recommending it. He is building Starlink and refuses any form of censorship on there. He sent several containers full of terminals to Ukraine (responding within hours to request for help from the Ukrainian government) to restore connectivity as the country is being attacked by Russia. If you really believe those “he didn’t give one guy a car because he was pissed” propaganda stories, go ahead. People are easy to program.
- JaimeThompson 4y agoThey made it sound like Starlink was footing the entire bill to send them to Ukraine which wasn't factual. He said Starlink had been jammed in Ukraine then a few weeks later said it had never been jammed. Enlighten me, why did he cancel that car order?
- bmitc 4y agoYou mean the Elon Musk who just publicly body shamed someone because that person did something he didn’t like? Get ready for a wild ride where Twitter gets even worse, giving a megaphone to everyone like himself who wants attention.
- zarathustreal 4y agoThis is an interesting take because it seems to prefer either A) publicly visible attributes like weight should be ignored when giving your personal opinion on someone or B) you should not be allowed to give your personal opinion on someone. Regardless of his motivations for pointing it out, neglecting one’s health is entirely a personal choice. Are you advocating for less personal responsibility or less freedom to express one’s opinions? Let us take it for granted that people will disagree with us regardless of what we say, and let us also take for granted that we cannot control or take responsibility for the emotional stability of others. A disposition toward trying to control the emotions of others is not something I want to promote in the world.
- coffeeblack 4y ago…says the person who needs to call others “idiot” to get his point across.
- bmitc 4y agoYou're right, I shouldn't have used the word idiot and have updated my comment.
- tfigment 4y agoHe will change it to let all the toxic people back on. It will become worse and less pleasant and he will likely lose investors money ultimately but maybe not before he exits. We shall see.
- tiahura 4y agolet all the toxic people back on How about pivoting away from a system where shouting “toxic” is a means to silence uncomfortable speech, and to a system that gives users better tools to focus on what they’re looking for?
- coffeeblack 4y agoThe toxic people are currently on Tw while many interesting or funny people have been removed. Remember: diversity is better than conformity.
- CydeWeys 4y agoMusk is not the right person for this job. He simply lacks the skill set for it. Running a large social media platform requires nuance and tradeoffs.
- autophagian 4y agoThis is perhaps true at a cursory glance, but this will allow him to make even more funny posts on the internet, arguably a more important goal than decarbonization or martian habitation.
- cduzz 4y agoI consider "buy twitter" to be musk's retirement plan B. Ideally, he'll move to mars and take twitter with him.
- senko 4y ago> this will allow him to make even more funny posts on the internet How so? I hadn't heard of Twitter, or any media (social or not), preventing him doing exactly that already? Quite the opposite.
- UncleMeat 4y agoExactly zero of the people I know who are into Musk are into him because of these reasons. Granted, this is a very very very tiny corner of Musk's fans but the people I know are into him because he is "badass" and "sticks it to the man" and things like this. I think that Musk has an evolved version of Jobs' reality distortion field. The cult of personality is more important than the actual output and he is definitionally "cool" to his followers.
- eatonphil 4y agoWho becomes a follower of someone they don't think is cool? People who follow ironically?
- samhw 4y agoIn my experience, people who worship money, and the bitch goddess 'Success'.
- nemo 4y agoHe has to keep acting out to maintain the image of coolness to his followers and he appears to be hooked on the likes. It's a cycle that escalates which is why he's gone off the deep end at this point imo.
- boringg 4y agoAgreed - Twitter self-validation loop. Seems like a lot of older guys are getting caught up in it right now - maybe older brains are more susceptible?
- code_runner 4y agoa lot of this depends on the definition that we have of "follower" and "cool" but I don't disagree.
- figassis 4y agoCompetitors? Journalists?
- cloutchaser 4y agoTwitter really is the broadcasting social network for the intellectual elite, so in that way its an extremely important piece of society, however toxic it is right now. Because of that I absolutely agree that it's undervalued and under-utilised for what it's become. Many many people on twitter would happily pay for it. It's not like Facebook where you have to rely on ads because 90% of users would never pay, and the ones who would you don't want to charge bcause you make $200+ per year off them. I think Elon understand both these things because of the way he says it's become the defacto public square. It really has for thought leaders. But thought leaders are a completely different market to most social networks.
- hooande 4y agosnapchat has more monthly active users than twitter does. tiktok is over 2x as big as twitter, soon to be 3x. if an intelligent person wanted to own the public square, they would buy tiktok
- chasd00 4y ago> Many many people on twitter would happily pay for it maybe that's the key. $15/month subscription to post, free to read.
- prvc 4y agoThis may seem like a wild take, but perhaps it's worth entertaining that social media moderation as it exists today could be a significant impediment to the realization of those goals.
- krona 4y agoMusk himself has said as much.
- oblio 4y agoWhat's his alternative, though? Just saying "no" is like saying nothing, it's worthless.
- oblio 4y agoWhat's the alternative though? 0 moderation is what we had with email, and that was called spam. The only "legitimate" alternative is the legal process and that's too slow. Personally, my lack of imagination makes me say we don't have an alternative right now.
- prvc 4y agoStatus quo moderation also ignores spam, and I'd expect that aspect to change in the direction of more moderation under Musk. "0 moderation" was never on the table.
- oblio 4y ago> "0 moderation" was never on the table. I don't know how to interpret this, in that case. https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1507259709224632344 https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1507259709224632344
- boringg 4y agoHe's definitely going to minimal moderation. It lines with his stance and it lines with the business cost. The risk is people turn off the service because it becomes even worse than it's current state.
- adamnemecek 4y agoI wouldn’t be surprised if half of his wealth was due to his online presence. This move makes absolute sense.
- nerdjon 4y agoThis is kinda how I feel about Elon. As a person, I really don't care about his personal opinion on most things. I really don't want him in charge of Twitter especially since I can see the first thing he does is unban Trump. So I am hoping if this does go through an alternative quickly springs up and gains dominance. But when it comes to Space... I am a strong believer in SpaceX. The facts with how they are performing. Especially after how bad the SLS is going. We basically needed SpaceX. Tesla? I mean I am glad he did it when he did it. Thankfully we are now seeing most (if not all?) car companies working on electric and I don't think that would have happened without Tesla.
- jhugo 4y agoRegardless of what you think of Trump, it is absurd that a major medium of public communication has banned a former president. I'll concede that a big part of the absurdity is the fact that Trump was president, but the idea that people need protecting from someone's words, and that Twitter's leadership are the appropriate people to make that call, really doesn't sit right with me.
- nerdjon 4y agoI wish Twitter would ban more people and stop being so hesitant. I don't care that Trump is no longer president, he continuously took actions that would have banned him many times over if he had not been president. He then tried to circumvent those bans. Anyone else would be banned for life. Twitter is a private company and do whatever they want to do. It is their platform.
- jhugo 4y ago> Twitter is a private company and do whatever they want to do. It is their platform. They actually aren't a private company, yet, but it sounds like they probably will be soon. Just because they can do something doesn't mean they should. A huge amount of our public discourse flows through platforms controlled by companies. If you want those platforms to start to ban everyone who disobeys some set of rules, who would you like writing those rules? Are you comfortable with them making them up as they go along?
- nextstep 4y agoConvincing people he’s actually interested in those goals (moving humanity of fossil fuels and earth) is going to get harder and harder to do. Buying twitter might be a good way for Musk to continue to shape the narrative around his businesses as they fail to deliver.
- ben_w 4y ago> as they fail to deliver. What are you referring to? Even his lamest company (TBC) has delivered some stuff. When it comes to reducing fossil fuel use Tesla has achieved more than the USA Green Party, and with regard to expanding space access SpaceX is beating most national space agencies combined.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- CydeWeys 4y agoThis is what I'm worried about. Owning/running Twitter sounds like a huge distraction from SpaceX, which is the most important way he can make an impact in my view. His involvement in Twitter up until now has consisted of relentless culture war shit posting that hasn't added any real value to society, and I hate to see him going farther down that road.
- aa-jv 4y agoHaving met Elon, I can tell you that he is not into anything for the fame, fortune, or glory. Those are secondary. He genuinely wants to make a difference to humanity. A lot of us who agree with him, do so in alignment, because as individuals we also want to make a difference to humanity, and .. in so doing: we see the problem with the commons. If we do not fix the commons, it will be weaponised against us all, and that is in fact the situation. So, from a fanboix perspective, in all honesty, this seems like Elon has added a 3rd option to his list: iii) stop humans from killing each other in the meantime.
- syshum 4y agoI hate Tesla, it is the Apple of Car Companies, and I hate Apple. Their draconian business practices, anti-repair stance, and several other things keep me from buying a Tesla the same way i will never own an Apple Product. SpaceX is cool... Gotta love any company that has a banded Flame Thrower --- the Borning Company.... All of that said, I follow Musk because he He does what he wants, public perception be damned, Media be damned.... I am tried of Political Correctness, anyone that stands in the face of that has my support, even if I disagree with them politically as I often do with Musk.
- kommstar 4y agoHe just wants the user base. Intends to build a protocol to enable free speech.
- OscarCunningham 4y agoFor context, Musk's net worth is the same amount of value that the world produces every 32 hours. So him directing all his wealth towards those goals would be a huge redirection of resources, but not necessarily significant on a global scale.
- stepanhruda 4y agoHuge amount of that production gets spent on keeping the world running - income vs disposable income.
- chasd00 4y agopersonally, i wish he would log out and focus on starship. Let me touch the third rail real fast, i felt the same way about Trump. Just logout of twitter and focus on the country. I've said it before but Twitter is like a cancer, it begins to grow in some poor unfortunate souls irrespective of wealth, knowledge, or privilege, and slowly overtakes their whole being.
- gzer0 4y agoThis couldn't be further from the truth. People invest with Elon because he has, objectively, an extraordinary track record of success. - SpaceX's market capitalization has surpassed $100 billion [1]. - Tesla's market cap has topped $1 trillion, eclipsing the combined value of all other automakers [2]. - Elon's latest venture, The Boring Company, is currently valued at $5.7 billion [3]. [1] https://www.cnbc.com/2021/10/08/elon-musks-spacex-valuation-100-billion.html https://www.cnbc.com/2021/10/08/elon-musks-spacex-valuation-... [2] https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/tsla/key-statistics/ https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/tsla/key-statistics/ [3] https://www.cnbc.com/2022/04/21/elon-musks-boring-company-hits-5point7-billion-valuation.html https://www.cnbc.com/2022/04/21/elon-musks-boring-company-hi...
- McLaren_Ferrari 4y ago
- GuB-42 4y agoI feel that most people have invested in Elon because he knows how to make a lot of money and they want to be part of it. Investors are here for the money. While some will favor some companies over others for ethical reasons, no one invests to lose money. In the case of, for example, Tesla, the reasoning is usually that governments all around the world want to move away from fossil fuels and because Tesla is in that market, it will eventually make shittons of money. That Elon Musk wants to buy Twitter shouldn't have an impact on the potential profits Tesla can make, Elon or not, Tesla will continue making electric cars in a world that demands electric cars to move away from fossil fuels. As for SpaceX (the "interplanetary" side), it is private, so you can't invest.