7 ms·

I’m firmly in the camp of not wanting to hear anything more from Trump in my lifetime, but I do wonder if there is any ideological side to this from Musk. It’s

I’m firmly in the camp of not wanting to hear anything more from Trump in my lifetime, but I do wonder if there is any ideological side to this from Musk. It’s not clear at all that Trump coming back to Twitter is good for him, or for Republicans. Banning him I think took a lot of the bad side of the conservative culture out of the spotlight and bringing him back will make it front and center again. A consistent message I saw from Republicans was his policies aren’t bad but could he just stop Tweeting. It will get ugly but if Trump is able to rile DeSantis up into a public fight, it will probably be bad for discourse but good for Democrats. The ideological piece would be the bad ideas and sunlight thing. Trump, as an important voice in the Republican Party should be visible so people can vote against him if they so choose.

karp773 4y ago
Edit: the estimates were way off!
- whatok 4y ago
  Elon took out loans with over 100% annual rates?
  - karp773 4y ago
    My bad! I I stand corrected.
  - karp773 4y ago
    By the way, thanks for pointing this out. With all this craziness around Musk's ventures and Twitter, my BS detector has become totally blinded. Hadn't I posted this comment and then had been corrected, I would have still believed Musk was able to commit to these crazy terms. Of course, this would be too much even for him. Speaking of the benefits of sharing one's thoughts on HN.
smt88 4y ago
> I do wonder if there is any ideological side to this from Musk. I think this is giving Musk too much credit. He hasn't shown ideological consistency on any issue, and that includes free speech.
- karp773 4y ago
  Right, he seems to be 100% opportunistic.
- memish 4y ago
  Uh, being able to change your mind and not limiting yourself to a pre-subscribed set of ideas is a good thing.
  - hairofadog 4y ago
    I mean there’s changing your mind through learning and growing, and then there’s spewing contradictory ideas as they pop into your head because they suit you in the moment. I may be proven wrong but this feels to me like the latter.
    - frumper 4y ago
      Sounds pretty human. We’re bundles of contradictions.
      - smt88 4y ago
        That doesn’t stop most other responsible, powerful adults from being more thoughtful and considerate about decisions than Musk ever is.
        frumper 4y ago
        I’m sure if you shine a spotlight the size musk has on him on other people then you’d find we all contract ourselves in a lot of ways.
  - 4y ago
laweijfmvo 4y ago
i'd imagine most of the american voters are not on twitter, but most of them watch cable news. Trump could publish on a Myspace page and the media would broadcast it for him.
- mikkergp 4y ago
  “Fox News delivered an average total audience of 2.116 million viewers in prime time, down just 1 percent from the same period one year ago, according to ratings data compiled by Nielsen. MSNBC was second with 1.295 million viewers (down 2 percent from 2021), while CNN was a distant third in prime with 731,000 viewers—down 15% from one year ago.” “The country with the most Twitter users is the United States with a total of 77.75 million users.”

karp773 4y ago

Edit: the estimates were way off!

whatok 4y ago
Elon took out loans with over 100% annual rates?
- karp773 4y ago
  My bad! I I stand corrected.
- karp773 4y ago
  By the way, thanks for pointing this out. With all this craziness around Musk's ventures and Twitter, my BS detector has become totally blinded. Hadn't I posted this comment and then had been corrected, I would have still believed Musk was able to commit to these crazy terms. Of course, this would be too much even for him. Speaking of the benefits of sharing one's thoughts on HN.

smt88 4y ago

> I do wonder if there is any ideological side to this from Musk. I think this is giving Musk too much credit. He hasn't shown ideological consistency on any issue, and that includes free speech.

karp773 4y ago
Right, he seems to be 100% opportunistic.
memish 4y ago
Uh, being able to change your mind and not limiting yourself to a pre-subscribed set of ideas is a good thing.
- hairofadog 4y ago
  I mean there’s changing your mind through learning and growing, and then there’s spewing contradictory ideas as they pop into your head because they suit you in the moment. I may be proven wrong but this feels to me like the latter.
  - frumper 4y ago
    Sounds pretty human. We’re bundles of contradictions.
    - smt88 4y ago
      That doesn’t stop most other responsible, powerful adults from being more thoughtful and considerate about decisions than Musk ever is.
      - frumper 4y ago
        I’m sure if you shine a spotlight the size musk has on him on other people then you’d find we all contract ourselves in a lot of ways.
- 4y ago

laweijfmvo 4y ago

i'd imagine most of the american voters are not on twitter, but most of them watch cable news. Trump could publish on a Myspace page and the media would broadcast it for him.

mikkergp 4y ago
“Fox News delivered an average total audience of 2.116 million viewers in prime time, down just 1 percent from the same period one year ago, according to ratings data compiled by Nielsen. MSNBC was second with 1.295 million viewers (down 2 percent from 2021), while CNN was a distant third in prime with 731,000 viewers—down 15% from one year ago.” “The country with the most Twitter users is the United States with a total of 77.75 million users.”