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> is a brand I wish more people would understand this. For people like Musk, his personal brand is extremely important and they spend a lot of effort portrayin

> is a brand I wish more people would understand this. For people like Musk, his personal brand is extremely important and they spend a lot of effort portraying and selling a specific image. It is an important part of his success as a businessman. FTX’s Sam Bankman-Fried is another example. His disheveled, messy geek look was calculated, and in an interview after FTX’s collapse he basically admitted that some of his opinions and philosophies that he espoused before were BS to push a specific narrative. Musk has repeated “free speech” enough times that it’s become part of his brand. And people will associate that with him regardless of what he actually does. In his view Twitter is free speech. An attack on Twitter (as he alleged Apple was doing) is an attack on free speech. Twitter dying means the death of free speech. To claim that a company is the embodiment of free speech is ridiculous yet so many people buy into it.

jcampbell1 4y ago
Elon Musk becomes a Fox News darling right before he launches an electric pickup truck. He obviously doesn’t want Tesla to be a brand associated with left wing politics.
- ben_w 4y ago
  Which way around is cause and effect? An ex of mine is a literal communist, and her beliefs about Musk 5 years ago appear to have made their way to people I assume to be mainstream American left-wing (hard to be sure as I’m not American, but it’s the vibe I’m getting).
  - jcampbell1 4y ago
    That is the idea, you lose some left supporters of your brand in exchange for some right leaning supporters. Elon Musk believes this trade off is neutral to positive. Maybe he is wrong, but the anecdote about your communist ex doesn’t amount to much other than the brand has become less liked in your circle.
- DFHippie 4y ago
  If he manages to get conservatives to buy EVs to own the libs, that will be awesome. It's a pretty weird theory though: make yourself anathema to your core market, liberals with money, in hopes of winning over the anti-environmentalists. It's even weirder seeing as its timed to coincide with every other car manufacturer in the world entering the market and gunning for your market segment.
  - jcampbell1 4y ago
    The stock price agrees with you. I’m not convinced because the environmentalists may care more about environmental performance than his antics. Those indifferent to personal impact on climate change, which is economically rational, can rationally buy the Tesla truck based on operating cost economics… it just can’t be seen as a “libtruck for libs”. Weird theory, but it points to Elon not being quite as foolish as the left would believe.
nightski 4y ago
People aren't as stupid as HN wants to think they are. Twitter will be judged based on how it actually evolves, not Musk's brand. Time will tell. Let's not pretend the site wasn't an absolute disaster before the acquisition though. If I clicked on even a single trending topic about a game or news item I'd often be presented with unfiltered hardcore porn. Then there would be topics of innocent things like landscapes that get filtered. It was a complete joke and harmful place to visit.
- krapp 4y ago
  > If I clicked on even a single trending topic about a game or news item I'd often be presented with unfiltered hardcore porn. No, you wouldn't. Either you don't know what hardcore porn actually is, or you're exaggerating.
  - SpicyLemonZest 4y ago
    I've also had this happen to me. It doesn't happen every time, but I've had Twitter show me graphic penetration on topics that are just, like, a city name. (I've never seen it on the homepage or in someone's replies, only topics from the trending bar.)
    - Yoric 4y ago
      Apparently, there was a spam/reader DoS attack during the last few days associating porn to Chinese cities, in an effort by PRC's government to disorganize demonstrations against the government and the Zero Covid policy. Could be related?
      - SpicyLemonZest 4y ago
        The last time I saw it was a couple months ago. (I can't say whether or not it continued, I stopped clicking into the trending bar around that time as a matter of unrelated principle that I didn't want my attention to be controlled by Twitter's idea of what's trending.)
danans 4y ago
> FTX’s Sam Bankman-Fried is another example. His disheveled, messy geek look was calculated, and in an interview after FTX’s collapse he basically admitted that some of his opinions and philosophies that he espoused before were BS to push a specific narrative. > Musk has repeated “free speech” enough times that it’s become part of his brand. And people will associate that with him regardless of what he actually does. The models here are the guru/savior/grifter, which encompasses and goes beyond just "brand". Why don't the followers see the contradictions in what the guru says and does? Some of them are truly deluded, but a whole lot of them understand it just fine and just want to see if they can get in on the action.

jcampbell1 4y ago

Elon Musk becomes a Fox News darling right before he launches an electric pickup truck. He obviously doesn’t want Tesla to be a brand associated with left wing politics.

ben_w 4y ago
Which way around is cause and effect? An ex of mine is a literal communist, and her beliefs about Musk 5 years ago appear to have made their way to people I assume to be mainstream American left-wing (hard to be sure as I’m not American, but it’s the vibe I’m getting).
- jcampbell1 4y ago
  That is the idea, you lose some left supporters of your brand in exchange for some right leaning supporters. Elon Musk believes this trade off is neutral to positive. Maybe he is wrong, but the anecdote about your communist ex doesn’t amount to much other than the brand has become less liked in your circle.
DFHippie 4y ago
If he manages to get conservatives to buy EVs to own the libs, that will be awesome. It's a pretty weird theory though: make yourself anathema to your core market, liberals with money, in hopes of winning over the anti-environmentalists. It's even weirder seeing as its timed to coincide with every other car manufacturer in the world entering the market and gunning for your market segment.
- jcampbell1 4y ago
  The stock price agrees with you. I’m not convinced because the environmentalists may care more about environmental performance than his antics. Those indifferent to personal impact on climate change, which is economically rational, can rationally buy the Tesla truck based on operating cost economics… it just can’t be seen as a “libtruck for libs”. Weird theory, but it points to Elon not being quite as foolish as the left would believe.

nightski 4y ago

People aren't as stupid as HN wants to think they are. Twitter will be judged based on how it actually evolves, not Musk's brand. Time will tell. Let's not pretend the site wasn't an absolute disaster before the acquisition though. If I clicked on even a single trending topic about a game or news item I'd often be presented with unfiltered hardcore porn. Then there would be topics of innocent things like landscapes that get filtered. It was a complete joke and harmful place to visit.

krapp 4y ago
> If I clicked on even a single trending topic about a game or news item I'd often be presented with unfiltered hardcore porn. No, you wouldn't. Either you don't know what hardcore porn actually is, or you're exaggerating.
- SpicyLemonZest 4y ago
  I've also had this happen to me. It doesn't happen every time, but I've had Twitter show me graphic penetration on topics that are just, like, a city name. (I've never seen it on the homepage or in someone's replies, only topics from the trending bar.)
  - Yoric 4y ago
    Apparently, there was a spam/reader DoS attack during the last few days associating porn to Chinese cities, in an effort by PRC's government to disorganize demonstrations against the government and the Zero Covid policy. Could be related?
    - SpicyLemonZest 4y ago
      The last time I saw it was a couple months ago. (I can't say whether or not it continued, I stopped clicking into the trending bar around that time as a matter of unrelated principle that I didn't want my attention to be controlled by Twitter's idea of what's trending.)

danans 4y ago

> FTX’s Sam Bankman-Fried is another example. His disheveled, messy geek look was calculated, and in an interview after FTX’s collapse he basically admitted that some of his opinions and philosophies that he espoused before were BS to push a specific narrative. > Musk has repeated “free speech” enough times that it’s become part of his brand. And people will associate that with him regardless of what he actually does. The models here are the guru/savior/grifter, which encompasses and goes beyond just "brand". Why don't the followers see the contradictions in what the guru says and does? Some of them are truly deluded, but a whole lot of them understand it just fine and just want to see if they can get in on the action.