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Because the predictions were mainly people hating on rich people. It's very en-vogue. We're mad at all these [celebrities, athletes, CEOs, trust-fund-babies, te

by qup 4y ago

Because the predictions were mainly people hating on rich people. It's very en-vogue. We're mad at all these [celebrities, athletes, CEOs, trust-fund-babies, techbros] for all these "reasons," like I really care if the guy who scored the touchdown is a good dad or something. And just look at the legions of people ready to call anyone a total moron who is on display. So, Musk bought Twitter with his 44 Billion, and legions of people jumped in line to talk about what an idiot he was for buying it at that price, as if they (or anyone else) know how many billions twitter is worth, or as if they know how billionaires should spend their money. Then they predicted he would fail immediately because, since he's an idiot and just fired pretty much the whole staff, he can't possibly run something as complex as Twitter. But then he does, and so they start talking about how he "lost 100+ Billion" between the purchase price and what they perceive as a resulting dip in Tesla stocks. Statistically, 60% of these people can't handle a $1000 financial emergency in their life, but they're experts on big business and billion dollar companies. Then they started saying they were going to quit twitter, and switch to Mastodon. Some even made the switch, although most seem to be posting in both worlds. But they were being smart, establishing before the inevitable collapse of Twitter. Then they quit talking about it, because it didn't happen. The thing is, this whole thing really has little to do with Twitter or its operations. Most of the people commenting on Musk/Twitter have zero fucking clue what twitter is like internally, technologically, what it needs to maintain (tech and culture both), how to improve it, etc etc. They are just hating on rich people. Ridiculing people on the internet is also a really easy way to get a lot of engagement. See also: constant disparaging comments about pg (pseudo-intellectual), Bezos (tiny man), Bill Gates, all past presidents, basically anyone making public decisions who is wealthy, all the conspiracies about eating babies and shipping children via wayfair, and on and on for days. This is also largely extending to any unliked groups, like "Russians" and "republicans" will be thought of as less-competent because "we don't like them." Some of these hated groups constitute about half the population. They can still be perfectly competent. It didn't happen because it turns out Musk probably does know how to run companies.

aliqot 4y ago
we could be good friends you know
- qup 4y ago
  lets
netsharc 4y ago
Huh, who would've thunk, apparently these billionaires aren't hated because they're jerkoffs with dangerous opinions (and the money where they can endanger others), but just because they're rich and people are jealous. /s I was going to cite examples, but oh well, your blinders probably have ways to dismiss them, and the easiest would be "media attack machine overblowing the issue.".
- qup 4y ago
  Can you name many humans who aren't jerkoffs with dangerous opinions? I can't. "These billionaires" (which ones? seems like you mean every single one)...the real distinction is not what kind of human they are, it's what kind of agency the money provides them. They can act on their opinions, whether dangerous or not. I didn't use the word "jealous." I think that's true in many cases, sure. But I think about 70% of the people who hate Musk have never felt jealous of him, either. Do you think people should be allowed to be billionaires? Did you know that many of the haters don't think they should? They are fundamentally opposed to the idea of people being exceedingly rich while others are poor. If that's you, maybe it's influencing your opinions on why people hate billionaires. I don't think I have blinders, but it's hard for me to evaluate since you made that ad hominem attack without including any details. I'm not a Musk fanboy, or an all-billionaires fanboy, I'm an internet-hater-hater. I think you (and journalists) have about as much chance at predicting the outcome of Twitter as chatGPT does.
  - JohnFen 4y ago
    > Can you name many humans who aren't jerkoffs with dangerous opinions? Yes, plenty. Most people I know aren't jerkoffs with dangerous opinions. The problem with Musk isn't that he's wealthy. The problem with Musk is his behavior.
    - qup 4y ago
      Do you think any segment of the population would identify some of your opinions as dangerous?
realkiddredd 4y ago
“ Ridiculing people on the internet is also a really easy way to get a lot of engagement.” That’s what you’re doing.
- FrontierPsych 4y ago
  Not really. The people he is talking about are holding themselves out as authorities on what makes a billion dollar company succeed or fail, despite their never having been there. Musk has multiple huge companies that he built from the ground up. The people talking out their ass riducule themselves. This guy is just pointing that fact out.
reducesuffering 4y ago
> Musk bought Twitter with his 44 Billion, and legions of people jumped in line to talk about what an idiot he was for buying it at that price, as if they (or anyone else) know how many billions twitter is worth, or as if they know how billionaires should spend their money. You picked the worst example. Musk himself was in court trying NOT to buy it for $44b and he was forced to. Yes, he immediately lost value and overpaid, by his own admission. Probably to the tune of $20 billion.
dinkleberg 4y ago
This is quite accurate. It reminds me of Teddy Roosevelt’s man in the arena: “It is not the critic who counts, not the one who points out how the strong man stumbled or how the doer of deeds might have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred with sweat and dust and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause; who, if he wins, knows the triumph of high achievement; and who, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.”
- gardenhedge 4y ago
  Cool, I've never heard that before. I love it.
erybodyknows 4y ago
It may be slightly conspiratorial, but the seemingly mindless hating on anyone remotely financially successful (and their work) starting making a lot more sense once I understood short positions.
- qup 4y ago
  Fair thought. Seems unlikely to me that a mass of HN commenters all hate-commented Musk to shift the stock price (aka slightly conspiratorial), but at least in this mindset, people are seeing things for what they are.

by qup 4y ago

aliqot 4y ago

we could be good friends you know

qup 4y ago
lets

netsharc 4y ago

Huh, who would've thunk, apparently these billionaires aren't hated because they're jerkoffs with dangerous opinions (and the money where they can endanger others), but just because they're rich and people are jealous. /s I was going to cite examples, but oh well, your blinders probably have ways to dismiss them, and the easiest would be "media attack machine overblowing the issue.".

qup 4y ago
Can you name many humans who aren't jerkoffs with dangerous opinions? I can't. "These billionaires" (which ones? seems like you mean every single one)...the real distinction is not what kind of human they are, it's what kind of agency the money provides them. They can act on their opinions, whether dangerous or not. I didn't use the word "jealous." I think that's true in many cases, sure. But I think about 70% of the people who hate Musk have never felt jealous of him, either. Do you think people should be allowed to be billionaires? Did you know that many of the haters don't think they should? They are fundamentally opposed to the idea of people being exceedingly rich while others are poor. If that's you, maybe it's influencing your opinions on why people hate billionaires. I don't think I have blinders, but it's hard for me to evaluate since you made that ad hominem attack without including any details. I'm not a Musk fanboy, or an all-billionaires fanboy, I'm an internet-hater-hater. I think you (and journalists) have about as much chance at predicting the outcome of Twitter as chatGPT does.
- JohnFen 4y ago
  > Can you name many humans who aren't jerkoffs with dangerous opinions? Yes, plenty. Most people I know aren't jerkoffs with dangerous opinions. The problem with Musk isn't that he's wealthy. The problem with Musk is his behavior.
  - qup 4y ago
    Do you think any segment of the population would identify some of your opinions as dangerous?

realkiddredd 4y ago

“ Ridiculing people on the internet is also a really easy way to get a lot of engagement.” That’s what you’re doing.

FrontierPsych 4y ago
Not really. The people he is talking about are holding themselves out as authorities on what makes a billion dollar company succeed or fail, despite their never having been there. Musk has multiple huge companies that he built from the ground up. The people talking out their ass riducule themselves. This guy is just pointing that fact out.

reducesuffering 4y ago

> Musk bought Twitter with his 44 Billion, and legions of people jumped in line to talk about what an idiot he was for buying it at that price, as if they (or anyone else) know how many billions twitter is worth, or as if they know how billionaires should spend their money. You picked the worst example. Musk himself was in court trying NOT to buy it for $44b and he was forced to. Yes, he immediately lost value and overpaid, by his own admission. Probably to the tune of $20 billion.

dinkleberg 4y ago

This is quite accurate. It reminds me of Teddy Roosevelt’s man in the arena: “It is not the critic who counts, not the one who points out how the strong man stumbled or how the doer of deeds might have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred with sweat and dust and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause; who, if he wins, knows the triumph of high achievement; and who, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.”

gardenhedge 4y ago
Cool, I've never heard that before. I love it.

erybodyknows 4y ago

It may be slightly conspiratorial, but the seemingly mindless hating on anyone remotely financially successful (and their work) starting making a lot more sense once I understood short positions.

qup 4y ago
Fair thought. Seems unlikely to me that a mass of HN commenters all hate-commented Musk to shift the stock price (aka slightly conspiratorial), but at least in this mindset, people are seeing things for what they are.