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At this point, Elon's purchase and seemingly-intentional brand-suicide looks more and more like a political favor. I mean, yes, if we shave this with Hanlon's
by postmodest 3y ago
At this point, Elon's purchase and seemingly-intentional brand-suicide looks more and more like a political favor.
I mean, yes, if we shave this with Hanlon's Razor, the outcome is the same, but the rightward swing of Elon's public statements certainly makes this look more like quid-pro-quo than an oopsie.
- roflyear 3y agoI am not a fan of Musk or Twitter, but can you substantiate this? I'm about 1/10th of the way through the transcript and I haven't come to this conclusion yet.
- tmpz22 3y agoNot OP but I believe the main assertion is that Elon Musk's public rhetoric has become increasingly political over the past 5 years and that his dialogue conforms with modern conservative messaging. To break it down: * Hes posting a lot more * The content of his posts are proportionately more "culture-war" topics versus company/nerd/geek stuff that he used to post * Some of his posts align with populist conservative influencers I don't have data to back this up - just my anecdotal experience.
- edgyquant 3y agoWell the left side of the political isle has also became increasingly critical of him since 2016 when he briefly worked at the White House. He went from being a darling fighting climate change to an evil villain almost overnight.
- Kerb_ 3y agoThe left has been largely aware of Tesla's green washing for much longer than that.
- martin8412 3y agoHe is parroting Russian talking points for peace talks in Ukraine. Not that I know anyone who asked for his opinion on the subject.
- retox 3y agoThe same talking points that the chief of staff to the Nato secretary general floated just days ago? https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/aug/16/nato-official-suggests-ukraine-could-give-up-territory-in-exchange-for-membership https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/aug/16/nato-official-...
- graeme 3y agoNot at all the same. Elon’s plan was Ukraine give up land, become neutral and not join NATO. That plan guarantees Russia can conquer the Ukraine rump state some time down the line. The NATO staffer remark said “trade some land for nato membership for Ukraine”. Russia probably wouldn’t go for that one.
- HumblyTossed 3y agoPolitical favor for who?
- FreshStart 3y agoPeter
- kalupa 3y agoPointing out the obvious, Thiel, just in case folks don't know of the long relationship these two have had
- HumblyTossed 3y agoOkay, interesting. To what end? What does Peter want?
- coldpie 3y agoIt's a little bit outlandish, but the most plausible theory I've heard is the Saudis were happy to spend the cash[1] to try to hinder future Arab Spring style events, which were organized largely on Twitter. US banks have a similar motive, it's not hard to draw the line that they would see disrupting low-level leftist activist communication networks on Twitter as valuable. Under that theory, Musk isn't so much doing a favor as being a useful idiot. [1] https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2022/10/28/how-elon-musk-financed-his-twitter-takeover https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2022/10/28/how-elon-musk-f...
- FormerBandmate 3y agoThe Saudis were already the top shareholder in Twitter before Elon’s purchase. They were adamantly against it until he let them roll over their stake into X
- nightski 3y agoAny other time and HN would be cheering that user data was attempted to be kept private and not disclosed. But one whiff of it being on the wrong side of a political divide and it becomes a witch hunt.
- civilitty 3y agoOne whiff of the political divide and the victims come out with the witch hunt angle.
- adrr 3y agoFor warrantless yes like when government gets logs from network providers and mobile phone operators without a warrant. I don’t think most on here disapprove of gathering evidence on a specified target via a judge approved warrant.
- yreg 3y agoI don't think that's true and I'm surprised the GP is flagged. I think that many of us believe that all personal messages should be E2EE. When user data is not encrypted, companies should fight tooth and nail before handing it over to the government. (I'm not American and have a highly negative view of Trump, but that should be irrelevant.)
- Pxtl 3y agoIf it were any other man I'd be considering your conspiracy theory but Musk has become so completely unhinged that imho Hanlon's Razor wins. The man has a terminal case of internet poisoning.
- exo-pla-net 3y agoWhat happened to Musk reminds me of what happened to Chris Chan (https://youtube.fandom.com/wiki/CwcvilleGuardian https://youtube.fandom.com/wiki/CwcvilleGuardian): internet trolls seemingly broke his mind. I believe that there will one day be a name for this syndrome, wherein a person who is the victim of prolonged internet trolling begins catering to the trolls with increasingly outlandish behavior, with their mind / beliefs warping into a shape that pleases the trolls. Mechanically, I think a person who detects that they're a social pariah might lean into the social role of a jester: the tribe will keep him around for laughs, instead of fully ejecting him into the jungle to fend for himself.
- JohnMakin 3y agoThis is definitely a thing I have noticed - part of it seems to be, if you refuse to react to trolls, the trolling can actually get much worse - naturally encouraging a reaction that the trolls want.
- stevenicr 3y agoI've been wondering if there is a term for 'the choir glamouring you' sort of thing? I've been noticing odd behaviors in some public figures that make me believe instead of them 'preaching to the choir' - their 'choir' is convincing them a weird direction is a good idea. I think this is exasperated by the bubbles of social media - I would love to be able to see what social media posts certain people have seen over the past 5 years or so - like individually, say if I could study every post that rob de niro actually saw in the past so many years. I feel we need new terminology to describe the kind of warping of the mind and outward behavior changes these things can bring - or is there some old descriptors I can't think of?
- 3y ago
- brandonagr2 3y agoIn your theory, what does Elon get in return for these 'favors'?
- cornercasechase 3y agoGovernment handouts, SEC looking the other way, investment, pressure on media outlets that report on Musk/Tesla/Space X.
- exo-pla-net 3y agoWhile it's true that he's currying favor with a political group that favors gas-guzzling pickup trucks over electric vehicles and is diametrically opposed to his mission of saving humanity from ecological disaster, owning the libs (his customer base) is its own $40b reward. /s
- yreg 3y agoIn addition to that all pro-russian stance makes 0-sense in regards of SpaceX business.
- edgyquant 3y agoOr maybe the guy is actually conservative
- appplication 3y agoI think modern Elon is too jaded about reality/fat with cash to still believe in saving humanity. He certainly doesn’t talk about it in the frequency and light he used to.
- dragonwriter 3y agoWhy would you think he ever believed in that rather than it being a personal and corporate brand marketing tactic the way it has been for so many other startups and their CEOs, to the point of being frequently mocked?
- mtillman 3y agoI can't get over how Twitter's legal team doesn't show up on time for a court appointment. As a founder, I'm certain they're still billing for the time.
- martin8412 3y agoAs a neutral observer, I’m fairly certain Musk doesn’t pay them.
- breakingrules 3y ago[dead]
- nannal 3y agoPretty expensive favor.
- SauciestGNU 3y agoIf you're MBS and you determine Twitter is the most likely source a the black swan event leading to your regime's overthrow maybe it makes sense to pay the money.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- rsynnott 3y agoI mean, if it’s a favour, then it isn’t being particularly well-reciprocated; ol’ mini-hands is still on Truth Social, not Twitter. I think Hanlon’s Razor probably still applies here.