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A good counterpoint to this is this post by Nate Silver (of 538 fame): https://www.natesilver.net/p/twitter-elon-and-the-indigo-blob https://www.natesilver.net/

A good counterpoint to this is this post by Nate Silver (of 538 fame): https://www.natesilver.net/p/twitter-elon-and-the-indigo-blob https://www.natesilver.net/p/twitter-elon-and-the-indigo-blo... >Casey Newton hypothesizes that Musk bought Twitter essentially in order to destroy it. And guess what: maybe Musk wasn’t wrong. The Old Twitter kind of sucked, especially if you ever had the experience of dissenting from the consensus. It reinforced the worst impulses of the Indigo Blob, making it more partisan and rendering its institutions less effective. >There were also a lot of great features of Twitter. It was terrific for professional networking, for real-time coverage of some types of events, for cultivating interests in niche subjects, and even for encouraging pithy writing (my brain will forever be programmed to think in 280-character segments). Unfortunately, we probably aren’t getting the New Twitter — er, the new X — that I would want; Musk’s performance has been haphazard and he has a lot of hang-ups that I don’t share. But to the Old Twitter, good riddance.

mullingitover 3y ago
If he wanted to destroy it he could've just shut it down. He's making a lot of personal effort and seems personally invested in it not shutting down (see: recent bragging about latest usage stats). He's pretty clearly suffering from a crippling addiction to posting on the site[1] despite it having a massive negative impact on his reputation and legacy. If he had a peer group who truly cared about him they would've staged an intervention by now. [1] https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-phone-locked-hotel-safe-stop-tweeting-walter-isaacson-2023-7 https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-phone-locked-hotel...
- engineer_22 3y ago
  He doesn't want to destroy Twitter, anyone who thinks so is hyperventilating. He's a wealthy capitalist in a society that he sees as having a socialist cancer growing within it. Previous socialist revolutions are reason enough for him to want to control a piece of the mass-communication infrastructure. He wants to be able to broadcast - and so far it's been successful, he can say what he wants now. Making money would be the icing on the cake.

mullingitover 3y ago

If he wanted to destroy it he could've just shut it down. He's making a lot of personal effort and seems personally invested in it not shutting down (see: recent bragging about latest usage stats). He's pretty clearly suffering from a crippling addiction to posting on the site[1] despite it having a massive negative impact on his reputation and legacy. If he had a peer group who truly cared about him they would've staged an intervention by now. [1] https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-phone-locked-hotel-safe-stop-tweeting-walter-isaacson-2023-7 https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-phone-locked-hotel...

engineer_22 3y ago
He doesn't want to destroy Twitter, anyone who thinks so is hyperventilating. He's a wealthy capitalist in a society that he sees as having a socialist cancer growing within it. Previous socialist revolutions are reason enough for him to want to control a piece of the mass-communication infrastructure. He wants to be able to broadcast - and so far it's been successful, he can say what he wants now. Making money would be the icing on the cake.