4 ms·

Ask HN: Did Elon Musk buy Twitter for a political agenda?

• deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
• tonetheman 2y ago
  [dead]
• overu589 2y ago
  No. Musk did not purchase twitter for this purpose. Musk like many men is susceptible to influence my his peer group. Remember that talk in the beginning with Dorsey? I imagine this part: Musk and Dorsey having their billionaire bromance phone chat. “Someone needs to go in there and clean house” (remember the sink?) “tech has lost its way, too much woke modern luv” (remember the purge?) Remember his outed phone texts? All this cryptic cronyism with the big boys and their “everyone else just doesn’t get it” attitude? I think he believed that crap he was telling himself when he bought the place, and I’m sure he always wanted “X” (his vision) and twitter was a host body for his assimilation. Musk cannot choose between being an effective entrepreneur and a social-political force of opinionated change (ego eccentric). I’m pretty sure Dorsey talked him into it with passive language and Musk thought he was the white knight who was going to “show everybody”. This Trump business is simply more of that ego centricity flaring his billionaire brain. Even Trump is hardly the man he was in his earlier days. Power drives men insane. That’s my take.
  • krapp 2y ago
    What you've described is still a political agenda, albeit one driven by narcissism.
    • overu589 2y ago
      You are naive to speak so against absolutely anyone. Or a hypocrite. Everywhere everyone is “politically motivated.” That’s different than “an agenda”. I see it as his boy toy. He’s the big boy, twitter/X is his ego toy. (Look how he hops around the stage with trump. What antics. He’s trippin.) I wonder why my OC was negged. Some liked it, now it’s flat. This down vote thing should be more conversational. It’s like chatting with ghosts. I don’t think my comment was provocative at all. Only an honest take.
      • JojoFatsani 2y ago
        It’s just fake internet points, don’t take it too seriously
      • krapp 2y ago
        >You are naive to speak so against absolutely anyone. Or a hypocrite. You're the one speaking in absolute terms about Musk's motives and casting aspersions against the character of anyone who disagrees with you. Aggressive arrogance only works around here when you have credentials or evidence to back it up. And the only difference between being politically motivated and having an agenda is that the latter is the means by which the former is actualized. Musk believing Twitter is infested with a "woke mind virus" is being politically motivated. Musk changing Twitter in ways that he believes will correct that is an agenda. It's quite obvious to anyone that Musk's operating of Twitter is in service to his political beliefs. He certainly isn't doing it to make money. And, yes, he's also an egomaniac manchild who treats Twitter like his personal sandbox.
        • overu589 2y ago
          > You're the one … evidence to back it up. Okay, okay! Fair enough! > And the only difference … I’m not sure you’re right about that stuff. I think some are more casual (“go with the flow”) on this translation. Others “scheme”. I don’t think Musk is a “schemer”. I think he’s a lost billionaire man child who should stfu and get back to rockets and cars. Rockets and cars! Can you believe this guy? Wtf!
• JSDevOps 2y ago
  No. He did it for two reasons. Lawsuits. He said something like if X happens I’ll buy Twitter. x happened and then it was on public record. So he couldn’t go back without being sued. And more importantly in the process to save face and his ego.
  • acdha 2y ago
    Who did he say that to? When? He botched the offer so badly that he bought Twitter well over the market price and is down something like $30B, and nobody is losing that kind of money in a lawsuit unless they signed a very good contract (he hasn’t been sued that badly for overstating FSD for years, for example). I think he bought it because he was addicted and could, similar to how a rich alcoholic could buy their favorite bar. I don’t think there was a nuanced long-term plan rather than an impulse mood to increase his stature and remove what he saw as rules which prevented his friends from saying what they wanted.
• 082349872349872 2y ago
  Total ad spend for US 2024 politics has been about 12B USD, half of which seems way cheaper than the ~33B USD X has lost so far from its purchase price, so I'd say no.
• thenaturalist 2y ago
  Even if he didn't do it at the time, it's become pretty clear as of late, that he has 0 scruples to leverage his money and influence to promote a certain candidate and broadcast his distaste for the other one.
• lawn 2y ago
  Politics, conspiracy theories, or whatever you call his ideas it's pretty clear that was his purpose all along. In the beginning it may simply have been a way for him to be able to be able to control Twitter so he could magnify the expose if his own tweets, and he later realized he could earn more by promoting Trump and Putin.
• rsynnott 2y ago
  Pretty sure he bought it to massage his fragile ego, but yeah, he’s since pivoted to using it to attempt to push Trump.
• nojvek 2y ago
  Yes