this post was submitted on 12 Feb 2024
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  • Elon Musk purchased shares of Twitter after unsuccessfully petitioning the CEO to remove a Twitter account tracking his private jet.
  • Musk's personal gripes played a key role in his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter.
  • Musk banned the account after promising not to, highlighting his prioritization of getting his way over free speech.

Archive link: https://archive.ph/ttBv9

(page 2) 50 comments
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[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Considering that...

  • The Republicans encouraged him multiple times to buy it
  • He quickly stopped blocking (mainly Russian) state-sponsored social manipulation campaigns
  • He allowed right wing agitators back on the platform
  • He almost immediately banned droves of journalists that weren't blindly Pro-Russia and Pro-GOP.
  • He censored / banned all kinds of activists that pushed back against authoritarian (Russia-backed) regimes in other countries

...I have a hunch that he also served the interests of certain political actors with the acquisition. Public town square my lower backside.

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Elon is first and foremost a con man.

He gives them the old razzle dazzle, and even tech investors get so impressed with his confidence and his technobabble and his statements like “This is ready to ship today” that they’ve just lined up to give him money.

I think what’s happening now is that the blush is coming off the rose. Elon first got his money because he was involved as a founder in a company that he was fired from because of incompetence, but kept a large enough founder equity stake that he cashed out a billionaire. Then, because money was cheap and because you hit a tipping point where it’s easier to make money than lose money, he failed upwards.

Now reality is starting to catch up with him, and he’s in a panic. He’s psyched himself out enough that he’s turned pure Trump, doubling down and becoming more outrageous instead of taking his responsibility to his companies into account.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

The only thing of his that is ever ready to ship today is his ~~crowdfunding~~ pre-orders and investment opportunities.

The rest of it is just bullshit, smoke and mirrors, inevitable delays, and gaslighting his cult into thinking he never previously promised something "ready within 3 years" would be completed last year.

I truly hope we eventually pass the tipping point where it becomes more widespread knowledge that he's an incompetent "idea guy" instead of a visionary inventor.

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

All that money could have gone to something useful that would have benefited everybody and instead it went into investors pockets

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Pretty sure ended up buying Twitter because the courts made him.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (5 children)

If that's true, Saudi Arabia probably wouldn't have given him $22B of their dollars with no expectation of a Return on Investment. They have no horse in the "does Elon look foolish?" race.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

So Taylor Swift is going to buy it next?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

Why settle your jet-tracking beef when you can just eat it?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I wouldn't doubt that was his initial motivation for making the suggestions.

I also remember that he tried to back out of buying Twitter multiple times. While doing so he was pretty public about all the crazy crap he would do with Twitter.

Despite all that Twitter went to a judge and got them to force Musk to complete the sale. He's a crappy CEO for Twitter but it's kind of on the former Twitter leadership for forcing that situation.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Assuming this is true, there are methods to have the same result that are way less expensive...

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

I think he got talked into thinking the Twitter files were real.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago
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