He is a right wing extremist who wants to promote his ideology across the globe.

What better platform than Twitter, with moderation of hate group content pretty much abandoned since he took over? And liberal points of view are routinely censored.

And now...he intervened for Turkey's President Erdogan in his re-election by censoring from Twitter opposing views in Turkey.

Elon says he did it because Erdogan threatened to cut Twitter off in Turkey if he didn't. So much for the champion of free speech. So much for resisting government interference. Most western media outlets would not be told what to report.

[twitter.com]

So sure he wants Twitter to be self-sufficient with ad revenue, but ultimately it is just a vehicle for Musk to promote and amplify his personal views, to the benefit of his other businesses.

And I hate to think what he'll try in our 2024 election.

Most western media outlets are not driven by profits.

CNN excepted.

Musk is not a right-wing extremist.

But his policies DO give voice to that segment of our population.

If he delivers on the promise to NOT arbitrarily amplify those voices that spew true lies and hateful content, then the new twitter will be better.

But I doubt we will get to that promised land.

Correct, Musk is not a right winger by nature, he's just doing it to piss off the left because he perceives they wronged him. And he did not buy Twitter with any real intentions....it was a reactive move on his part that he has long since regretted, but he's stuck with it and so will use it as a weapon.

Ya'll need to read through his tweets.

Dude is hard right.

You need to go read more than his tweets and go back farther than the last 2 or 3 years of his history.

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Lux Interior
Most western media outlets are not driven by profits.

CNN excepted.

Not sure if you are being sarcastic, but most western media outlets are for proft. But they practice journalism, meaning resistance to outside editorial pressure.
Musk has just told authoritarians everywhere how to get his free help.

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Lemon Drop

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Lux Interior
Most western media outlets are not driven by profits.

CNN excepted.

Not sure if you are being sarcastic, but most western media outlets are for proft. But they practice journalism, meaning resistance to outside editorial pressure.

Would that that were so - it's not.

Twitter needs to die.

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Carnos Jax
You need to go read more than his tweets and go back farther than the last 2 or 3 years of his history.

Iv'e been following Elon for many years. Never viewed him as all that political until past few years.

Unless he is lying and faking about his views, he is a right wing person now. No doubt about it. And Twitter is the primary vehicle he uses to share his views with the wide world.

If you have some current writing by Elon that shows him as something other than socially and politically right wing, I'd be interested to read it.

I think he think he's the center. I think he tries to punk everybody with his tweets.

He tried really hard to get out of buying Twitter, but they wouldn't let him loose.

None of this means that he "isn't" hard right and just tries to shade off of it. He's so sneaky. He was at the Lakers game last night with a woman sitting next to him. All I could think of was that she might have been carrying his child.

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vision63
I think he think he's the center. I think he tries to punk everybody with his tweets.

He tried really hard to get out of buying Twitter, but they wouldn't let him loose.

None of this means that he "isn't" hard right and just tries to shade off of it. He's so sneaky. He was at the Lakers game last night with a woman sitting next to him. All I could think of was that she might have been carrying his child.

High probability if they spent more than 10 minutes together.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/13/2023 08:35PM by Lemon Drop.

He wanted to buy Twitter as much as 45 wanted to be President after Obama dressed him down. Not really, but ends up taking a shine to the power.

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Hurts like a bastid...

Naw.
He wanted to own Twitter. He is not mentally unhinged like Trump, he's just very unique.

Anyway, he just let his company be used by a strong man who aligns with Putin, and whom Europe and the US want out of power. I hope Erdogan loses, but we won't have Elon to thank.

Dude is hard on the spectrum. Hard to know what's going on in his mind at any given time. He might not even know himself.

Any question why those with lots of money tend to want to control things around them?

He went thru a lot of trouble and expense to buy Twitter and it took some time. Whatever his motive he isn’t doing it because the left hurt his feelings. He has a deliberate plan just like he did for Tesla and SpaceX. It might be a stupid plan but he does have a plan.

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Ukulele music I couldn't find anywhere else.
[colquhoun.info]

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Lemon Drop
Iv'e been following Elon for many years. Never viewed him as all that political until past few years.

This is basically correct, if anything, he had a slight left lean in his few public comments, otherwise he really tried to stay neutral.

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Lemon Drop
Unless he is lying and faking about his views, he is a right wing person now. No doubt about it. And Twitter is the primary vehicle he uses to share his views with the wide world.

There is actually some conspiracy theories among those who follow him that says he is doing this right wing show to get the righties to buy his EVs. I don’t think that’s the case. Rather he was put off by all the negative criticism showered on him by the Democrats for being too wealthy (even though he didn’t live that wealthy lifestyle), or being snubbed by the same, instead giving credit to others for the EV revolution. Basically, he’s so thin skinned (perhaps due to Asperger’s) that instead of taking the highroad, he reacted with the petulance of a 13-year-old child.

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Lemon Drop
If you have some current writing by Elon that shows him as something other than socially and politically right wing, I'd be interested to read it.

You won’t find anything current from him, everything he spews right now is in revengeful hate.

Basically, he’s so thin skinned (perhaps due to Asperger’s) that instead of taking the highroad, he reacted with the petulance of a 13-year-old child.

my read on it, too. he has no real plan, and was obviously trying anything to get out of the deal, but was forced to go through with it (with apparently a lot of OPM).

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Hurts like a bastid...

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mrbigstuff
Basically, he’s so thin skinned (perhaps due to Asperger’s) that instead of taking the highroad, he reacted with the petulance of a 13-year-old child.

my read on it, too. he has no real plan, and was obviously trying anything to get out of the deal, but was forced to go through with it (with apparently a lot of OPM).

Based on his own words, he clearly wanted Twitter. He paid double what it was worth due to "bad timing." He could have kept that tied up in court for years if he wanted out. I don't think that went down like the public heard. I suspect little of his own cash went into that deal.

He is hooked on his fan base, which he claims is 130 million on Twitter. They are enthralled by his unorthodox, adolescent behavior, and he keeps it coming for them. Antivaxxer, anti-woke, bigoted, racist, poop emoji, he is out there with all of it.

He is his own editor. No filter. On Twitter he's king for everyone who lets him be.

I think he is a threat to democracy, and not just here. And his influence on young men in particular is just sad.

Compare with Jimmy Wales, when Turkey threatened him over wikipedia. He stood up to them.

Musk lets himself be a puppet for bigoted authoritarians because he agrees with them.

Kinda like Q in STNG…

“Despite his vast knowledge and experience spanning untold eons, and (much to the exasperation of the object(s) of his obsession) he is not above practical jokes for his own personal amusement, for a Machiavellian or manipulative purpose, or to prove a point. He is said to be almost completely omnipotent and he is continually evasive regarding his true motivations.”

I still say his initial interest in Twitter stemmed from his troubles with the SEC...

"Let's see them try to stop me from saying what I want on own property!"

The dream of X "the everything app" aligned enough for him to make the offer - no doubt in a stoned juvenile fit of petulance - at the peak of his wealth before the latest round of global financial troubles kicked in with inflation+ukraine invasion.

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g=

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Lemon Drop
Based on his own words, he clearly wanted Twitter….He could have kept that tied up in court for years if he wanted out.

No, and no he couldn’t. It was a pretty ironclad deal. What he could have done was walk away by paying a significant financial penalty (still would have been less than what he paid for it) but his ego wouldn’t allow for it.

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Lemon Drop
I don't think that went down like the public heard. I suspect little of his own cash went into that deal.

You are aware he sold billions of dollars worth of his own stock in Tesla to help pay for the purchase?

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Carnos Jax

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Lemon Drop
I don't think that went down like the public heard. I suspect little of his own cash went into that deal.

You are aware he sold billions of dollars worth of his own stock in Tesla to help pay for the purchase?

It's interesting how he financed it.

He owned nearly 10% of Twitter via stock purchases prior to the acquisition.

For the rest, he initially put about $15 billion of his own into it with others covering about $12.5 billion and he deferred about $17 billion in payments that he had to cover later either through sale of Tesla stock or loans from other billionaires and banks.

That $12.5 billion came from a group of investors that included Larry Ellison and the governments of Saudi Arabia and Qatar (which raises serious questions about how Twitter might censor speech about human rights).

$13 billion was set up as "leveraged" loans that Twitter has to pay, which is why he's doing everything he can to cut costs and squeeze money out of it. He financed it like a 1980s "robber baron" (and notably, almost every company that's purchased in this fashion swiftly ends up going bankrupt and sold for its parts/IP because it can't deal with the debt-burden).

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“he’s so thin skinned (perhaps due to Asperger’s)”

No, people on the spectrum have very thick skin.

But this is true of those same people, “he reacted with the petulance of a 13-year-old child”

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Saint Cloud, Minnesota, where the weather is wonderful even when it isn't.

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Speedy
“he’s so thin skinned (perhaps due to Asperger’s)”

No, people on the spectrum have very thick skin.

But this is true of those same people, “he reacted with the petulance of a 13-year-old child”

I think it might be a little more complicated than this.

I spent a few minutes looking at the most "controversial tweets", and nothing racist came up. I'm interested to see what he said (anyone have links?). I do see he said he was a Republican, which explains a lot of the hate he's getting. I am relatively sure that what he posts should not be taken at face value though. I only spent 15 or 20 minutes, but that seems abundantly clear to me. He seems to think out loud quite a bit. And I think it's pretty obvious he says things to act as "probes" to see what the reaction will be. I think it helps give him insight, but it's clearly damaging PR-wise.

I think people should be less judgmental and be encouraging where he does good, and suggest alternatives where they believe he is misguided. To me, he seems to have some will to do good, so there's potential. Maybe he'll never be a fully compliant mouth-piece of the progressive movement, and that's fine, but I agree some of what he says can be concerning or even disturbing. I don't think people are going to win a fight with him though, so I'm not sure I'd go that route.

Probably the focus of this thread should have been on whether it is truly better for Twitter to be shut down in Turkey than to continue running in a compromised way. Are there not subtle ways it can be used to help defeat Erdogan? Surely not if it's shut down. Idk, doesn't seem clear cut to me. Does the fact he decided not to take a hard stand in this case really mean he's fascist and is fully on "Erdogan's side"? I don't think so. Another question I have is whether Erdogan even has the ability to completely shut down Twitter in Turkey. I would think so, but I don't know.

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kj
I spent a few minutes looking at the most "controversial tweets", and nothing racist came up. I'm interested to see what he said (anyone have links?). I do see he said he was a Republican, which explains a lot of the hate he's getting. I am relatively sure that what he posts should not be taken at face value though. I only spent 15 or 20 minutes, but that seems abundantly clear to me. He seems to think out loud quite a bit. And I think it's pretty obvious he says things to act as "probes" to see what the reaction will be. I think it helps give him insight, but it's clearly damaging PR-wise.

I think people should be less judgmental and be encouraging where he does good, and suggest alternatives where they believe he is misguided. To me, he seems to have some will to do good, so there's potential. Maybe he'll never be a fully compliant mouth-piece of the progressive movement, and that's fine, but I agree some of what he says can be concerning or even disturbing. I don't think people are going to win a fight with him though, so I'm not sure I'd go that route.

This is a very good perspective, I think. I've followed Mr Musk on Twitter either directly or indirectly for many years. He DOES change his mind. He DOES take things overly personally - but the latter is learned behavior from the haters who tried to shut down Tesla and SpaceX.

I think Twitter is either going to amplify who he is, or will take him down. Not a lot of middle ground likely outcomes.

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kj
I spent a few minutes looking at the most "controversial tweets", and nothing racist came up. I'm interested to see what he said (anyone have links?). I do see he said he was a Republican, which explains a lot of the hate he's getting. I am relatively sure that what he posts should not be taken at face value though. I only spent 15 or 20 minutes, but that seems abundantly clear to me. He seems to think out loud quite a bit. And I think it's pretty obvious he says things to act as "probes" to see what the reaction will be. I think it helps give him insight, but it's clearly damaging PR-wise.

I think people should be less judgmental and be encouraging where he does good, and suggest alternatives where they believe he is misguided. To me, he seems to have some will to do good, so there's potential. Maybe he'll never be a fully compliant mouth-piece of the progressive movement, and that's fine, but I agree some of what he says can be concerning or even disturbing. I don't think people are going to win a fight with him though, so I'm not sure I'd go that route.

He makes good cars and decent rockets. He get enough praise. He's just a rich guy clumsily trying to social engineer an influential form of communication. In his mind, he's busting up a "good old boys" network. It may or may not have been that, but who the heck is he? Just wiped out in one fell swoop thousands of jobs in the rudest way possible. Nobody is entitled to forever work, but he didn't have to be a dick about it.

He's always spouting off about things that he's wrong about. He never comes back and corrects what he's wrong about.