He's one of them so it's all Bollocks. It's funny how he badgers on about free speech and a healthy democracy but Not Once has he spoke out for Julian Assange...
So Musk says that free speech is imperative for humanity and that’s not good enough? Because he has not opined about every single instance of censorship then he can’t possibly believe in the principles of free speech?
Do you actually believe what you wrote? I really hope this was just a weak troll attempt.
Said the man operating under a single (real/fake? does it matter if it's one in a million) name. You shoot yourself in the foot and wonder why you are limping.
I have no idea what you are saying, is it in reference to my user name? I’m not connecting that with Twitter getting rid of bots.
I don’t really use Twitter. I don’t plan on using Twitter, Twitter is mostly a waste of time. I can get most information I need outside of that place.
User authentication is bad how? Musk saying he will allow free speech, then clarifying free speech as that which the law allows is bad how? My user name has no impact on either of these things.
It seems like you thought you had a “gotcha” moment but in reality maybe not so much.
“Believing Elon Musk is going to save Twitter is as naive as believing Joe Biden was going to save America.”
False equivalency much?
Riddle me this snowflakes, when has Musk ever called for censorship or more “content moderation”? When? There are literally hundreds of hours of him speaking on podcasts and interviews, sometimes after 4:20. Find me
ONE TIME that he has called for censorship. One time.
And spare me the Neuralink pearl clutching. 99% of you bitching about it haven’t bothered to learn the first thing about it, you’re just parroting bullshit that you hear and read from some “edgy” commentator.
Twitter is currently a toxic shithole full of woke retards, crybullies and bots. You think Musk is going to make that worse? IT CAN’T GET WORSE! The platform is hemorrhaging users by banning everyone who questions the approved narrative of anything. If Musk rolls back the content moderation and makes the algorithm open source, please explain to me how exactly that is bad. How is making the algorithm open source a bad thing? Please, explain this to me.
You think Musk is going to trot around and say that free speech is imperative to the human race and then bad everyone on his new platform? Please explain why this is a reasonable or rational argument. How did you reconcile these two things in your mind? Or are you just parroting the latest “hot take” from something you read.
Musk has done 3-4 longish interviews in the last few weeks. Go watch one or two. Then get back to me about how his possible acquisition of Twitter is somehow bad.
> Riddle me this snowflakes, when has Musk ever called for censorship or more “content moderation”?
That doesn't matter. The current regime of content regulation was forced on Twitfaceooglezon by the feds on whom Musk depends just as much if not more. Hence he will find himself in direct conflict with DC pols if he unwinds that content regulation. He will have to comply or they will fuck him up. Popcorn time.
Call people snowflakes, make up funny terms, "eat some popcorn" while concentrating on the circus. That's exactly the point, Tom.
You're so excited watching the gladiators fighting inside the Overton colosseum that you aren't even questioning what Musk's real goal is here. If you believe he's investing $43,000,000,000 just because he values free speech I've got some Arizona beachfront property I'd like to sell you.
Subjects Musk's Twitter won't pushing with an updated algorithm:
- Oligarchs should not be able to buy huge media companies when those media corporations will affect public opinion on their other businesses
- The massive US wealth concentration should not be allowed in an alleged Democratic society
- The US should not be meddling militarily in other countries
- The US should be spending more money on the American public and less on the military
I am curious to see how this conflict resolves itself. It is a classic relationship between a wannabe olligarch and a government that's for sale. They need each other.
I argue he isn't full oligarch because while certainly very influential, the feds still have the legitimate authority to regulate his businesses into the red. His business are profitable only because of government subsidies including direct grants, purchases, various incentives and even corporate and tax laws in all the jurisdictions he operates in. Since Musk knows that, he's just using his enormous influence.
Now we'll see how much more influence owning Twitter gives him. Maybe it gives him enough to totally push the feds and pols around like Kolomoyskyi does with Zelenskyy, and unlike Russian billionaires (so-called but not really oligarchs) with Putin. As I said, it's popcorn time.
---
EDIT: TBH, @feral-finster, I referred to Musk as an oligarch in my first post here today (low down ↙ cuz too few hearts) but that was for rhetorical effect (kinda like when we call a conservative bigot a fascist) but on further reflection I see it's not entirely correct in technical terms.
“He will have to comply or they will fuck him up.”
Pure speculation. I don’t think Musks government contacts are in conflict with Twitter content moderation policy or practice. While I don’t deny the existence of a globohomo cabal arguing that Twitter policy and SpaceX contracts are somehow intertwined is a big stretch.
Well if Zuckerberg is compromised (it seems likely) then he was compromised from day 1. Elon isn’t acting like someone who is compromised.
Maybe in time Bezos and Blue Origin steps up and SpaceX is marginalized. But until that happens they need SpaceX as much or more than SpaceX needs them.
Yes, for sure. I find Musk to be one of the most fascinating people around. I used to be a hater while finding him interesting. So I began watching every interview and podcast I could find of his. I might have been through all of them on YT and Rumble at this point.
I won’t admit to being smitten by him, but I’ve gone from hater - not going as far as joining the short army - to appreciating his work. I appreciate his moderate stance on climate even though I think his solution to renewable energy is not achievable.
I try to judge people based on actions and words. Musk isn’t perfect but I’ve not found evidence to place him firmly in the bad guy camp with Bill Gates, Klaus, etc.
Maybe you will be correct, it’s in the realm of possibility even if I think it’s not probable. I think we can both agree that watching the blue check Twitterati self-immolate is going to be great fun.
Certainly. Around the time when Trump was elected in 2016, Senator Chuck Schumer remarked that Trump would be given little choice but to follow the alphabet agencies' orders:
“Let me tell you: You take on the intelligence community — they have six ways from Sunday at getting back at you,” Schumer told MSNBC’s host Rachel Maddow.
Thanks for the link. It’s a good point that the Deep State can fuck you up if they want, I guess ask JFK how that went.
To admit that the DS has the power to murder Presidents or derail their administration is one thing. To take that several steps further and say that the CIA is allowing Musk to purchase a company is another. That might be true, but in how many universes? I believe there are more universes where this is false than true.
My current line of thinking takes me to the SEC and then stepping in to block the sale. I’ve not really thought the entire thing through so that might be absurd...seems possible though.
Your response basically confirms the point Caitlin is making. Unbanning Trump and reducing censorship on Twitter (both good things IMHO) is not going to change Twitter from an oligarch dominated platform any more than electing Joe Biden will change the presidency from an oligarch dominated platform.
Marshall Kosloff put it best (IMO) when he said we should look at Musk buying Twitter like Bezos buying The Post. Musk buying Twitter is less about reducing other people's freedom of speech and more about amplifying Musk's speech and making sure he will never be censored on Twitter.
Except I don’t think there were many people complaining that Twitter was oligarch dominated, it was mostly about the suppression of free speech and the left leaning content moderation.
I'll take launching over 12,000 sats to saturate the planet with more EMFs as a tip he may not have humanity's best interests at heart. And his cars use more energy and planetary destruction than a clean burning combustion engine.
Kurzweil, eccentric AI genius who wrote a program telling a piano how to compose [mechanical music], invented a device to scan a page and read it aloud to the blind, and a complete believer in AI for the future. Look him up. And then, for comparison in the AI world, look up David Gelernter.
"Our devices are designed to give people the ability to communicate more easily via text or speech synthesis, to follow their curiosity on the web, or to express their creativity through photography, art, or writing apps."
So there’s a bit of nuance here. There is a difference between the technology interacting with a device such as your phone and that device being “on the internet”. I’m quite sure Musk has said that Neuralink will not be connected to the internet so it will not be hackable.
The point of this (the end game if you will) is to reduce the threat of AGI and from that perspective the argument is compelling. The part that people are worried about is decades away and may never even happen. In the meantime it will help people with injuries. We may already be AGI slaves before anyone gets a chance to have Elon’s wires in their head.
As an aside I find it amusing that so many people clutch their pearls at the mention of Neuralink while totally ignoring Optimus. Like, no one ever mentions Optimus. That tells me that the propaganda is working.
Yeah, I get that it's sort of an extended input device at the moment with no 'write back' to the brain and no data from brain to computer other than as an HID, but we have a thing called scope creep and people are rightly concerned about that.
Even if Neuralink doesn't extend the tech in that way, it only needs a nefarious agency (USA, Israel, China etc) to license the tech and extend it in a direction that gives 'them' more control or surveillance capabilities. After all, Einstein didn't nuke Japan or prosecute the cold war when he discovered that E=MC^2, did he? And nor did Oppenheimer.
BTW I've no idea what Optimus is and a search turns up a million things, none of which seem relevant. Got a link?
The Starlink and EMF connection needs more evidence. Maybe it’s there, I’ve not seen anything convincing.
I’m glad you brought up the energy consumption regarding Tesla, this is definitely true. Musk has a vision that we will transition to renewable energy for everything, so everything will be electric - cars, factories, airplanes, ships, etc. Doing this will not be possible without major improvements in battery technology. Assuming that we do get that next step battery tech we will need to use existing forms of energy to build the infrastructure. So short term there would be significant use of fossil fuels to transition to renewables.
Although the life cycle of any EV uses more energy than an ICE vehicle I think it’s a net positive. If city centers increased EV usage then air pollution would drop in those particular areas (the LA basin comes to mind). Overall I think Tesla is a step in the right direction, it’s probably not going to be the ultimate solution but it’s leading us down the right path.
Your far too negative and your LEFTIST attitude doesn't fit you. You act like a libertarian but spew LEFTIST ideology. It's sad considering with more thought you wouldn't attack right leaning conservatives. Basically you need more years behind you and less insulting to conservatives.
You attack both left and right yet lean extremely left. Maybe if you spend more thought with less insults you would maintain a stronger following.
Instead of insulting you could explain your thoughts more in depth.
I lean left and right yet more conservative nowadays with the American climate threshold.
I would bet that you do not believe in God or any higher Power for that matter. In any case I have been following your threads for sometime now and I overlook your differences from mine so that I can understand your thought patterns and learn from those I deam worthwhile.
I don't have any faith that Twitter can be saved. You see I've been banned from Twitter six times to this date and I do not plan on returning because I lean right lately.
I only want legitimate conversations with those that don't let politics destroy the conversation and are willing to have meaningful discussion without insulting others they disagree with.
Libertarian control, like Clinton's neoLiberal market-driven Koch-census invariably results in right wing authoritarian autocracy, as our tag-team oilgarchy (we're baiting a war to save a fracking Ponzi scam, while killing our second million on a Catastrophe Capitalism feeding frenzy. If WE scammed investors with ANY of the equities CRASHING right now, we'd be extinguishing Tesla wildfires for private equity run road gangs, our VP used to incarcerate folks to staff?
How will we know who the evil people are if they are prohibited from spreading their message? Are you asserting our citizens are incapable recognizing evil?
The primary delusion of the highly educated and their ideas is the illusion of perfection. The illusion of perfection is maintained through the increasing rules for achieving the perfection
"Are you asserting our citizens are incapable recognizing evil?"
After the last two years are you fkin kidding me? A vast majority wouldn't recognise evil if it shat out Pfizer-branded dog-links on their dinner plate.
If you think that Elon Musk is going to protect your free speech or that Bitcoin is going to protect your privacy, you might want to check out this great doctor, Albert Bourla, whose amazing injections can protect you from any pandemic—past, present or future!
Again, just as the author comparing Musk to Biden, this is a fake equivalency and you being a phd and all probably already know this - yet here you are doing it anyway.
So please try again and explain how Musk is going to turn Twitter into a place where LESS free speech takes place. Why has he said that free speech is critical to the survival of the human race and why, after saying this, will he squash free speech? What’s your argument? Musk build Tesla, what does he say Teslas greatest achievement is/will be? If you know anything about Musk you will know the answer. And the answer, which Musk has been very consistent about, will tell you a lot about how this guy who is on the autism spectrum thinks.
Overton Window. Free-er speech isn't free speech. Twitter's extreme censorship being eased back to only censoring a few Third Rail topics like Ukraine-Russia, Vaccines and Election 2020 that stray from the narrative will seem like free speech in comparison, but nowhere near the free speech we had three years ago, three years before that, and three years before that. Overton Window keeps shifting towards censorship, but the return of some speech rights will seem like free speech. That's what Musk's ownership of Twitter is designed to do.
Which our overlords believe will slow down and even reverse the little people's migration away from electronic town halls that they control to town halls that have actual free speech as the Constitution protects. They imagine it will kill Truth Social in the crib, as well as keep minds from discovering all of the amazing writers on platforms like Substack.
"Musk tweeted: A social media platform's policies are good if the most extreme 10% on left and right are equally unhappy.
This statement could mean many different things. One thing is for sure: As the Overton window moves inexorably to the left, today’s left-most 10% will be the moderates in a couple of years time. Today’s moderates will be tomorrow’s extreme right."
Don’t mean to spam but check out this timeline. This girl went all in on 4/26. Can you imagine this 3 weeks ago? I have no idea who this is but she’s launching hypersonic missiles and clearly is out of fucks to give.
Musk clarified his position on free speech, it is that which matches the law. Steve Kirsch, who was banned from the platform twice received an email saying that his case is being opened and re-reviewed. Good early signs.
Since we don’t know what Twitter will look like 18 months from now (and assuming that this deal actually goes through) the extent to which free speech is returned to the platform is speculation. Your point about the ever shifting Overton Window is smart and spot on.
My best guess is that Twitter will decentralize to give individual users much more control over their experience. Those that want a safe space will be able to have that. Those that want Gab will be able to have that. Got a case of TDS? No problemo, click here and there and it’s like Trump and his low IQ troglodytes never existed!
You mention Congressional intervention (assuming via Section 230) and that seems possible but it would be a difficult needle to thread in the current environment. If November plays out like it looks like it will the task may well be impossible. It seems to me like it would be easier for the SEC to just kill the deal. I’m not a M&A guy so I cannot comment on that...way out of my depth there.
I do think that Truth Social will die and I’m surprised that ledtoids are not doing cartwheels over that. I guess the threat of big, bad Donald going back on Twitter outweighs any joy they might experience over Trump losing a bit of money - at least potentially.
There are several Substack writers who are banned on Twitter, Bad Cat, Malone, Kirsch, Joel Smalley, Jessica Rose (I think); getting them back on Twitter would boost their Substack audience so that’s a positive.
Elon Musk is the DoD’s biggest contractor. Hurray, the Pentagon’s top contractor is now in charge of Twitter! Or as Tim Dillon put it, the people cheering hate the idea of “a chip,” but they apparently LOVE neuralink.
This is a good teaching moment for people who consider themselves smart: are you really falling for this kind of theatre, still, in 2022???
C’mon man.
That being said, the ability to force major changes still lies with the people, it just depends on their being a qualitative shift in the discourse, where we just altogether scrap these false left-right binaries and realize that our common enemy, the enemy of the people is not some foreign nation, it’s not any nation, it’s a financial alone mold which has captured government institutions. But the truth is they still belong to the people, and it’s up to people to see past the theatre and facades and actually take them back by raising the level of discourse, which means more people tuning out of the mainstream narrative matrix and tuning into real independent outlets, sharing them, contributing to them, raising the level of dialogue among friends and colleagues, and watching the whole Tower of Babel fall, and actually visualizing what a world without this Tower of Babel would look like.
After all, not being able to imagine what that might look like is arguably one of the main reasons people remain stuck and slaves to the very system they claim they hate.
This is one of the great tragedies of the Boomers.
And Tesla was built on EV subsidies from governments around the world. The idea that Musk can avoid his duty in the manufacturing of consent simply means he doesn't understand it yet.
Again, more fake news. Tesla was successfully when gas was cheap and before the subsidies existed. Subsidies were a result of lobbying by GM, not Tesla. You need to go back and look at the timelines because you’ve got it wrong.
"Reality" is just beliefs (or stories) that a vast majority of people have agreed are true and act in accordance with. Belief is a powerful thing, and the people who have lots of power and money know it.
Thought experiment: if one assumes everything is just a story or narrative, that story itself assumes there's no truth. Does someone whose identity is grounded in a story that assumes there is no truth really likely to look for said ''truth''?
There's a paradox there. It's like someone saying there is no sky or anything above us, so they never bother to look... because there's nothing above us! Why would you look up if you've adopted the narrative that there's nothing to look up at?
That being said, I wouldn't discount the suggestion that we all live by stories. Definitely. However, I think part of the real story comes down to how people actually react when they discover new elements of the story, new plot lines which weren't part of the ''original'' the person planned in their head.
The more interesting stories are the ones where people become brave enough to go off script, to welcome to unplanned plot twists, and actually see where it takes them.
"Reality" changes all of the time. The world was once flat and the earth was the center of the universe. Some stories endure longer than others. Scientists cannot even objectively say where "reality" comes from since we affect any experiment we conduct. There is no difference, really, between subject and object. I am totally okay with questioning everything. I have zero problems with paradox.
Claiming spacex getting contracts for satellites is “dod” and “pentagon” is very misleading as you are implying he’s somehow launching rockets to bomb people. I know several people who got usable internet at their remote homes because of his spacex launched starlink satellites. And before spacex, we were just giving our money and jobs to Russia to launch stuff. At least that’s come back home to US.
Just finished reading Debt: The First 5000 Years by David Graeber and am now reading Sacred Economics by Charles Eisenstein. Money as currency is a story that humanity has collectively adopted to the detriment of ourselves, the other species that we share this planet with, and the planet herself. Caitlin is 100% right: billionaires are only super heroes in comic books and movies, and really, are we surprised by that? Hollywood is and has always been a propaganda machine. The war with Russia is a war for who gets to be the world reserve currency and essentially have a blank check with the rest of the world.
Musk is an American oligarch, a brilliant marketing/confidence man who has made his fortune playing with government subsidies and venture capital. He is sensitive to the will of the DC pols and blob in the same way as the rest of the SiVal oligarchs.
When Zukkerberg so dramatically gave testimony to Congress he had an epiphany. a) FB can no longer sustain the idea that it is a neutral tech platform. b) The feds can ruin FB by regulating it either enforcing exiting laws or making new ones, and explicitly threaten to. c) The Democratic Party and many in the permanent bureaucracy (especially the spys and political police) publicly push an argument that Russia rigged the election of Trump using something called Fake News that spread on FB etc.
In what way is Musk immune to the same kind of pressure? I'm curious to see the reaction of the pols and the blob.
Musk is far from the richest person on earth. There is still a slew of central banking families who stay out of the limelight who would laugh and slap their knees at the preposterous idea of Musk being the richest person on earth. But, aside from that, we should be thanking Musk for bringing back some sanity to the world.
my hope is that we will again see the likes of scott ritter and an amplification of guys like daryl cooper and scott horton. twitter truly could see it’s full potential, or it could just be a shittier version of what it is today.
I’m cautiously optimistic but not tleternally hopeful. until I see that isn’t coming to fruition. everybody should be livid at what our government is doing to regular people, but so many just outsource their thinking to the algorithms.
Elon is a product of The Swamp. Made his fortune with government contracts and incentives to buy his products that nobody would without them. Electric cars are nowhere near as practical as internal combustion cars. And more prone to deadly fires. With greater environmental damage from mining materials used in batteries. With limited range between lengthy recharging. Nice toys for urban driving. That are terrible in mountains and cold weather climates. But making laws that force people into his cars or make them appear to be economical with tax rebates isn’t how free market wealth creation happens. Stacking the deck like he’s done is corporate cronyism. Another word for socialism. Musk is was made wealthy by socialism, a business model given preferential treatment by the state through lobbying by special interests.
That said, he has articulated support for free speech. Which makes him seem to be an ally to those of us on the outside of permitted speech today. But the truth is he only supports *free-er* speech. Now that masking is loosing steam we’re seeing more free speech about masks in permitted speech, like Bill Maher today. So that will be allowed on Twitter in a post-Musk ownership environment. And we’ll begin to feel like free speech is being restored.
But, mark my words, Twitter will have Third Rails of speech that will remain prohibited even in a post-Musk ownership environment. 2020 Election Fraud. Vaccine Efficacy and Injury. Opposition to Ukraine-Russia Intervention. Verbotten. Forbidden. Even under Musk. Unless and until those topics lose steam like masking is beginning to.
So the question is, why the excitement and news frenzy around Musk’s takeover of Twitter? Look at what is happening with Truth Social, DWAC stock today for a clue. Q- Why would The Swamp set a Swamp Creature out to challenge it in the public? A- To deflate a bigger threat it sees rising against it. To give the people clamoring for their right to speak and be heard and illusion of free speech being restored on a platform that is still controlled by The Swamp. An illusion of freedom. Controlled Opposition. This is the why.
The Swamp does a masterful job of building up opponents it actually controls. Like the Bush’s and Cheney’s. War Criminals. Murderers. Nazi’s. Until they join with the Uniparty’s march to authoritarianism. Best friends with the Obama’s and Biden’s now. And BFF’s with the CCP. They had many conservatives suckered into defending them. Did the same thing with the Kavanaugh and Comey-Barrett confirmation hearings. The right defended the nominees only to have them turn on them, their values.
The Swamp strikes again. Musk’s takeover of Twitter is yet another connivance of the Deep State, The Swamp. Don’t be fooled. Truth Social, Substack, etc are the target. Worth a temporary reprieve on free speech restrictions and censorship that avoids the Third Rails. But not true free speech. Not Truth. The shift in the Overton Window towards acceptable censorship will remain on Twitter.
Elon Musk is government man. The "Richest Man on Earth" wouldn't exist without the vast amounts of American Taxpayer Money (Billions? Trillions?), he receives from all those government contracts. Kind of gives you pause, when you think who the "Richest Man on Earth" reports to, and what they must be like.
Musk is protected. Any company that has attempted to swim in Musk's pool has been drowned.
The Wall Street Journal pointed out that "Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal and his company Kingdom Holding, which [has] held big stakes in Twitter, dismissed Elon Musk’s offer to buy the social-media platform." Why? Or better yet: Why not?
Elon Musk is no rogue billionaire. That would be George Soros, and George is no fan of free speech, freedom of expression, a free press, democracy, and sovereign nations in particular. But neither is Elon Musk. George Soros, as far as can be determined, is a rogue billionaire unto himself, an NGO. Elon Musk isn't even a "maverick" as some claim. Elon Musk is what passes for the smartest man alive today; an Albert Einstein and a Robert J. Oppenheimer, a John William Mauchly, Musk is not. No, Elon Musk is a government man.
Musk's boss has been pushing and pushing relentlessly for big-tech to censor dissent, in the name(s) of ending "mis-information" and "dis-information." Musk's boss cannot push hard enough it seems, so it has bought a high-tech firm they can control outright -- Twitter. Things are about to get really interesting.
If you want to look for it, the science Elon Musk is doing probably stopped being science after the Space Shuttle program. Musk's science is playing around with the science of the onion; what you would find if Musk was satirically portrayed in a Marvel comic book. Taking 70-year-old science and pushing it as the latest and greatest. Buying Twitter is like the civilized world blowing up on the launch pad.
The science Elon Musk engages in reminds me of a teenage boy seeing how many batteries he can stuff into something programmed with an algorithm designed with a preference for hitting parked police cars, before it bursts into flames, incinerating the driver. The only person to escape is Elon Musk, protected from consequences by the full faith and credit of the US government. And Musk always walks away. Pyrrhic.
You might as well make a teenage boy the "Richest Man on Earth." Think of the 1984 movie "Amadeus," and Tom Hulce's Mozart.
If you try imagining Elon Musk as Mozart playing a government man, you can't. That's why Elon Musk is a government man.
Supposing Elon Musk's offer to buy Twitter was just the US government expressing their displeasure with the Saudis for siding with Russia, and the Saudis refusal to offset the loss of sanctioned Russian oil exports by pumping more of their oil. Elon Musk: government man as errand boy.
For the Saudis, in all likelihood, this was more about resources than politics. The Saudis just don't have the oil anymore, regardless of how many heads they chop off. The Saudis have been expanding out of the oil market in the same way the organized crime expanded into legitimate businesses. The Saudis owning a large stake in Twitter was just logical. Expanding upon the theme of beheadings, supposing Elon Musk's offer to buy Twitter was just sanctioning through other means, and with a rather dull sword.
Not to put too fine a point on the whole deal; it's the head of democracy rolling around on the floor of civilization at the feet of Elon Musk.
If Elon Musk was a superhero--a moral and honest and compassionate hero--wouldn't he have used his $44 billion to help stop hunger and/or homelessness by now? Isn't that what true heroes do--help out those who need it the most, the poor and oppressed? Getting all hot and bothered about a selfish billionaire buying a social media platform when there are bombs falling on innocents in Yemen and elsewhere is the epitome of childishness, IMO.
Hunger and homeless are not economic issues, they are political and logistic issues. So no, Elon cannot solve hunger and/or homelessness.
Please elaborate on how Musk is supposed to stop the Saudis dropping American bombs in Yemen. And why are you not calling for Gates, Bezos, the Rockefellers and Rothchilds to do the same. You know how long the Rothchilds have had money? Way longer than Musk. Why not ask them to solve these problems?
On despicable deeply corrupt Joe Biden – lying us into war while knowing with 100% certainty that WMD in Iraq is a bipartisan fraud (same as with Bucha and other crimes in Ukraine) – a major US war criminal
He's one of them so it's all Bollocks. It's funny how he badgers on about free speech and a healthy democracy but Not Once has he spoke out for Julian Assange...
So Musk says that free speech is imperative for humanity and that’s not good enough? Because he has not opined about every single instance of censorship then he can’t possibly believe in the principles of free speech?
Do you actually believe what you wrote? I really hope this was just a weak troll attempt.
https://twitter.com/mattyglesias/status/1518665398077562881
Take the man at his own words, fan boy. He still won't bed you.
😂👏
Lol, toadie.
That’s it? He wants to authenticate users. How else do you remove all of the bots? How does this stand against free speech?
Musk also said that free speech is that which matches the law. Yeah, sounds totally nefarious.
Said the man operating under a single (real/fake? does it matter if it's one in a million) name. You shoot yourself in the foot and wonder why you are limping.
I have no idea what you are saying, is it in reference to my user name? I’m not connecting that with Twitter getting rid of bots.
I don’t really use Twitter. I don’t plan on using Twitter, Twitter is mostly a waste of time. I can get most information I need outside of that place.
User authentication is bad how? Musk saying he will allow free speech, then clarifying free speech as that which the law allows is bad how? My user name has no impact on either of these things.
It seems like you thought you had a “gotcha” moment but in reality maybe not so much.
「子曰：’不憤不啟。不悱不發。舉一隅不以三隅反，則不復也。’」
“Believing Elon Musk is going to save Twitter is as naive as believing Joe Biden was going to save America.”
False equivalency much?
Riddle me this snowflakes, when has Musk ever called for censorship or more “content moderation”? When? There are literally hundreds of hours of him speaking on podcasts and interviews, sometimes after 4:20. Find me
ONE TIME that he has called for censorship. One time.
And spare me the Neuralink pearl clutching. 99% of you bitching about it haven’t bothered to learn the first thing about it, you’re just parroting bullshit that you hear and read from some “edgy” commentator.
Twitter is currently a toxic shithole full of woke retards, crybullies and bots. You think Musk is going to make that worse? IT CAN’T GET WORSE! The platform is hemorrhaging users by banning everyone who questions the approved narrative of anything. If Musk rolls back the content moderation and makes the algorithm open source, please explain to me how exactly that is bad. How is making the algorithm open source a bad thing? Please, explain this to me.
You think Musk is going to trot around and say that free speech is imperative to the human race and then bad everyone on his new platform? Please explain why this is a reasonable or rational argument. How did you reconcile these two things in your mind? Or are you just parroting the latest “hot take” from something you read.
Musk has done 3-4 longish interviews in the last few weeks. Go watch one or two. Then get back to me about how his possible acquisition of Twitter is somehow bad.
> Riddle me this snowflakes, when has Musk ever called for censorship or more “content moderation”?
That doesn't matter. The current regime of content regulation was forced on Twitfaceooglezon by the feds on whom Musk depends just as much if not more. Hence he will find himself in direct conflict with DC pols if he unwinds that content regulation. He will have to comply or they will fuck him up. Popcorn time.
Call people snowflakes, make up funny terms, "eat some popcorn" while concentrating on the circus. That's exactly the point, Tom.
You're so excited watching the gladiators fighting inside the Overton colosseum that you aren't even questioning what Musk's real goal is here. If you believe he's investing $43,000,000,000 just because he values free speech I've got some Arizona beachfront property I'd like to sell you.
Subjects Musk's Twitter won't pushing with an updated algorithm:
- Oligarchs should not be able to buy huge media companies when those media corporations will affect public opinion on their other businesses
- The massive US wealth concentration should not be allowed in an alleged Democratic society
- The US should not be meddling militarily in other countries
- The US should be spending more money on the American public and less on the military
[edit] typos
Things would not have been allowed to get to this point if it were not certain that Musk would not comply.
I am curious to see how this conflict resolves itself. It is a classic relationship between a wannabe olligarch and a government that's for sale. They need each other.
Not sure that Musk is a "wannabe" oligarch.
He sure seems like a bona fide oligarch from here.
I argue he isn't full oligarch because while certainly very influential, the feds still have the legitimate authority to regulate his businesses into the red. His business are profitable only because of government subsidies including direct grants, purchases, various incentives and even corporate and tax laws in all the jurisdictions he operates in. Since Musk knows that, he's just using his enormous influence.
Now we'll see how much more influence owning Twitter gives him. Maybe it gives him enough to totally push the feds and pols around like Kolomoyskyi does with Zelenskyy, and unlike Russian billionaires (so-called but not really oligarchs) with Putin. As I said, it's popcorn time.
---
EDIT: TBH, @feral-finster, I referred to Musk as an oligarch in my first post here today (low down ↙ cuz too few hearts) but that was for rhetorical effect (kinda like when we call a conservative bigot a fascist) but on further reflection I see it's not entirely correct in technical terms.
I see what you are saying, but it's not as if you have to be omnipotent to be an oligarch.
“He will have to comply or they will fuck him up.”
Pure speculation. I don’t think Musks government contacts are in conflict with Twitter content moderation policy or practice. While I don’t deny the existence of a globohomo cabal arguing that Twitter policy and SpaceX contracts are somehow intertwined is a big stretch.
Ofc it is speculation because I am talking about the future. But it's *exactly* what the feds did with Zukerberg and he fell in line PDQ, remember?
Well if Zuckerberg is compromised (it seems likely) then he was compromised from day 1. Elon isn’t acting like someone who is compromised.
Maybe in time Bezos and Blue Origin steps up and SpaceX is marginalized. But until that happens they need SpaceX as much or more than SpaceX needs them.
You appear to trust that Musk's motives are virtuous more than I do.
Yes, for sure. I find Musk to be one of the most fascinating people around. I used to be a hater while finding him interesting. So I began watching every interview and podcast I could find of his. I might have been through all of them on YT and Rumble at this point.
I won’t admit to being smitten by him, but I’ve gone from hater - not going as far as joining the short army - to appreciating his work. I appreciate his moderate stance on climate even though I think his solution to renewable energy is not achievable.
I try to judge people based on actions and words. Musk isn’t perfect but I’ve not found evidence to place him firmly in the bad guy camp with Bill Gates, Klaus, etc.
Maybe you will be correct, it’s in the realm of possibility even if I think it’s not probable. I think we can both agree that watching the blue check Twitterati self-immolate is going to be great fun.
"They have six ways until Sunday...."
Please elaborate one just one. I’m ignorant but I’d like to learn.
Certainly. Around the time when Trump was elected in 2016, Senator Chuck Schumer remarked that Trump would be given little choice but to follow the alphabet agencies' orders:
“Let me tell you: You take on the intelligence community — they have six ways from Sunday at getting back at you,” Schumer told MSNBC’s host Rachel Maddow.
https://thefederalist.com/2019/09/27/schumer-intelligence-agencies-have-six-ways-from-sunday-of-getting-back-at-you/ contains a link to the interview in question.
Thanks for the link. It’s a good point that the Deep State can fuck you up if they want, I guess ask JFK how that went.
To admit that the DS has the power to murder Presidents or derail their administration is one thing. To take that several steps further and say that the CIA is allowing Musk to purchase a company is another. That might be true, but in how many universes? I believe there are more universes where this is false than true.
My current line of thinking takes me to the SEC and then stepping in to block the sale. I’ve not really thought the entire thing through so that might be absurd...seems possible though.
Your response basically confirms the point Caitlin is making. Unbanning Trump and reducing censorship on Twitter (both good things IMHO) is not going to change Twitter from an oligarch dominated platform any more than electing Joe Biden will change the presidency from an oligarch dominated platform.
Marshall Kosloff put it best (IMO) when he said we should look at Musk buying Twitter like Bezos buying The Post. Musk buying Twitter is less about reducing other people's freedom of speech and more about amplifying Musk's speech and making sure he will never be censored on Twitter.
Except I don’t think there were many people complaining that Twitter was oligarch dominated, it was mostly about the suppression of free speech and the left leaning content moderation.
I'll take launching over 12,000 sats to saturate the planet with more EMFs as a tip he may not have humanity's best interests at heart. And his cars use more energy and planetary destruction than a clean burning combustion engine.
That and wanting to wire people's brains to the internet...
Fake news. Musk has explicitly stated the opposite of your claim.
This is the biggest problem with discussions involving Musk, people read some half truth or speculation somewhere and take it as gospel.
People are scared to death of Musk but have no problem with Kurzweil. Go figure.
Your habit of crying "Fake News!" at comments to specifically Caitlin's Johnstone's newsletter (3 times so far) amuses me.
Who is kirzweil.
Kurzweil, eccentric AI genius who wrote a program telling a piano how to compose [mechanical music], invented a device to scan a page and read it aloud to the blind, and a complete believer in AI for the future. Look him up. And then, for comparison in the AI world, look up David Gelernter.
Ray Kurzweil, Google transhumanist praying at the altar of singularity. Infinitely more dangerous than Musk.
Huh? https://neuralink.com/applications/
"Our devices are designed to give people the ability to communicate more easily via text or speech synthesis, to follow their curiosity on the web, or to express their creativity through photography, art, or writing apps."
So there’s a bit of nuance here. There is a difference between the technology interacting with a device such as your phone and that device being “on the internet”. I’m quite sure Musk has said that Neuralink will not be connected to the internet so it will not be hackable.
The point of this (the end game if you will) is to reduce the threat of AGI and from that perspective the argument is compelling. The part that people are worried about is decades away and may never even happen. In the meantime it will help people with injuries. We may already be AGI slaves before anyone gets a chance to have Elon’s wires in their head.
As an aside I find it amusing that so many people clutch their pearls at the mention of Neuralink while totally ignoring Optimus. Like, no one ever mentions Optimus. That tells me that the propaganda is working.
Yeah, I get that it's sort of an extended input device at the moment with no 'write back' to the brain and no data from brain to computer other than as an HID, but we have a thing called scope creep and people are rightly concerned about that.
Even if Neuralink doesn't extend the tech in that way, it only needs a nefarious agency (USA, Israel, China etc) to license the tech and extend it in a direction that gives 'them' more control or surveillance capabilities. After all, Einstein didn't nuke Japan or prosecute the cold war when he discovered that E=MC^2, did he? And nor did Oppenheimer.
BTW I've no idea what Optimus is and a search turns up a million things, none of which seem relevant. Got a link?
The Starlink and EMF connection needs more evidence. Maybe it’s there, I’ve not seen anything convincing.
I’m glad you brought up the energy consumption regarding Tesla, this is definitely true. Musk has a vision that we will transition to renewable energy for everything, so everything will be electric - cars, factories, airplanes, ships, etc. Doing this will not be possible without major improvements in battery technology. Assuming that we do get that next step battery tech we will need to use existing forms of energy to build the infrastructure. So short term there would be significant use of fossil fuels to transition to renewables.
Although the life cycle of any EV uses more energy than an ICE vehicle I think it’s a net positive. If city centers increased EV usage then air pollution would drop in those particular areas (the LA basin comes to mind). Overall I think Tesla is a step in the right direction, it’s probably not going to be the ultimate solution but it’s leading us down the right path.
Musk would not be allowed to buy Twitter if he had not already been brought around.
You might want to see what Michael Tracy has to say about it: https://mtracey.substack.com/p/elon-musk-conquers-twitter-and-france?&s=r
Your far too negative and your LEFTIST attitude doesn't fit you. You act like a libertarian but spew LEFTIST ideology. It's sad considering with more thought you wouldn't attack right leaning conservatives. Basically you need more years behind you and less insulting to conservatives.
You attack both left and right yet lean extremely left. Maybe if you spend more thought with less insults you would maintain a stronger following.
Instead of insulting you could explain your thoughts more in depth.
I lean left and right yet more conservative nowadays with the American climate threshold.
I would bet that you do not believe in God or any higher Power for that matter. In any case I have been following your threads for sometime now and I overlook your differences from mine so that I can understand your thought patterns and learn from those I deam worthwhile.
I don't have any faith that Twitter can be saved. You see I've been banned from Twitter six times to this date and I do not plan on returning because I lean right lately.
I only want legitimate conversations with those that don't let politics destroy the conversation and are willing to have meaningful discussion without insulting others they disagree with.
PEACE is a start.
> You act like a libertarian but spew LEFTIST ideology.
Libertarians and anarchists have much in common. What a quasi-Marxist anarchist like myself differs with libertarians over is property rights.
Libertarian control, like Clinton's neoLiberal market-driven Koch-census invariably results in right wing authoritarian autocracy, as our tag-team oilgarchy (we're baiting a war to save a fracking Ponzi scam, while killing our second million on a Catastrophe Capitalism feeding frenzy. If WE scammed investors with ANY of the equities CRASHING right now, we'd be extinguishing Tesla wildfires for private equity run road gangs, our VP used to incarcerate folks to staff?
Your poetry is harder than I'm used to reading but I ♥ it on trust.
How will we know who the evil people are if they are prohibited from spreading their message? Are you asserting our citizens are incapable recognizing evil?
The primary delusion of the highly educated and their ideas is the illusion of perfection. The illusion of perfection is maintained through the increasing rules for achieving the perfection
"Are you asserting our citizens are incapable recognizing evil?"
After the last two years are you fkin kidding me? A vast majority wouldn't recognise evil if it shat out Pfizer-branded dog-links on their dinner plate.
Good point!
Got your troll team to upvote you, hehehe. I see what you did there.
If you think that Elon Musk is going to protect your free speech or that Bitcoin is going to protect your privacy, you might want to check out this great doctor, Albert Bourla, whose amazing injections can protect you from any pandemic—past, present or future!
Again, just as the author comparing Musk to Biden, this is a fake equivalency and you being a phd and all probably already know this - yet here you are doing it anyway.
So please try again and explain how Musk is going to turn Twitter into a place where LESS free speech takes place. Why has he said that free speech is critical to the survival of the human race and why, after saying this, will he squash free speech? What’s your argument? Musk build Tesla, what does he say Teslas greatest achievement is/will be? If you know anything about Musk you will know the answer. And the answer, which Musk has been very consistent about, will tell you a lot about how this guy who is on the autism spectrum thinks.
False equivalency. My meat sticks are not interacting with my computer very well...I’d better get on that Neuralink waiting list!
Overton Window. Free-er speech isn't free speech. Twitter's extreme censorship being eased back to only censoring a few Third Rail topics like Ukraine-Russia, Vaccines and Election 2020 that stray from the narrative will seem like free speech in comparison, but nowhere near the free speech we had three years ago, three years before that, and three years before that. Overton Window keeps shifting towards censorship, but the return of some speech rights will seem like free speech. That's what Musk's ownership of Twitter is designed to do.
Which our overlords believe will slow down and even reverse the little people's migration away from electronic town halls that they control to town halls that have actual free speech as the Constitution protects. They imagine it will kill Truth Social in the crib, as well as keep minds from discovering all of the amazing writers on platforms like Substack.
Not to mention the shitty ones ;-)
"Musk tweeted: A social media platform's policies are good if the most extreme 10% on left and right are equally unhappy.
This statement could mean many different things. One thing is for sure: As the Overton window moves inexorably to the left, today’s left-most 10% will be the moderates in a couple of years time. Today’s moderates will be tomorrow’s extreme right."
https://aljahom.substack.com/p/doing-the-half-time-victory-dance
Don’t mean to spam but check out this timeline. This girl went all in on 4/26. Can you imagine this 3 weeks ago? I have no idea who this is but she’s launching hypersonic missiles and clearly is out of fucks to give.
https://mobile.twitter.com/SaraGonzalesTX
Musk clarified his position on free speech, it is that which matches the law. Steve Kirsch, who was banned from the platform twice received an email saying that his case is being opened and re-reviewed. Good early signs.
https://mobile.twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1519036983137509376?cxt=HHwWgIC9ydCF2pQqAAAA
Since we don’t know what Twitter will look like 18 months from now (and assuming that this deal actually goes through) the extent to which free speech is returned to the platform is speculation. Your point about the ever shifting Overton Window is smart and spot on.
My best guess is that Twitter will decentralize to give individual users much more control over their experience. Those that want a safe space will be able to have that. Those that want Gab will be able to have that. Got a case of TDS? No problemo, click here and there and it’s like Trump and his low IQ troglodytes never existed!
You mention Congressional intervention (assuming via Section 230) and that seems possible but it would be a difficult needle to thread in the current environment. If November plays out like it looks like it will the task may well be impossible. It seems to me like it would be easier for the SEC to just kill the deal. I’m not a M&A guy so I cannot comment on that...way out of my depth there.
I do think that Truth Social will die and I’m surprised that ledtoids are not doing cartwheels over that. I guess the threat of big, bad Donald going back on Twitter outweighs any joy they might experience over Trump losing a bit of money - at least potentially.
There are several Substack writers who are banned on Twitter, Bad Cat, Malone, Kirsch, Joel Smalley, Jessica Rose (I think); getting them back on Twitter would boost their Substack audience so that’s a positive.
Elon Musk is the DoD’s biggest contractor. Hurray, the Pentagon’s top contractor is now in charge of Twitter! Or as Tim Dillon put it, the people cheering hate the idea of “a chip,” but they apparently LOVE neuralink.
This is a good teaching moment for people who consider themselves smart: are you really falling for this kind of theatre, still, in 2022???
C’mon man.
That being said, the ability to force major changes still lies with the people, it just depends on their being a qualitative shift in the discourse, where we just altogether scrap these false left-right binaries and realize that our common enemy, the enemy of the people is not some foreign nation, it’s not any nation, it’s a financial alone mold which has captured government institutions. But the truth is they still belong to the people, and it’s up to people to see past the theatre and facades and actually take them back by raising the level of discourse, which means more people tuning out of the mainstream narrative matrix and tuning into real independent outlets, sharing them, contributing to them, raising the level of dialogue among friends and colleagues, and watching the whole Tower of Babel fall, and actually visualizing what a world without this Tower of Babel would look like.
After all, not being able to imagine what that might look like is arguably one of the main reasons people remain stuck and slaves to the very system they claim they hate.
This is one of the great tragedies of the Boomers.
Musk Melon is today's "Howard Hughes" imho.
Also...if a family member were a paraplegic you’d probably have a different take on Neuralink.
And Tesla was built on EV subsidies from governments around the world. The idea that Musk can avoid his duty in the manufacturing of consent simply means he doesn't understand it yet.
Again, more fake news. Tesla was successfully when gas was cheap and before the subsidies existed. Subsidies were a result of lobbying by GM, not Tesla. You need to go back and look at the timelines because you’ve got it wrong.
The DOD’s largest contractor by a wide margin is Lockheed Martin. Next is Boeing. Next is General Dynamics, then Raytheon.
Again, more fake news in this comment section. Very sad. This is why Twitter is basically eye AIDS. Kind of crazy to see it here.
"Reality" is just beliefs (or stories) that a vast majority of people have agreed are true and act in accordance with. Belief is a powerful thing, and the people who have lots of power and money know it.
Thought experiment: if one assumes everything is just a story or narrative, that story itself assumes there's no truth. Does someone whose identity is grounded in a story that assumes there is no truth really likely to look for said ''truth''?
There's a paradox there. It's like someone saying there is no sky or anything above us, so they never bother to look... because there's nothing above us! Why would you look up if you've adopted the narrative that there's nothing to look up at?
That being said, I wouldn't discount the suggestion that we all live by stories. Definitely. However, I think part of the real story comes down to how people actually react when they discover new elements of the story, new plot lines which weren't part of the ''original'' the person planned in their head.
The more interesting stories are the ones where people become brave enough to go off script, to welcome to unplanned plot twists, and actually see where it takes them.
"Reality" changes all of the time. The world was once flat and the earth was the center of the universe. Some stories endure longer than others. Scientists cannot even objectively say where "reality" comes from since we affect any experiment we conduct. There is no difference, really, between subject and object. I am totally okay with questioning everything. I have zero problems with paradox.
Claiming spacex getting contracts for satellites is “dod” and “pentagon” is very misleading as you are implying he’s somehow launching rockets to bomb people. I know several people who got usable internet at their remote homes because of his spacex launched starlink satellites. And before spacex, we were just giving our money and jobs to Russia to launch stuff. At least that’s come back home to US.
Yep, He's part of Silicon Valley, therefore he is MIC, and very much part of the information security section of the NSA.
https://twitter.com/mattyglesias/status/1518665398077562881
Right there in his own words he wants to digital id everyone. The sheeple will love it.
100% Caitlin.
Just finished reading Debt: The First 5000 Years by David Graeber and am now reading Sacred Economics by Charles Eisenstein. Money as currency is a story that humanity has collectively adopted to the detriment of ourselves, the other species that we share this planet with, and the planet herself. Caitlin is 100% right: billionaires are only super heroes in comic books and movies, and really, are we surprised by that? Hollywood is and has always been a propaganda machine. The war with Russia is a war for who gets to be the world reserve currency and essentially have a blank check with the rest of the world.
Musk is an American oligarch, a brilliant marketing/confidence man who has made his fortune playing with government subsidies and venture capital. He is sensitive to the will of the DC pols and blob in the same way as the rest of the SiVal oligarchs.
When Zukkerberg so dramatically gave testimony to Congress he had an epiphany. a) FB can no longer sustain the idea that it is a neutral tech platform. b) The feds can ruin FB by regulating it either enforcing exiting laws or making new ones, and explicitly threaten to. c) The Democratic Party and many in the permanent bureaucracy (especially the spys and political police) publicly push an argument that Russia rigged the election of Trump using something called Fake News that spread on FB etc.
In what way is Musk immune to the same kind of pressure? I'm curious to see the reaction of the pols and the blob.
Musk is far from the richest person on earth. There is still a slew of central banking families who stay out of the limelight who would laugh and slap their knees at the preposterous idea of Musk being the richest person on earth. But, aside from that, we should be thanking Musk for bringing back some sanity to the world.
Musk himself scoffs at the idea that he is the richest person in the world.
Well, he knows better and obviously so do we!
my hope is that we will again see the likes of scott ritter and an amplification of guys like daryl cooper and scott horton. twitter truly could see it’s full potential, or it could just be a shittier version of what it is today.
I’m cautiously optimistic but not tleternally hopeful. until I see that isn’t coming to fruition. everybody should be livid at what our government is doing to regular people, but so many just outsource their thinking to the algorithms.
Elon is a product of The Swamp. Made his fortune with government contracts and incentives to buy his products that nobody would without them. Electric cars are nowhere near as practical as internal combustion cars. And more prone to deadly fires. With greater environmental damage from mining materials used in batteries. With limited range between lengthy recharging. Nice toys for urban driving. That are terrible in mountains and cold weather climates. But making laws that force people into his cars or make them appear to be economical with tax rebates isn’t how free market wealth creation happens. Stacking the deck like he’s done is corporate cronyism. Another word for socialism. Musk is was made wealthy by socialism, a business model given preferential treatment by the state through lobbying by special interests.
That said, he has articulated support for free speech. Which makes him seem to be an ally to those of us on the outside of permitted speech today. But the truth is he only supports *free-er* speech. Now that masking is loosing steam we’re seeing more free speech about masks in permitted speech, like Bill Maher today. So that will be allowed on Twitter in a post-Musk ownership environment. And we’ll begin to feel like free speech is being restored.
But, mark my words, Twitter will have Third Rails of speech that will remain prohibited even in a post-Musk ownership environment. 2020 Election Fraud. Vaccine Efficacy and Injury. Opposition to Ukraine-Russia Intervention. Verbotten. Forbidden. Even under Musk. Unless and until those topics lose steam like masking is beginning to.
So the question is, why the excitement and news frenzy around Musk’s takeover of Twitter? Look at what is happening with Truth Social, DWAC stock today for a clue. Q- Why would The Swamp set a Swamp Creature out to challenge it in the public? A- To deflate a bigger threat it sees rising against it. To give the people clamoring for their right to speak and be heard and illusion of free speech being restored on a platform that is still controlled by The Swamp. An illusion of freedom. Controlled Opposition. This is the why.
The Swamp does a masterful job of building up opponents it actually controls. Like the Bush’s and Cheney’s. War Criminals. Murderers. Nazi’s. Until they join with the Uniparty’s march to authoritarianism. Best friends with the Obama’s and Biden’s now. And BFF’s with the CCP. They had many conservatives suckered into defending them. Did the same thing with the Kavanaugh and Comey-Barrett confirmation hearings. The right defended the nominees only to have them turn on them, their values.
The Swamp strikes again. Musk’s takeover of Twitter is yet another connivance of the Deep State, The Swamp. Don’t be fooled. Truth Social, Substack, etc are the target. Worth a temporary reprieve on free speech restrictions and censorship that avoids the Third Rails. But not true free speech. Not Truth. The shift in the Overton Window towards acceptable censorship will remain on Twitter.
People are mistaken about Elon Musk.
Elon Musk is government man. The "Richest Man on Earth" wouldn't exist without the vast amounts of American Taxpayer Money (Billions? Trillions?), he receives from all those government contracts. Kind of gives you pause, when you think who the "Richest Man on Earth" reports to, and what they must be like.
Musk is protected. Any company that has attempted to swim in Musk's pool has been drowned.
The Wall Street Journal pointed out that "Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal and his company Kingdom Holding, which [has] held big stakes in Twitter, dismissed Elon Musk’s offer to buy the social-media platform." Why? Or better yet: Why not?
Elon Musk is no rogue billionaire. That would be George Soros, and George is no fan of free speech, freedom of expression, a free press, democracy, and sovereign nations in particular. But neither is Elon Musk. George Soros, as far as can be determined, is a rogue billionaire unto himself, an NGO. Elon Musk isn't even a "maverick" as some claim. Elon Musk is what passes for the smartest man alive today; an Albert Einstein and a Robert J. Oppenheimer, a John William Mauchly, Musk is not. No, Elon Musk is a government man.
Musk's boss has been pushing and pushing relentlessly for big-tech to censor dissent, in the name(s) of ending "mis-information" and "dis-information." Musk's boss cannot push hard enough it seems, so it has bought a high-tech firm they can control outright -- Twitter. Things are about to get really interesting.
If you want to look for it, the science Elon Musk is doing probably stopped being science after the Space Shuttle program. Musk's science is playing around with the science of the onion; what you would find if Musk was satirically portrayed in a Marvel comic book. Taking 70-year-old science and pushing it as the latest and greatest. Buying Twitter is like the civilized world blowing up on the launch pad.
The science Elon Musk engages in reminds me of a teenage boy seeing how many batteries he can stuff into something programmed with an algorithm designed with a preference for hitting parked police cars, before it bursts into flames, incinerating the driver. The only person to escape is Elon Musk, protected from consequences by the full faith and credit of the US government. And Musk always walks away. Pyrrhic.
You might as well make a teenage boy the "Richest Man on Earth." Think of the 1984 movie "Amadeus," and Tom Hulce's Mozart.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pD2XZHnDKvo
If you try imagining Elon Musk as Mozart playing a government man, you can't. That's why Elon Musk is a government man.
Supposing Elon Musk's offer to buy Twitter was just the US government expressing their displeasure with the Saudis for siding with Russia, and the Saudis refusal to offset the loss of sanctioned Russian oil exports by pumping more of their oil. Elon Musk: government man as errand boy.
For the Saudis, in all likelihood, this was more about resources than politics. The Saudis just don't have the oil anymore, regardless of how many heads they chop off. The Saudis have been expanding out of the oil market in the same way the organized crime expanded into legitimate businesses. The Saudis owning a large stake in Twitter was just logical. Expanding upon the theme of beheadings, supposing Elon Musk's offer to buy Twitter was just sanctioning through other means, and with a rather dull sword.
Not to put too fine a point on the whole deal; it's the head of democracy rolling around on the floor of civilization at the feet of Elon Musk.
If Elon Musk was a superhero--a moral and honest and compassionate hero--wouldn't he have used his $44 billion to help stop hunger and/or homelessness by now? Isn't that what true heroes do--help out those who need it the most, the poor and oppressed? Getting all hot and bothered about a selfish billionaire buying a social media platform when there are bombs falling on innocents in Yemen and elsewhere is the epitome of childishness, IMO.
Hunger and homeless are not economic issues, they are political and logistic issues. So no, Elon cannot solve hunger and/or homelessness.
Please elaborate on how Musk is supposed to stop the Saudis dropping American bombs in Yemen. And why are you not calling for Gates, Bezos, the Rockefellers and Rothchilds to do the same. You know how long the Rothchilds have had money? Way longer than Musk. Why not ask them to solve these problems?
On despicable deeply corrupt Joe Biden – lying us into war while knowing with 100% certainty that WMD in Iraq is a bipartisan fraud (same as with Bucha and other crimes in Ukraine) – a major US war criminal
https://youtu.be/ecH1SI9ufr8
Yes. I think Elon is a globalist and he's an actor playing the super hero role.