this post was submitted on 30 Nov 2023
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he said. “We’ll be gone, and it’ll be gone because of an advertiser boycott.”... eeer, no.

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[–] cheese_greater 8 points 11 months ago (3 children)

What do you think is the endgame here? Im so lost with regard to this whole storyline

[–] [email protected] 29 points 11 months ago

It's an interesting question.

Musk was forced to buy Twitter after accidentally promising to do so in legally binding terms. So, to a very great extent, there is no endgame, just the endless flailing of a rich kid who can't comprehend just how much luck (rather than genius) got him where he is.

But, his supporters are primarily far right authoritarians, and his partners in Twitter include some extremely authoritarian regimes which have an interest in being able to suppress speech (and have had more help to do so with X compared to old Twitter). And his idea of free speech is being able to say whatever he likes without criticism, which means silencing any ideas that could possibly be construed as criticism, whether directed at him or not. The standard far right nonsense. If you point out the existence of racism you're attacking white people. If you point out the existence of sexism you're attacking men. If you choose not to advertise on a website promoting far right ideas, you're attacking him personally.

Is he trying to turn Twitter into a more successful version of Gab or Truth Social, or is that just a by-product of his peculiar psyche? Is it with the intention of influencing elections, or is it just that his particular type of narcissism happens to be very useful to authoritarians? Are the ideas of the far right anything other than extreme narcissism anyway?

He's not an evil genius but evil clowns can do a lot of damage too.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 11 months ago (1 children)

There is no endgame plan. He is a fucking idiot that got rich on accident.

[–] FlyingSquid 15 points 11 months ago

that got rich on accident

He got super-wealthy accidentally. He got rich because his father is rich.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Endgame now is to kill off Twitter (and grassroots public forums in general) then replace them with right wing alternatives. Musk's old friend Peter Thiel failed with Parler, with Twitter out the way they have a much stronger chance.

Meanwhile, as Twitter crashes and burns, they can experiment with ludicrous ideas. Most of them will fail, but anything they get away with becomes a template for whatever comes next.

Like I say, that wasn't the plan all along - most likely he just wanted to manipulate the stock price and make a bit of profit - but that's what this has turned into.

[–] cheese_greater 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

You think he's aware of Lemmy? What do you think he thinks about us if so?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

No idea really, but I think he generally dismisses the platform as a non-threat. Which is good, I don't want him anywhere near it.

[–] cheese_greater 3 points 11 months ago