this post was submitted on 30 Nov 2023
509 points (93.1% liked)

World News

39376 readers
3297 users here now

A community for discussing events around the World

Rules:

Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.


Lemmy World Partners

News [email protected]

Politics [email protected]

World Politics [email protected]


Recommendations

For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

he said. “We’ll be gone, and it’ll be gone because of an advertiser boycott.”... eeer, no.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] cheese_greater 8 points 1 year ago (3 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 29 points 1 year 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 1 year ago (1 children)

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

[–] FlyingSquid 15 points 1 year ago

that got rich on accident

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

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

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

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year 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 1 year ago