@jeanne-mayell I'm not sure this is the right place for this, so please feel free to move it wherever you think is most appropriate.
This is a very interesting take on the Twitter/Musk situation, and one that I am kind of leaning into.
https://davetroy.medium.com/no-elon-and-jack-are-not-competitors-theyre-collaborating-3e88cde5267d
I disgree with this article 100% because it is apologistic and justifying what's really going on. OK, so Dorsey and Musk are in cahoots. That seems obvious. But humanity's way forward is not via technocracy - that is what is destroying it. This article asserts that Musk has the best interests of humanity and the planet at heart, and goes so far as to justify his "playing footsie" (their words) with Putin and other oligarchs. Musk is not an intermediary trying to broker piece. He's an egomaniac furthering his own agendas.
Full disclosure: we have 3 TESLA powerwalls in our garage. The man is a kind of genius, but this article is excusing some really awful behavior and I think it is actually a disinformation article planted by a foreign agency via the listed author.
Perhaps I'm misunderstanding, but I'm pretty sure the author agrees with you. He's not suggesting that this is the way forward nor that it should be. He's simply saying this is what he thinks is happening, and "It’s worth monitoring the direction this takes and, the effects that it has on society and democracy."
He also says:
For the record I think Elon is a sociopath, and that this all is going to end in disaster — I just couldn’t stand seeing so much shallow, poorly informed analysis proliferate. So I’ve done my best here to set the record straight.
Ultimately we are dealing with the fact that social engineering through control of the information environment is an inevitable reality—the only question is who has the means and moral authority to do it.
If democracy-minded people don’t seize control of the information environment, powerful sociopathic autocrats will do so instead. We leave a power vacuum open at our peril, and at the moment, Musk and Putin are the ones with the most will to fill it.
@hererightnow Outside of his fans who would have voted Republican anyway, I don't think an endorsement from Elon Musk is election swinging. Honestly, I don't even believe numbers that say "X number of people are still undecided." at this point. More likely they're keeping their card close to their chest.
I've enjoyed Twitter since abandoning Facebook, but I don't see it surviving long-term under the Musk regime. In a week this man has already knocked down most of the load-bearing walls. It's only a matter of time before the whole thing collapses around him.
@dannyboy Yup not on Facebook anymore and I used Twitter to know the news before it comes on the news. Now I just don't care anymore, down with social networks. I don't mind message boards like this and dare I say Reddit. My guess is that the Saudis and Russians would love Twitter to collapse because a lot of insurgent ideas come from Twitter, Arab spring, Democrat get out the vote etc. Second thing is a lot of self employed people use Twitter to get the word out so it will affect their livelihood negatively.
@dannyboy I don't see how Twitter can survive Musk. Twitter was losing major advertisers' commitments for 2023 last summer when the Musk deal was in the works. And now Elon wants to name and shame the advertisers who are leaving. (What is this, kindergarten?). None of this bodes well for Twitter income and Elon has to pay $1 billion per year in interest alone. Then there's Musk's thin skinned, petty and vengeful management style, his abrupt firing of critical employees that he's now trying to lure back. Without the safeguards that were developed over years at Twitter, there's a surge of antisemitic speech, racist speech and porn. I'm sure it will be flooded with misinformation and Musk has already set the tone by spreading misinformation about Nancy Pelosi's husband. The only avenue for Twitter's survival is if the U.S. government steps in or if bad actors (Russia, China or Saudi Arabia) bail out Musk.
I was never on FB but I've enjoyed being on Twitter, even though I don't post often. It's fun to follow the folks I like and comment on their tweets. So, initially I was pretty sad that Musk looked like he was going to buy it then actually did. He's an insufferable ass, as are many of his ilk. No decency or impulse control and they seem to wreck things for the rest of us.
I'm not quitting Twitter yet, but I may, if it lasts that long. However, something will rise up to take its place. Plenty of people are moving to other platforms, and some are clunky but they'll get better.
I think the lesson here is that everything is moving at such a fast pace and we need to just roll with it and keep out faith. If nothing else, the last several years have made us all resilient.
Good things will rise to take the place of what we've lost. That's a message I received today.
I think the lesson here is that everything is moving at such a fast pace and we need to just roll with it and keep out faith.
I agree. With regard to a replacement for Twitter when - not if - it goes away (probably in about 9-12 months, if that long), there will be a crap-ton of other apps, sites, new tech, and other things that pop up and fade away, but when it all shakes out, there will be one or two that stick, and that will be the next big thing. Such is the way the internet works. Remember MySpace? 🤣
@hererightnow frankly the folks who are voting red are in Musk’s pocket anyway. His explanation for “directing” his Twitter followers to vote red is outrageous and shows exactly how little he understands about American democracy (praying that we still have it after this election). I quit Twitter early last week after he posted the conspiracy theory about Paul pelosi. There will be other platforms.
Today is election day, November 8, 2022. Last night I dreamed that Trump and I were married. He was being very affectionate with me as he was kissing me goodbye. He was going away somewhere and was on his way to kissing all of his children goodbye too. When I woke up I was hearing the old song Nana Nana Kiss Him Goodbye. I dare not over interpret but hopefully it is clear. I wish everyone a happy and healthy election and eclipse day!
Welcome to the forum and thanks for posting your dream about Trump. That must have been a very uncomfortable dream. Seems like his influence is waining after the current election results. May he go far away and leave us all alone.
Happy to have you join us and I hope you enjoy the forum.
Keep in mind that Elon has very questionable Twitter investors which happen to include the Saudis (they are the second largest investor). SUCH a conflict of interest here. No one person should be allowed to have such power anyway, to push his own personal agenda to so many millions (him promoting the GOP vote prior to Nov. 8th, that ugly innuendo about Pelosi's husband, etc.) ... never mind having to keep his investors "happy". What will he do to keep them "happy"? Exactly how far will he go? The Saudi's aren't exactly known for their love of free speech. Should Twitter collapse (due to his firing of so many critical engineers and it being dropped by advertisers and more moderate users) it might be for the best. This $ 44 billion new "toy" that Elon has purchased may end up becoming a massive headache, a losing proposition and a potential national security threat. But this also brings up the idea: What gives the right to our new class of "oligarchs" (our billionaires) the right to buy up Public Forums such as Twitter anyway? That gives them nearly unlimited power to influence public discourse and promote their own (questionable) agenda.
@isabelle I'm not going to defend Elon except to say that Tesla cars made a fantastic inroad into getting electric cars into the mainstream. He is said to be on the autism spectrum. Autistic people *can* be highly creative but, at the same time, naive and easily led. (Depends on the individual.) (I am the care manager of an autistic sister so I have a front-row view of what autistic adults can be about. Sister has a lot of big and impractial ideas-- all well-meaning-- but if she didn't have caring family watching her back, she'd be in big trouble, especially if she had money like Elon.
Their ability to think outside the box can lead to great things or really foolish things. I don't care about SpaceX or Twitter or Elon's other ventures. But Tesla cars-- to push that audacious project into the mainstream was a triumph for everyone.
Just pointing out that NO social media is a public platform. All of those companies are privately owned or owned by investors/stockholders.
This is why I think blanket Free Speech doesn't apply to them - it's similar to someone owning a billboard - they can put whatever they want on there as long as it's not an imminent danger.
That being said, the Saudis are very dangerous. We know this. the Wahabist elements there want nothing more than to bring the non-Muslim world to its knees.
As for ASD Billionaires - as someone with friends on the spectrum it annoys me that there are no people close to them to point out things (i.e., social clues) that they are missing. They are not malicious (mostly), but I feel they all lack a form of connection to fellow humans that might help curtail some of the really awful behaviors that are destroying society on a global scale. For example, with a close ASD friend, I am able to speak to them privately to say - hey, you missed something here, maybe you want to look at that another way? Conversely, many of them are self-aware enough to ask, they might say - am I missing something here? What is it that I'm not getting? Unfortunately Musk & Zuckerberg don't seem to have anyone close to them for this type of guidance. Everything is very black and white for them, no grey areas, so they act accordingly.
@ana I'll agree with you on that point. I'm glad to see other car manufacturers are in the game now, but I daresay that they wouldn't be nearly as far along with their work if he hadn't pushed it, not to mention that he released Tesla's patents into the wild for anyone to use. If I were in their shoes, I would be happy that someone else made all the mistakes before I got into it, so I could learn from them and not have to make them all over again.