Musk offers to buy Twitter

[lizkat]

I think he lived in his little bubble of Conservatism without any real sense of the real world going on around him, this is common with those on the right. Now he's getting smacked with a dose of reality, undoing a system overnight (while not perfect) that took years to refine.

It's remarkable too that in the space of a week he managed to collide with or otherwise dismay advertisers, his customer base, the hired help, labor law, the SEC, the EU, the banks that lent him $13B and god knows which of his co-investors. Good job Elon!

This guy gives a whole new dimension to the concept of key-man risk. Usually it's a consideration of possible material loss to the company in event of loss of services from a key employee. In the case of Twitter as it stands at the moment, you'd think the key man insurance premium might actually decrease if Musk were to end up sidelined.

 

[Renzatic]

I think he lived in his little bubble of Conservatism without any real sense of the real world going on around him, this is common with those on the right. Now he's getting smacked with a dose of reality, undoing a system overnight (while not perfect) that took years to refine.

I wouldn't call it conservatism exactly, but Musk is currently the living end result of what happens when you do nothing but surround yourself with yes men and sycophants. He's fallen for the myth of his own infallibility.

 

[Eric]

 

[dada_dave]

He’s now openly advocating for the republicans on the platform he bought.

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1589639376186724354/

Oh these gems from earlier:

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1433474893316722691/

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1519415674111672325/

Which was already bullshit both in the general sentiment and the specifics to him. I guess I’d rather him be open. It makes thing easier.

 

[tomO2013]

Of course he is advocating for a republican congress, it’s the best way to maintain the status quo…
- distract the general population with a scapegoat for their troubles.
- keep both politics sides arguing so that nothing gets done, nothing gets passed in congress - maintain the status quo.

Imagine a republican congress and republican presidency who had a majority and could get legislation passed…. Or a democrat congress and democrat presidency who could get legislation passed on the key issues affecting American society.
That would be disastrous for those organizations/individuals in the top 1% who rely on nothing politically changing in order to maintain the status quo.

It would also be disastrous for politicians who would not have an excuse to the popular vote as to why they not voting against their lobby interest groups and sponsors.

As long as both sides have an excuse to blame the other for blocking, nothing will get done, companies will continue to make astounding levels of profit, the top 1% will continue to acquire wealth etc… homeless problem, healthcare for the disadvantaged, gun control, big tech influence on politics… will all be talking points with no meaningful action.

 

[leman]

He’s now openly advocating for the republicans on the platform he bought.

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1589639376186724354/

Oh these gems from earlier:

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1433474893316722691/

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1519415674111672325/

Which was already bullshit both in the general sentiment and the specifics to him. I guess I’d rather him be open. It makes thing easier.

What a disgusting individual. Texas denies women access to reproductive health and has literally implemented voter suppression. It's hard to imagine more sinister ways of governmental regulation.

 

[dada_dave]

Of course he is advocating for a republican congress, it’s the best way to maintain the status quo…
- distract the general population with a scapegoat for their troubles.
- keep both politics sides arguing so that nothing gets done, nothing gets passed in congress - maintain the status quo.

Imagine a republican congress and republican presidency who had a majority and could get legislation passed…. Or a democrat congress and democrat presidency who could get legislation passed on the key issues affecting American society.
That would be disastrous for those organizations/individuals in the top 1% who rely on nothing politically changing in order to maintain the status quo.

It would also be disastrous for politicians who would not have an excuse to the popular vote as to why they not voting against their lobby interest groups and sponsors.

As long as both sides have an excuse to blame the other for blocking, nothing will get done, companies will continue to make astounding levels of profit, the top 1% will continue to acquire wealth etc… homeless problem, healthcare for the disadvantaged, gun control, big tech influence on politics… will all be talking points with no meaningful action.

As much as the Republicans live to play the media victim card, it’s worse than that: usually when that happens the democrats get the blame in the media. The question is always are the Democrats doing enough to win over Republicans even when the Republican position is to douse the capitol in kerosene and light a match. Maybe it’ll be different this time but I doubt it. It doesn’t help that the Democrats are often politically stupid

 

[dada_dave]

What a disgusting individual. Texas denies women access to reproductive health and has literally implemented voter suppression. It's hard to imagine more sinister ways of governmental regulation.

Yes but he as a straight white male had less regulation … you know to abuse his employees more.

 

[Andropov]

Free speech!

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1589660079548403712/

 

[fooferdoggie]

Free speech!

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1589660079548403712/

Every day he looks more like a spolied child who's parents neglected him and he wanted to be a bully but was too wimpy till he got money.

 

[Pumbaa]

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1589459148428541953/

 

[tomO2013]

As much as the Republicans live to play the media victim card, it’s worse than that: usually when that happens the democrats get the blame in the media. The question is always are the Democrats doing enough to win over Republicans even when the Republican position is to douse the capitol in kerosene and light a match. Maybe it’ll be different this time but I doubt it. It doesn’t help that the Democrats are often politically stupid

Honestly, as an outside observer looking in with no horse in the race, I truly believe that they are as bad as each other. There are a few beacons of light in politics who I think genuinely want to correct a very corrupt system, but vast majority are a-okay to keep the system as it is. Bickering allows both sides to keep the status quo without meaningfully improving the lives of their constituents. Especially when voting for their constituents involves voting against that special lobby interest group that contributed over $400,000 to their campaign.
I know I sound cynical - honestly that is not my intent. But I do think that if we want to see real meaningful change for the every day US Joe and Mary, then we need to curb special interest and lobby groups in politics.

 

[dada_dave]

Honestly, as an outside observer looking in with no horse in the race, I truly believe that they are as bad as each other. There are a few beacons of light in politics who I think genuinely want to correct a very corrupt system, but vast majority are a-okay to keep the system as it is. Bickering allows both sides to keep the status quo without meaningfully improving the lives of their constituents. Especially when voting for their constituents involves voting against that special lobby interest group that contributed over $400,000 to their campaign.
I know I sound cynical - honestly that is not my intent. But I do think that if we want to see real meaningful change for the every day US Joe and Mary, then we need to curb special interest and lobby groups in politics.

Sorry if this comes off as acerbic but rather than being cynical I find it naive. Democrats are flawed but the “they’re just as bad as each other” is a lazy excuse and just baffling considering what’s happening.

 

[Chew Toy McCoy]

Honestly, as an outside observer looking in with no horse in the race, I truly believe that they are as bad as each other. There are a few beacons of light in politics who I think genuinely want to correct a very corrupt system, but vast majority are a-okay to keep the system as it is. Bickering allows both sides to keep the status quo without meaningfully improving the lives of their constituents. Especially when voting for their constituents involves voting against that special lobby interest group that contributed over $400,000 to their campaign.
I know I sound cynical - honestly that is not my intent. But I do think that if we want to see real meaningful change for the every day US Joe and Mary, then we need to curb special interest and lobby groups in politics.

That’s a major part of the problem. Right now we have the Democrats screaming “You must fight to preserve the system that has failed most of you for decades!” And this coming from a party that doesn’t have a recent track record of fighting for just about anything. At best they’ll either fold or get something passed that’s 1/10th of what was originally wanted or offered just to please those who would never vote for them anyway.

 

[tomO2013]

orry if this comes off as acerbic but rather than being cynical I find it naive. Democrats are flawed but the “they’re just as bad as each other” is a lazy excuse and just baffling considering what’s happening.

No problem - perhaps I am naive

However I’m not prone to making remarks or statements without some degree of research… if you can share data from a non-biased source to the contrary, I’d gratefully love to read/learn more. The only antidote to naivety is (truthful) information

So, against THAT backdrop, I made that statement about democrats and republicans being as bad as each other against the backdrop of some quick Google searches into political donations, which parties received the most donations, and how did they vote (or did the recipient evade voting when it came to picking the interests of his/her/their constituents over the group that bankrolled their political campaign).
This is what I found…
Top recipients of lobby groups in 2022:

Top Recipients of Contributions from Lobbyists, 2024 Cycle

These are the members who received the most from lobbyists who are also calling on congressional offices to influence policy.

www.opensecrets.org

Lobbying by sector :

Ranked Sectors

Health topped the list of economic sectors lobbied in 2024, with $378,598,017 total spent. See all economic sector totals.

www.opensecrets.org

No surprises there to see health, finance and realestate in the top 1 and 2 positions — probably the biggest areas affecting peole in areas such as homelessness, access to health care etc…

What I found is that apparently both parties accept huge numbers of donations from lobby interest groups and both parties have representatives that have avoided voting against lobby groups who have provided large donations…

I listed opensecrets because preliminary research into whether they were biased left or right, came back with a suggestion that they are very much Center weighted… something that I hope would act as a bridging ground for discussion

OpenSecrets.org Media Bias Rating

Learn the AllSides Media Bias Rating of OpenSecrets.org. AllSides rates the media bias of hundreds of news outlets, media sources and writers.

www.allsides.com

@dada_dave : help me be less naive I’m 100% open to being edu-macated (in a friendly way).

 

[dada_dave]

No problem - perhaps I am naive

However I’m not prone to making remarks or statements without some degree of research… if you can share data from a non-biased source to the contrary, I’d gratefully love to read/learn more. The only antidote to naivety is (truthful) information

So, against THAT backdrop, I made that statement about democrats and republicans being as bad as each other against the backdrop of some quick Google searches into political donations, which parties received the most donations, and how did they vote (or did the recipient evade voting when it came to picking the interests of his/her/their constituents over the group that bankrolled their political campaign).
This is what I found…
Top recipients of lobby groups in 2022:

Top Recipients of Contributions from Lobbyists, 2024 Cycle

These are the members who received the most from lobbyists who are also calling on congressional offices to influence policy.

www.opensecrets.org

Lobbying by sector :

Ranked Sectors

Health topped the list of economic sectors lobbied in 2024, with $378,598,017 total spent. See all economic sector totals.

www.opensecrets.org

No surprises there to see health, finance and realestate in the top 1 and 2 positions — probably the biggest areas affecting peole in areas such as homelessness, access to health care etc…

What I found is that apparently both parties accept huge numbers of donations from lobby interest groups and both parties have representatives that have avoided voting against lobby groups who have provided large donations…

I listed opensecrets because preliminary research into whether they were biased left or right, came back with a suggestion that they are very much Center weighted… something that I hope would act as a bridging ground for discussion

OpenSecrets.org Media Bias Rating

Learn the AllSides Media Bias Rating of OpenSecrets.org. AllSides rates the media bias of hundreds of news outlets, media sources and writers.

www.allsides.com

@dada_dave : help me be less naive I’m 100% open to being edu-macated (in a friendly way).

Yeah I’m sorry I’m posting sick so I’m a bit less charitable than I normally would be. By naive what I mean is that there is a comforting naivety in believing that both sides are bad so it doesn’t matter.

So first off, is the Democratic Party flawed and overly reliant on big donations? Yup! No disagreement. Such Democrats managed to buck their party and stop quite a few reforms over the years or as @Chew Toy McCoy wrote in negotiations with themselves weakening such reforms before even trying to negotiate with Republicans - a major no no in politics and business. Or on the left, trying to fight the good fight without a strategic clue of how to do it or a recognition of the practicalities of governance. So I regularly get pissed with just about every faction of the party. But the party platform as a whole is to try to reform the system - lobbying, campaign finance, and voter protection are key planks of the democratic platform. In contrast, blocking those are key planks of the Republican platform or would be if the Republicans still had one. Last presidential election they threw it out and declared the party platform to simply support Donald Trump.

So whatever flaws the Democrats may have and I’ll be happy to list more, they pale in comparison to the Republicans. If you want to research and read on why this is, read authors on how fascism takes over nations. How we let it happen. But truthfully you barely need to as this is happening right out in the open. To me what you’re doing is writing about something that is indeed a problem, but ignoring the much bigger elephant in the room, figuratively literally . Basically the Republicans are appealing to a further and further extreme that is frankly untethered to reality and often deliberately or cynically so. And they are even very upfront about it, often boasting even. “I could shoot someone on 5th avenue and not lose any votes” was largely true within the party - in fact probably would’ve gotten him more. They then tried to implement that and stop the peaceful transition of power and are continuing to lay the groundwork for doing so in the future with increased effectiveness. And again they are very upfront about it. If foreign fascism is too far afield, study the southern rhetoric and political strategies in the run up to the US Civil War. The similarities with the modern Republicans are becoming uncomfortable (ironic). And if you want to talk about corruption, boy was the politics in those days waaaaay more corrupt and controlled than today. But I still wouldn’t have said well both sides are equally bad when faced with that choice. It can happen here, truthfully it already did, and we’re in danger of it a second time.

This has been trending within the Republican Party for a very long time and started with people decades ago who might’ve been horrified by the end results of their actions (some of them) but nonetheless furthered it. Make no mistake we are in a very dangerous time for our democracy, which as imperfect as it is, is the only way or nation can heal its myriad imperfections.

That’s what I mean by a cynical naivety - reframing the issues as to ignore the fundamental while embracing the incidental (that’s a slight exaggeration I know) so as to appear worldly but not be. Now I gotta admit you are unique in that most of the time someone writes what you have the conclusions are made in the language of apathy or let them fight + the mixing of neutrality with objectivity as Elon tried to do (despite the fact that I doubt very much he would actually support Democrats in the same manner reversed - that’s what I meant by he’s wrong in the general sense also I think he’s lying). I’ll fully admit you didn’t write any of that, which I do find interesting, but can’t you see how easily the logic of your posts lends itself to any/all of those political philosophies?

 

[AG_PhamD]

I have no interest in Twitter. From my distant observations Twitter was a clusterfuck under previous management and evidently continues to be under Musk. And despite all the outrage about layoffs, it’s no shock when you have a company that’s so unprofitable.

As I said before, I think people have to wait and see what happens. I think there’s potentially some good ideas floating around to improve the platform. But Musks execution is atrocious.

I actually appreciate Twitter fact checking the president, but I can’t help but feel this is somewhat targeted. But perhaps this is what we should expect of all politicians.

As for the bans due to Elon Musk impersonation, it seems awfully petty to permanently ban someone over this. Especially on a free speech platform. That said I understand the concern.

I don’t actually think anyone becoming a verified user is a bad idea. But $7.99 needs to provide some level of value for the average user. It seems they should also have badges for things like politicians, journalists, artists, academics, etc at extra cost (except maybe academics). There’s so much talk about advertisers when in my mind the real advertisers are the high profile people who use this to disseminate whatever their “product” is.

This whole chaotic rollout of Musk’s new Twitter is pretty on brand for him. For example, he had a grand plan of basically fully automating car manufacturing and having robots build the robots that build the car. Every other manufacturer figured out decades ago you cannot automate everything.

Trial and error might work for the development of rocket ships but not for consumer products. There’s only so much experimentation you can do with customers before they get fed up.

Basically the Republicans are appealing to a further and further extreme that is frankly untethered to reality and often deliberately or cynically so

I would definitely agree their is a faction of radical republicans- particularly the election denial grifters- I assume most of them are smart enough to realize what they’re doing. Particularly the ones who have been in government for more than 5 minutes.

The problem is the democrats are appealing to an increasingly small demographic.

For the record, I’m a moderate independent and a bit of a centrist- you need to balance the two opposing forces in the country and the crazy ideas on either side hopefully balance each other out.

My biggest concern about the republicans taking over the house and senate is they will spend the next 2+ years laser focused on Hunter Biden while preventing any meaningful legislation from happening. It’s not like I think they have any solutions to many of the current issues.

 

[SuperMatt]

The problem is the democrats are appealing to an increasingly small demographic.

?

 

[Eric]

 

[shadow puppet]

Gerard Cohen is one of the Twitter employees who was let go by Musk. Kudos to him for taking the time to show praise to his coworkers and the people with him on the journey.

The is worth taking the time to read.

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1588584461398347777/