Social Media Political Lens

[Alefroth]

LOFL.

The Twitterfiles are getting even more junior high.

[Isgrimnur]

Alefroth has it covered.

[Blackhawk]

[malchior]

He's clearly lost his mind. Just flailing out. What's galling to me is the papers published several stories about banning the reporters but just kept on tweeting from their mains. Weak.



Edit: And I wake up and they have booted Fox Business reporter Susan Li...who hasn't tweeted anything at all about Elonjet. It feels like he is just flexing. All the more reason the press should embargo Twitter.

[LordMortis]

Yay new public square! Where nothing is private from Elon's ear and where one lunatic decided he is the conch. It's not censorship and Jack doesn't even need to be empowered by his thugs to kill Simon.

[Carpet_pissr]

Edit:All the more reason everyone should embargo Twitter.

FTFY

[malchior]

Edit:All the more reason everyone should embargo Twitter.

FTFY

That's pretty much what is happening anyway. Today the rules were changed to say they could remove any linking to other social media sites and give them "free promotion". That included Facebook, Insta, Mastodon, Post and social media aggregators like linktr.ee and lnk.bio. LOL. Alright. They must be hemorrhaging users.

[Smoove_B]

Didn't he post earlier today that he was at the world cup with a shot of where he was seated (looking out into the stadium)? So doxxed his own location and then effectively Mxyzptlk'd himself, right?

[malchior]

Didn't he post earlier today that he was at the world cup with a shot of where he was seated (looking out into the stadium)? So doxxed his own location and then effectively Mxyzptlk'd himself, right?

He did. Of course he was also hanging with Kushmer and the Saudis.

[LawBeefaroni]

Didn't he post earlier today that he was at the world cup with a shot of where he was seated (looking out into the stadium)? So doxxed his own location and then effectively Mxyzptlk'd himself, right?

He did. Of course he was also hanging with Kushmer and the Saudis.

He's trying to unload Twitter shares at $54.20.
I bet Kushner was offering an over-leveraged Manhattan high rise part owned by Qataris.

Casting a wide bet for the bigger idiot(s). I hear sovereign wealth funds and Canadian/Californian pension funds are chumps.

[Holman]

Isn't there a national security risk in all this?

If Twitter collapses and Tesla keeps crashing, won't Musk be at risk of financial ruin as banks call in their loans? If that happens, the only people who'll be willing to step in to save him will be oligarchs or Middle-Eastern princes or CCP front-companies. They won't care about buying failing companies because they'll actually be buying Musk. And therefore, effectively, SpaceX.

[LordMortis]

And therefore, effectively, SpaceX.

And then it would be "Nice you companies you had there." Have a few billion in compensation as an expat. Get out.

[Holman]

This whole saga has me remembering the tens of thousands of words spent tongue-bathing Musk in places like Wait But Why.

I went back and looked at those articles, and they are completely cringeworthy. But what really stands out is something that I think is the core tenet of Musk worship: the willingness to believe that he has already done things he claims he wants to do.

You see it everywhere weird nerds defend Musk from valid criticism:

"Elon Musk builds rockets to Mars!" (No, he has not done that.)
"Elon Musk invented self-driving cars!" (No, and his application of that tech so far has proved ridiculously unsafe.)
"Elon Musk is revitalizing transportation!" (No, and the Boring Company seems mainly designed to thwart high-speed rail.)
"Elon Musk will save the world!" (No, and his embrace of so-called "effective altruisim" is little more than Ayn Rand 2.0.)
"Elon Musk transcends politics!" ([Checks Twitter feed])

[LordMortis]

"Elon Musk will save the world!" (No, and his embrace of so-called "effective altruisim" is little more than Ayn Rand 2.0.)

Wouldn't Rand actively write someone who has taken so much government subsidy and purchasing other's ideas to save the world as being the ultimate antagonist for her self made, chimney smokestack, by his own two hands, pride in all things great and small, reluctant protagonist to overcome? Musk should be Rand's vision of the absolute worst person on earth, beloved and empowered by fools and cartoonishly evil men who use the labor of others and government vanity to choose winners.

[Holman]

"Elon Musk will save the world!" (No, and his embrace of so-called "effective altruisim" is little more than Ayn Rand 2.0.)

Wouldn't Rand actively write someone who has taken so much government subsidy and purchasing other's ideas to save the world as being the ultimate antagonist for her self made, chimney smokestack, by his own two hands, pride in all things great and small, reluctant protagonist to overcome? Musk should be Rand's vision of the absolute worst person on earth, beloved and empowered by fools and cartoonishly evil men who use the labor of others and government vanity to choose winners.

Randianism is designed to justify selfishness, not to present a consistent set of rules.

Elon Musk is (was) the richest man in the world, therefore he *must* be a Galtian individualist free from the meddling interference of government or society.

[LordMortis]

That is not my memory of her novels. Her villains were wealthy and three dimensional and varied. My memory is that the worst of them were always the ones who seemed virtuous, were popular society darlings, and got their leg up and developed arrogance from subsidy of others mistaking that as their own achievement. She wrote a long piece on how she wouldn't give money even to family. The idea of taking it from government funding for any reason is the lowest of the low. Even using government to get carbon credits from other manufacturers is reason enough to be dismissed. That's the essence of Marxist evil masking itself as greater good.

Galt left to make the best burgers ever out of trailer to escape working for another sake or having them work for his and Roark would never even engage the idea of having his work tainted by political heads and legal strings. He'd go so far as to make sure his cars wouldn't be sold to anyone who would take a tax credit.

I do have to admit it's been 30 years since I've either her novels or non fiction.

[LordMortis]

Don't @me bro!

https://help.twitter.com/en/rules-and-p ... rms-policy

December 2022

Twitter is where the public conversation is happening, and where people from all over the globe come to promote their businesses, art, ideas, and more. We know that many of our users may be active on other social media platforms; however, going forward, Twitter will no longer allow free promotion of specific social media platforms on Twitter.

What is a violation of this policy?

At both the Tweet level and the account level, we will remove any free promotion of prohibited 3rd-party social media platforms, such as linking out (i.e. using URLs) to any of the below platforms on Twitter, or providing your handle without a URL:

Prohibited platforms:

Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon, Truth Social, Tribel, Post and Nostr

3rd-party social media link aggregators such as linktr.ee, lnk.bio

Examples: 

“follow me @username on Instagram”

“username@mastodon.social”

“check out my profile on Facebook - facebook.com/username”

Accounts that are used for the main purpose of promoting content on another social platform may be suspended. Additionally, any attempts to bypass restrictions on external links to the above prohibited social media platforms through technical or non-technical means (e.g. URL cloaking, plaintext obfuscation) is in violation of this policy. This includes, but is not limited to, spelling out “dot” for social media platforms that use “.” in the names to avoid URL creation, or sharing screenshots of your handle on a prohibited social media platform.

Example: “instagram dot com/username”

[Smoove_B]

I don't know how to interpret this other than he's actively trying to torpedo Twitter. Because the alternative is that one of the richest men on the planet has an ego as frail as candy glass.

[Max Peck]

I don't know how to interpret this other than that one of the richest men on the planet has an ego as frail as candy glass. Because the alternative is that he's actively trying to torpedo Twitter.

FTFY

[malchior]

Didn't he post earlier today that he was at the world cup with a shot of where he was seated (looking out into the stadium)? So doxxed his own location and then effectively Mxyzptlk'd himself, right?

He did. Of course he was also hanging with Kushmer and the Saudis.

He's trying to unload Twitter shares at $54.20.

That's sound business. Destroy tons of value and try to get par price.

[malchior]

The no linking to other social media policy? Gone already. People pointed out that it ran afoul of EU regulations with penalties of 20% of revenue. Lol.

[Defiant]

The twitter poll results are in. Unless he finds 11,780 votes or Mike Pence is brave enough, the majority of twitter voters think Musk should step down.

[LordMortis]

The no linking to other social media policy? Gone already. People pointed out that it ran afoul of EU regulations with penalties of 20% of revenue. Lol.

404 not found. I guess I should have quoted the whole thing for posterity instead of what stuck out to me.

It's almost like he acts on impulse and then decides if he was just kidding later.

[El Guapo]

Shouldn't Tesla fire Musk? Part of his value to the company was his 'tech wunderkind' brand that probably bought Tesla a lot of leeway with banks over the years. But he's pretty thoroughly destroyed his personal brand (except among the MAGA faithful) and seems like a huge dead weight for them now.

[LordMortis]

Shouldn't Tesla fire Musk? Part of his value to the company was his 'tech wunderkind' brand that probably bought Tesla a lot of leeway with banks over the years. But he's pretty thoroughly destroyed his personal brand (except among the MAGA faithful) and seems like a huge dead weight for them now.

TSLA is about to get new tax breaks for the X and Y. Their sales stall will open back up in January. As to the valuation of the company. It's always been Crypto. The idea that they were so ahead of the curve that they were worth more than all of other auto combined with forward earnings of 100+ times was always dumb and will be dumb again if they ever go that high again.

He's still a horrible figure head and should step down, but he won't. Even as he said he will. He hasn't even run Twitter poll on the subject.

[LawBeefaroni]

Shouldn't Tesla fire Musk? Part of his value to the company was his 'tech wunderkind' brand that probably bought Tesla a lot of leeway with banks over the years. But he's pretty thoroughly destroyed his personal brand (except among the MAGA faithful) and seems like a huge dead weight for them now.

He only stepped down as chairman because the SEC made him. He's still effectively the chairman as well as CEO.

Tesla's valuation has always been smoke and mirrors and Musk is the architect of all the BS. They can't really drop him even if they wanted to.

[Holman]

Polling shows that Tesla favorability has taken a huge hit with left-leaning consumers.

Right-leaning consumers largely approve, but how many of them are going to buy an eco-hippie electric car when there's still much of God's sweet gasoline to burn?

[malchior]

Polling shows that Tesla favorability has taken a huge hit with left-leaning consumers.

Right-leaning consumers largely approve, but how many of them are going to buy an eco-hippie electric car when there's still much of God's sweet gasoline to burn?

Little correction - the right approves a little more than they used to but still net disapprove. The cratering on the left matches up with some stories that the demand side has slumped for them which has been part of the stock's drastic decline.

[El Guapo]

Shouldn't Tesla fire Musk? Part of his value to the company was his 'tech wunderkind' brand that probably bought Tesla a lot of leeway with banks over the years. But he's pretty thoroughly destroyed his personal brand (except among the MAGA faithful) and seems like a huge dead weight for them now.

He only stepped down as chairman because the SEC made him. He's still effectively the chairman as well as CEO.

Tesla's valuation has always been smoke and mirrors and Musk is the architect of all the BS. They can't really drop him even if they wanted to.

RIght. Part of my point is that to some degree Tesla has accepted some periodic distractions / shenanigans from Musk in part because his brand / mystique was invaluable to the company - helped them get away with a lot of smoke and mirrors. But now the benefits of that are in tatters, because Musk has ruined his brand / mystique with most of the public. So...seems like the time to drop him.

[Holman]

Holy Shit.

[Zarathud]

You can’t fix stupid. That was stupid.

This genius fires his corporate PR teams at his companies because even the interns know better.

[Holman]

I wonder why Musk keeps signalling this way when he knows that his most dedicated stans will do the meme work for him with no cost to Tesla and other stock prices.

[LawBeefaroni]

You can’t fix stupid. That was stupid.

This genius fires his corporate PR teams at his companies because even the interns know better.

His legions of ass kissing sycophants help to insulate him from reality.

[Zaxxon]

You can’t fix stupid. That was stupid.

This genius fires his corporate PR teams at his companies because even the interns know better.

His legions of ass kissing sycophants help to insulate him from reality.

True, and he encourages his own echo chamber. But speaking as someone who's been in Tesla circles for many years, the last several months have caused a significant blowback within that community. There are still plenty of sycophants to go around, but the impact this is having on Tesla is... significant. And I don't mean the stock price.

[malchior]

I had a long discussion with my co-sister-in-law's father. He is very much in the market for an EV. He went out of his way to say it isn't about cancel culture but he couldn't buy one. We talked at length about the evidence of demand destruction at Tesla (all the incentives raining from the sky) and how we're now hearing stories about how people are refusing to take deliveries. It's nuts but what isn't nowadays.

[Kraken]

Da hell is a co-sister-in-law?

[malchior]

Da hell is a co-sister-in-law?

A brother-in-law's wife.

[Kraken]

Da hell is a co-sister-in-law?

A brother-in-law's wife.

Oh. Never heard that one. Since it's the same number of syllables and I suspect that you made it up, Imma stick with "BIL's wife."

[LordMortis]

Da hell is a co-sister-in-law?

A brother-in-law's wife.

Oh. Never heard that one. Since it's the same number of syllables and I suspect that you made it up, Imma stick with "BIL's wife."

If I needed to clarify that's what I would say. Otherwise I'd just say sister-in-law.

[malchior]

Jeez. I just found out Musk chose today to give Mike Flynn his account back. Musk is really reprehensible.