Elon Musk

try overmisunderestimating them

"I'm guessing they want it dismantled and diminished as it was a viable tool for the left to communicate, advocate and organize world wide (see Arab Spring and women's protests in Iran and many other countless movements and moments)."

The movements and protests that failed. Ok.

the Left can only win with pamphlets

Hey maybe I'm overly paranoid, but we underestimated Trump and Russia's impact on social media and its affects on democracy. But yeah perhaps I'll stick to the basketball and music threads here.

Post where you want. But I might ask a question or two. I mean, I thought Facebook took a bigger 'credit' for those uprisings. So why not shut it down as well?

If Musk was blackmailed into buying Twitter (with significant Saudi funding public), why would they let him try to get out of it?

xp Facebook is a reliable medium for disinformation.

I mean, so is every person on the planet earth, ime

Literally nothing about Musk's behavior at any point in this debacle suggests any kind of plan, on his part or anyone else's. I do think he was reacting to and agreed with right-wing troll critiques of Twitter and its "censorship," as he's repeatedly demonstrated he's simpatico with the 4chan view of the world. The Saudis obviously have some self-interest in influencing a potentially powerful communications medium, and that would make sense as a reason for them to buy in. But nothing about it seems organized or orchestrated, Musk seems like he's just been running on incoherent instinct and lazy contempt.

Don't forget the potential value in all the DMs and communications that could be shared to said "investors" as well.

Nobody’s pushing valuable state secrets on Twitter; that’s Discord territory

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/ron-desantis-presidential-bid-campaign-elon-musk-rcna85288

?

oh thank god - he's not running for president

needed a guy with even less charisma as a wingman

he found someone who will love him for who he is, not his wealth

https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/05/22/08/71259053-12110105-image-a-3_1684741522248.jpg

oh thank god - he's not running for president

If Musk was allowed to run we've have already lived through two terms of President Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Musk I think would get less votes per $ spent than Bloomberg

“Rin Di Santis”

Like that also confirms what I suspect is that Ron is the VC fascists’ choice for president.

Musk I think would get less votes per $ spent than Bloomberg

but ian miles cheong would vote for him. o hang on.

1/🚨 Dorsey is today pushing QAnon propaganda, derived from an apocryphal JFK quote that has also been used by Wikileaks, and which has religious origins. This is QAnon dog-whistling. https://t.co/oI4Q5B828S

— Dave Troy (@davetroy) May 24, 2023

6/This was the first time Jack has tweeted something new in months.

Elon made sure to amplify it with a “!” tweet. And it includes a link to this portrait of JFK. Pure QAnon nonsense, and full Jack/Elon axis in play. pic.twitter.com/FURur3GNq1

— Dave Troy (@davetroy) May 24, 2023

QAnon otm tbf.

Poling etc. "But.."

https://t.co/E2C52R6bNw pic.twitter.com/Wv413ktiIO

— Osita Nwanevu (@OsitaNwanevu) May 24, 2023

Skeptical that "the rest of the country" all know who Joe Rogan is.

it's "donald trump is a good businessman" all over again innit?

I dreamt last night that Musk was involved in some criminal scheme with Donald Trump in which they were somehow trafficking in stolen microprocessors(?) I think it was my mind attempting to reckon with how genuinely sinister a person or phenomenon he is, in light of his recent flood of anti-semitic conspiracy memes posting, his showcasing Tucker and Desantis, the arrogant rich guy "I don't have to pay these bills, what are you going to do sue me?" while putting lives in danger via fire code violations, etc. behaviors... as opposed to the habit of just thinking of him as being a gormless charmless fraud of sorts.

How is someone having that much money and power and fanbase, who is happy to inanely regurgitate qanon-ish nazi memes and just asking questions responses (or for that matter, Trump still supposedly being a viable presidential candidate in 2024...) possibly going to end well, for the country or the world at large?

Years ago when I first encountered his name regularly I ended up blocking it on Twitter because I was weary of hearing about him and people endlessly complaining about him/making fun of him... "Elon Musk". Somehow his name alone manages to be unpleasant. Then a couple years later I came to understand that he was a terrible person in a way that I hadn't previously realized. Now it just seems so much worse and I wish that everyone who were formally blue checks, back when blue checks meant something, the actual public figures/journalists/govt orgs who aren't the dilbert guy or whoever, would abandon the site en masse and let it rot as a Gab/Parler/TruthSocial-style backwater that he dumped billions into and tanked his reputation over.

remember when elon hosted an event to showcase an unbreakable car window and it immediately cracked. now imagine it was a human brain https://t.co/OeLEXAHcU6

— Law Boy (@The_Law_Boy) May 25, 2023

the people who are utterly terrified of the vaccine are gonna be first in line for this

the chip teaches you to be a very good Musk fanboy

the people who are utterly terrified of the vaccine are gonna be first in line for this

For some reason that Bill Hicks about the world feeling lighter already for having lost another idiot springs to mind.

I think reverse Midas touch Musk is the problem, not the tech or concept. This was just a few days ago and is super-cool/nuts:

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/may/24/paralysed-man-walks-using-device-that-reconnects-brain-with-muscles

A man who was paralysed in a cycling accident in 2011 has been able to stand and walk with an aid after doctors implanted a device that reads his brain waves and sends instructions to his spine to move the right muscles.

Gert-Jan Oskam, 40, was told he would never walk again after breaking his neck in a traffic accident in China, but has climbed stairs and walked for more than 100 metres at a time since having the operation.

“A few months ago, I was able, for the first time after 10 years, to stand up and have a beer with my friends,” said Oskam, who is from the Netherlands. “That was pretty cool. I want to use it in my daily life.”

(lol, the quote reads like he wants to use beer in his daily life, which I appreciate.)

That's not Musk's project though, like Tesla isn't the only electric car.

No, I know, that's what I meant. It's not the brain implanting that is the problem, it's Musk being behind his own version of it that raises (AI-augmented) eyebrows.

Maybe his direct competitors have conspired to keep him in the game? Like if he fails epically and publicly at everything he does, other folks doing the same things only need to have like a 60% success rate to look amazing in comparison. Create a self-driving car that only runs over every tenth toddler rather than every third, for instance.

Can't believe nobody has noticed that the announcement is from MUsk's company. This is the guy who said he had "verbal approval" from the government to build a hyperloop up the East Coast.

right and it doesn't really specify what exactly they've gotten clearance to test, in all likelihood it's just some non-invasive EEG prototype thing

Am I imagining it or has he subtly changed his affect lately to sound more thoughtful and circumspect?

Am I imagining it or has he subtly changed his affect lately to sound more thoughtful and circumspect?

Maybe he's got a factory making quaaludes again.

Am I imagining it or has he subtly changed his affect lately to sound more thoughtful and circumspect?

He didn’t just read the wiki summary of the Protocols, he studied them closely.

Concerning

It's not the brain implanting that is the problem

no i agree, but it's not Musk's version that is the success! But it's Musk's version the chuds will tolerate over the one that actually works

Well, if they get it and it drives them all to self-harm and suicide the way it did the apes, something good will have come from all this.

A familiar story when libertarians' bluffs are called:

BASTROP COUNTY, Tex. — Chap Ambrose has always been a fan of Elon Musk. He spent $100 to join the waiting list for Tesla’s first pickup in 2019 and bought internet service from Musk’s satellite provider.

But then the billionaire’s companies moved in next door to the computer programmer, who works from his rural, hilltop home.

Two years later, massive construction sites and large white warehouses have taken over the green pastures where cattle used to graze. Semis barrel up and down the narrow country roads. And the companies — rocket manufacturer SpaceX and tunneling company Boring — are seeking state permission to dump treated wastewater into the nearby Colorado River.
“I just have no faith that the leadership there values the environment and these shared resources,” said Ambrose, who leads a group of local residents pushing Musk’s companies to slow down and address concerns about the environmental risks of the development. “I would say, I’m still a fan (of Elon), but I want him to do better here and be a good neighbor.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/05/28/elon-musk-texas-spacex-boring-bastrop/

Judah Ross, a Bastrop real estate agent, said afterward that he went into the meeting feeling neutral about the issue but left opposed because he found the Boring consultant’s answers “evasive.”

Musk, he said, is building products that are “changing the world.”

“I love Elon, and we need more industry here,” Ross said. “I just don’t want him to dump his poop in the river.”

Again, it blows my mind that capitalist billionaires have “fans”.

I want to preface by saying that I love Elon and think he's a total sweetheart. I guess I just wish he'd stop systematically torturing and murdering my family members and subjecting me to an endless series of punishing medical experiments. Great guy otherwise, though, A+.

gotta say the man has a talent for making me hate him just a little bit more each day

🔥

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 29, 2023