• Number1SummerJam@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    This was intentional, he and some wealthy donors wanted to tank the company to stop the spread of left wing populist movements like the Arab spring

    • Astroturfed@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      I really can’t believe that Elon is willing to make himself the heal and devalue his “brand” for this wild conspiracy theory shit. He’s just a narcissistic, autistic, wealthy, douchebag. It’s the obvious and most reasonable explanation. He’s so delusional he didn’t realize how horrible his ideas are.

      • MiltownClowns@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        Its likely that Musk was a useful idiot in this situation. He backed himself into a corner w/ his dumb tweets and ended up being on the hook for the purchase of twitter. Then he either needed to pay a billion dollar fine or buy twitter. Thats when arab oil money volunteered to fund his blunder likely because it was a win-win for them. They either make money off of the success if twitter gets better, have huge influence over trends if twitter remained the default information platform, or deter future expensive rebellions if twitter was decimated.

        Musk’s idiocy gave dictators their opportunity to deal a deft blow to their largest enemy, information, and he probably just thinks that he’s a genius who earned that investment.

      • 100_kg_90_de_belin @feddit.it
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        9 months ago

        His brand has reached cult status. He could snap newborn babies’ necks like twigs in Times Square and someone would praise him for his basedness.

    • BraveSirZaphod@kbin.social
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      9 months ago

      Do you have, like, evidence of this, or is it just plausible sounding vibes?

      I imagine Twitter being pretty left-leaning was one factor, but I think you also have to consider things like Elon simply being the world’s biggest egotist and also very stupid, and most banks being able to see that this would be a terrible investment.

        • null@slrpnk.net
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          9 months ago

          Damn, I’ve been keen to say this mindset is simply giving Elon too much credit, but this article drops some pretty strong bits and pieces indeed.

          Definitely feels like Elon is still bumbling through this “plan”, but the evidence is pretty damning.

          Interested to hear more takes on this article. Thanks for sharing!

          • grue@lemmy.world
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            9 months ago

            The best plans are the ones where you gain an advantage whether it succeeds or fails. For Musk’s fascist backers, him buying Twitter was such a plan: if he successfully turns it into a right-wing disinformation platform they win, and if he destroys it utterly they also win.

      • negativeyoda@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        Hanlon’s Razor

        None of us will know the full story for a long time, but it seems likely Elon was a useful idiot that his backers knew would be like letting a bull lose in a China shop. Not that Twitter was not problematic in a lot of ways, but its sort of decentralized communication did make things harder for despotic assholes for a bit

        • Uranium3006@kbin.social
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          9 months ago

          People act like twitter is somehow unique and irreplaceable. In reality with the rise of the fediverse breaking the network effect couldblet a genie out of the bottle they can’t put back: decentralized communication that isn’t beholden to corperate entities easily pressured by governments

        • badelf@lemmy.ml
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          9 months ago

          I believe you’re underestimating him. An idiot, he’s not. It all kind of fits with Musk rolling over on Ukraine. He always has some weak excuse for all his actions. Because the US public believes lies, he gets away with it.

      • Uranium3006@kbin.social
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        9 months ago

        It’s a theory that doesn’t make much sense to me. If he wanted to censor protests, blowing up twitter is counterproductive because now people will go elsewhere. Anyone can just make a website for $5/mo