• wile_e8@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1023·
      1 year ago

      The thing about the “free speech” warriors was, it was never about free speech. If it was, they would respect platforms’ right to not host speech the don’t care for. No, what all the “free speech” warriors really wanted was “you have to listen to me”. Now, between this, and promoting blue checks to the top of everyone’s replies, any moderately famous left-of-center person is going to have the top of their replies populated by Elon fanboys spouting right-wing talking points and demanding a debate, whether anyone wants them there or not. Elon will love it, welcome to hell.

          • PizzasDontWearCapes@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
            111·
            1 year ago

            Tesla made BEVs mainstream, Starlink offers commercially affordable satellite Internet access in remote locations across the world, and SpaceX is a private company that reliably delivers cargo to space on rockets that land themselves to be reused, and crews that fly in the first manned craft created since the Space Shuttle.

            Plus all that Solar City home and business solar power generation and storage stuff that appears to work well.

            He’s a garbage person, but the companies that he’s led, outside of whatever this Twitter fiasco is, have done well.

            Twitter appears to be an Icarus moment for him where his ego took him somewhere he could get out of. Sadly, he could walk away from this $40B loss and be just fine.

            • neatchee@lemmy.worldEnglish
              661·
              1 year ago

              They were all on track to be profitable before he bought in. He didn’t found any of them

              • Wrench@lemmy.worldEnglish
                27·
                1 year ago

                Is that not the definition of a good business person, though? “I have money, I see opportunities that have huge upsides and need money. I invest money, see huge gains”

                It’s a game that is extremely exclusive to people who have tons of cash. But he has played it well up to this point.

                I say that as someone who hates Musk. And yes, these assholes have hugely inflated egos because they’re winning at a game that very few have the opportunity to play. But since they’re winning, they think they’re once in a generation geniuses.

                • neatchee@lemmy.worldEnglish
                  12·
                  1 year ago

                  I was refuting the claim that he “ran several startups”, because he didn’t. He is an investor and hype-man. Check with the people that have worked for him and you’ll find that whenever he showed up with “ideas” it was everyone’s responsibility to figure out how to appease his ego without harming the product.

                  The people who actually ran these startups don’t have their names remembered because musk kept all the glory for himself

                • themajesticdodo@lemmy.worldEnglish
                  13·
                  1 year ago

                  If you don’t value sustainability, then yes. (Pretend I’m giving you the thumbs up emoji to you here)

                • neatchee@lemmy.worldEnglish
                  34·
                  1 year ago

                  Sorry, no, I don’t have a citation for their internal projections before IPO lol. But in none of those cases did he come in and gut leadership; he just bought in to a company that was already well into development with a clear vision. He’s not a genius. He’s not a brilliant business strategist. He’s decent at marketing and hype, and he’s got pretty good vision for what things in the world will end up successful. But that’s it

                • givesomefucks@lemmy.worldEnglish
                  12·
                  1 year ago

                  A normal person has to break their backs on their own startup.

                  And right when you’ve made it, you have to decide whether you want a guaranteed check for millions, or risk it all for even more obsence wealth. And if you’re wrong, it’s too late to start over, it’s your only shot.

                  If you’re already wealthy, the choice is the same as buying a lottery ticket. Except if you’re wrong, you get to deduct the cost off taxes.

                  So when someone that was born wealthy and just kept writing those checks…

                  It doesn’t make them a good businessman, it just means they can afford to keep buying lottery tickets. Theirs just have way better odds.

            • Sundray@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
              12·
              1 year ago

              Twitter was his favorite website. He saw people he liked get banned. He was afraid of being banned himself. He bought it so he could never be banned. He didn’t have a firm plan beyond that, and he’s been flailing ever since. And whatever happens to X, he’ll be fine, if not quite as rich for a little while. shrug

            • Tar_alcaran@lemmy.worldEnglish
              101·
              1 year ago

              Really? And which companies are those? TBC isn’t doing shit, SpaceX floats about 40% on Starlink, which runs massively on venture capital. Twitter is ahahahaha.

              Tesla is the only company actually making a healthy (if falling) profit.

            • themajesticdodo@lemmy.worldEnglish
              66·
              1 year ago

              You’re a fucking idiot or a liar. Best open your mouth and confirm one way or the other, lest you be a fucking coward also.

        • xkforce@lemmy.worldEnglish
          30·
          1 year ago

          No he fucking isnt “a decent business person” The companies that he owns an interest in lost almost a trillion dollars of stock value, 200 billion of it his, due to his mismanagement being on full display.

        • wile_e8@lemmy.worldEnglish
          8·
          1 year ago

          I believe the strategy is “All my biggest supporters love it, therefore it will be great. Who cares what a few haters say?”

    • QubaXR@lemmy.worldEnglish
      29·
      1 year ago

      That’s because there is no strategy. There’s just an ego. Elon reached the point where he honestly believes himself to be the richest man on earth because he is the smartest man on earth. His ideas cannot be wrong. If something does not work it’s because others can’t comprehend his vision.

    • Ertebolle@kbin.social
      17·
      1 year ago

      He watched “The Producers” while on psychedelics and is now convinced that you can pull the same trick with any other business too

        • Ertebolle@kbin.social
          6·
          1 year ago

          It’s a classic, but make sure to watch the original Mostel/Wilder version rather than the Lane/Broderick musical as it’s 10x funnier.

          • neatchee@lemmy.worldEnglish
            7·
            1 year ago

            Hard disagree on 10x. The original is wonderful. But the remake is great too. Especially if you’re into musicals. You know it ran on Broadway with those two playing the characters for a long time before the movie, right?

            • Ertebolle@kbin.social
              42·
              1 year ago

              Yes, maybe it’s just me but the use of non-diegetic music in a film about a fake musical takes me out of the world of the film too much - none of the jokes quite work anymore.

              (and nothing against Broderick or Lane, it’s just that the original has two of the greatest comedians in the history of movies, directed by a third - it’s like Peter O’Toole losing out on the Oscar for “Lawrence” because he was up against Gregory Peck in “Mockingbird” that year)

              • neatchee@lemmy.worldEnglish
                41·
                1 year ago

                Definitely not an issue for me; I’m a musical theater kid. And I never said the original wasn’t better. Just that 10x claim is a bit of an exaggeration :)

                I think Broderick and Lane are both hilarious comedians as well (especially Lane, where Broderick is more of a total-package entertainer). It’s a different show for a different audience, for sure, but let’s not sell those two short, especially after the highly successful Broadway run. I mean, it was so successful on Broadway that they made it into a movie with a lot of overlapping cast (obviously not Wil Ferrell though. His performance was decent but I was not very happy with that casting choice)

                • Ertebolle@kbin.social
                  4·
                  1 year ago

                  Fair enough. Will Ferrell’s casting was terrible, but I wasn’t totally sold on the two of them for those roles either, maybe just because the original actors inhabited them so well - I saw the musical on stage with Brad Oscar as Bialystock and thought he did a better job bringing in that bombastic schemer Ralph Kramden element than Lane did (if maybe not quite possessing the same stage presence overall), and Broderick is just a touch too earnest and cool for Bloom.

    • partial_accumen@lemmy.worldEnglish
      8·
      1 year ago

      I think its strategy is just “temper tantrum”. Think of the neighbor kid that is annoying and maybe even a bully, but he has owns the only basketball in the neighborhood. He holds everyone else hostage to get his way.

        • partial_accumen@lemmy.worldEnglish
          2·
          1 year ago

          I don’t get the idea behind X. Laissez-faire free speech advocates are well prepared for an argument about the benefits of it, but as soon as its put into practice quickly run into the realities about the dark side: hate speech, exploitative content, terrorism conduit, usurping by propaganda organizations,etc. Its not like these lessons have to be learned firsthand. Online community management face these every single day and have made compromises to balance the needs for expression with the need to limit evil.

          Musk seems to have completely ignored all those that came before and can only learn the lesson by self inflicted wounds.

    • Arsenal4ever@lemmy.worldEnglish
      11·
      1 year ago

      Many places in the world use this as a comms platform. He controls a worldwide comms platform. We don’t even know what influence he’s selling in the world for access to this platform. He might be helping to block Chinese dissidents from using it, since most of his cars are built in China. We don’t know.

      We do know that SpaceX is worth 150 billion and Tesla is worth 716 billion.

      Controlling Twitter is worth so much since these are worldwide brands that impact policy worldwide. From space travel to electric charging infrastructure to wars – SpaceX gives Ukraine access to the Internet – which the US government pays for.

    • StenSaksTapir@feddit.dkEnglish
      13·
      1 year ago

      He’s a superstar among the Qanon segment, which I think is now the primary audience of the twitter.

      He also starred in a completely serious Rudy Giuliani biopic (it ends before the Four Seasons incident, I believe).

      • Meldroc@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        1 year ago

        IIRC, he played Hades in Hercules (the Disney movie). Basically method acting.

  • FoundTheVegan@kbin.social
    381·
    1 year ago

    Srsly Elon. Take your meds.

    Or not, Idc, your manical self sabotage isn’t healthy. However you are otherwise a huge POS even when you aren’t flip floppin around like a fish soooo…🍿🍿 🍿

  • Anonymousllama@lemmy.worldEnglish
    62·
    1 year ago

    Where’s the humor / comedy in this interaction? Is the punchline that Elon is being a pick again? Is “well why don’t you leave” supposed to be some kind of knee-slapping clap back?

    • afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      1 year ago

      Wow that reference takes me back. I find Dr. Mobius book btw. It was not as interesting as I thought it would be.

      The medium is the message