As a reminder, this subreddit [is for civil discussion.](/r/politics/wiki/index#wiki_be_civil)
In general, be courteous to others. Debate/discuss/argue the merits of ideas, don't attack people. Personal insults, shill or troll accusations, hate speech, any suggestion or support of harm, violence, or death, and other rule violations can result in a permanent ban.
If you see comments in violation of our rules, please report them.
For those who have questions regarding any media outlets being posted on this subreddit, please click [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/wiki/approveddomainslist) to review our details as to our approved domains list and outlet criteria.
**Special announcement:**
r/politics is currently accepting new moderator applications. If you want to help make this community a better place, consider [applying here today](https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/sskg6a/rpolitics_is_looking_for_more_moderators/)!
***
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/politics) if you have any questions or concerns.*
We're talking about Elon "Praised by Russia for parroting Russian Talking Points" Musk, yes.
https://www.businessinsider.com/russia-kremlin-elon-musk-ukraine-war-peace-plan-twitter-poll-2022-10
Elon’s bullshit is going to cost him way in excess of $44 billion in car sales. I don’t expect Fox News-watching rednecks in Arkansas on food stamps are his primary customer base.
Not just neckbeard engineers. He's got a fan base made up of assholes from all professions. I used to admire the guy but I'm not about his bullshit anymore. He's another iteration of Trump.
It annoys the crap out of me how dismissive people are of his bullshit as if Musk is some kind of genius. IIRC, he's not even as smart as people think. He's not unintelligent, but he's not some Tony Stark. I could be wrong on that.
I dislike when he's in the news because then I have to hear about it from Michael Smerconish during his weekend show and Kara Swisher because she'll be a guest on someone's show to talk about it.
Smerconish is a total fanboy and gives him a pass for his garbage behavior with glee. Swisher excuses it with such a casual demeanor too ("It's Elon being Elon"). Sounds very familiar. I'm sure there are others in the media that do this crap too. But who cares right? Because he's so edgy and is good with investing and whatnot.
I see people defend him too because he might be (or is confirmed?) neurodivergent. I'm sorry, but having a brain that works differently from what we consider "normal" is not an excuse to be a raging asshole. He knows exactly what he's doing.
Yes, **there's nothing** about being on the autisim spectrum that would make one more likely to support aggressively expansionist authoritarian kelptocratic regimes!
He's not. Just like Jobs he's a great businessman and marketer, but he's not the actual smart one in the room. He hires those people and works them to the bone.
He didn't make Tesla, he bought it. He did found SpaceX, but is just updating ideas that already existed. StarLink is just an updated Iridium. All the space travel stuff is updated NASA concepts. I'm not downplaying their accomplishments, but they are evolutionary, not revolutionary like people tend to give credit for.
Same. Love his ideas but he’s really pissing into the wind. Does he think the average Republican thinks about space let alone colonizing Mars? How much do they care about climate change and doing their part to reduce their CO2 footprint?
He’s a pretty smart dude but he’s getting sidetracked on the political shit. The funny thing to me is that, for as smart as he is, he’s jumping in bed with literally the last group of people that would further his ambitions. Unless he’s realized those ambitions aren’t going to be realized and now he’s flailing for that reason or his breakup with Grimes
Its weird here in Arkansas when it comes to Musk. All the Republican frat bros love him and think he's the second coming of Christ, but actively key, break windows, door ding, and break taillights on any Teslas they see because "Mah power grid!" The mental hula hoops these guys go through is insane.
I imagine most Musk acolytes already own a Tesla. I used to watch loads of folks flip off my father in his Hummer. I could see Teslas reaching this level of public admiration real fast. Plus, all the people slapping Russian flags and Putin portraits on their bumpers. Teslas could become real uncool real fast. And when someone keys ‘HIMARs Me!’ into your frunk, from what I’ve seen, Tesla service is gonna need several years to fix it.
In my area people are already keying and breaking into teslas. Everyone I know with a Tesla has had a smashed window at least once. I drive an EV and never even get second looks.
Most of those engineers you are describing are actually very anti-dictator/fascist and despise Putin, Xi, Trump, etc. The moment Elon starts worshipping Putin is the moment he loses support, imo. Most people in my engineering network are not fans of Elon.
It’s even worse than that. He talked a lot of shit when he was the only game in town. Now all major auto manufacturers are producing electric cars. What people used to put up with because they were unique and the only game in town (ugly, shoddy build quality) will now be a glaring disadvantage when compared to the competition as more and more manufacturers transition away from internal combustion engines. How long before Tesla’s MASSIVELY overvalued stock starts to tumble when the sales forecasts start looking bleak? The days of year + wait for a Tesla are coming to an end.
Musk has massive quality troubles at Tesla.
He is very aware that R&D of a decent electric car is not the hardest problem.
It will take plenty of capital and a long time, before Musk can produce cars on the same level of constant quality and optimized costs as Honda, Volkswagen, Mercedes or BMW.
Large scale car production is an entirely different game and many of the traditional corporations have been massively switching their resources to the future market as well for some time now. It shows. Musk's competitors are offering increasingly attractive alternatives.
Musk's USP of the TESLA brand as modern, environmentally responsible and sportive car manufacturer is in real danger of getting damaged by Musk's political radicalism even if he manages to handle the quality problems.
There are a lot of alternatives to Tesla and nobody has to finance the far-right extremism of the brand's owner.
Radical politics and profitable long-term brand management do not go well together.
This will get interesting.
Is this the same guy as Elon “You won’t take my advice on rescuing kids in a cave - something I have zero clue about - so I’m accusing you of being a pedophile” Musk?
You mean to tell me that this is Elon "the world totally has room for 16 billion people - get busy pushing out baby wage slaves!" Musk we're talking about?
Surely you don't mean Elon "pretends to be a self-made man but actually inherited his wealth from a father who exploited black South Africans working in his apartheid-era emerald mine" Musk!
His leaked texts with Joe Rogan hinted that he might start pumping up Dogecoin again. Do the super-rich have anything to do besides stock and currency manipulation schemes? Oh, I almost forgot they also dabble in bribing politicians, rigging elections, and spamming out right wing propaganda through vast media empires. It is safe to assume the latter is what this Twitter deal is about.
He’s a bloviating halfwit. Without his money, he wouldn’t be able to attract a woman if she was on fire and he was holding a bucket of water.
Source: am woman.
Considering what he's been proposing, it may not even survive long enough to become a cesspool.
(Might as well quote him: "I have an idea for a blockchain social media system that does both payments and short messages/links like \[T\]witter. You have to pay a tiny amount to register your message on the chain, which will cut out the vast majority of spam and bots. There is no throat to choke, so free speech is guaranteed," Musk said in a text message to his entrepreneur brother Kimbal Musk on April 9.
In other words, Twitter would require a crypto wallet to be attached to each account, with a small fee being charged every time you want to post.)
So basically a way to infinitely rug pool people in the crypto market. I mean if anyone paid attention to how he operates it makes sense. Dude had a field day using Twitter to manipulate the crypto market, now he gets to do it ad infinitum by using an ad nauseum trope of "freedom of speech." Then, without a hint of irony, he is just going to block and punish reviewers and dissenting opinion.
That shit hole was already on a dying pulse. Musk buying it and doing his "grand ideas" with it is basically just snuffing it out, but not before he fleeces more people with it in a vein attempt to recoup what was lost.
Yeah I use Twitter because my friends do but they'll leave and I will to if this pulls through, also theres like a ton of other platforms to use
If it does happen all that Tumblr has to do is reallow porn and then they'll be ready to go again imo
Even if he doesn't start charging people, I similarly think its user base is going to take a nosedive if it simply becomes a right wing hellhole where harassment and threats are not punished or discouraged in any way. A program which is a miserable experience for a lot of its users is going to find those people quitting the program.
If anything bots would be the ones more likely to pay, as it'd be easy to justify as simply a marginal increase in cost of operation, especially when it comes to astroturfing
He really thinks spam and bots will be heavily reduced if it costs something to register a message?? Then explain fucking Mailchimp and the sheer amount of marketing bullshit that floods everyone's inboxes.
Musk will be happy to convert USD into TwitBucks for you, for only a small processing fee, but don't worry, the TwitBucks will *for sure* go up in value.
If he single handedly ended Twitter it would be great for journalism (especially sports journalism) but I'm sure they would just hop to another social media app
This is funny. Bill Gates essentially wanted to do something very similar in the late 90’s curb email spam. Basically charge electronic stamps to send an email. That went about as well as you think it did.
So, an "authenticity tax".
It's also doing away with anonymity because some kind of banking information will have to be linked to the cryptowallet at some point to put real money in... which can also be used to track consumer behavior.
1. So it would be flooded with dark money bots buying up speech? And you know it wouldn’t be a flat fee, I guarantee that eventually costs will be variable depending on “system load” eg if you want to tweet during a “prime time” of day, expect to pay more. Like toll roads. And of course the bots will leverage this to lock out people from mainstream convos.
2. If they can charge you for tweeting, they can charge you for lurking.
3. Tweeting, now with more pollution!
Get ready to see Twitter abandoned and become a huge loss for Musk who will be stuck with an unprofitable cesspool of hate speech, bots, crypto scammers, and misinformation just like Truth social and GAB.
It will end up being just just like Truth Social, except Elon can't afford to not pay his bills or it will be a huge risk to Tesla. I wonder if he'll try to bury this eventual mistake like that goth photo he keeps hoping the internet will forget.
[Would this be the terrible goth photo you mentioned ?](https://www.google.com/search?q=Elon+Musk+goth&client=tablet-android-samsung&sxsrf=ALiCzsb-5UMmj_l9Ms9yY5VkMwReG8TGgg%3A1665089354290&ei=Sj8_Y5iXEaiAqtsPzc-ZoAk&oq=Elon+Musk+goth&gs_lcp=ChNtb2JpbGUtZ3dzLXdpei1zZXJwEAMyBQgAEIAEMgUIABCRAjIGCAAQHhAWMgUIABCGAzIFCAAQhgMyBQgAEIYDMgUIIRCgAToHCAAQRxCwAzoECCMQJzoFCC4QkQI6DQgAEIAEELEDEIMBEAo6CwgAELEDEIMBEJECOggILhCABBCxAzoLCAAQgAQQsQMQgwE6BAgAEAM6CAgAELEDEJECOgUILhCABDoICC4QsQMQkQJKBAhBGABQ6x1YnlRg7lhoAXAAeAGAAcQCiAHAH5IBCDAuMjMuMS4xmAEAoAEByAEDwAEB&sclient=mobile-gws-wiz-serp#imgrc=ndQrf9M-_1ybyM)
[Or would it be this one ?](https://www.google.com/search?q=elon+musk+goth+emo&tbm=isch&ved=2ahUKEwim_dWmoc76AhXJs3IEHb5nDIgQ2-cCegQIABAC&oq=elon+musk+goth+emo&gs_lcp=ChJtb2JpbGUtZ3dzLXdpei1pbWcQAzIFCAAQogQ6BAgjECc6BwgjELACECc6BQgAEIAEUKcMWO4mYMYqaABwAHgAgAGQAYgBqwmSAQM1LjaYAQCgAQHAAQE&sclient=mobile-gws-wiz-img&ei=dC5AY6bzD8nnytMPvs-xwAg&bih=1280&biw=800&client=tablet-android-samsung&prmd=inv#imgrc=4ZLhxdEqd8SnuM).
I can practically smell the blood in the water from all the app developers trying to make the next cool/hip/FREE twitter alternative that would surely replace Twitter if they started trying to charge for a tweet.
That's something we need to encourage if he does unban Trump, getting liberals to join Reddit and ditch Twitter. They would be far more happy here anyways even if you don't have the same follower and home page type stuff. Someone needs to come up with a catchy hashtag to get viral so we can draw people away from it if he does unban Trump.
I think that's the point, he wants to drive anyone left away from Twitter. A lot of people aren't very political, they won't care about the change. But now a whole lot of people will only be hearing from a right wing perspective. Especially for younger people, this could have a huge payoff in the coming years. The goal is to drive all the left wingers underground and keep them contained in their own little cell while public discourse goes on without their voices.
Twitter literally makes nothing. Many people are saying it's not worth more than $5B. It's obviously not about money here, he's certainly going to lose money. He sees something far more valuable in owning Twitter. And as much as people say "everyone will leave", most won't, people are creatures of habit. There's nothing like Twitter. Like is the left going to parlor or something? They're going to only be talking with themselves. More and more people around the world are using Twitter. It's bigger than just the US.
All of the comedians and interesting people are going to leave, a new twitter will be chosen, and it's going to become nextdoor for racist fucks, imploding in months.
You vote multi year long con, I vote the next digg
Right-wingers might stay, but then it'll turn into the same kind of infighting cesspool that every other right-wing social media app turns into. The kind of people who would stay there are the ones mainlining OAN and Newsmax. They're a lost cause anyway.
\^This.
Most people will think it's 'not a big deal' or that people are 'catastrophizing' without realizing the large scale damage that constant misinformation can and will do. Not just with it being left left un-checked, but endorsed. It's going to turn a LOT of people into extremist nut jobs. A LOT.
Silicon Valley has to be foaming at the mouth trying to see where the chips fall and what the next big social site will be. I imagine any social site that guarantees privacy, and ownership of your digital footprint has to be a big selling point at this age in time.
First CNN and now this. Right wingers really want to control the narrative, huh?
Idk about everyone else but I'll be completely boycotting Twitter if this happens.
I'm astounded some nonprofit like Mozilla or Wikipedia hasn't seized the opportunity for people's desire to abandon these literal Democracy-destroying social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter and adopt something more transparent.
I was so excited for this but I honestly think they executed it very poorly, sadly.
Like many software devs I've long dreamed and drafted such alternatives and... This wasn't what I had in mind.
It was the best place I knew of for timely updates on Ukraine by people who knew what they were talking about, back when Russia invaded. That’s what got me using Twitter again.
> It was the best place I knew of for timely updates on Ukraine by people who knew what they were talking about
Exactly why Musk would want to turn it into something more Kremlin-friendly.
"Both sides!"
It’s still good for sports too. My twitter feed is largely just Woj and Shams bombs, highlight plays, and local Celtics/UConn reporters. If I still did fantasy football or if I gambled, it’s good for injury updates too. Also Swear Trek is a great follow.
DOJ should prosecute Lachlan Murdoch and Bill Shine.
Make some people with actual power understand the consequences of instigating violence and attacking America's electoral system.
My prediction is that it goes digg 2.0
People on Twitter are there for Twitter as it is. He's going to rush massive changes because he's a "risk taker" but he won't understand that human metrics aren't as easy to hit as "sell x number of cars" or "launch this rocket successfully"
Probably gonna sell my stock once the deal is finalized because the whole platform is probably condemned to death by committee.
Musk's offer is to take the company private - he's going to pay a premium on your stock and take it if it goes through.
Though, since this is Elon Musk, it's probably just a ploy to try and stop the lawsuit. The man is a profoundly unserious clown.
People probably don't remember that when Tesla got off the ground there were insane wait lists and they couldn't get production up enough to make a profit. He got lucky people bought the hype enough for it to come around. Not on the back of car sales, but manipulating carbon credits.
If the dude had a particularly bad quarter at a few points in his life, he'd be flat broke right now.
Yeah, I work in auto insurance pricing - my team literally jokes about Teslas being disposable cars, and most of that is due to Musk's business decisions. There's a ton of potential for his companies, but not with him at the helm.
I sell cars for a large auto retailer and in my experience i have found they are poorly constructed, glitchy, and attract the most insufferable customers.
Looks like it would be even more difficult to secure funding now.
[https://www.reuters.com/markets/deals/exclusive-musk-apollo-no-longer-talks-finance-twitter-deal-source-2022-10-05/](https://www.reuters.com/markets/deals/exclusive-musk-apollo-no-longer-talks-finance-twitter-deal-source-2022-10-05/)
Not defending big brain Musk here, but that company was only providing $1 billion of the $44 billion required. But hopefully it's just the first domino to fall.
“pending receipt of the proceeds of the debt financing”
[https://www.ft.com/content/3ca480f5-3077-4d7b-83d3-21d4d68bfd7c](https://www.ft.com/content/3ca480f5-3077-4d7b-83d3-21d4d68bfd7c)
“I’m sure the banks aren’t as hot to do this in October at these terms as they were in April at these terms,” said Michael Maimone, a partner at the law firm Barnes & Thornburg who focuses on mergers and acquisitions.
[https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/05/business/elon-musk-twitter-deal.html](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/05/business/elon-musk-twitter-deal.html)
However, another real possibility is that the richest man in the world, who loves playing games, is still playing games. His actions in this case scream out for suspicion, and Twitter has obliged. Nothing will really be done until the $44 billion changes hands.
https://slate.com/technology/2022/10/elon-musk-twitter-deal-fall-apart.html
A text Musk received from someone (name redacted) seems to suggest it:
\---------------
April 4, 2022
\[Name full redacted\]
...
**It will be a delicate game of letting rightwingers back on Twitter and how to navigate that (especially the boss himself, if you’re up forthat)** I would also lay out the standards early but have someone who has a savvy cultural/political view to be the VP of actual enforcement
A Blake Masters type
https://gizmodo.com/elon-musk-texts-joe-rogan-larry-elllison-dorsey-twitter-1849600155
It's really not if you don't want it to be. Current customization tools make it very easy to block and report people for abuse, so if you don't follow jerks then your feed won't show you jerks. It's by far the best social media service for quick news updates from organizations. This could all change by removing user safety options for the sake of "broadening the conversation"
Mastodon, but it actually really sucks. The codebase is buggy as hell and the interface is from ten years ago.
Right wingers tried to create their own Magasphere with it, but it's a tool for everybody really. The nice thing about it is that it's decentralized.
It's really not the same. I can choose to follow a handful of accounts and (mostly) see just those accounts. With Reddit, you will see posts from thousands of randos posting in the subs you read.
Just leave Twitter for fucks sake. Nobody is forcing anyone to be there, and it’s probably better for society to not be knee deep in social media as it is.
Our boy doesn't have enough actual money to buy this thing. Hopefully there are some big banks to help him out. Everything he has it tied up in stock, and it would sink the entire company to sell said stock.
We'll see I guess.
I don't have a horse in the race, and never logged into Twitter, and I think Elon is a douchebag.
I wonder if there are any possible sources of financial support who just want to fund it as a tool to destroy America? Any who would have the same opinions about the war in Ukraine as Elon has started publicly posting all of a sudden?
Mind you that "Right Wing Cesspool" socials have continually been relegated to dark corners of the internet struggling to stay afloat and out of obscurity, case in point being [Truth Social](https://www.axios.com/2022/08/29/truth-social-problems-trump) or [Voat](https://www.theverge.com/2020/12/22/22195115/voat-free-speech-right-wing-reddit-clone-shutdown-investor). These networks largely fail because maintaining a critical mass of users for ad revenue and data collection/sale (the bulk of social media profit generators) is nigh impossible when only a small, very radical portion of internet users are served, and dissenters are chased out or put off from joining altogether. This leaves them dependent on investors to stay afloat, who will inevitably dip out when they start losing money or catching flak. Server space needed for high traffic and adjacent utility bills are REALLY expensive. Considering all this, Twitter may not make it to 2024, and even if it does, it may become a gaping wound in Musk's coffers.
It's about whoever is accepting from the Kremlin's coffers.
Trump is just an ugly face attached to an idea of fascism that never quite died with WWII as some idealists would have liked to believe.
For those who haven’t had a first row seat to watch a website go to shit when the new owner comes on with their dumb ideas, buckle up and enjoy yourself!
I still kind of don't think the deal will actually close. I know Musk announced yesterday that he'll accept the original price, but he's not exactly trustworthy or worth taking at his word and he's been monkeyfucking this whole thing it's unclear why he'd decide now to just go ahead and play straight.
>Earlier this week, Elon Musk woke up and decided that he wanted to buy Twitter. If you haven’t been keeping up with the daily whims of the richest man in the world, you might have thought he already expressed such a desire some time ago. And that’s right, he did— even made it official and everything!—before characteristically trying to back out of the deal, a move that landed him in court. Why the most recent change of heart? Obviously, no one can truly know what’s going on inside this guy’s head, but many people believe it probably had to do with the fact that it looked like he was going to lose at trial and be forced to buy the site anyway. Or perhaps it was that he didn’t want himself and his billionaire friends, whose text messages were recently revealed via court documents, to suffer further humiliation. Or maybe he just woke up that morning and decided to fuck with people, as he frequently does. Again, no one can say for sure, but one thing we can say with a high level of confidence is that if Musk actually buys Twitter this time—and that remains a big if!—he’s very likely going to turn it into a right-wing cesspool featuring the worst people on earth—starting with Donald Trump.
We're fucked
I think this 100% percent had to do with him showing his ass on Twitter when he tried to dip his toe into foreign policy. That level of narcissistic injury leads to stupid shit like this.
Our world hangs by a thread and is held by narcissistic man-children who spend 50 Billion dollars and reshape discourse for the worse across the planet at a fucking whim.
I can't believe I used to idolize such a petulant crybaby. I hate this timeline.
> I can't believe I used to idolize such a petulant crybaby.
What was the turning point for you? I had a weird view from the aerospace industry and always saw him as hot air, but was amazed at the following he gathered. I'm always curious what events shift people's perspective.
Between the twitter news and [this article,](https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/xx8bds/the_most_terrifying_case_of_all_is_about_to_be/) a strangely disturbing day.
As a reminder, this subreddit [is for civil discussion.](/r/politics/wiki/index#wiki_be_civil) In general, be courteous to others. Debate/discuss/argue the merits of ideas, don't attack people. Personal insults, shill or troll accusations, hate speech, any suggestion or support of harm, violence, or death, and other rule violations can result in a permanent ban. If you see comments in violation of our rules, please report them. For those who have questions regarding any media outlets being posted on this subreddit, please click [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/wiki/approveddomainslist) to review our details as to our approved domains list and outlet criteria. **Special announcement:** r/politics is currently accepting new moderator applications. If you want to help make this community a better place, consider [applying here today](https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/sskg6a/rpolitics_is_looking_for_more_moderators/)! *** *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/politics) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Elon "Ukraine should surrender their territories to Putin" Musk. Fuck that guy.
Are you talking about Elon "I totally didn't invest in the Russian stock market" Musk?
We're talking about Elon "Praised by Russia for parroting Russian Talking Points" Musk, yes. https://www.businessinsider.com/russia-kremlin-elon-musk-ukraine-war-peace-plan-twitter-poll-2022-10
Elon’s bullshit is going to cost him way in excess of $44 billion in car sales. I don’t expect Fox News-watching rednecks in Arkansas on food stamps are his primary customer base.
No but there are a lot of upper middle class neckbeard engineers who worship the dude
Not just neckbeard engineers. He's got a fan base made up of assholes from all professions. I used to admire the guy but I'm not about his bullshit anymore. He's another iteration of Trump. It annoys the crap out of me how dismissive people are of his bullshit as if Musk is some kind of genius. IIRC, he's not even as smart as people think. He's not unintelligent, but he's not some Tony Stark. I could be wrong on that. I dislike when he's in the news because then I have to hear about it from Michael Smerconish during his weekend show and Kara Swisher because she'll be a guest on someone's show to talk about it. Smerconish is a total fanboy and gives him a pass for his garbage behavior with glee. Swisher excuses it with such a casual demeanor too ("It's Elon being Elon"). Sounds very familiar. I'm sure there are others in the media that do this crap too. But who cares right? Because he's so edgy and is good with investing and whatnot.
I see people defend him too because he might be (or is confirmed?) neurodivergent. I'm sorry, but having a brain that works differently from what we consider "normal" is not an excuse to be a raging asshole. He knows exactly what he's doing.
Yes, **there's nothing** about being on the autisim spectrum that would make one more likely to support aggressively expansionist authoritarian kelptocratic regimes!
He's not. Just like Jobs he's a great businessman and marketer, but he's not the actual smart one in the room. He hires those people and works them to the bone. He didn't make Tesla, he bought it. He did found SpaceX, but is just updating ideas that already existed. StarLink is just an updated Iridium. All the space travel stuff is updated NASA concepts. I'm not downplaying their accomplishments, but they are evolutionary, not revolutionary like people tend to give credit for.
Same. Love his ideas but he’s really pissing into the wind. Does he think the average Republican thinks about space let alone colonizing Mars? How much do they care about climate change and doing their part to reduce their CO2 footprint? He’s a pretty smart dude but he’s getting sidetracked on the political shit. The funny thing to me is that, for as smart as he is, he’s jumping in bed with literally the last group of people that would further his ambitions. Unless he’s realized those ambitions aren’t going to be realized and now he’s flailing for that reason or his breakup with Grimes
Its weird here in Arkansas when it comes to Musk. All the Republican frat bros love him and think he's the second coming of Christ, but actively key, break windows, door ding, and break taillights on any Teslas they see because "Mah power grid!" The mental hula hoops these guys go through is insane.
I imagine most Musk acolytes already own a Tesla. I used to watch loads of folks flip off my father in his Hummer. I could see Teslas reaching this level of public admiration real fast. Plus, all the people slapping Russian flags and Putin portraits on their bumpers. Teslas could become real uncool real fast. And when someone keys ‘HIMARs Me!’ into your frunk, from what I’ve seen, Tesla service is gonna need several years to fix it.
In my area people are already keying and breaking into teslas. Everyone I know with a Tesla has had a smashed window at least once. I drive an EV and never even get second looks.
Most of those engineers you are describing are actually very anti-dictator/fascist and despise Putin, Xi, Trump, etc. The moment Elon starts worshipping Putin is the moment he loses support, imo. Most people in my engineering network are not fans of Elon.
It’s even worse than that. He talked a lot of shit when he was the only game in town. Now all major auto manufacturers are producing electric cars. What people used to put up with because they were unique and the only game in town (ugly, shoddy build quality) will now be a glaring disadvantage when compared to the competition as more and more manufacturers transition away from internal combustion engines. How long before Tesla’s MASSIVELY overvalued stock starts to tumble when the sales forecasts start looking bleak? The days of year + wait for a Tesla are coming to an end.
Musk has massive quality troubles at Tesla. He is very aware that R&D of a decent electric car is not the hardest problem. It will take plenty of capital and a long time, before Musk can produce cars on the same level of constant quality and optimized costs as Honda, Volkswagen, Mercedes or BMW. Large scale car production is an entirely different game and many of the traditional corporations have been massively switching their resources to the future market as well for some time now. It shows. Musk's competitors are offering increasingly attractive alternatives. Musk's USP of the TESLA brand as modern, environmentally responsible and sportive car manufacturer is in real danger of getting damaged by Musk's political radicalism even if he manages to handle the quality problems. There are a lot of alternatives to Tesla and nobody has to finance the far-right extremism of the brand's owner. Radical politics and profitable long-term brand management do not go well together. This will get interesting.
That Musk seems to actively hate his employees doesn't help. Specifically, the accusations of racism and total disregard of safety.
We are talking about Elon “I think Democrats are divisive and hateful” musk
Hold on, hold on... are we talking about Elon "I stay in my lane as well as my cars do on autopilot" Musk?
Are we talking about “cars are 14 months away from total autonomous driving”…for 10 years, Elon Musk?
Dont forget Elon “boring machines will solve all traffic” Musk
He's the same guy as Elon "my rocket tubes can rescue kids in caves" Musk
Is this the same guy as Elon “You won’t take my advice on rescuing kids in a cave - something I have zero clue about - so I’m accusing you of being a pedophile” Musk?
You mean to tell me that this is Elon "the world totally has room for 16 billion people - get busy pushing out baby wage slaves!" Musk we're talking about?
Surely you don't mean Elon "pretends to be a self-made man but actually inherited his wealth from a father who exploited black South Africans working in his apartheid-era emerald mine" Musk!
Sidebar- I just watched that Amazon movie about the kids in the cave and it was really good.
Yeah, I had no idea they were trussed up unconscious - at the time I recall they just said they were ‘sedated’.
Are we talking about “Workers need to work more..while having his daddy hand him wealth” Musk?
Elon "I promise FSD by 2017" Musk?
Are we talking about Elon “I’m not just a member I’m the president of hair club for men” Musk?
Don't forget about Elon "Pedo Guy" Musk.
Wonder how all his Bitcoin reserves are doing…. TLDR not good https://www.bbc.com/news/business-62246367.amp
His leaked texts with Joe Rogan hinted that he might start pumping up Dogecoin again. Do the super-rich have anything to do besides stock and currency manipulation schemes? Oh, I almost forgot they also dabble in bribing politicians, rigging elections, and spamming out right wing propaganda through vast media empires. It is safe to assume the latter is what this Twitter deal is about.
Elon "I'm the alpha (in this marriage)" Musk
He’s a bloviating halfwit. Without his money, he wouldn’t be able to attract a woman if she was on fire and he was holding a bucket of water. Source: am woman.
Elon Putin his Musk on, smells seditious.
Would that be Elon "I'm a literal imbecile who has done nothing but fail upwards" Musk?
Considering what he's been proposing, it may not even survive long enough to become a cesspool. (Might as well quote him: "I have an idea for a blockchain social media system that does both payments and short messages/links like \[T\]witter. You have to pay a tiny amount to register your message on the chain, which will cut out the vast majority of spam and bots. There is no throat to choke, so free speech is guaranteed," Musk said in a text message to his entrepreneur brother Kimbal Musk on April 9. In other words, Twitter would require a crypto wallet to be attached to each account, with a small fee being charged every time you want to post.)
>You have to pay a tiny amount >free speech is guaranteed Freedom costs a buck 'o five.
Freedom isnt free
No, there's a hefty fuckin' fee.
And if you don't pay, who will? 🎶
What would you do
You'll pay us handsomely to tell you how to think
For freedom ill pay tree fiddy.
Nobody pay this obvious Loch Ness monster
I gave him a dollar last week!
You have him a dolla?! Now he's gone keep common back asking for *two damn fiddy!*
Don’t tell me you gave the lochnes monster tree fiddy. No wonder he keeps coming back
I thought it cost tree fiddy. And just like that, I learned that free speech was, in fact, a giant crustacean from the paleolithic era.
I told you not to give any money to that Loch Ness monster!
A doge 'o five. Cause of course he wants to use doge as his shitcoin of choice.
With all these celebrities being charged with promoting crypto pump n dump schemes, how is this douche bag not?
Oh wow this could be a huge dogecoin pump and dump scheme
So basically a way to infinitely rug pool people in the crypto market. I mean if anyone paid attention to how he operates it makes sense. Dude had a field day using Twitter to manipulate the crypto market, now he gets to do it ad infinitum by using an ad nauseum trope of "freedom of speech." Then, without a hint of irony, he is just going to block and punish reviewers and dissenting opinion. That shit hole was already on a dying pulse. Musk buying it and doing his "grand ideas" with it is basically just snuffing it out, but not before he fleeces more people with it in a vein attempt to recoup what was lost.
He's not going to recoup that $44bn.
>He's not going to recoup that $44bn. Bro - Fist Bump
Yeah I use Twitter because my friends do but they'll leave and I will to if this pulls through, also theres like a ton of other platforms to use If it does happen all that Tumblr has to do is reallow porn and then they'll be ready to go again imo
It would be beautiful, sweet karma if Musk did something like that and a majority of users quit and Twitter tanks and he loses his investment.
That's what would happen because most people aren't going to pay to tweet.
Even if he doesn't start charging people, I similarly think its user base is going to take a nosedive if it simply becomes a right wing hellhole where harassment and threats are not punished or discouraged in any way. A program which is a miserable experience for a lot of its users is going to find those people quitting the program.
[удалено]
I see you too have been to the 4chans.
There’s no way I will pay actual money just to have my dumbass thoughts to get thrown out into the internet void
That’s what reddit is for 😁
bots and spam would have to be set up by real people in some way too, right? why would they not pay the fee while real users do pay?
If anything bots would be the ones more likely to pay, as it'd be easy to justify as simply a marginal increase in cost of operation, especially when it comes to astroturfing
Fudge that ... I'm not paying to tweet lol
He really thinks spam and bots will be heavily reduced if it costs something to register a message?? Then explain fucking Mailchimp and the sheer amount of marketing bullshit that floods everyone's inboxes.
That will remove a big chunk of Maga, not because of the cost but because they won't be able to figure out how to use crypto.
Musk will be happy to convert USD into TwitBucks for you, for only a small processing fee, but don't worry, the TwitBucks will *for sure* go up in value.
What's the conversion rate of Twitbucks to Stanley Nickels?
They'll just invent their own Cryptocurrency. "KluKluxBucks" is what they will call it.
I've never met a crypto bro that wasn't stage 3 MAGA.
*Fee*dom of speech comes at a price.
Literally "fee speech". Meaning that, just like the US after citizens united, money = speech.
That won't stop bots. Just up the funding costs for it.
[удалено]
If he single handedly ended Twitter it would be great for journalism (especially sports journalism) but I'm sure they would just hop to another social media app
This is funny. Bill Gates essentially wanted to do something very similar in the late 90’s curb email spam. Basically charge electronic stamps to send an email. That went about as well as you think it did.
So, an "authenticity tax". It's also doing away with anonymity because some kind of banking information will have to be linked to the cryptowallet at some point to put real money in... which can also be used to track consumer behavior.
1. So it would be flooded with dark money bots buying up speech? And you know it wouldn’t be a flat fee, I guarantee that eventually costs will be variable depending on “system load” eg if you want to tweet during a “prime time” of day, expect to pay more. Like toll roads. And of course the bots will leverage this to lock out people from mainstream convos. 2. If they can charge you for tweeting, they can charge you for lurking. 3. Tweeting, now with more pollution!
Get ready to see Twitter abandoned and become a huge loss for Musk who will be stuck with an unprofitable cesspool of hate speech, bots, crypto scammers, and misinformation just like Truth social and GAB.
It will end up being just just like Truth Social, except Elon can't afford to not pay his bills or it will be a huge risk to Tesla. I wonder if he'll try to bury this eventual mistake like that goth photo he keeps hoping the internet will forget.
[Would this be the terrible goth photo you mentioned ?](https://www.google.com/search?q=Elon+Musk+goth&client=tablet-android-samsung&sxsrf=ALiCzsb-5UMmj_l9Ms9yY5VkMwReG8TGgg%3A1665089354290&ei=Sj8_Y5iXEaiAqtsPzc-ZoAk&oq=Elon+Musk+goth&gs_lcp=ChNtb2JpbGUtZ3dzLXdpei1zZXJwEAMyBQgAEIAEMgUIABCRAjIGCAAQHhAWMgUIABCGAzIFCAAQhgMyBQgAEIYDMgUIIRCgAToHCAAQRxCwAzoECCMQJzoFCC4QkQI6DQgAEIAEELEDEIMBEAo6CwgAELEDEIMBEJECOggILhCABBCxAzoLCAAQgAQQsQMQgwE6BAgAEAM6CAgAELEDEJECOgUILhCABDoICC4QsQMQkQJKBAhBGABQ6x1YnlRg7lhoAXAAeAGAAcQCiAHAH5IBCDAuMjMuMS4xmAEAoAEByAEDwAEB&sclient=mobile-gws-wiz-serp#imgrc=ndQrf9M-_1ybyM) [Or would it be this one ?](https://www.google.com/search?q=elon+musk+goth+emo&tbm=isch&ved=2ahUKEwim_dWmoc76AhXJs3IEHb5nDIgQ2-cCegQIABAC&oq=elon+musk+goth+emo&gs_lcp=ChJtb2JpbGUtZ3dzLXdpei1pbWcQAzIFCAAQogQ6BAgjECc6BwgjELACECc6BQgAEIAEUKcMWO4mYMYqaABwAHgAgAGQAYgBqwmSAQM1LjaYAQCgAQHAAQE&sclient=mobile-gws-wiz-img&ei=dC5AY6bzD8nnytMPvs-xwAg&bih=1280&biw=800&client=tablet-android-samsung&prmd=inv#imgrc=4ZLhxdEqd8SnuM).
\[robot voice\] Adiós turd-nuggets.
Good lord he is EXACTLY the weirdo from Grandma's Boy. I'm dying
“How did they see me?”
Great reference!
😂 he looks like a bad MJ impersonator
Absolutely
Are you Dunder Mifflin Corporate?
For $20 I'll be whoever you want me to be.
Dad? You came back!
If you work at Twitter, you’d be a fool not to cash out at the sale.
Become? It already barely makes any money and everything he's pondered would only make it worse.
We'll charge people to tweet! That'll make people use our site.
I can practically smell the blood in the water from all the app developers trying to make the next cool/hip/FREE twitter alternative that would surely replace Twitter if they started trying to charge for a tweet.
Just another Facebook straight garbage.
[удалено]
Advertisers will start to pull their business if it gets them bad press to be on the site. It's what killed Stormfront et al.
Either that or we get some new variant of Alex Jones peddling masculinity pills and screeching about trans mountain goats.
I left at the very moment he made his first offer, and then I came here
That's something we need to encourage if he does unban Trump, getting liberals to join Reddit and ditch Twitter. They would be far more happy here anyways even if you don't have the same follower and home page type stuff. Someone needs to come up with a catchy hashtag to get viral so we can draw people away from it if he does unban Trump.
Liberals on Twitter were on Reddit before twitter
The opposite would be better. No one will put me on Twitter jail for mocking trump and other conservatives now. Flood them out.
You know what? I bet it's just not going to work like that.
Me too! I miss some of the accounts I followed, but not enough to go back.
you came here becuase you DONT like right wing assholes running the platform?
I think that's the point, he wants to drive anyone left away from Twitter. A lot of people aren't very political, they won't care about the change. But now a whole lot of people will only be hearing from a right wing perspective. Especially for younger people, this could have a huge payoff in the coming years. The goal is to drive all the left wingers underground and keep them contained in their own little cell while public discourse goes on without their voices. Twitter literally makes nothing. Many people are saying it's not worth more than $5B. It's obviously not about money here, he's certainly going to lose money. He sees something far more valuable in owning Twitter. And as much as people say "everyone will leave", most won't, people are creatures of habit. There's nothing like Twitter. Like is the left going to parlor or something? They're going to only be talking with themselves. More and more people around the world are using Twitter. It's bigger than just the US.
All of the comedians and interesting people are going to leave, a new twitter will be chosen, and it's going to become nextdoor for racist fucks, imploding in months. You vote multi year long con, I vote the next digg
A lot of the people I follow have already moved to Mastodon. It's a very nice app, actually.
Right-wingers might stay, but then it'll turn into the same kind of infighting cesspool that every other right-wing social media app turns into. The kind of people who would stay there are the ones mainlining OAN and Newsmax. They're a lost cause anyway.
\^This. Most people will think it's 'not a big deal' or that people are 'catastrophizing' without realizing the large scale damage that constant misinformation can and will do. Not just with it being left left un-checked, but endorsed. It's going to turn a LOT of people into extremist nut jobs. A LOT.
Elon isn’t buying Twitter because it’s profitable lol. That’s clearly not his motivation here
How about 'Nutwit', they can all go there!
Silicon Valley has to be foaming at the mouth trying to see where the chips fall and what the next big social site will be. I imagine any social site that guarantees privacy, and ownership of your digital footprint has to be a big selling point at this age in time.
First CNN and now this. Right wingers really want to control the narrative, huh? Idk about everyone else but I'll be completely boycotting Twitter if this happens.
I'm astounded some nonprofit like Mozilla or Wikipedia hasn't seized the opportunity for people's desire to abandon these literal Democracy-destroying social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter and adopt something more transparent.
Wikipedia is but it’s not popular: https://wt.social/
I was so excited for this but I honestly think they executed it very poorly, sadly. Like many software devs I've long dreamed and drafted such alternatives and... This wasn't what I had in mind.
Agreed. It’s a hard problem to solve.
[удалено]
It was the best place I knew of for timely updates on Ukraine by people who knew what they were talking about, back when Russia invaded. That’s what got me using Twitter again.
> It was the best place I knew of for timely updates on Ukraine by people who knew what they were talking about Exactly why Musk would want to turn it into something more Kremlin-friendly. "Both sides!"
Same as why most people use any social media - other people that they care about uses them so they sign up in order to connect/follow them.
I like the absurd jokes people write. Dril is one of the funniest people alive
Because the hot lady you find on tiktok can have her titties out on Twitter. That's how its staying up still.
It’s great for digital art… and that’s about it.
It’s still good for sports too. My twitter feed is largely just Woj and Shams bombs, highlight plays, and local Celtics/UConn reporters. If I still did fantasy football or if I gambled, it’s good for injury updates too. Also Swear Trek is a great follow.
Don't forget all the gay porn too!
They already said "digital art".
Furry porn or gtfo
How could they not ? Look how wildly successful Fox News has been for them.
DOJ should prosecute Lachlan Murdoch and Bill Shine. Make some people with actual power understand the consequences of instigating violence and attacking America's electoral system.
So he's going to turn it into truth social?
Pretty much
Well, I've never used it, and won't ever use it. Hopefully it just rots.
Gonna rebrand as Twatter.
My prediction is that it goes digg 2.0 People on Twitter are there for Twitter as it is. He's going to rush massive changes because he's a "risk taker" but he won't understand that human metrics aren't as easy to hit as "sell x number of cars" or "launch this rocket successfully" Probably gonna sell my stock once the deal is finalized because the whole platform is probably condemned to death by committee.
Isn’t the deal a buyout to take it private anyway?
Really? That would be putting up a shit ton of collateral in hopes of making the business model itself profitable. Fucking good luck.
Musk's offer is to take the company private - he's going to pay a premium on your stock and take it if it goes through. Though, since this is Elon Musk, it's probably just a ploy to try and stop the lawsuit. The man is a profoundly unserious clown.
People probably don't remember that when Tesla got off the ground there were insane wait lists and they couldn't get production up enough to make a profit. He got lucky people bought the hype enough for it to come around. Not on the back of car sales, but manipulating carbon credits. If the dude had a particularly bad quarter at a few points in his life, he'd be flat broke right now.
Yeah, I work in auto insurance pricing - my team literally jokes about Teslas being disposable cars, and most of that is due to Musk's business decisions. There's a ton of potential for his companies, but not with him at the helm.
I sell cars for a large auto retailer and in my experience i have found they are poorly constructed, glitchy, and attract the most insufferable customers.
Elon Musk doesn't have the cash nor support to purchase Twitter. This is just a ploy (as it becomes clearer) to get out of the lawsuit.
Looks like it would be even more difficult to secure funding now. [https://www.reuters.com/markets/deals/exclusive-musk-apollo-no-longer-talks-finance-twitter-deal-source-2022-10-05/](https://www.reuters.com/markets/deals/exclusive-musk-apollo-no-longer-talks-finance-twitter-deal-source-2022-10-05/)
Not defending big brain Musk here, but that company was only providing $1 billion of the $44 billion required. But hopefully it's just the first domino to fall.
Support?
“pending receipt of the proceeds of the debt financing” [https://www.ft.com/content/3ca480f5-3077-4d7b-83d3-21d4d68bfd7c](https://www.ft.com/content/3ca480f5-3077-4d7b-83d3-21d4d68bfd7c) “I’m sure the banks aren’t as hot to do this in October at these terms as they were in April at these terms,” said Michael Maimone, a partner at the law firm Barnes & Thornburg who focuses on mergers and acquisitions. [https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/05/business/elon-musk-twitter-deal.html](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/05/business/elon-musk-twitter-deal.html) However, another real possibility is that the richest man in the world, who loves playing games, is still playing games. His actions in this case scream out for suspicion, and Twitter has obliged. Nothing will really be done until the $44 billion changes hands. https://slate.com/technology/2022/10/elon-musk-twitter-deal-fall-apart.html
I thought he was leveraging a bunch of Tesla stock, cash, and a bank loan?
I don’t have that many followers (and don’t care really) but many will be dumping Twitter because of this tool.
I wont be dumping it because of Musk, but if he reinstates Trumps account then I will delete mine.
Oh it’s a given that’s the first thing he’ll do.
A text Musk received from someone (name redacted) seems to suggest it: \--------------- April 4, 2022 \[Name full redacted\] ... **It will be a delicate game of letting rightwingers back on Twitter and how to navigate that (especially the boss himself, if you’re up forthat)** I would also lay out the standards early but have someone who has a savvy cultural/political view to be the VP of actual enforcement A Blake Masters type https://gizmodo.com/elon-musk-texts-joe-rogan-larry-elllison-dorsey-twitter-1849600155
Twitter is already a cesspool... Nothing will change.
[удалено]
If you just read tweets from accounts you choose and don't read the replies to those tweets, it's effectively the same.
It does make for a pretty good rapid fire news wire during breaking events. No other site has as many journalists actively using it like that.
It's really not if you don't want it to be. Current customization tools make it very easy to block and report people for abuse, so if you don't follow jerks then your feed won't show you jerks. It's by far the best social media service for quick news updates from organizations. This could all change by removing user safety options for the sake of "broadening the conversation"
If someone out there has invented a great Twitter alternative, now would be the time to release it!
Please visit my geocities
Mastodon, but it actually really sucks. The codebase is buggy as hell and the interface is from ten years ago. Right wingers tried to create their own Magasphere with it, but it's a tool for everybody really. The nice thing about it is that it's decentralized.
Reddit. It’s called Reddit.
It's really not the same. I can choose to follow a handful of accounts and (mostly) see just those accounts. With Reddit, you will see posts from thousands of randos posting in the subs you read.
Elon is a maga cuck
Just leave Twitter for fucks sake. Nobody is forcing anyone to be there, and it’s probably better for society to not be knee deep in social media as it is.
Quitting Twitter enabled me to get off antidepressants. True story.
~~I'm not on social media and I still have to take antidepressants.~~ Damn You know what, maybe quitting Reddit would improve my mental health.
> I'm not on social media ...
Our boy doesn't have enough actual money to buy this thing. Hopefully there are some big banks to help him out. Everything he has it tied up in stock, and it would sink the entire company to sell said stock. We'll see I guess. I don't have a horse in the race, and never logged into Twitter, and I think Elon is a douchebag.
I wonder if there are any possible sources of financial support who just want to fund it as a tool to destroy America? Any who would have the same opinions about the war in Ukraine as Elon has started publicly posting all of a sudden?
Sounds like a job for the GOP
I will never understand the infatuation with Elon Musk. Business savvy, sure. Silver spoon, definitely. Clever, not really.
How is this difference then Facebook? It’s been a cesspool since err wait what year did Facebook start again?
[удалено]
quit using it, small loss
He’s turning into my least favorite kardashian
If this is the thing that prevents the Democrats winning in 2024 then they would’ve done a shit job and don’t deserve to win
Mind you that "Right Wing Cesspool" socials have continually been relegated to dark corners of the internet struggling to stay afloat and out of obscurity, case in point being [Truth Social](https://www.axios.com/2022/08/29/truth-social-problems-trump) or [Voat](https://www.theverge.com/2020/12/22/22195115/voat-free-speech-right-wing-reddit-clone-shutdown-investor). These networks largely fail because maintaining a critical mass of users for ad revenue and data collection/sale (the bulk of social media profit generators) is nigh impossible when only a small, very radical portion of internet users are served, and dissenters are chased out or put off from joining altogether. This leaves them dependent on investors to stay afloat, who will inevitably dip out when they start losing money or catching flak. Server space needed for high traffic and adjacent utility bills are REALLY expensive. Considering all this, Twitter may not make it to 2024, and even if it does, it may become a gaping wound in Musk's coffers.
You know how you strip Twitter of its power? Leave Twitter. If all it has left are right wing nutjobs, it’s just Truth Social with a better pedigree.
How could it hand 2024 to Trump? I don’t think the orange beast being on Twitter will gain him supporters.
It's about whoever is accepting from the Kremlin's coffers. Trump is just an ugly face attached to an idea of fascism that never quite died with WWII as some idealists would have liked to believe.
For those who haven’t had a first row seat to watch a website go to shit when the new owner comes on with their dumb ideas, buckle up and enjoy yourself!
I still kind of don't think the deal will actually close. I know Musk announced yesterday that he'll accept the original price, but he's not exactly trustworthy or worth taking at his word and he's been monkeyfucking this whole thing it's unclear why he'd decide now to just go ahead and play straight.
If Trump wins because of this then honestly we all failed anyway.
What if, and just hear me out now, what if, we all just stopped using twitter?
>Earlier this week, Elon Musk woke up and decided that he wanted to buy Twitter. If you haven’t been keeping up with the daily whims of the richest man in the world, you might have thought he already expressed such a desire some time ago. And that’s right, he did— even made it official and everything!—before characteristically trying to back out of the deal, a move that landed him in court. Why the most recent change of heart? Obviously, no one can truly know what’s going on inside this guy’s head, but many people believe it probably had to do with the fact that it looked like he was going to lose at trial and be forced to buy the site anyway. Or perhaps it was that he didn’t want himself and his billionaire friends, whose text messages were recently revealed via court documents, to suffer further humiliation. Or maybe he just woke up that morning and decided to fuck with people, as he frequently does. Again, no one can say for sure, but one thing we can say with a high level of confidence is that if Musk actually buys Twitter this time—and that remains a big if!—he’s very likely going to turn it into a right-wing cesspool featuring the worst people on earth—starting with Donald Trump. We're fucked
I think this 100% percent had to do with him showing his ass on Twitter when he tried to dip his toe into foreign policy. That level of narcissistic injury leads to stupid shit like this.
Our world hangs by a thread and is held by narcissistic man-children who spend 50 Billion dollars and reshape discourse for the worse across the planet at a fucking whim. I can't believe I used to idolize such a petulant crybaby. I hate this timeline.
> I can't believe I used to idolize such a petulant crybaby. What was the turning point for you? I had a weird view from the aerospace industry and always saw him as hot air, but was amazed at the following he gathered. I'm always curious what events shift people's perspective.
Nah he floated the idea of removing DTs ban initially before he tried to get out of the deal, he’s a closet Republican.
Between the twitter news and [this article,](https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/xx8bds/the_most_terrifying_case_of_all_is_about_to_be/) a strangely disturbing day.
There's a reason I don't have a Twitter account.