How Elon Musk Destroyed Twitter | NYT Journalists Kate Conger and Ryan Mac on Media Confidential

[@harrynac6017]

On twitter, people are absolutely free to express Musk's opinion.

[@wellingtonamaraldias5172]

Oh really!? What about the algorithm?! Who have a power to impulse for or against free speech?!

[@goodun2974]

@@wellingtonamaraldias5172 , did you miss the inherent sarcasm in the OP's comment?

[@PreschoolDropout673]

Billionaires not being held accountable isn't a musk only issue, he's just the most flagrant about it. But he is a good example that highlights this issue: how do we prevent the grossly unqualified from hoarding all the power? I personally believe this is the root cause of most of our current societal problems.

[@What_do_I_Think]

Trumpf is another great example. It shows, that when you reached some level of wealth, you can be as incompetent as you wish and still be successful. The absolute opposite from what they want to lead you to believe. Capitalism is not a meritocracy. It is the opposite.

[@typhoon320i]

what does he ned to be held accountable for? You assume this autistic guy has broken a bunch of laws?

[@so_monika6743]

Tax'em!

[@What_do_I_Think]

@@so_monika6743 That was the trick all the last decades at least since Ronald Reagan: To make the poor believe, that higher taxes on the billionaires, would hurt the poor themselves.

[@swish6143]

So unqualified that his companies have to rescue Astronauts from the ISS. Meanwhile Boeing is in bed with the government and killed 300 people and nobody cares.

[@andrewdevine3920]

"Musk is brilliant when he's founding a company." No, Musk is brilliant when he's hoovering up government or investor money.

[@tokotokotoko3]

Exactly. Good interview, but how do you write a whole book on Musk and not know that he didn't found Tesla? He bought himself in. Even SpaceX is questionable if you look into the details.

[@dayvel]

Isn't it odd that Elon never complains about Twitter being banned in Russia and China?

[@Terra_Lopez]

Yes, it is. Very odd.

[@AWildBard]

It definitely stands out when he goes out of his way to get banned in Brazil, and pretends it's a badge of honor. But in his mind, he is at war with "the left." He believes he is waging a propaganda war, and he thinks that he is punishing the bad leftist evil politicians in Brazil. I mean that's the childish way he thinks about it.

[@cyber-psych2503]

Not good to bad mouth your bosses :)

[@Stabby666]

To be fair none of the media companies care about Russia since they can’t run adverts in that market due to the sanctions. So they make no money there.

[@typhoon320i]

how do you know that. Did you analyze every public statement of his?

[@englandcalling9721]

Musk never had or has any business plan for X, beyond owning a platform he can end on a whim. He like Trump, believes the loudest voice becomes the truth, and with control of the 'volume', can define that truth. For Musk, X is the means to an end, not the end itself.

[@jannichi6431]

Like Trump...he's not funny. One the great themes of "A River Runs Through It".

[@swish6143]

Did you just made that up?

[@englandcalling9721]

@@swish6143 Musk paid $44 billion for Twitter, now valued at $9.2 billion, and ad revenue down over 50%. As advertisers walk away, Musk pushes X as ‘his platform, and voice’. That he now lies endlessly on X, campaigning for Trump, shows it's a tool for his political aims, far more than a profit centre. Even accepting he heavily overpaid, Musk clearly valued controlling Twitter, far more than the economics.

[@RinTexas]

I get the sinking feeling that Elon grew up a spoiled rich kid under apartheid and has never given up his roots. Kinda of explains why he is supporting that other spoiled rich kid Dony.

[@norankpost2]

Musk is an angry baby who has adopted trump so Elon can be king

[@onceuponatime4836]

Interesting that Muskrat is suing advertisers for listening to him by f$$king off😅

[@eflat6522]

Elon Musk is when you confuse luck with genius and add in immaturity. Btw, it is an objective fact that Elon Musk did not "found" Tesla. He pushed out the original founders.

[@a.v.gavrilov]

Вы не понимаете о чем говорите, или злонамеренно манипулируете

[@What_do_I_Think]

@@a.v.gavrilov Wasilie from St. Petersburg, I guess, has an opinion about Musk, that -- let me guess -- comes directly from the red square. Maybe he should just post in English as all the other people from that city which cover their origin.

[@josechaguaceda]

Brilliant??? He is dangerous and absolute nuts!

[@TheBenolan]

Watching someone talk about Musk as if he founded Tesla makes it really hard to take this conversation seriously anymore

[@TheNazradin]

musk isn't great at founding companies. That is outright false. He is good at getting lucky and benefiting from the works of others.

[@1donjuego]

This.

[@utilid4lifefigureitout602]

Someone added to a comment I wrote the other day about warnings in the 1940 about the managerial middleman. My response was Musk is the mega-megalomaniac of middlemen.

[@utilid4lifefigureitout602]

​@cerberus2881 There is quite a lot of footage debunking that assumption about Elon. Many of it filmed at times he was really "selling his genius" during an interview or during a hype appearance for a crowd... in several instances an informed journalist or participant asked him a simple question about the days topic... he hadn't even considered the basic fundamental aspect they brought up regarding what he was pretending to be an expert of. A few times he replied to the person's statement in the form of a query and said it was exactly what he was just about to say(the uncomfortability that ensued speaks volumes)... I also watched him tell an engineer he was trying to impress, who again asked a simple where does XYZ fit in? question... Elon responded with something like, "I would have gotten there inevitably"... the fact he hadn't already gone there was quite telling and should have sent investors sprinting for the hills. Just another example of his, quite frankly, Trumpian / make it up as you go "concepts of a plan" methodology of approaching how he spends the billions of tax dollars we somehow provide that ingrate. The South African/current American immigrant apparently has carte blanche to trash the country who made his ability to grift his way to the top possible... while "patriots" and "proud Americans" representing the right-wing in the "greatest country on Earth" act as cheerleaders for the neverending grievances he offers... after never having attempted a cursory wink at the volumes of literature evaluating the topics he continuously anti-champions. The right-wing war on education has had the predictable side effect of allowing far to many people with little to no intellectual, innovative, or even creative(in a way that could possibly be useful or salient) faculties or potential within them to sell themselves as the genius... among a crowd that couldn't possibly know better.

[@What_do_I_Think]

He did not found any successful company. He claims to have founded Paypal and Tesla. He has founded NEITHER.

[@StevenHunterPangians1]

Welcome to Fascism 😢

[@petecook5VIDCHANNEL1]

You’re assuming that he wanted it to remain successful. Russia was leading this purchase and maybe commercial success wasn’t what they were looking for. Unchecked ability to distort the truth about IS politics. By that measure it has been more successful

[@lifelearner47]

Really happy that I stumbled upon this. Not only to find Mr Rusbridger again, but also to discover a book on a subject that interests me greatly. Added to my book list.

[@pepechen]

Good job Kate & Ryan!!!

[@goodun2974]

No, not so great; if one wants to "understand" a spoiled, erratic, egotistical, autocratic rich kid, you need to talk to psychologists, not wet-behind-the-ears "technology" writers. Instead of talking about musk damaging Twitter's brand and value we should be talking about the damage to societal discourse that results from people like him and his political bestie ConOld Rump commanding so much media attention as well as segments of social media.

[@bryna7]

He hasn't founded or created any company...

[@andrewdevine3920]

He technically founded SpaceX. You know, the company that lives or dies on government money.

[@goodun2974]

​@@andrewdevine3920, SpaceX also fouls and pollutes the desert with debris, on land they don't have claim to.

[@arandomperson7811]

Spacex?

[@arandomperson7811]

@@andrewdevine3920 u mean saves government money

[@LawrenceTreybig]

@@andrewdevine3920 you mean the products he sell to our government that no other company can

[@TammyPowell-qd2oo]

I appreciate your reporting!🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉

[@andrewdevine3920]

If Musk really wanted to own 4Chan, he should have just bought 4Chan...

[@toi_techno]

Fines should be a percentage of a persons total assets

[@grantwallace1882]

It appears that Elon's goal in buying Twitter is to make sure that every day we talk about Elon.

[@pearlwanders8599]

Wizard of Oz and PT Barnum rolled into one. It seems like his wealth is all on paper. Others must be gaining from his grift or his stock would've tumbled by now.

[@bensanderson7144]

X has absolute free speech 🎤

[@goodun2974]

The anagram for Elon Musk is Lone Skum. Feel free to amplify and share it!

[@amorosogombe9650]

Why ruin a brand like Twitter?

[@goodun2974]

Because Musk can't help himself; he's got that "only I can fix it" and "you're fired!" attitude that we've seen from his political bestie, ConOld Rump. If someone wants to understand how, or why, Musk could/would ruin Twitter (a platform which frankly I thought was a mess to begin with) then you need to talk to psychologists, not young "technology" writers.

[@tealion]

I’m curious how much drugs have played a role in his mercurial decision making. Also where are the women in his life that kept his puerile behavior in check. And is this essentiallly a story of power corrupts.

[@jannichi6431]

Ten kids say one or two would be LGBTQ+. Guessing humanities and arts were not part of his education.

[@bakedbean37]

History repeats. Spoilt man child thinks he's a god.

[@ericdane7769]

Dude names everything X, even his children. Nuff said, he's mental.

[@tadmarshall2739]

Everyone likes to talk about the politics, and that's certainly why Musk bought it, but Twitter used to be a great sharing platform for many other topics. I got regular updates about scientific papers of interest to me. This all stopped after Musk took over. He downvoted all the stuff that wasn't political and promoted his own posts over those of anyone else.

[@swish6143]

What BS, the scientist partially left because they don't like Elon and moved to Mastodon or LinkedIn. Musk down voting stuff that's not political is a nice conspiracy theory though.

[@chrisnewman7281]

Elon Muskg owns 80-90% of the company. Imagine how the other 10% of shareholders would feel the value of their investment dwindle .

[@rogerc7960]

No lawyers have gone to the moon or mars.

[@rochcarothers-ts3jx]

Not WBuffett fan: he knows how to maintain intelligenr over-sprawling business control

[@shivambajpayee5801]

Elon is the example of common man when you dont read TERMS OF SERVICE😂😂

[@Lordyung89]

Looks like X is doing well.

[@paladro]

felt like he bought more for a personal soapbox and to strangle truth for his own ends... look at who invested with him, terrible people who would love to control the narrative.

[@jannichi6431]

Great song "ev ry bo dy wants to rule the world".

[@vertigoz]

How do you dare to say you are free absolutist when you have the upmost contempt for thr law? Your free speech ideia ought to be out of the ideas expressed by law, surely

[@goodun2974]

Elon Musk is exhibit A for why Billionaires should not exist, or at the very least why we need to reform the generational transfer of wealth.

[@arandomperson7811]

What? Thats the dumbest argument ever

[@PreciousBoxer]

@18:31 It is common knowledge, even though common knowledge is an oxymoron, there is a saying... The rich get sprung while the poor get hung. Although incorrect grammer, it's still true.

[@jannichi6431]

Theres a problem when any one person is a multimillionaire 🤮

[@Humannondancer]

I saw their presentation on Politics and Prose just last night. There is a great deal more I already knew from other channels, but was still surprised by many other incidents they spoke of. I'll just leave it at: Elon Musk is not an original thinker.

[@thomaswarren7831]

It’s ALWAYS worse when psychopaths than you think. Always.

[@AWildBard]

When it comes to why Elon Musk bought twitter, I think we should just take him at his word. Even though he isn't completely trustworthy, he does often say what he feels to be true from his own perspective. And he really went out of his way to explain it to Jordan Peterson. You could tell he thought it was really important, and it was something he wanted to get off his chest. And he thought it was important for other people to hear it. But so far, in this interview, I haven't heard it. Maybe it will come out later in the interview. But what Elon Musk told JP is that he bought twitter because he hated his transgender daughter. He said he lost his son, and "they killed my son." "They call it deadnaming for a reason," he said. And it was just before he bought twitter that he started talking about the "woke mind virus." That's why he bought twitter, he said to Jordan Peterson. It was because he could not stand the idea that his son was now his daughter. He blamed it on the left in super vague terms. He thinks the liberals in California and the educators at the private school she went to poisoned her mind. And that's why he shifted deeply into the extreme right wing, whereas before he seemed to be sort of a centrist with some associations with being a liberal and of course being at the same time an extremist capitalist aligned with a kind of Ayn Randian perspective about the supremacy of engineers in being the real leaders and makers behind the scenes in the world at large. Elon Musk bought twitter because to him it's a propaganda war that the good engineers have to win against the evil politicians and the left with their "woke mind virus." It's kind of insane. But that is the reason he bought twitter.

[@thomaswarren7831]

He’s a psychopath. His neurology explains everything. Just as it explains Trump, Hitler, Rick Scott, MTG. In fact, over time psychopaths become nests bc they are susceptible to each others cons. Look at Hitler 1929 alone then look at 1939. Inner circle all psychopaths. Look at Trump: Loomer, Jason miller, Steve miller, leandowski and cheong. All psychopaths.

[@bosoerjadi2838]

But at $420 per share? I'd do my occasional irrationally motivated purchase but not in bulk at almost 3 times the book value. That's sheer insanity and such an unnecessary waste of good excess capital he could have used to invest massively into Twitter to (finally) make it profitable and 'better'. Now all he can be focused on is paying off the loans and losses. He'll never be able to invest in the slightest, never mind effectively.

[@angelainamarie9656]

I don't take Elon musk out of his word and I don't consider him to be a credible self reporter. I assume that he is a Nazi and that he is trying to f*** this country up and turn himself into royalty. That's what the rest of his degenerate party think is that they are now royalty and they just get to order the rest of us around. And that's his real reason for taking over Twitter is so that he can be in a position where he can order other people around. Any attempt to justify his behavior I dismiss as complete horse manure.

[@zsoltszabo6482]

LOL if praising his transgender kid doubled the price of Tesla, he would be the biggest TG rights activist of all time. All of that woke speak you talk about is a dog and pony show. He bought twitter for political influence and ultimately power. That's it. For the short term he got it, but it has been a very expensive megaphone and it's getting close to causing him to bleed more money at the same time the megaphone is losing volume.

[@PreschoolDropout673]

Hmm, I feel that gives him too much credit. I find it hard to believe that 'losing' his child would drive him to do anything significant. In his mind he might be justifying the decision with such noble sentiments and imagined battles between good vs evil, he does this often in public eg. saving the environment or saving humanity by going to mars, etc. But it seems more likely he is just addicted to the platform and wanted more control of it.

[@somerandomhomeboy]

Sorry not sorry for saying this. How can you justify spending your work day on a social-media platform? Isn't it like bringing your extra-curricular hobby to work?

[@jwraithel]

what a bunch of crap

[@davidwilkie9551]

If you had started with an honest assessment of the creation of Rupert Murdock's media and what that has done against the public interest, you would have a more legitimate reason to judge wether Musk, in alliance with Rupert's son, is doing something constructive or not, but attacking the man by revealing your own emotional bias completely discredits you.

[@adamdales2626]

If they had only reconciled the conflict between the north and south before birth of a nation was such an influential...yackity yack blah blah....