Saw this article about how Elon Musk claimed that he acquired Twitter because he wanted to help humanity, and just thought that it was worth sharing. But after doing a little bit of extra research, it seems like his acquisition of the major social media platform is in fact filled with all sorts of drama and complications.
Allegedly the richest man in the world, Elon Musk, recently acquired Twitter. He has claimed that he wants more free speech there, and has vowed to restore Donald Trump's twitter account. MAGA fans were, of course, celebrating this, at least at first.
Musk himself claimed that he was doing it because he wanted to "help humanity." Here is the full context of what he said:
“That is why I bought Twitter. I didn’t do it because it would be easy. I didn’t do it to make more money. I did it to try to help humanity, whom I love.”
Aww.
Now, I once heard an apparently true story that Musk was badly picked on as a kid, to the point where he was thrown down a set of stairs and seriously injured.
That may indeed be true. And it certainly would be enough to warrant some sympathy points for him, and seemingly to admire how he overcame all of this to undeniably become a smashing business success. However, we also need to remember that Musk was born and grew up as a very privileged white kid in apartheid South Africa. And he seems to betray this false sense of entitlement still today, including his political leanings. There is a reason why the MAGA crowd always seemed to warm up to him, after all. They believed that Musk, who at least sometimes seems to lean in favor of Trump politically, would allow Twitter to become a new, de facto MAGA platform. Almost everyone who was not a fan of this was opposed to Musk squiring Twitter, with many planning to boycott it. Musk even had to admit that he lost significant revenue from Twitter, and even was forced to take very drastic actions. Apparently, according to some estimates, up to half of Twitter's workforce was laid off.
But now, that has changed. Very quickly, MAGA advocates began to turn on Musk when he did not simply give the green light to bring back Trump fully and allow Twitter to air MAGA and QAnon conspiracy theories without any restrictions.
So the spoiled billionaire who thought that he would save us all by buying Twitter has managed to piss off almost everyone, across political spectrums.
Musk may be just beginning to be frustrated with all of the complications that his Twitter acquisition has proven to consist of. Then again, when you make such a bold claim that you are doing it to "help humanity," as he puts it, it feels like he is almost asking for it. Such a grandiose claim is reminiscent of other billionaires who also seem to pat themselves on the back and congratulate themselves on their selflessness and their willingness to save the world. Remember, the narrative among MAGA supporters is that Trump himself selflessly removed himself from making billions and billions - even though almost all estimates by experts other than Trump himself suggest that he is, in fact, worth a lot less than he himself claims - in order to run for the presidency. He himself encouraged this view by claiming to be the only person able to save the country, and he even expressed his willingness to slum it by living in the White House, which apparently was not quite the level of luxury and pampering that he was used to. Yet, he seemed to take every advantage of all of the pampering that he was entitled to while in the Oval Office, including many trips to Trump resorts to spend weekends golfing, which allowed him to profit at taxpayer expense.
It sure seems that Musk's idea of helping humanity is similarly self-serving. Now that it is being thrown back in his face, with nobody evidently quite trusting or liking him anymore, should we feel sympathy? Frankly, I do not see why we should.
Oh, heal us all, Elon, with thy suffering.
Yeah, right.
Musk made this bed for himself. Now he gets to sleep in it.
These are the articles that I used in writing this particular blog entry, and from which I obtained both the information, as well as the Elon Musk quote, used in this blog entry:
Elon Musk claims he has acquired Twitter ‘to help humanity’ Alex Hern UK technology editor @alexhern Thu 27 Oct 2022 11.4
Tweet comes as advertisers fear one of his first moves as chief will be to restore Donald Trump’s account
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/oct/27/elon-musk-twitter-advertisers-donald-trump?fbclid=IwAR1Al6OT1Ano6PmkyyP5WeaHVcQt0TC1h41UHgLet9PRovsTuX1VWxL77Vo
Twitter sees sudden mass layoffs as Elon Musk admits ‘massive drop’ in revenue by Johana Bhuiyan, Dominic Rushe and Gloria Oladipo in New York and Dan Milmo and Joe Middleton in London - 4 Novembre, 2022:
https://flipboard.com/topic/laptop/twitter-sees-sudden-mass-layoffs-as-elon-musk-admits-massive-drop-in-revenue/a-dJHKBAxnR4CgZfUoHxl0bw%3Aa%3A3199676-61f843da52%2Ftheguardian.com
Elon Musk has owned Twitter for less than a week. Conservatives are already canceling him. by Matt Binder on November 2, 2022:
Musk became a personal concierge for the right and it still wasn't enough for them.
https://mashable.com/article/elon-musk-angers-conservatives-twitter-already
Right-Wingers Are Already Turning on Elon Musk Pundits who just days ago had lionized the billionaire made a whiplash-worthy U-turn after he revealed part of his content moderation strategy by Nikki McCann Ramirez, November 2, 2022:
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/right-wingers-turning-elon-musk-moderation-1234623259/
No comments:
Post a Comment