this post was submitted on 05 Oct 2023
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Enough Musk Spam

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For those that have had enough of the Elon Musk worship online.

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Post links to instances of obvious Elon Musk fanboy brigading in default subreddits, lemmy/kbin communities/instances, astroturfing from Tesla/SpaceX/etc., or any articles critical of Musk, his ideas, unrealistic promises and timelines, or the working conditions at his companies.

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[–] superduperenigma@lemmy.world 96 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Twitter wasn't even worth $44B when he paid $44B for it. Hence why the board jumped on the offer. Musk didn't even think it was worth that much, hence why he tried to weasel his way out of the deal after the board called his bluff.

[–] Stumblinbear@pawb.social 55 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

His problem wasn't offering the deal, his problem was saying yes after they called his bluff

He like.. actually legally agreed to it before he looked into it at all. What a fucking dumbass

[–] deadbeef79000@lemmy.nz 49 points 1 year ago (1 children)

He's rich enough that stupidity has no consequences for him.

He has literally made a $40b mistake, still rich enough to not learn a lesson from it.

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[–] almightyGreek@lemmy.world 92 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Undeniably a genius of our time......

[–] ImFresh3x@sh.itjust.works 21 points 1 year ago

It was never about making money. It was about controlling dialogue.

[–] breadsmasher@lemmy.world 83 points 1 year ago (2 children)

its actual name is “XFormerlyKnownAsTwitter”

[–] ram 20 points 1 year ago (3 children)

X, the Formerly Known As Twitter App
Blaze your Tweets/Xs or whatever they're called

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[–] XTornado@lemmy.ml 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)
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[–] Number1SummerJam@lemmy.world 42 points 1 year ago (3 children)

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

[–] joneskind@lemmy.world 107 points 1 year ago (6 children)

Yeah sure, Elon totally intentionally obliterated his own image among progressives and liberals to prevent another Arab spring because he is a very stable 10D chess master who’s always a trillion steps ahead…

Nothing was intentional. He has no clue. He bought Twitter because he’s a pissy little man-baby on adderall who can’t keep his mouth shut.

And he’s ruining everything because he has no idea what he’s doing and he fired the persons who knew.

[–] danc4498@lemmy.world 39 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I definitely believe he got into the situation as an idiot. But he didn’t purchase twitter 100% by himself. I think his financial backers absolutely intended to destroy twitter. Or at least sabotage its ability to spread free speech.

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[–] Phegan@lemmy.world 26 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I've heard this a lot, but there is one flaw in it. It assumes Elon musk is actually smart. That guy is really fucking dumb.

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[–] hedgehogging_the_bed@lemmy.world 16 points 1 year ago (6 children)

Oh no, it was intentional on the part of the SA and foreign backers. Elon is the scape goat. They bought it for the man-sized rich toddler and let nature take its course. Can you think of someone less reliable to put in charge of Twitter to cause it to crash and burn?

Kanye West and Donald Trump were both too busy.

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[–] Uranium3006@kbin.social 15 points 1 year ago

Why do we continue to give dictators and billionaires the benefit of the doubt all the time?

[–] Number1SummerJam@lemmy.world 11 points 1 year ago (2 children)

He might not be competent, but his high level investors are.

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[–] Astroturfed@lemmy.world 43 points 1 year ago (3 children)

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

[–] MiltownClowns@lemmy.world 38 points 1 year ago

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

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

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[–] BraveSirZaphod@kbin.social 17 points 1 year ago (4 children)

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

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

[–] Number1SummerJam@lemmy.world 20 points 1 year ago (2 children)
[–] BraveSirZaphod@kbin.social 10 points 1 year ago

Fair enough, that's a really interesting (and horrifying) read.

I really do not like this idiot.

[–] null@slrpnk.net 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

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

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

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

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[–] negativeyoda@lemmy.world 10 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

Hanlon's Razor

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

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[–] MushuChupacabra@lemmy.world 33 points 1 year ago

It's almost as though Elon Musk is incompetent.

[–] MargotRobbie@lemmy.world 28 points 1 year ago (9 children)

For as much of a genius that he thinks he is, why didn't he do literally nothing after he comes on board and watch how twitter functions first before he starts firing people? Wouldn't you want hire more people instead if you want to implement new features for the super app he is dreaming of?

Hey, if this level of decision making is all it takes to become a tech CEO, maybe I should become a tech CEO if this acting thing doesn't work out for some reason. Seems pretty easy.

[–] Knightfox@lemmy.one 15 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I've said this before and I'll say it again, but Elon really isn't that smart and he certainly isn't a genius. Elon has a BA in Physics from a school known for business degrees. He also got a BS in Business, but UPenn and Wharton are known more for how hard it is to get in than how hard the classes are.

The website CollegeVine says UPenn is known as the "Social Ivy" and "UPenn’s admissions is highly-selective, but students applying to the UPenn College of Arts & Science (CAS) will find it less academically competitive than schools like Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Stanford (although exceptional academics are still a must)."

By the way, he started college in 1990, transferred to UPenn in 1992, and states he graduated in 1995, but UPenn refutes that saying he graduated in 1997. This is a school where 96% of those who are accepted graduate within 150% of the degree time (4 year degree within 6 years) (https://www.collegetuitioncompare.com/edu/215062/university-of-pennsylvania/graduation/).

Musk of course says he completed the courses in 1995, but there was some sort of mixup with an English and History credit that delayed the degree by 2 years.

I'm typically not one to judge what degrees someone pursues or how long they take to finish those degrees, but when people start calling someone who loses $40 billion a genius the gloves come off.

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[–] MeanEYE@lemmy.world 11 points 1 year ago

Ego! He is absolutely convinced he's a genius and smarter than everyone else. People sniffing his farts and praising him are not helping either. There's only one thing Musk is good at and that's riding top of the Dunning-Kruger wave.

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[–] ChucklesMacLeroy@lemmy.world 26 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It's Twitter. I refuse to play the name game and lend an inch of support for such a stupid decision. It's not that I even use it. Just the point of it

[–] AlteredStateBlob@kbin.social 16 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Guy dead names his kid, might as well dead name his company.

[–] ArugulaZ@kbin.social 9 points 1 year ago

A dead name for a dying company.

[–] Cheers@sh.itjust.works 25 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I still say he named it X because he planned on killing it. Fuckwad Musk was a Trumper and only quit because Trump had a bigger ego.

[–] DragonTypeWyvern@literature.cafe 33 points 1 year ago (5 children)

He named it X because he's a puerile man child that wanted PayPal to be X.com before Peter Thiel forced him into being a billionaire, kicking and screaming, and he's never really gotten over it.

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[–] Muhr@lemmy.world 25 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Man, I wasn't on X in a long time? What are the Xvideos like?

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[–] theodewere@kbin.social 15 points 1 year ago

his little satellite boondoggle is losing money hand over fist too

[–] JimmyBigSausage@lemm.ee 14 points 1 year ago (7 children)
[–] Semi-Hemi-Demigod@kbin.social 38 points 1 year ago

Some guy whose daddy owned an emerald mine in Apartheid South Africa

[–] bingbong@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 points 1 year ago

Sounds like dollar store cologne

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[–] kibiz0r@midwest.social 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Musk is a shitty businessman and an even shittier person. But those valuations are all nonsense and mostly based on potential growth, not current fundamentals. When interest rates go up, investment dries up and estimations of potential growth plummets.

[–] TranscendentalEmpire@lemm.ee 18 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Musk is a shitty businessman and an even shittier person. But those valuations are all nonsense and mostly based on potential growth,

Did you read the article? They estimated the valuation by their ad revenue, comparing before and after the take over. It's still a shitty valuation, but it's not like there's a lot else to go by.

not current fundamentals.

What do you mean by current fundamentals? It's a private service provider, there's not enough source material to evaluate for a fundamental analysis.

When interest rates go up, investment dries up and estimations of potential growth plummets

Right, but that's static across the market. You wouldn't have a situation where interest rates would drive the valuation of a single service provider compared to others in the same market.

[–] kibiz0r@midwest.social 9 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Bold of you to assume I can read. I skimmed it like a hovercraft cuz I was trying to finish a poop, and I apparently missed the most obvious and main part of the story. A lot of people still upvoted my dumb ass though. ¯\(ツ)

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[–] aesthelete@lemmy.world 10 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

How to lose forty billion in a year

By Elon Musk

When this dude's column for the paper comes out we're all going to have egg on our faces.

[–] Hackerman_uwu@lemmy.world 9 points 1 year ago

Ha ha bonk that’s the sound of me laughing my head off.

[–] EdibleFriend@lemmy.world 9 points 1 year ago

Removing headlines from news stories should fix that right up.

[–] TheBlue22@lemmy.blahaj.zone 9 points 1 year ago

Hey, him and his idol: Donald Trump have one thing in common: ruining every business they touch

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