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Twitter bought by Elon Musk

A must-read article in salon.com "Elon Musk, Twitter and the future: His long-term vision is even weirder than you think". It starts with the fact that Musk is interested/invested in longtermism, a branch of Effective Altruism. It then outlines what longtermism is and how it might explain a lot of Musk's positions.
Wikipedia said:
Philosopher William MacAskill defines longtermism as "the view that positively influencing the longterm future is a key moral priority of our time". He distinguishes it from strong longtermism, "the view that positively influencing the longterm future is the key moral priority of our time"
All of it is deeply weird, and seems to see humanity as numbers on a spreadsheet, arguing about the social discount rate that should apply to the far future. The plan seems to be "If we can first terraform Mars, leaving behind the uninhabitable husk of planet Earth, then humanity can save itself and expand across the entire universe."
 
All of it is deeply weird, and seems to see humanity as numbers on a spreadsheet, arguing about the social discount rate that should apply to the far future. The plan seems to be "If we can first terraform Mars, leaving behind the uninhabitable husk of planet Earth, then humanity can save itself and expand across the entire universe."

Alternatively he might just be having a billionaire child tantrum after Grimes appears to have run off with trans woman Chelsea Manning (Forbes).
 
Alternatively he might just be having a billionaire child tantrum after Grimes appears to have run off with trans woman Chelsea Manning (Forbes).
That's a shame because Elon and Grimes seemed well matched. Vanity Fair article on 'Planet Grimes':
VF said:
"The thing is, I ****in' live and die by the mission. I believe in the mission." She'd used that phrase often—"the mission"—and gradually I realized it was a proper noun. Uppercase M. When I asked what she meant by it, she replied without hesitation: "Sustainable energy, multi-planetary species. The preservation of consciousness." Last March, Grimes wrote on Instagram that she was "ready to die with the red dirt of Mars beneath my feet." Now she talks as though it's a fait accompli. "I will probably go when I'm, like, 65 or so," she tells me, the same way you might say it's always been your dream to visit the Galapagos. Hard to reach, probably out of your price range, but doable in theory.
 
The right in USA already trumpeting Musk as their champion owning Twitter: reversing the censorship on the left.
 
The right in USA already trumpeting Musk as their champion owning Twitter: reversing the censorship on the left.

This worries me hugely as the political right are just right off the rails at present. They have no interest in ‘free speech’, only hate-speech and the outright persecution of those they see as a threat (LGBT, ethnic minorities etc). The language and intolerance from Steve Bannon, Ben Shapiro, Tucker Carlson, even so called ‘intellectuals’ such as Jordan Peterson and the endless detritus that follow them is just incomprehensible. It really is fascism.

Take ‘Libs Of Tik Tok’ (Wikipedia) as an example of where far-right persecution is right now, let alone where things are heading real fast. This is a covert hate group that exists purely to persecute LGBT+ folk, womans rights organisations etc, smear them as “groomers”, “pedophiles” etc, publicly doxx any support networks they may have in schools, or local communities etc, incite violence and basically force their white Christian fascist values on everyone in true Taliban/Al Qaeda style. This and the closely associated QAnon is where right-wing “free speech” is right now. It’s basically one tiny step away from public lynchings or stonings. The aim is unquestionably to remove rights, freedoms and basic liberty from others.

This is the reason I fear Musk. I really don’t think he understands the door he says he wants to open. By saying that “free speech” as as a hate tool as the US political right clearly want it to be used does have very real legal consequences in much of the world. If he does go that route he’ll end up spending any potential profit or growth on lawyers and legal compensation to those doxxed and abused, even physically attacked. Moderating any website is exponentially harder than those who have never tried it think.

One thing that is amusing is Musk apparently regularly blocks users with contrary views from replying to his own posts, so there is a remarkable hypocrisy here. As ever with the political right “free speech” is fine to attack, doxx, and deny LBGT+ folk, abortion clinics etc the basic right to exist, but it’s no fun if some nasty leftie calls you a name for doing so!

PS I still very much hope this deal falls through, and that is far from unlikely. He’s apparently already in breach of some clauses, plus Tesla cars are almost universally bought by eco/green liberals who will likely drop the brand like a hot brick if he becomes associated with the far-right. It is hard to imagine a bunch of climate-science denying Tea Party rednecks queuing up to buy overpriced electric cars!
 
Are any of you graphics mavens? I'd like a picture of Myspace Tom, but with Elon Musk's face. Thanks.
 
A must-read article in salon.com "Elon Musk, Twitter and the future: His long-term vision is even weirder than you think". It starts with the fact that Musk is interested/invested in longtermism, a branch of Effective Altruism. It then outlines what longtermism is and how it might explain a lot of Musk's positions.
All of it is deeply weird, and seems to see humanity as numbers on a spreadsheet, arguing about the social discount rate that should apply to the far future. The plan seems to be "If we can first terraform Mars, leaving behind the uninhabitable husk of planet Earth, then humanity can save itself and expand across the entire universe."
'Longtermism' would be a God term. You can justify anything with it.
 
This worries me hugely as the political right are just right off the rails at present. They have no interest in ‘free speech’, only hate-speech and the outright persecution of those they see as a threat (LGBT, ethnic minorities etc). The language and intolerance from Steve Bannon, Ben Shapiro, Tucker Carlson, even so called ‘intellectuals’ such as Jordan Peterson and the endless detritus that follow them is just incomprehensible. It really is fascism.

Take ‘Libs Of Tik Tok’ (Wikipedia) as an example of where far-right persecution is right now, let alone where things are heading real fast. This is a covert hate group that exists purely to persecute LGBT+ folk, womans rights organisations etc, smear them as “groomers”, “pedophiles” etc, publicly doxx any support networks they may have in schools, or local communities etc, incite violence and basically force their white Christian fascist values on everyone in true Taliban/Al Qaeda style. This and the closely associated QAnon is where right-wing “free speech” is right now. It’s basically one tiny step away from public lynchings or stonings. The aim is unquestionably to remove rights, freedoms and basic liberty from others.

This is the reason I fear Musk. I really don’t think he understands the door he says he wants to open. By saying that “free speech” as as a hate tool as the US political right clearly want it to be used does have very real legal consequences in much of the world. If he does go that route he’ll end up spending any potential profit or growth on lawyers and legal compensation to those doxxed and abused, even physically attacked. Moderating any website is exponentially harder than those who have never tried it think.

One thing that is amusing is Musk apparently regularly blocks users with contrary views from replying to his own posts, so there is a remarkable hypocrisy here. As ever with the political right “free speech” is fine to attack, doxx, and deny LBGT+ folk, abortion clinics etc the basic right to exist, but it’s no fun if some nasty leftie calls you a name for doing so!

PS I still very much hope this deal falls through, and that is far from unlikely. He’s apparently already in breach of some clauses, plus Tesla cars are almost universally bought by eco/green liberals who will likely drop the brand like a hot brick if he becomes associated with the far-right. It is hard to imagine a bunch of climate-science denying Tea Party rednecks queuing up to buy overpriced electric cars!
All good points, however it must be noted that Telsas are a couple of generations ahead in electric car engineering, compared to their American rivals at least:
 
All good points, however it must be noted that Telsas are a couple of generations ahead in electric car engineering, compared to their American rivals at least:

Plus they apparently have, by far, the best charging network in the USA. To be honest all I know about Teslas is from following a couple of entirely unrelated YouTube channels; both Louis Rossmann and Jessa Jones from iPad Rehab own one. Neither are huge fans (to put it mildly), they just wanted an electric car and a usable long-distance charging network. Louis refers to his as ‘Meme car’ and just takes the piss out of it endlessly, Jessa’s autopilot drove her into a deer on an otherwise empty road.

I suspect if owning a Tesla became the social equivalent of driving a car with a non-removable Tucker Carlson bumper sticker a lot of the company’s current demographic would flee, and a lot of the American right wouldn’t be seen dead in anything but a huge petrol-guzzling SUV or truck so wouldn’t replace it. As such Musk is in a pretty awkward place with Twitter IMO. If he gets it wrong Tesla will tank.
 
Lex Friedman interviewed Grimes recently, she’s a total fruitloop that regurgitates nothing but word salad.

 
Article in today's WaPo about the absurdity of Musk's deal.

"
A cocky, publicity-seeking libertarian billionaire bets virtually all of his stock in his overvalued electric car company to finance a highly leveraged, $44 billion hostile takeover of an overvalued, money-losing social media platform, on which he boasts 84 million followers.


It’s hard to imagine a megadeal that better captures the absurdity of the era in American finance than Elon Musk’s ploy for Twitter.
"

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/05/02/elon-musk-twitter-financing-flawed/ (paywall)

In summary : he has leveraged his Tesla stock a lot even before this deal and this one is kind of bonkers anyway. He may well end up paying the $1bn penalty fee to get out of it. He is also basically screwed is the Tesla stock ever suffers any sort of steep drop in value. Tesla stock was $85 in March 2020, peaked at about $1243 and is now at about $900.
 


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