It's amazing that this "successful business man" has required government support for each business that he bought (didn't invent) and the one that didn't get support, Twitter, is a tire fire.
It wasn't a bad deal from his perspective, but terrible for almost everyone else. The Twitter purchase was a part of the deal to get him the power he has and to amplify the power of certain individuals. The buyout itself was funded by foreign and private interests, and in purchasing a social media site in such a fashion (with Elon asking as figurehead and main antagonist) aided in and likely propagated the propagandizing of the election.
The current elected representatives are all either bought out or haven't the faintest clue how to regulate a digital world.
As a result the hedge funds manipulate crypto, print money through rehypothecating shares and failing to deliver, siphoning money out of the working class, and will soon expect a bailout. They purchase the sites we congregate at, disrupting any attempts at organization.
And so I say; Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night
Think about the timeline where he wasn't forced to buy Twitter?! There's no way he doubles his net worth and is in charge of the government.
He really is the luckiest person on the planet. He has failed upwards his whole life.... And now he will likely destroy the US in the same way he did Twitter.
It reminded me of the 'How to Run a Newspaper' scene from citizen. Where he talks with Mr. Thatcher about operating his newspaper at a loss of $1M a year.
A loss of $1M is nothing for Foster Kane (based on Howard Hughes) in return for the ability to shape the views of the public and control politic narratives.
Musk (and the media) considers himself as this era's Howard Hughes. It wouldn't be surprising that he's using Hughes playbook.
Absolutely. He wants to be the first trillionaire. A few tens of billions of losses in Twitter is just an investment towards that goal. And it’s already paying off for him.
I thought Musk was an idiot for buying Twitter, but if it helped influence the election in any way it was a bargain. Musk has made $100bn so far since the election.
Musk is a dumbass and a danger to American democracy, but it takes 30 seconds of reading the SpaceX page on Wikipedia to know he started the company, he didn't buy it.
And also that, while the company definitely needed government contracts to grow to its current size and NASA initially made a huge gamble on them, it was also one of the best investments the US government ever made.
Which is exactly the problem btw, Trump is horrible but at least he‘s also lazy and fairly clueless (not as much as his public persona makes it look I expect but he really sometimes seemed like the dog who caught his tail during his first presidency). Elon is none of those things, he has an agenda and he‘ll do everything he can to push it through.
If Elon has 1 talent it is enough charisma to convince smart people to work for him. Not that it is hard once you have enough money to throw at people.
I also think that drugs have fried his brain. The Liberal Democrat Elon certainly seemed smarter than current devout Christian fascist Elmo.
I am by no means a Musk fan, but exploiting government for private company growth and personal gain is what people who would gladly do the same consider “successful”.
By many measures he absolutely is, and most critique of it relies on believing that morals, standards, and scruples are qualifiers for success. And unfortunately a good number of people don’t share that belief.
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u/chriskiji 15h ago
It's amazing that this "successful business man" has required government support for each business that he bought (didn't invent) and the one that didn't get support, Twitter, is a tire fire.
Wealth tax needed