@Badger_AF @benroyce @Npars01
I kind of think it matters a little, if only for the opportunity cost.

Let’s take the Musk-public-persona perspective (setting aside the “every billionaire is a crime” mentality for a moment) — he spent about $25 of his own billions on Twitter, what if, instead, he’d spent a few billion on a Mars simulator of the Biosphere 2 sort: a sustained attempt to build an enclosed ecology of the sort that a space colony (Mars, moon, asteroid, orbital) would require?

How about a few billion to build a space station — or a space playground, or even a space mansion?

Or piled money into robotics?

All these things would have fed his ego *and* his reputation, but instead….

@SonofaGeorge @Badger_AF @Npars01
same

that's because we're normal

elon is not normal

@benroyce @SonofaGeorge @Badger_AF @Npars01 I mean he still has 250 billions.

forbes.com/profile/elon-musk/

Most of that "money" was never money, but some dude saying "his firms are so and so much worth". But give it time and that made up money can change into real money.

Elon Musk

#1 Elon Musk on the 2024 Forbes 400

^{Elon Musk (Forbes)}

@fuchsi @SonofaGeorge @Badger_AF @Npars01
#trump is essentially our first #socialmedia president

and it doesn't reflect well on social media

because the powerbase he grew is a cesspit of vicious lies, racist trolls, disinfo agendas, and weaponized idiocy

and we better get a handle on this phenomenon, because it's not abating

@benroyce @fuchsi @SonofaGeorge @Badger_AF
With radio propaganda, broadcast license requirements, regulations on hate speech, & oversight on foreign ownership worked for a long time after WW2.

Unfortunately, as @pluralistic points out, regulatory capture by the far right & a corrupt Supreme Court is a reality.

@Npars01 @HistoPol
Why not kill the golden goose?

Its pâté is so yummy!

#X #Legal #InvestorsUnsealed

(I/n)

You're right, Nicole.
I think, however, there still is a hidden equally important agenda regarding the #TwitterDemolition, which most still fail to see:

mastodon.social/@HistoPol/1111…

I can't prove it yet, OFC, but time will tell. #Bluesky inheriting most of the remaining #X users would just make so much sense.

Apart from the reasons named, #Elmo is still working towards the #EverythingApp, inspired by the #Chinese #WeeChat.
And if #China is...

@mike

#X #Legal #InvestorsUnsealed

(II/n)

...the role model, well nothing can beat the #Chinese #surveillance state.

It's all in the open, #Twitter's programming and infrastructure is way to much legacy and trying to move masses of people from one app to another is all but impossible due to the network lock-in effect, as Cory @pluralistic has been explaining.
A mature #Bluesky product and a quickly collapsing #X infrastructure...

@HistoPol
Unsurprisingly, Fidelity is a major institutional investor in the New York Times as well as Twitter.

It explains a lot about the New York Times negligent journalism of the GOP.

fintel.io/so/us/nyt

Fidelity's DAF's fund hate speech.
newrepublic.com/article/172927…

exposedbycmd.org/2023/12/13/br…

opendemocracy.net/en/5050/dono…

cbsnews.com/news/fidelity-401k…

Bradley Funneled $86 Million to Right-Wing Litigation, Policy, Media, Youth Groups, and Higher Education in 2022 - EXPOSEDbyCMD

The Milwaukee-based Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation and its “aligned” donor advised fund funneled a total of $86.

^{David Armiak (EXPOSEDbyCMD)}

@Npars01
#X #Legal #InvestorsUnsealed

(2/n)

...of the investors [which IMO should often be called "co-conspirators,"] in particular the #Saudi crown prince, #MBS's role (see article).

"...The list #X filed with the court mentions 95 names and legal entities.

Some of them are familiar names for Musk-watchers:

#AndreessenHorowitz, 8VC, #JackDorsey, Ross Gerber, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Sequoia, et al. There are 26 entries related to #Fidelity, the mutual fund colossus. There’s...