Musk Takes 9.2% Stake In Twitter

[disneysteve]

Do you know that Musk has altered his platform to only show certain viewpoints he blesses?

And as a private business that’s his right and I totally support that right. But it’s also why I and millions of others have left the platform.

[ua_guy]

And as a private business that’s his right and I totally support that right. But it’s also why I and millions of others have left the platform.

100%.

And now it's way too entangled in politics and foreign investment. No thanks.

[EasyMoney00]

Bluesky is the better platform, and it was developed by Jack Dorsey (is that name familiar?) to basically be what Twitter was in its heyday before it was sold and destroyed. lol.

Facebook was garbage before and after the change. And no, the bot/scammer problem on X has not been solved. It really hasn't been solved anywhere, but it's really, really bad on X according to those who still use it.

To DS' comment, you're confusing "freedom" with something else. Do you know that Musk has altered his platform to only show certain viewpoints he blesses? I know a number of people who were part of the community reviewer program. Basically, the community of users are able to independently fact-check claims on Twitter. They had a lot of success debunking political lies, both foreign and domestic, and then just before the 2024 election, that all changed. Their efforts were no longer effective, and false information was actively being promoted by the platform.

I never heard of bluesky until now. I do know who Jack is. Not sure what direction bluesky is going but Jack wanted 2 versions of Twitter. A calm version, and the literal wild West version, anything goes.

If Elon did that during the election that's not good. At least I will say that wasn't a good decision. Mark Z did that during the last election in favor of Biden...not a conspiracy, zuck already said it publicly. Is someone from the left able to say that wasn't ok?

I lean more conservative, but I didn't vote for Trump or Biden/Harris. I don't like either of them. They're all trash.

[EasyMoney00]

It's hard for myself and most people on here to comprehend why someone would pay $40B for a platform that was probably worth $10B. Elon has discussed this too many times to count. He wanted freedom of speech. He saw the agenda Twitter was pushing and it made him sick to his guts.

People can't handle Elon. Richest dude in the world on paper, says whatever he wants, trolls other billionaires. He is a mad man. Genius too. People have a hard time with that.

[ua_guy]

It's hard for myself and most people on here to comprehend why someone would pay $40B for a platform that was probably worth $10B. Elon has discussed this too many times to count. He wanted freedom of speech. He saw the agenda Twitter was pushing and it made him sick to his guts.

People can't handle Elon. Richest dude in the world on paper, says whatever he wants, trolls other billionaires. He is a mad man. Genius too. People have a hard time with that.

I think some of us see through the charades. Claiming he's a proponent of free speech, only to buy a social media platform to promote his own bias and downplay others. That's not free speech, but he's tricked a lot of people into believing it is, because they can supposedly post whatever they want. His companies algorithms make sure that the interactions and sharing of those ideas he is not fond of is downplayed. How is that free speech? He's just a business owner running his platform as it benefits him. There's nothing magical about that.

People can't handle the fact that he's not a genius in the way they expect. He didn't found Tesla, doesn't know anything about rockets other than what his engineers help him understand. He's an extremely shrewd investor in other people's ideas, however. His social skills need a lot of work, and the well-publicized drug habit(s) are unfortunate.

[disneysteve]

His social skills need a lot of work

He has autism so the lack of social skills is quite understandable but I agree that it doesn’t help his public persona. It’s just not something he can really change.

[ua_guy]

He has autism so the lack of social skills is quite understandable but I agree that it doesn’t help his public persona. It’s just not something he can really change.

I think there’s a fairly clear delineation between autism and some of the things he says/does seemingly on purpose to others. Trolling others or Disparaging California’s wildfire response isn’t autism, is it?

[disneysteve]

I think there’s a fairly clear delineation between autism and some of the things he says/does seemingly on purpose to others. Trolling others or Disparaging California’s wildfire response isn’t autism, is it?

Certainly autism doesn't explain or excuse all of his behavior, but I'm sure it has a lot to do with his awkward social skills.

[EasyMoney00]

Serious question, which platform do people on the left now use? Bluesky?

Elon is awkward AF. His jokes are corny and he laughs at the dumbest stuff. He does get a good roast in now and then in Twitter. But he is essentially mentally retarded. Not his fault.

SAying Elon isn't smart is also saying Warren Buffett isn't smart. Warren simply invested in companies and everyone thinks hes great. He didn't create anything himself. That's just silly talk. You dont get to billionaire status without being a boss.

[disneysteve]

Serious question, which platform do people on the left now use? Bluesky?

I don't know why it needs to be framed as a left/right issue. It's much more a truth/falsehood issue. I would hope there are people of all political leanings that care about the truth. Heck, when I've taken those surveys to place me on a graph I always land on or just to the right of center, which always surprises me, but I'm very socially liberal but somewhat fiscally conservative.

As I said earlier, I did start a BlueSky account but so far haven't seen much value in it. I left Twitter so the only platform I'm currently active on is Facebook. I expect it will go downhill without fact-checking but since I only see my friends' posts, that may not be nearly as big of a problem as what happened with Twitter.

[ua_guy]

Serious question, which platform do people on the left now use? Bluesky?

Elon is awkward AF. His jokes are corny and he laughs at the dumbest stuff. He does get a good roast in now and then in Twitter. But he is essentially mentally retarded. Not his fault.

SAying Elon isn't smart is also saying Warren Buffett isn't smart. Warren simply invested in companies and everyone thinks hes great. He didn't create anything himself. That's just silly talk. You dont get to billionaire status without being a boss.

Clarification. I didn’t say he isn’t smart. I said he’s not a genius in the way most people expect. Most of his companies ideas he didn’t come up with himself and that really bothers people who, for whatever reason, worship him. He’s more of a venture capitalist than an engineer or mad scientist of sorts, but I think he wishes he was.

I think things he does and says are extremely off-putting for generally centrist or right/left leaning people, and a lot of people who really don’t want things to be tainted by politics. For that reason, a lot of people have gone to other social media platforms like Bluesky, and a lot of people have left social platforms in general or changed how they interact with those platforms.

[myrdale]

Wild that you equate freedom with misinformation and fact-checking with censorship. Personally I’m much more interested in the truth.

Freedom of speech means people have a right to lie.

Yet 90% of what I see labeled as "misinformation" is simply anything the right says that doesn't align with the left's agenda.

What happens when the Fact-checkers lie? Or don't get a joke? The best example I have is when Facebook fact checked the Payday Candy Bar meme on me.

[myrdale]

It's hard for myself and most people on here to comprehend why someone would pay $40B for a platform that was probably worth $10B. Elon has discussed this too many times to count.

Also keep in mind when investing, it's not what it's worth today that counts, it's what it'll be worth tomorrow.

[myrdale]

I don't know why it needs to be framed as a left/right issue.

God only knows everything else here is, even the price of eggs.

[james.hendrickson]

God only knows everything else here is, even the price of eggs.

Yeah, I dunno why. So many of these finance/political issues aren't that black and white.