So "X" - nothing to see here. Elon's in control - Part XXX

silliussoddius

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121126468#Comment_121126468

I don’t think he’s trolling, he is one of those conspiracy theorist bores.

odyssey06

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121126484#Comment_121126484

I think it's a bit of both.

Quin_Dub

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121126504#Comment_121126504

It's mostly because he's a narcissist who believes that he constantly needs to be the centre of attention and that by being "edgy" he generates attention which in turn helps his businesses.

He's wrong of course , certainly for Twitter.

When he does it for Tesla it sort of generates attention and makes people notice the vehicles and maybe buy them.

When he does it for Twitter it just attracts the loons who post more hateful sh!t which in turn scares away the people that actually generate revenue for them.

pixelburp

Must is an unfortunate combination of two disparate but complementary factors: first, he's insanely wealthy; and second, he's a bit of an ásshole and wannabe edgelord, whose arrested development is probably caused by the first aspect.

Living so detached from anything resembling the reality everyone else has to, down here in the trenches of "can I afford that?", it has only cultivated and encouraged that ásshole sense of mouthing off about the world without an ounce of empathy or perspective. Of course he has no sympathy or sense of proportion - he literally has no boundaries. Which I guess to his fans, is the part they love. Instead they have to content themselves to 8chan or Boards (before they're banned) to rant about Jews, women playing soccer, blue-haired feminists ruining Twitter etc. etc.

francois

Another brain fart from space karen

https://techcrunch.com/2023/09/18/elon-musk-says-x-will-charge-users-a-small-monthly-payment-to-use-its-service/?guccounter=1

I do hope so, it will kill it off completely

pixelburp

“It’s the only way I can think of to combat vast armies of bots,” explained Musk. “Because a bot costs a fraction of a penny — call it a tenth of a penny — but even if it has to pay…a few dollars or something, the effective cost of bots is very high,” he said

Really, Elon. The only way? I'm sure the crippling debt Twitter's saddled with has nothing to do with it. Seems like another case of a potential change quickly rolled back when the reality is revealed; people who got something for free, won't suddenly pay for it. Not en masse to make it worthwhile.

eightieschewbaccy

Wonder how many of his fans here would actually pay for Twitter. 😂

pjohnson

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121128584#Comment_121128584

Sure if he removed bots the site would die.

They are generally whats keeping the site "activity/interactions" up.

pixelburp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121128588#Comment_121128588

I'd speculate how many of his sycophants even use Twitter.

VinLieger

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121128507#Comment_121128507

Just more and more evidence that he doesn't actually understand why normal people use twitter.

Penn

The only bots I see on Twitter are the ones who already pay for promoted tweets/ads. And I'd rather see them than tweets from actual people who've been paying for Twitter Blue because they think their opinions are so important that more people should see them.

pixelburp

Is it just me or, as an unlogged-in user, can we no longer see a given user's tweets anymore? I'll see the pinned ones, but not the timeline of normal tweets?

Quin_Dub

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121128674#Comment_121128674

Not sure it's consistently set like that , but I'm certainly getting "login to continue" prompts far more often that I would have in the past.

Bass Reeves

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121128691#Comment_121128691

I do not have a twitter.......X account and as @pixelburp posted you can now only see the actual page posted. You can no longer comments or there timeline

Ashbourne hoop

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121128588#Comment_121128588

They probably already do.

Tony EH

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121128674#Comment_121128674

Been happening for a while now.

I never had a twatter account but there were a couple of feeds I'd keep an eye on. But they're all fucked now, timeline wise, since gobshite took over.

_Kaiser_

I'm all for him charging for it. It'll kill off one of the most destructive influences on society we've seen in the Modern Age

Think about it - no more imported American identity or culture war nonsense, no more obsessing over Trump Or Biden, and just less "noise" generally .... well until someone comes up with NuTwit or something!

Do it Elon!!

pixelburp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121129709#Comment_121129709

I'll be cheering the moment Twitter dies, but if you think the import of American (pop) culture started or will stop with Twitter you're mistaken: the unavoidable consequence of sharing values, language, ethnicities and general world views is that there has always been an overlap; while the Culture War is just the internet's preponderance for factions run amok American social and political views have tended to inform our own (though lately we've overtaken the US in some respects as that country has indulged in Christian Conservatism)

Twitter has been a net negative on society in terms of people's ability to discuss or consider points of view, not to mention the flood of Fake News and the general disintegration of truth - but for social issues it has at least had value in bringing focus or light on marginalised voices or corners of the world otherwise ignored.

Penn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121132601#Comment_121132601

I always think of a quote I heard, can't remember the source:

The internet gave everyone a voice, but some people need to shut the f*ck up.

Cordell

No, no one needs to shut the fk up. The free exchange of opinions is much more valuable than the confort of only hearing those you agree with. Yes, it's going to be some hate, vile, misinformation and fake news, that's the price we need to pay for freedom and it's well worth it.

Penn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121132724#Comment_121132724

Jesus lad, don't get all "Muh freedoms!" about a flippant throwaway comment.

silliussoddius

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121132603#Comment_121132603

The good thing about the internet is that it gave everyone a voice, the bad thing about the internet is that it gave everyone a voice.

silliussoddius

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121132601#Comment_121132601

I found the below video interesting, it's mainly about one on one personal communication and how important (and even complicated) it is.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCWuQIjNHak&t=939s

Stark

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121134767#Comment_121134767

Ah Sabine Hossenfelder, haven't watched this one yet but love her videos in general.

McFly85

Twitter at its worst popularised the idea that everyone’s opinion on everything is equally valid, which of course is total nonsense - as is the idea that people who were banned for breaking the ToS had their free speech rights trampled on or that they were being silenced.

With solid moderation Twitter can be a fun, informative place. But that’s not going to happen under Musk so let him put it behind a paywall and out of its misery.

pixelburp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121137575#Comment_121137575

Twitter at its worst popularised the idea that everyone’s opinion on everything is equally valid, which of course is total nonsense - as is the idea that people who were banned for breaking the ToS had their free speech rights trampled on or that they were being silenced.

On a related point to yours, and to quote Isaac Asimov himself, as far back as 1980 IIRC. God knows what he'd make of Twitter now:

"Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge."

silliussoddius

….

Kermit.de.frog

..

Cordell

I think Isaac Asimov would like Elon Musk. If the general plot lines of his books reflect his thoughts and opinions, he liked the idea of strong leaders not encumbered by morals. Also, the future he saw for mankind is one where AI gives mankind the means to leave Earth and also makes Earth uninhabitable so to give them an incentive to leave it and colonize (uhh) the galaxy.

silliussoddius

All Musk's sci-fi gave us was Teslas driving around a Las Vegas Tunnel adorned with disco lights, I won't hold out for him being the savior of mankind.

Doctor Jimbob

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121139267#Comment_121139267

The gobshíte can't even run a website properly, if we're relying on him to save the human race then we're in bother.

Cordell

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121139267#Comment_121139267

AI is the savior, Musk is just a tool, like Hober Mallow if you want. And just like him, he avoided being dragged into a small battle that could have resulted in a much larger war, and instead used the situation for his benefit.

ohnonotgmail

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121139151#Comment_121139151

Musk isn't strong. He has paper thin skin.

eightieschewbaccy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121139354#Comment_121139354

You are a tad infatuated with the man and seem to admire any slimy things he does. He is not going to lead some wonderful revolution....

pixelburp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121139267#Comment_121139267

Musk increasingly strikes as an entrepreneurial one (two) hit wonder - and one must always remember boondoggles like the Vegas tunnel, or indeed Twitter. While the actual contributions to his successes can be debated.

He desperately wants to be the new Nikolas Tesla, as if the cars name didn't make it obvious enough - as do the hopelessly infatuated fanboys here and elsewhere - but he's no Tesla in actuality. Just a nerd who made it big and has skin so thin he'd pick fights with rescue divers for dissing his sub

Cordell

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121139535#Comment_121139535

Richest man in the world, CEO of two very successful companies of which one is the de facto US space program, under his leadership the electric car and satellite internet became great again. How is he not a great leader?

VinLieger

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121140081#Comment_121140081

https://www.reuters.com/technology/spacex-employees-denounce-ceo-musk-distraction-letter-2022-06-16/

https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2023-04-24/tesla-investors-say-distracted-musk-hurting-ev-maker

Couple of reasons beyond his grandiose narcissim and tissue thin skin when it comes to anyone not adoring him..... what am i forgetting? Oh yeah his dog whistle pandering to racists and bigots.

Elon and the other billionaires like him are dragons sitting atop their hoards piling more and more money under them but it will never be enough... since you seem to be into book references was Smaug a great leader too?

Cordell

He has plenty of defects and he's a twat, but also his results speak for him. You need to accept this.

VinLieger

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121140743#Comment_121140743

Yup massively overpaying for Twitter and not being able to service the insane debt he loaded the company with is certainly a result that speaks for itself

pixelburp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121140773#Comment_121140773

As well as building a stupid stainless steel truck the market doesn't want; or a "futuristic" car tunnel in Vegas nobody wants; while god knows where neuralink is gonna head...

Results? The man should have known when to sit back, enjoy the goodwill of Tesla / SpaceX, and be a rich nerd people like - instead of believing his every fart is some pearl of genius. His little infatuated àrse licking tribe has been the worst thing for Musk.

On another note, I've seen a bit of social media chatter about Musk appearing on Star Wars: Ahsoka, by way of the villain Thrawn. And, yeah, I see it lol. Very likely an accident but seems Musk is now a SW villain? 😆

pjohnson

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121140743#Comment_121140743

You are the only one in denial.

eightieschewbaccy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121140743#Comment_121140743

Honestly he's reminding me more of a modern P T Barnum. His vision of colonising Mars isn't gonna happen, Twitter takeover is a fiscal disaster and he's still struggling to launch a truck... So can't help but be doubtful that the guy is gonna lead a human revolution.

Cordell

He's not gonna lead any revolution because there won't be any revolution to lead. It's all about incremental progress and that's where he's a leader. Again, he's behind what has become THE electric car brand, THE satellite Internet provider and THE US space program. Also, just like any other great leader before him, he has plenty of failures and he will have more failures in the future. But what moves us forward is his successes.

pixelburp

And if we're talking "great leadership". Good leadership is recognising when you don't lead, but simply sit back and let people who know better drive the bus. Or indeed, design the truck.

Putting the pieces together, pushing people forward and letting them make the magic. Ford, Disney, Dyson, Jobs, Branson etc. all flawed men as much as Mush was but they knew when to let others use their skills. Walt Disney didn't draw Mickey Mouse. To use another quote, this time from fictional cop "Dirty" Harry Callaghan:

A man has to know his limitations.

Or indeed Steve Jobs from the (Fantastic) titular movie:

I play the orchestra.

https://youtu.be/AeZQ4Oi1wu8?si=o9LTBq8NT9-QstaH

That's leadership. Being the conductor for other people's expertise.

Bullishness and arrogance that your every utterance has value is less Nikolas Tesla, and more John DeLorean. Musk has become high on his own supply, letting fawning internet idiots ramp up his ego rather than go back to basics. Oh but his "meme game is strong".

Agent Coulson

Ah sh1t I'll never not see Musk now when I see Thrawn.

He has now ruined one of my favourite Star Wars characters.

L1011

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121141547#Comment_121141547

Delorean could actually build cars that didn't fall apart (at GM, the DMC12 wasn't fantastically built) or look like they were designed by a six year old with a ruler.

In the electric car market Tesla have shoddy, aging, ugly models with aging tech that is now being eclipsed by everyone else. They won't be "THE electric car brand" for much longer and when their ridiculous market cap floats down to a realistic level I'd expect one of the car brands that is still insanely behind in EV tech to buy them

McFly85

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121141683#Comment_121141683

Thought that for a while myself. He did an excellent job in popularising the EV and making it a desirable product. But it’s really a matter of time before the big manufacturers take over in terms of price, build quality, performance etc.

I do think the company has been wise to invest in EV infrastructure too, though - so additional fees for non-tesla’s charging could be a good source of income for them.

Hes a great hype man to have(or, at least he was). Him being the face of a product while there was a workable product to sell was ideal. But the more he inserts himself into the actual design process the more things fall apart. The Cybertruck and the Semi really seem like concepts that should have never gone any further. Interesting ideas and unique designs, but severely impractical.

And Twitter is the same. A markedly worse place now that has to run based on the whims of its owner.

Doctor Jimbob

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121141543#Comment_121141543

He's not "behind" Tesla, he bought his way in, forced the actual founders out, and portrayed himself as the founder because he is an egotistical man-child. I'm fairly sure he tried similar at paypal, and I assume it's the same for his other companies. His very public bad ideas since he took over twitter would certainly suggest that's the case.

He seems to be good at marketing and choosing his investments wisely (pre-Twitter at least), but I see absolutely no evidence that he's the genius and great leader that his fan club seems to think he is.

Cordell

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121141860#Comment_121141860

He bought Tesla when there was just a startup with no actual product. The first car was designed under his leadership, and so were the cars that lead to its huge success and made the electric car great again. Why is it so hard to recognize his achievements?

ohnonotgmail

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121141860#Comment_121141860

he bought his way into paypal as well and was then forced out because his ideas were dumb