US midterms 2022
Elon Musk is using Twitter to help Republicans turn America into a MAGA dystopia. And he is being as discreet about it as Donald Trump has been about running for president again.
Trump’s narcissism has him angling to steal all the glory Republicans presume will be theirs tomorrow. He will steal their thunder by announcing his 2024 presidential campaign tomorrow night. Because he presumes all Republicans are beholden to him and would like nothing more than to make their anticipated victories about him.
Elon makes his ‘fair & balanced’ pitch
Remarkably, Elon’s narcissism rivals Trump’s. That’s why he couldn’t resist preempting Trump with this election-eve tweet:
Given that, you might think this genius recommended voting for a Democratic Congress during the 2018 midterms, given that the presidency was Republican. But don’t bother searching for that tweet.
The simple fact is that, like Trump, Elon can’t help showing what a mendacious buffoon he is. Remember, Musk pledged to buy Twitter, framing it as a charitable act in his mission to save humanity. He also vowed to purge it of all perceived political bias.
Now he’s firing half the staff, including pregnant women. And he’s conjuring up all kinds of ways to monetize it – all in a money-grubbing attempt to salvage his investment. Now he’s canvassing for Republicans!
Of course, one can hardly blame him. After all, he paid four times what Twitter is worth now. But, thanks to his Trumpian antics, even Tesla is worth only half of what it was a year ago. It’s a classic case of a fool and his money parting ways.
Ultimately, Musk is acting out a maniacal case of the revenge of the nerds. That’s because the cool, liberal Democrats never liked him when he was a nobody. Ironically, he’s showing everyone the reasons why.
Whoopi quits too
Musk can easily afford to lose $200 billion and still strut his stuff on social media. But he cannot afford A-list celebrities fleeing his Twitter as if he were a skunk showing up at a garden party.
The mere prospect of others following Whoopi Goldberg’s celebrated abandonment already has him going all Kanye. He’s making Orwellian threats to go thermonuclear on advertisers.
Celebrities fleeing will reflect unprecedented public rejection and humiliation. And I fear that will strike a fatal blow to his fragile ego.
Elon and Jack part duh
Elon Musk and Jack Dorsey sparred Sunday night about Twitter’s mission to become the ‘most accurate source of information’ and the rebranding of its feature Birdwatch – a name the new owner said gave him “the creeps.”… ‘Accurate to who?’ replied Dorsey, a co-founder and former CEO of the social media site, which Musk bought for an estimated $44 billion.
‘As judged by the people of Twitter via Community Notes (formerly Birdwatch),’ Musk wrote, referring to the feature that allows users to add notes on tweets they find misleading.
(New York Post, November 7, 2022)
Now bear in mind, these guys are supposed to be rivals; you know, good Bluesky vs. bad Twitter. But this makes it seem like Musk is having Dorsey run Bluesky as a saintly but doomed foil. You know, the way Russian President Vladimir Putin has a stooge run in presidential elections.
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