Just weeks ago, Elon Musk was thumping his box-car chest. He was goading Mark Zuckerberg into a cage fight. Remarkably, the hype was such that Italy even offered to stage it in the famed Colosseum.
Wounded Twitter
For Musk, hype trumps performance. That’s why he was so keen to hype a battle between billionaire nerds. Instead of having the media report on his incompetent job performance, that is. Especially given that, thanks to his lackluster performance, Twitter has become a dysfunctional, dystopian hellscape. That’s why Zuckerberg saw it as little more than a wounded animal he could put out of its misery.
Twitter has become a platform where hate-fueled trolling masquerades as public debate. Yet, Musk has blithely ignored user complaints about this degeneration.
Indeed, he is trolling Democrats by endorsing Republicans for Congress and Ron DeSantis for president. After all, he promised that Twitter would be politically neutral and that he would show no political fear or favor.
Meanwhile, Musk was implementing helter-skelter policies to monetize Twitter. But that has been like pounding rocks in a vain attempt to draw blood. For this reason, Zuckerberg again saw Twitter as a wounded animal.
And nothing showed its wounds quite like its plummeting value: Musk paid $44 billion for it in October. It’s valued at only $15 billion today. Zuckerberg would have been a fool not to challenge Musk.
Threads, in for the kill
It was shrewd enough that Zuckerberg seized the opportunity to launch a rival to Twitter. But he even used Twitter’s own template for Threads. On Friday, the Washington Post hailed Threads as “Twitter wearing a sparkly Instagram bodysuit.” That speaks volumes.
But Zuckerberg also showed his superior management style. That is, by making it so easy for his two billion Instagram users to sign up for Threads. That resulted in nearly 75 million users signing up in just two days.
To say that wiped the hype off Musk’s face would be an understatement. But instead of examining why Zuckerberg is succeeding while he’s failing, Musk threatened to sue.
But this only makes him look like a Trumpian sore loser. His lawsuit has zero chance of succeeding. After all, many other apps have tried and failed to do what Threads is doing so seamlessly. And Musk did not sue any of them.
But his reaction reinforces my abiding contention that Musk is becoming to business what Trump is to politics: a bullying, trolling, incompetent buffoon. For example, in April, Musk hyped his launch of the biggest rocket in history. But the whole world watched it blow up mere minutes after the blastoff.
But Musk could be forgiven his tantrum. After all, this online smackdown comes on the heels of that space-launch blowup. No doubt Musk thinks threatening to sue shows his determination to win this match between Threads and Twitter, which is their cage match by other means. But the irony is that it shows him effectively tapping out – ceding the win to Zuckerberg.
Cage match in cyberspace, and it’s personal
The whole world now sees the likes of Musk and Zuckerberg as the new “Masters of the Universe.” And these nerds must be pinching themselves. After all, they couldn’t be more different from the suave Gordon Gekko of Wall Street or the imposing Sherman McCoy of Bonfire of the Vanities.
But only one nerd can be top dog. That’s why there’s no exaggerating Musk’s wounded pride. Like all grown-up nerds, he’s still an insecure nerd inside. That’s why he always flaunts his bromance with cool celebrities like Kanye and Leonardo DiCaprio and romance with hot celebrities like Amber Heard and Grimes.
But celebrities are joining Threads in droves. And they are hailing Zuckerberg’s Threads as a refuge from Musk’s worsening Twitter storm. This rejection must be conjuring up in Musk the feelings of rejection he felt growing up as a nerd.
After all, he’s the richest man in the world and has the best physical makeover money can buy – complete with a hair transplant and Ozempic-induced fat loss. Yet this Twitter fiasco has him looking like a loser teenage nerd.
All that’s left is for Threads to become so successful it propels Zuckerberg past Musk to become the new richest man in the world. That would complete Musk’s humiliation. Except even that would pale in comparison to the way this self-professed “free-speech absolutist” is kowtowing to Chinese President Xi Jinping:
Musk has promised the company will uphold “core socialist values” in China following a price war in the country’s electric vehicle market, the Financial Times reported. Tesla was the only foreign carmaker to sign the joint letter pledge with 16 manufacturers at an auto industry conference in Shanghai on Thursday.
(The Daily Beast, July 7, 2023)
To be fair, Musk is only following the lead of other Western CEOs who have checked their corporate motto and personal integrity at the border to do business in China.
What is President Biden waiting for?
Since Musk bought Twitter, I’ve been urging President Biden to lead all democratic leaders in making a show of quitting. That was long before Threads became a more reliable and sanely run alternative to Twitter.
That’s why I’m dumbfounded and dismayed that Biden is still on Twitter as of this writing. As stated above, Musk’s violation betrayal of his pledge of neutrality is surpassed only by the contempt he shows for Democrats.
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