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EnderAK08's avatar

"World's formerly richest man buys website for billions, guts it, loses millions in revenue, throws in with neo-Nazis, sure to lose more revenue"

The trajectory of Elon Musk is really something.

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Mike B.'s avatar

The personal and professional Musk de-evolution into an immature, emotionally spastic, grievance-based, self-destructive toddler-man is bewildering. I wouldn't be shocked that within five years he winds up living in a luxury survivalist cave in Iceland.

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TomD's avatar

Iceland: Mars on a budget.

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rlritt's avatar

So true, I was there many years ago in Feb. and it was cold and bleak and dark.

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Josh's avatar

The aspect that did actually surprise me, in listening to the recent recordings of him talking to Twitter staff, was his complete inability to handle even the most reasonable, politely delivered disagreement.

I mean this wasn't even "Sir all due respect but you're being dumb" this was "No sir, gravity works, up is up, down is down" and he's throwing the dude out of the conversation for it.

That's... not a good sign for his future, given that he is in something of a fraught situation. Like sure he'll probably never go broke, but that's not the mind you need guiding the ship past the proverbial icebergs.

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rlritt's avatar

Maybe he had a stroke.

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TomD's avatar

Seriously. Or early on-set dementia.

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suzc's avatar

And this is one of the reasons we need federal oversight of communications platforms, including social media. Just as the govt fails to enforce most antitrust laws, or rico laws, or other laws meant to keep commerce and life in general on a somewhat fair or equal footing (of opportunity, not of outcomes) -- that old "pursuit of happiness" nonsense -- it fails to oversee properly if at all.

And we are not talking about Republican Revenge Committees pretending to be congress people.

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Will J. McNamee's avatar

Prometheus is as Prometheus does. Elon's waxed wings are melting from his self created hell fire. Oh! and yeah, no body wants to buy his overpriced Kamikaze "fully-automated" death D-cells-on-wheels.

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HoyaGoon's avatar

Think you mean Icarus here

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Will J. McNamee's avatar

My Bad! Icarus was the intended reference. (Should've stayed awake during those Ancient Greece lectures...)

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Bruce G's avatar

Musk is not only bankrupting Twitter, he is also driving Tesla into a Jersey barrier. Don't forget that Tesla is the source of most his money. Musk is alienating his core customer base at the exact same time rival companies are rolling out their own EVs. Genius level stupidity.

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rlritt's avatar

And the far right state of Wyoming is trying to ban Electric Cars. And many more conservative states are refusing Biden's plan to build charging stations across the nation. It seems that Mr. Musk has bet on the wrong horse.

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Chris's avatar

That man bet on pi├▒atas, he's been so wrong.

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rlritt's avatar

Ha ha.

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TomD's avatar

Isn't it time for Musk to make good on his promise to fly to Mars?

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Howid's avatar

Just put him in one of his self-driving cars in the rain.

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Jan 25, 2023
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Chris's avatar

A Nissan Leaf won't put you into a girder, either.

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MProvenza's avatar

And yet most of the Bulwark folks are staying on Twitter, because it is so useful. I really would love to see a mass exodus from the site.

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ChelseaGirl's avatar

I too would like to see the Bulwark commentators leave Twitter. Although I found it useful to follow news, analysis, and commentary from folks I trust, I simply can't support what Twitter is becoming. Things will only get worse when Trump returns in the spring after his contractual obligations to Truth Social expire.

Although it is still in development, the waitlist at Post News has been lifted and anyone can join immediately. I've been on the site since November and recommend it. Post features content moderation, account verification, and a separate news feed for media companies like Reuters. IMHO, the user group culture and vibe there is MUCH different (and better) than Twitter. https://post.news/

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suzc's avatar

There was life before Twitter (and it was mostly in sentences and paragraphs). There will be life after Twitter (and maybe paragraphs will return).

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Chris's avatar

Same, I've never been on Twitter. I am thankful for it everyday.

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suzc's avatar

Most journalists, not just Bulwark, but they could lead the way!

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Peter T's avatar

Ha, ha. Twitter. Useful. Same sentence.

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R Mercer's avatar

They are on Twitter now, but given how things are going, how long before they get "canceled?"

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Kongming's avatar

No one should ever have been on twatter, but yes, a mass exodus of everyone now would be in the best interests of humanity

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rlritt's avatar

I've never been on Twitter.

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EnderAK08's avatar

That's true, but we actually hurt Twitter if we tweet and our tweets aren't profitable. It costs him money every time we tweet, and that tweet has be recouped by ad revenue. Our best bet to bankrupting the company is the most unprofitable tweets possible.

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Kate Fall's avatar

I don't understand how that works. Surely the more time we engage with Twitter, the more valuable it is to advertisers.

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EnderAK08's avatar

Pretty simple. Every tweet you post cost money because of server load, programming costs, etc. So it starts with a negative value for Twitter. I have no idea what it is, but let's say it's 25 cents for fun.

So the posting of the tweet itself is a 25-cent loss for the company. They turn around and resell your tweet as an advertiser target. And in this case, they need to sell 26 cents of ads per tweet.

"You ad can appear next to tweets like [blank], so you can sell your product or service to users interested in [blank]."

If the topics you tweet about are worthless to advertisers, your tweeting is a net loss.

Really Twitter should prefer we all tweet about Coca-Cola or fun travel experiences or sports or something easily monetizable.

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TomD's avatar

Part of why Musk got to be TWRM is that Tesla was trading at a Price/earnings over a thousand. Now it's down to 44,. The average of the S & P historically is 16.5. Ford's PE is 5.

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Michael's avatar

I guess investors decided Tesla is a car company after all and not a tech company.

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EnderAK08's avatar

I am going to enjoy watching the stock price return to Earth in the next couple years.

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TomD's avatar

t would be one thing is Tesla had patents amounting to a moat. They don't. At this point, all they have to set them apart from everybody else making EV's is their charging network.

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R Mercer's avatar

If I was Tesla, I would be getting out of the direct car market (if I had ever really gotten into it ITFP, which I would not have been inclined to other than as a tech showcase) and be focusing my energies on batteries/motors, and the charging system--trying to make my system the industry standard. Get the big manufacturers to use my tech.

But then I am not a mega-billionaire entrepreneur, so what do I know.

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Linnea's avatar

Elon lost 70% of his add revenue in one month. Reported in the WaPo

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Josh's avatar

"We've only lost forty percent of our ad revenue? There have got to be ways to get those numbers up."

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EnderAK08's avatar

Elon Musk quarterly presentation:

WE'RE TAKING AD REVENUE TO ZERO

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Jan 25, 2023Edited
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Sko Hayes's avatar

I don't know why anyone is surprised about Elon welcoming the white supremacists back to Twitter, that's who he's been his entire life.

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