Back near the beginning of fall, I predicted that Elon Musk’s Twitter buyout would make for popcorn-munching entertainment. Twitter may be the runty junior member of Big Social, but it’s the main pipeline through which the regime issues firmware updates to Millennial NPCs. So Musk used Twitter’s own subpar track record against it by making an offer the board couldn’t refuse. This approach thrust the Silicon Valley elites into a no-win Xanatos Gambit wherein they couldn’t afford to let Musk have Twitter, while being legally obliged to sell to him.
Sparks were destined to fly, but the ensuing three-ring circus has exceeded even my expectations.
The future of Twitter seemed to hang in the balance Friday after its offices were locked down and key employees announced their departures in defiance of an ultimatum from new owner Elon Musk.
Fears grew that the fresh exodus would threaten the very existence of one of the world’s most influential internet platforms, which serves as a key communication tool for the world’s media, politicians, companies and celebrities.
Musk, also the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, has come under fire for radical changes at the California-based firm, which he bought less than a month ago for $44 billion.
In an internal memo sent this week, Musk had told workers that they must choose to be “extremely hardcore” or lose their jobs.
He had already fired half of the company’s 7,500 staff, scrapped a work-from-home policy and imposed long hours, all while his attempts to overhaul Twitter face backlash and delays.
Say what you will about Musk’s management style. He’s proven himself a master at making the regime media beclown themselves. Legacy news outlets hook readers by using rhetoric that instills fear. That’s why they always use language that comes off as grave yet hysterical at the same time. Thanks to Elon, the press has to present his California gamer slang as some dire ultimatum.
Getting your dander up over an exhortation to be “extremely hardcore” is like being expected to take umbrage if, say, Kim Jong-un told Biden he would “totally pwn America’s ass.”
Which he should, just for the hilarity of the New York Times having to run that headline.
[Elon’s] stumbling attempts to revamp user verification with a controversial subscription service have led to a slew of fake accounts and pranks, and prompted major advertisers to step away from the platform.
But are reports of Twitter’s imminent death true or greatly exaggerated?
Fevered talk of the site’s imminent demise was driving record high engagement on Twitter, according to Musk.
He noted the irony by posting the popular meme of an actor jokingly posing over a grave. Both the man and the tombstone were overlaid with Twitter’s logo. The post was “liked” by more than 1.3 million users.
In a later tweet, sent during Friday’s early hours on the West Coast, the South African-born billionaire said: “Record numbers of users are logging in to see if Twitter is dead, ironically making it more alive than ever!”.
Musk added that the “best people are staying, so I’m not super worried.”
Here’s the inconvenient fact the media’s handwringing is trying to distract you from:
Musk has fired more than half of Twitter’s workforce.
Yet the site is still operational.
Like everywhere, the Pareto rule applies. 20% of Twitter employees get 80% of the actual work done.
The rest – the people Musk is firing – were regime censors tasked with making sure users didn’t contradict the official narrative.
That’s why the hack actors masquerading as our legislators are being directed to freak out.
Signs that government regulators were becoming impatient with Musk’s handling of Twitter also grew on Friday, especially over the platform’s ability to moderate content with a severely reduced headcount.
A group of US senators on Thursday said Musk’s plans for the site “undermined the integrity and safety of the platform… despite clear warnings those changes would be abused for fraud, scams, and dangerous impersonation.”
A top regulator for the European Union meanwhile said that Musk should be increasing the number of moderators in Europe, not reducing them.
Musk “knows perfectly well what the conditions are for Twitter to continue operating in Europe,” EU commissioner Thierry Breton said.
A spokesman for German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said the government was watching developments at Twitter “with growing concern” and reviewing its presence on the platform.
Context is key. While crypto scams are wiping out independent digital currency holders, and Europeans face the prospect of freezing to death, the globalist regime’s main concern is making sure the people affected by these crises can’t disagree with them online.
People who complain that Elon hasn’t let Trump back on are missing the point. Their petty urge to own the libz and don the devil horns blinds them to the real impact of Musk’s move.
In short, he’s forcing our rulers to admit by their actions that they care more about censoring their people than keeping them alive and out of poverty.
The regime is desperate for the control that Twitter once gave them.
Here’s hoping Musk does destroy it.
Meanwhile, don’t don the devil horns for people who hate you.
A very good point. Any business that can fire half of its employees and not suffer a severe degradation in performance is clearly massively overstaffed.
CantusTropus,
There’s an article about the email caste as similar to the impoverished French nobles who were given jobs. But contributed noting to society. Twitter and most of big tech is bloated and the Brandon recession is salutary.it’s forced the bosses to cull the bloat. Elon is just the leading edge.
xavier
While we’re here, Brian, what’s your take on the controversy with Elon having discussions with the ADL et al, apparently taking their concerns somewhat seriously? The people on Gab are constantly going on about how this is proof that nothing will change, that Elon is in the pocket of The Small Hat Tribe or something (because of course), that Yoel Roth has been talking about banning lots of people who thought things had changed, etc. Of course, a lot of this comes from Andrew Torba himself, who is certainly a long way from a neutral party (he has a very real interest in people not going back to Twitter), but do you think there’s any merit to such claims?
All the bellyaching from the Right about Musks’s management of Twitter is predicated on the assumption that he was some kind of crypto dissident. That was never true – he’s a moderate Liberal like most Silicon Valley founders of his generation. But right-wingers eager to don the devil horns for Lefty convinced themselves he’d rewind Twitter to 2014. They were asking for disappointment.
That said, Elon let Roth go from Twitter, so he’s not just a regime shill, either. The truth is he’s a horseshoe theorist who perceives commies and fascists as equidistant from his personal position, which he doesn’t realize is arbitrary. Based on his tweets over the past weeks, he may be confronting his error.
Update: Musk has just reinstated Donald Trump’s account.
Since I barely use twitter and I don’t follow mainstream news, the idea that twitter was in danger of shutting down was strange to me. The site still works fine, there’s no announcement from Musk hinting that it will shut down, and there’s still tons of people using twitter.
So many people are convinced that it’s going to shut down tomorrow or the day after, but when you get right down to it the only piece of data they have for this is that Musk has fired a bunch of people. All the rest comes down to “but everyone else is saying that it’s going to shut down!” Just literal hysteria. The same sort of stuff that convinced people that Donald Trump was going to bring about nuclear holocaust aaaannnny day now.
Yes, it’s just another narrative the cultists tell each other to insulate themselves from reality. The other day, an ex-Twitter employee was pouting about how Death Cultists just want to be left alone, but those mean chuds won’t leave them in peace. That takes “Stop hitting yourself!” to a whole new level.
Alex Jones not having his account reinstated, should give pause to the idea that things will actually improve on twitter. Or that Elon is in any way serious about the platform being the public square.
Musk is trying to please everyone and finding to his surprise that such an approach pleases no one. He first ruffled Conservatives’ feathers when he deferred all reinstatements pending the formation of a new trust and safety council. Now he’s denied Alex Jones and Nick Fuentes reinstatement but reinstated Jordan Peterson and Trump without forming a council.
Andrew Torba did a stream yesterday in which he predicted that the ADL will now wage total war against Twitter, getting it banned by Apple and Google while targeting advertisers to destroy it.
If Musk incites the woke mob to burn Twitter down, he’ll have given us the optimal outcome.