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Trump snubs Twitter after Musk announces reactivation of ex-president's account

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Re: Trump snubs Twitter after Musk announces reactivation of ex-president's account

#31
post #23
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Edit: the estimates were way off!

Elon took out loans with over 100% annual rates?

By the way, thanks for pointing this out. With all this craziness around Musk's ventures and Twitter, my BS detector has become totally blinded. Hadn't I posted this comment and then had been corrected, I would have still believed Musk was able to commit to these crazy terms. Of course, this would be too much even for him.

Speaking of the benefits of sharing one's thoughts on HN.

Re: Trump snubs Twitter after Musk announces reactivation of ex-president's account

#32
post #15

One more thing, which may be controversial here on HN, but which I think is nonetheless correct, is that Musk has been effectively cornered by the previous Twitter board. He has no other choice but to count every penny and squeeze the maximum from the remaining employees. See the revenue vs loan payments estimates. So the blame for all the drastic measures such as mass layoffs and such, should be equally shared by th…

He signed a contract and tried to back out of it. He dug that hole for himself.

Re: Trump snubs Twitter after Musk announces reactivation of ex-president's account

#33
post #15

One more thing, which may be controversial here on HN, but which I think is nonetheless correct, is that Musk has been effectively cornered by the previous Twitter board. He has no other choice but to count every penny and squeeze the maximum from the remaining employees. See the revenue vs loan payments estimates. So the blame for all the drastic measures such as mass layoffs and such, should be equally shared by th…

He signed a contract and tried to back out of it. He dug that hole for himself.

He surely did. But then who pushed him (along with the company) into that hole? :)

Re: Trump snubs Twitter after Musk announces reactivation of ex-president's account

#34
post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, he did commit to buying them $44 billion. If he didn't want to buy them, he shouldn't have signed a contract agreeing to do so. You can't argue that Musk doesn't know what a contract is and can't get decent legal advice.

He signed the contract in a totally different market environment. Twitter's board knew this but still proceeded to sue him nonetheless. Did they understand the consequences for the company and the employees? Sure they did but went on anyway.

> He signed the contract in a totally different market environment.

As if 13 billion extra debt would've not mattered when he signed the contract?

Re: Trump snubs Twitter after Musk announces reactivation of ex-president's account

#35
post #16

I’m firmly in the camp of not wanting to hear anything more from Trump in my lifetime, but I do wonder if there is any ideological side to this from Musk. It’s not clear at all that Trump coming back to Twitter is good for him, or for Republicans. Banning him I think took a lot of the bad side of the conservative culture out of the spotlight and bringing him back will make it front and center again. A consistent mess…

> I do wonder if there is any ideological side to this from Musk. I think this is giving Musk too much credit. He hasn't shown ideological consistency on any issue, and that includes free speech.

In the last few years this strain of neo-libertarianism has become rather distinguishable. It's a weird cocktail of shamelessness, anti-any-government, "nothing matters", "money is power", crypto and web3 scammers and anarchists.

The ultra-rich like Musk fit right in because "small government and no regulation" movement plays right into their hands. In murky waters where everyone is off your case, you can grab even more money and power.

Recall that Musk expressed a very clear distaste for Cheetoh Jesus in the early days but, like many before him, the black hole that is Trump pulled in the "star" and then ripped it apart. He got a taste of that world and he liked it. Being horrible and owning it is sort of freeing (for someone who can afford it).

Re: Trump snubs Twitter after Musk announces reactivation of ex-president's account

#36
Trump's gonna HAVE to start posting again because of the optics. The most recent tweets on his profile are the tweets from right before he got banned - the Capitol insurrection tweets. His profile is now just a glowing reminder of the Capitol insurrection. Terrible look for Trump. He's gonna need to either start deleting, or start burying these with new tweets, because the current situation is not exactly positive for him.

Re: Trump snubs Twitter after Musk announces reactivation of ex-president's account

#37
post #22
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I do wonder if there is any ideological side to this from Musk. I think this is giving Musk too much credit. He hasn't shown ideological consistency on any issue, and that includes free speech.

Uh, being able to change your mind and not limiting yourself to a pre-subscribed set of ideas is a good thing.

I mean there’s changing your mind through learning and growing, and then there’s spewing contradictory ideas as they pop into your head because they suit you in the moment. I may be proven wrong but this feels to me like the latter.

Re: Trump snubs Twitter after Musk announces reactivation of ex-president's account

#38

Trump's gonna HAVE to start posting again because of the optics. The most recent tweets on his profile are the tweets from right before he got banned - the Capitol insurrection tweets. His profile is now just a glowing reminder of the Capitol insurrection. Terrible look for Trump. He's gonna need to either start deleting, or start burying these with new tweets, because the current situation is not exactly positive fo…

You think Trump’s strategy is going to shy away from the insurrection? I figured he would double down.

Re: Trump snubs Twitter after Musk announces reactivation of ex-president's account

#39
post #22
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I do wonder if there is any ideological side to this from Musk. I think this is giving Musk too much credit. He hasn't shown ideological consistency on any issue, and that includes free speech.

Uh, being able to change your mind and not limiting yourself to a pre-subscribed set of ideas is a good thing.

That's true, but that's not what's happening here. Musk reverses his stance on things whimsically and self-servingly. He's not even saying that he has new evidence. His thoughts and actions are completely erratic.

Re: Trump snubs Twitter after Musk announces reactivation of ex-president's account

#40
post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He signed a contract and tried to back out of it. He dug that hole for himself.

He surely did. But then who pushed him (along with the company) into that hole? :)

And I'm sure if on earth 2 the board had rejected his offer, citing any of these reasons you'd be in full agreement with them....

I mostly remember Musk fans cheering this madness on as it was happening. The timing was ridiculously terrible given the market downturn but I'm pretty sure anyone sympathetic to your current argument would have been cursing the board if they had rejected his bid.

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