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Elon Musk makes $43B unsolicited bid to take Twitter private

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Re: Elon Musk makes $43B unsolicited bid to take Twitter private

#111
post #2

I don't have an opinion over the consequences for politics over this, I'm just excited over the potential shakedown of the social media landscape that I grew to despise. Musk is an activist, can make it or break it. He is absolutely right over its enormous potential, all the problems it has - as a business or ones it creates for the society - can be solved. Free speech absolutism is possible and is beneficial once yo…

"Free speech absolutism is possible and is beneficial [once ...]"

I hope you know what free speech absolutism entails. I don't think your statement is true at all.

Absolute (really, absolute and complete) free speech would allow companies to lie about the efficacy of medication, lie about the ingredients of products, permit lying under oath, allow libel, insults, threats of violence etc. I am not sure I want that. I prefer clear, written rules for that.

Re: Elon Musk makes $43B unsolicited bid to take Twitter private

#112
post #58

> Free speech absolutism is possible and is beneficial I don't think we have evidence to support this. Pursuant to the last major thread on the topic, I was thinking further about it, and realized that the vast majority of progress civilization has made has been under conditions much more regulated in terms of which ideas may propagate. We've never had a situation where fake news can and does spread the way it does t…

> ..the peculiar evil of silencing the expression of an opinion is that it is robbing the human race; posterity as well as the existing generation; those who dissent from the opinion, still more than those who hold it. If the opinion is right, they are deprived of the opportunity of exchanging error for truth; if wrong, they lose, what is almost as great a benefit, the clearer perception and livelier impression of truth produced by its collision with error.

John Stuart Mill

https://www.utilitarianism.com/ol/two.html

Re: Elon Musk makes $43B unsolicited bid to take Twitter private

#114
post #58

> Free speech absolutism is possible and is beneficial I don't think we have evidence to support this. Pursuant to the last major thread on the topic, I was thinking further about it, and realized that the vast majority of progress civilization has made has been under conditions much more regulated in terms of which ideas may propagate. We've never had a situation where fake news can and does spread the way it does t…

> We've never had a situation where fake news can and does spread the way it does today, where authorities are being undermined like this and casually dismissed by people with no knowledge of the respective fields, etc.

If authorities were never “undermined” you would still be drinking cocaine, giving your kids cough syrup laced with heroin, spraying people with DDT, and also smoking the cigarette brand your doctor recommended.

Re: Elon Musk makes $43B unsolicited bid to take Twitter private

#117

As a Twitter shareholder I would vote against this. Musk says there is tremendous financial potential in Twitter but then offers $54 a share, which is not even 2x the IPO price. That’s not a “tremendous potential” premium. There is a lot of evidence that platforms which de-prioritize moderation have trouble attracting revenue and experience significant compliance costs. See: the sad story of Moot, who ran one of the…

>> This looks more like a hobby to me than a business decision. Hobbies are fine as long as they don’t distract from the job

If he’s taking the company private the future of the company should be irrelevant to you right? The only thing that matters is whether or not you think the price is fair.

>> Musk says there is tremendous financial potential in Twitter but then offers $54 a share, which is not even 2x the IPO price. That’s not a “tremendous potential” premium.

He believes the potential is predicated on taking it private and clearing house. The IPO price also seems irrelevant. Whether or not you think Twitter can exceed that price again is relevant.

Given it was at ~$70 last year he seems to be coming in too low for me as I think Twitter can get back to that point relatively quickly.

Re: Elon Musk makes $43B unsolicited bid to take Twitter private

#118

As a Twitter shareholder I would vote against this. Musk says there is tremendous financial potential in Twitter but then offers $54 a share, which is not even 2x the IPO price. That’s not a “tremendous potential” premium. There is a lot of evidence that platforms which de-prioritize moderation have trouble attracting revenue and experience significant compliance costs. See: the sad story of Moot, who ran one of the…

I’d presume he means tremendous potential if he’s allowed to take it over.

“Gimme your stagnant site, at a premium, and I will fix it.”

That said, I’d vote against, as well.

Re: Elon Musk makes $43B unsolicited bid to take Twitter private

#119
So if he purports that Twitter now limits freedom of speech, the only thing he can mean by that is hate speech, dangerous medical misinformation, conspiracy bs, or calls to violence.

I've always had a gut feeling that Musk is politically on the far right spectrum farther than most people would believe, but now that he has joined the ranks of these misguided new right-wing "muh freedom of speech"-warriors, who never had any point to begin with, it's a strong indicator rather than just a feeling.

Re: Elon Musk makes $43B unsolicited bid to take Twitter private

#120

As a Twitter shareholder I would vote against this. Musk says there is tremendous financial potential in Twitter but then offers $54 a share, which is not even 2x the IPO price. That’s not a “tremendous potential” premium. There is a lot of evidence that platforms which de-prioritize moderation have trouble attracting revenue and experience significant compliance costs. See: the sad story of Moot, who ran one of the…

> There is a lot of evidence that platforms which de-prioritize moderation have trouble attracting revenue and experience significant compliance costs.

I think Musk would moderate bots more given his experience. But people less maybe.

> use Tesla to bail himself out of Solar City’s troubles

He didn't run Solar City I don't think.

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