It’s amazing to me that people really think someone like Musk would a good steward of free speech. This idea that the obscenely wealthy are going to come in and save us from ourselves, if only we can let them be in charge, is a tale as old as time, yet people keep believing it.
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
#462I suspect most of the commenters supporting the right of a private company to moderate content is completely contingent on what those moderation policies are. Commenters feign holding an absolute position but would certainly balk if the moderation ever turned against them and the idea they support. If you believe on principle, the right of private companies to moderate content, then you must support all kinds of absu…
Kind of a ridiculous statement. "If you support any laws whatsoever, then you also support laws forcing Russian viewpoints, laws against vaccines, etc."
Re: Elon Musk makes $43B unsolicited bid to take Twitter private
#463Imo, he's taking responsibility. If as an individual you can deploy the most money in the world, what do you do with it? Twitter became a negative-sum game of people competing to debase themselves in service of narrative in exchange for nothing but the approval of others who had already done the same. Unlocking that negative cycle can release a lot of captive value for everyone. The best way to do that is to connect…
Not long before Elon bought a 9% stake, one of the largest satire accounts on twitter was suspended for a joke. They are literally censoring humor and that may have been the final straw.
Also worth noting that he was one of the ACLU's biggest donors when they were still focused on protecting free speech and liberty.
Re: Elon Musk makes $43B unsolicited bid to take Twitter private
#464I suspect most of the commenters supporting the right of a private company to moderate content is completely contingent on what those moderation policies are. Commenters feign holding an absolute position but would certainly balk if the moderation ever turned against them and the idea they support. If you believe on principle, the right of private companies to moderate content, then you must support all kinds of absu…
> I suspect most of the commenters supporting the right of a private company to moderate content is completely contingent on what those moderation policies are.
I'm one of those commenters, and I'd point to Gab, Parler etc as companies who are already doing exactly that and are well within their rights to do so. And of course, their free speech (curation and flagging) is balanced by their users' freedom of association: if twitter radically changes their moderation policies, they could risk driving away their userbase and even their developers.
Re: Elon Musk makes $43B unsolicited bid to take Twitter private
#465This is exactly why individuals should not be allowed to have tens (let alone hundreds!) of billions of dollars in wealth - they become all-powerful and too easily subvert the will of the people. They become their own ruling class, which is unacceptable in a functioning democracy.
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Re: Elon Musk makes $43B unsolicited bid to take Twitter private
#466I can't imagine Musk can make Twitter any worse than it is. As much as I would have liked it to be a medium that elevated humanity, with some exceptions, it's served to be quite the opposite. I'd be pleased if Twitter disappeared from existence, but maybe Musk either improves it or leads to demolish it, and by no means would I suggest standing in the way.
You see, I think Twitter is different things to different people. I use it quite a lot - for putting out news about my local swimming club, the school’s parent teacher association and at work communicating with customers. I find it great, and don’t have to deal with toxicity because I don’t go out looking for it.
Re: Elon Musk makes $43B unsolicited bid to take Twitter private
#467That's cool. When I'm bored I usually just fire up a game in my Steam backlog, but whatever.
Elon has Twitter in his Steam backlog.
Re: Elon Musk makes $43B unsolicited bid to take Twitter private
#468Quoted post unavailable.
Could you provide a beneficial contribution besides writing 'deranged wokies' ?
Comments like this add _nothing_ and just make people angry at each other.
Re: Elon Musk makes $43B unsolicited bid to take Twitter private
#469Let's ignore personality and societal issues for a moment and look at the value proposition. The 'best and final offer' of $54.20 per share is just too low to be acceptable for major investors. Just over year ago, Twitter shares traded at about $70 per share. Musk's offer is about 25% lower than last years peak. There's no reason to assume Twitter shares can't reach the same levels ever again, nothing much has change…
"Best and final offer" is certainly a weak claim but it doesn't seem your argument about Twitter's value is much stronger.
Yes Twitter was $70 a share in the past but it was also sub $30 in the past and it's not clear which is the "right" price.
Re: Elon Musk makes $43B unsolicited bid to take Twitter private
#470Twitter should be nationalized. No man should control such a large medium
Nationalized media has historically always turned out so much better.