Snippet: Elon Über Alles ☇

Ed Zitron on what feels like day #873 of Twitter drama:

If you are wondering where the slippery slope begins, it’s here. Musk is tolerating – if not outright encouraging – people who believe my people should be put to death. If he is willing to reveal massive amounts of internal data as a means of empowering right-wing voices, he is capable of making policy changes that leave the vulnerable unprotected and the powerful (and racist) unburdened by the rules that, however confusingly, kept them in check. It would be so easy to fix this, which is why I am so certain that he has no intention of doing so.

I don’t think Elon Musk is a nazi. In fact, I would fully believe he just hasn’t thought about it, and views allowing nazis back onto the platform as a means to improve his overall popularity and drown out voices. He is playing footsie with fascist iconography and platforming white supremacists so that he can feel popular on his nasty little website.

Many of us were hoping that the Twitter acquisition would’ve given Musk a chance to step up and work some of the magic that his fans spoke of for years. With a light touch initially and some streamlining, Twitter could’ve gotten back to its roots and been the best social network out there. A fresh set of eyes on Twitter wouldn’t have necessarily been a bad thing, especially due to years of mismanagement.

Instead, he burned all the goodwill rather quickly, was unnecessarily cruel just for the sake of it, drove current and potential customers away from the other companies he’s involved with (including yours truly who geeks out about cars, space, and telecom), and for what? To prove something? To sort out some inner demons? Maybe rather than trying to find the worst people to be your “friends” and give you attention, find a good therapist. Do something truly good for humanity.