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Musk Emerges as a Very Unimpressive Tech Bro [1]

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Date: 2022-10-04

Elon Musk's war on content moderation has made him a star of the Republican party. Many Republicans have had content taken down, or have been removed from social media platforms, because of their propensity to spread dangerous fake news. Musk himself has lied so often that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ruled that a Tesla lawyer has to pre-approve all his tweets . Musk’s aura as a “free speech” icon rests upon the idea that he is some kind of renegade genius. However, the release of a 151 page redacted collection of his text messages relating to the now-stalled Twitter deal, shows that Musk, and his fawning circle, are far from the geniuses that they are often portrayed as being. Instead, they give an insight into a cultish, unimpressive group of toxic men. It’s a reminder of the aptness of Michelle Obama’s words : "I have been at probably every powerful table that you can think of, I have worked at nonprofits, I have been at foundations, I have worked in corporations, served on corporate boards, I have been at G-summits, I have sat in at the U.N.: They are not that smart."

Musk flitters from bad idea to bad idea, seemingly making decisions on a whim. At one point, he proposes charging Dogecoin for tweets, before admitting several days later that, “blockchain Twitter isn’t possible”. There are a lot of bad ideas, one admission that he is not a competent boss, and seldom a moment of clarity and insight.

Many of the texts show that even very rich people, who should have some sense of self-worth, fall over themselves to get into Musk’s world. Joe Lonsdale, a Palantir co-founder, sent Musk a text, saying, “I love your ‘Twitter algorithms should be open source’ tweet”. Antonio Gracias, the CEO of Valor Partners, after seeing the same tweet, responded to this gospel by saying, “I am 100% with you Elon. To the mattresses no matter what.” The worst of this group of fawning men is the angel investor, Jason Calacanis. Calacanis, who has a net worth of some $120 million, sent multiple texts, many of them unanswered, with novel-length texts with suggestions about how Musk could reform Twitter. At one point, he told Musk, “You have my sword”. If you imagine that deals are struck after complex discussions, and the creation of intricate financial models, you’re wrong. Venture capitalist Marc Andreessen popped up with an offer to provide, “$250M with no additional work required.” “Thanks!” Musk replied. When Musk asked Larry Ellison, the founder of Oracle, if he’d help take Twitter private, Ellison replied, “Yes, of course. A billion … or whatever you recommend.” While the media often joins in the same fawning over the rich that seems to follow Musk in his text messages, Musk’s text messages show that, rather than being a bunch of elite, thoughtful, impressive men, these guys are just not as impressive as their wealth implies.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/10/4/2127027/-Musk-Emerges-as-a-Very-Unimpressive-Tech-Bro

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