Elon Musk. Twitter. Babylon Bee.

[Bootstrap]

Different time. People weren't on social media Henry Ford also didn't buy up the 1920s equivalent of Twitter to project his views to a world-wide audience.

He most certainly did do the 1920s equivalent; he bought the Dearborn newspaper, and required all Ford dealers to distribute it.

And Henry Ford paid for a dance band to teach social dancing, which he thought was good for teaching morals. I'm guessing Elon Musk wouldn't listen to this kind of music, though ...

[temporal1]

.. But it does tell you how Twitter users feel. ..

maybe. if so, it’s because Musk allowed those of opposite views to have active accounts. an oddity these days.

either way, 1) i’m fairly certain Musk anticipated the results, possibly wanting the results;
2) while many enjoyed his presence, how likely was it ever for him to continue in that role for very long, his overall life considered? The surprise was he ever did it.

i don’t see the vote as any sort of coup or revelation.

[Bootstrap]

1

post_id=177181 time=1672167934 user_id=81]

.. But it does tell you how Twitter users feel. ..

maybe. if so, it’s because Musk allowed those of opposite views to have active accounts. an oddity these days.[/quote]

This poll occurred just after Twitter suspended the accounts of several high-profile journalists who work for CNN, the New York Times, and the Washington Post.

Elon Musk, at least, considered this a referendum on this suspension:



But even after that, journalists have posted that they are still locked out of their accounts, though it doesn't look like that to the public. For instance:

Elon Musk Is Still Silencing the Journalists He Banned From Twitter

Here's the tweet that got Micah Lee banned. And Twitter won't let him post again until he deletes it:



Micah Lee continues:

I didn’t want to bend the knee to the Mad King of Twitter, so I submitted an appeal. “My tweet is about Twitter censoring rival social network Mastodon,” I wrote. “This is suppression of speech that never would have happened before Elon Musk took over.” After two days, I received an update from Twitter: “Our support team has determined that violation did take place, and therefore we will not overturn our decision.”

My alleged offense is that I posted private information to Twitter by linking to @ElotJet’s account on Mastodon or, in my case, mentioning the username and showing the link in a screenshot. This is on its face absurd — I didn’t post private information, much less “assassination coordinates” — but a quick Twitter search for https://mastodon.social/@ElonJet shows that plenty of other accounts have posted this same link yet aren’t locked out.

I’m not the only suspended journalist that’s locked out of my account. Some journalists like Drew Harwell of the Washington Post have written on Mastodon about being locked out. “For anyone wondering,” Harwell wrote, “I’m still unable to access Twitter until I delete this tweet, which is factual journalism that doesn’t even break the location rule Twitter enacted a few days ago.” He appended a screenshot of the tweet.

And in an interview on CNN, Donie O’Sullivan, another suspended journalist, explained that his account is locked as well. “Right now, unless I agree to remove that tweet at the behest of the billionaire, I won’t be allowed to tweet on the platform,” he said. He also submitted an appeal.

Mashable’s Matt Binder was unsuspended following the mass banning, but he wrote on Mastodon that when he wrote to a Twitter official to ask how he had broken company policy, he was then locked out. “Seems they forgot to force me to delete the tweet the first time, like they did the other suspended journalists,” he wrote.

[Bootstrap]

Here's Drew Harwell of the Washington Post, quoted in the Mike Lee article:

https://mastodon.social/@drewharwell/109547298144925417

This is what Twitter is now defining as "doxxing people's location." A factual piece of reporting about the company blocking a competitor. Can't do anything until I delete it.

[Josh]

I was unaware that people bought Teslas solely as a political statement…. but then again I’ve always thought EV owners were rather stupid people.

I am looking forward to the day I can get an EV. It is getting closer, but not yet. I can not afford it yet. I need to be able to get a used vehicle with 100,000+ miles that still has another 100,000 miles in it. EVs are getting closer, but not there yet. I also need to buy it for cheap.

Tesla has not produced a minivan yet. It will be hard for me to buy anything besides a minivan. I need the carry capacity. Maybe that will change in 5 years and I can go with a smaller unit. Cybertruck just does not speak to me.

EVs that hit the range I buy vehicles in (200k or 300k) need their batteries replaced, which costs more then the whole vehicle is even worth.

[Josh]

I was unaware that people bought Teslas solely as a political statement…. but then again I’ve always thought EV owners were rather stupid people.

I am looking forward to the day I can get an EV. It is getting closer, but not yet. I can not afford it yet. I need to be able to get a used vehicle with 100,000+ miles that still has another 100,000 miles in it. EVs are getting closer, but not there yet. I also need to buy it for cheap.

Tesla has not produced a minivan yet. It will be hard for me to buy anything besides a minivan. I need the carry capacity. Maybe that will change in 5 years and I can go with a smaller unit. Cybertruck just does not speak to me.

This is my gripe: why are there very few to no available EVs in the 7 passenger market? Rivian has a SUV coming out but it’s still very early stages and very few in the hands of consumers. There’s a few crossover styles available with maybe a squashed third row seat. I’ll probably drive our minivan til it’s dead, which could be another 100k, and I’m not looking for a new vehicle now, but part of that is there’s nothing that interests me in the larger EV lineup. If there was a 7 passenger EV with towing capabilities that was under 50k then I’d start planning.

#1. People with large families are a tiny niche. EVs are a fashion statement and a way to say you are a liberal who is “going green”; these kind of people do not have 5 kids.

#2. Tesla makes the Model Y which can in theory hold 7 people. It’s a bit cozy. EVs need to be lightweight and a big comfy vehicle for 7 people is going to be heavy.

#3. Towing? Towing anything with an EV would significantly shorten its range. It’s already in the 100mi range when it’s cold…

[Robert]

What Elon is doing is turning the ordinary purchase and ownership of a Tesla into a political statement since people now link Tesla to Elon's right-wing political views.

What right wing political views? Elon Musk is not right wing at all. He supports abortion and many other left wing issues. He believes in human caused climate change too. I do not see him as right wing.

I see no response yet.

[Ken]

What Elon is doing is turning the ordinary purchase and ownership of a Tesla into a political statement since people now link Tesla to Elon's right-wing political views.

What right wing political views? Elon Musk is not right wing at all. He supports abortion and many other left wing issues. He believes in human caused climate change too. I do not see him as right wing.

I see no response yet.

Neither abortion nor climate denial are "right wing" issues. They are Republican issues.

In any event, it is a pattern

Elon has already announced that he supports DeSantis in 2024: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/musk-s ... 022-11-26/

Elon reposts right-wing disinformation about the attack on Nancy Pelosi's husband: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/30/busi ... sband.html

Lately he has been busy re-tweeting and amplifying some of the most right-wing voices on Twitter and has been busy working with Matt Tabbi trying to expose what he claims is leftism within Twitter by releasing the "Twitter Files" even though the internal deliberations he released actually show nothing of the sort.

More importantly, PERCEPTION is much more important than REALITY when it comes to this sort of thing. What a lot of liberals perceive is that Elon has outed himself as a raving right-winger on Twitter and now every Tweet he makes about "wokeness" or anti-LGBT or against COVID science or lets racists and violent white supremacists back on Twitter gets repeated and amplified as more evidence of Elon's political leanings. Nothing he is doing disabuses anyone of these notions.

Here is how Musk's Twitter purchase correlates with Tesla's fortunes, which were down another 11% today alone. It becomes yet more self-fulling prophecy. People now perceive Elon's right-wing leanings on Twitter to be harmful to Tesla. So every time he does more of it, Tesla stock drops. Perception can actually become reality. Of course politics aside, people also just see him flailing around with Twitter and conclude maybe he isn't the business wizard they thought. Which also hurts Tesla as well since he has made himself the marquee leader of Tesla.

[Soloist]

You won’t get anywhere with that graph. Do you remember the famous graph used to show correlation with vaccine preventable diseases being reduced when vaccines were developed? Or the other version showing those diseases being reduced from sanitation practices?
Either way, if you plot it the value has been decreasing since well before twitter. I could produce a graph of some big name stock and associate it’s drops with every time some random person did something. Assuming one believes there is value in EV then this is the time to buy as it is likely will rise again.
this does not constitute as investment advice and any attempts at investment are best done based on Biblical truth rather then a call person called Soloist

[Robert]

Neither abortion nor climate denial are "right wing" issues. They are Republican issues.

There are many Republicans who are pro abortion and believe in human caused climate change. How are they Republican issues?

Elon has already announced that he supports DeSantis in 2024: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/musk-s ... 022-11-26/

And he said this year was the first time he EVER voted for a Republican. One vote does not a right winger make.

Elon reposts right-wing disinformation about the attack on Nancy Pelosi's husband

He also removed that post. We, still, do not know if it was correct or not. SO much smoke has been thrown up. This makes me ask ... Why? What needs to be hidden? I do not see that as right wing, just a news story. Hiding it would be very left wing.

More importantly, PERCEPTION is much more important than REALITY when it comes to this sort of thing.

So you are saying what you perceive is more important what what really is? This speaks to a lot of the things you post about. I think facts are important. If you do not, then it is hard to carry on any discussion if all you go by is emotions.

Here is how Musk's Twitter purchase correlates with Tesla's fortunes, which were down another 11% today alone.

And how is it doing compared to the rest of the stock market? I would agree that some extreme leftists have pulled their money, but I would suspect that some "right wingers" would be buying. If they are not, then they do not see Elon as a right winger, which he is not. Revealing collusion of the government to curtail free speak is not a right wing thing. It is a liberal thing. Classic liberals would stand with Elon as he exposes government corruption and over reach. I do, yet I do not stand with Elon on everything, because he is not conservative enough.

Calling Elon Musk a right winger is misinformation. Other sites are banning that. Should we do that here?