“Just three days after Elon Musk bought Twitter, he posted a tweet advancing the baseless allegation that Paul Pelosi, the husband of the Speaker of the House, who was assaulted Friday at the couple’s home, had been drunk and in a fight with a male prostitute.”
When he gets out of hospital, Paul Pelosi has more than ample grounds for, and resources to pursue, a libel suit against Musk. Pelosi should seek compensatory damages in the nominal sum of one dollar and punitive damages of $44 billion, payable either in cash or Musk’s handing over the keys to Twitter.
On the other hand Musk has most likely already lost $20B by absurdly overpaying for Twitter and as people that dislike the HATE he will unleash on the platform exit there will be an excellent opportunity for another social media company to take market share from Twitter even further eroding the massive investment he has made along with putting competition where it is needed.
Never used it. Never will. Musk thinks way too highly of his own wit. You'll never get rid of him now. It's a race to the bottom. Nothing too stupid, nothing too great a lie.
What's really scary is that he Tweets something, which is then reTweeted and so on. In the end, because they have seen it so many times, it MUST be true, even though it all stammed from one Tweet. Just look at what's going on with Pelosi's husband. It was a "lover's tryst," or it's a "pre-e;ection set-up," or everything to divert people from the hatred displayed by the perp on his Facebook page and assorted blogs. Blame the victim; look "over there" but not right here. The hatred I'm seeing on other boards is appalling, and now it seems that Musk will only further these lies and hatred. Add to this the intimidation of voters that is already happening and I'm honestly worrying about the fate of this country. As a student of history, I'm seeing elements of early 1930's Germany. People forget that Hitler was lawfully elected, which them encouraged the Brown Shirts to begin their reign of terror. This election will have a lot to say about our future as a Democracy.
what ever happened to the motto- "All the news that's fit to print" Musk's deplorable "twitter"is another example of "stochastic terrorism" in my opinion. Disgusting!
The very nature of our sinking Democracy, to allow tax laws and privileges to benefit the wealthy and corporations means out of control billionaires like Musk can own and control and evidently say, whatever they choose. Our courts have given away powers. Citizen United could be renamed Corporations United. Changing campaign limits changed the power of the wealthy and of corporations to influence elections. Connect the dots as we witness the erosion of protection for our Democracy. From a Brennan Center report : “This is perhaps the most troubling result of Citizens United: in a time of historic wealth inequality,” wrote Weiner, “the decision has helped reinforce the growing sense that our democracy primarily serves the interests of the wealthy few, and that democratic participation for the vast majority of citizens is of relatively little value.”
Your statement about Musk's judgement and character are somewhat oxymoronic. On the one hand you say he lacks judgement and character to manage such a huge and public enterprise but, on the other hand, would a person with such blatant faults have the ability to judge himself and decide he isn't really up for the job? Get real...please. Didn't this sort of thing used to be within the responsibilities of the Federal Communications Commission?
As Twitter relies on advertising, posts like his is likely to reduce Twitter's advertising list quickly (after all, those companies targeting the loonies will now have to split their advertising budget between Twitter and Truth Social).
This suggests Musk will start to emulate Trump in driving businesses into bankruptcy: wonder which one will rack up the most bankruptcies? Better sell your Tesla stock.
I've already had veiled threats from extreme MAGAs coming out of the woodwork on Twitter who worship Elon. They actually worship him and Trump - it's like watching the black and white films of the crowds cheering on the Nazi propaganda in the 1930's.
R.R.,
You write, "No one in a decent, civil society should have the unchecked power Elon Musk has accumulated."
No one in a decent, civil society should have unchecked power,--period.
We Americans stopped living in a decent, civil society a while back (as I know you know).
When good people do nothing....
Your writing DOES something--more than something. It informs us--even jolts us--triggering us to empower ourselves to speak up and speak out.
Carry on!
R.D. in La Mesa, CA
“Just three days after Elon Musk bought Twitter, he posted a tweet advancing the baseless allegation that Paul Pelosi, the husband of the Speaker of the House, who was assaulted Friday at the couple’s home, had been drunk and in a fight with a male prostitute.”
When he gets out of hospital, Paul Pelosi has more than ample grounds for, and resources to pursue, a libel suit against Musk. Pelosi should seek compensatory damages in the nominal sum of one dollar and punitive damages of $44 billion, payable either in cash or Musk’s handing over the keys to Twitter.
On the other hand Musk has most likely already lost $20B by absurdly overpaying for Twitter and as people that dislike the HATE he will unleash on the platform exit there will be an excellent opportunity for another social media company to take market share from Twitter even further eroding the massive investment he has made along with putting competition where it is needed.
Never used it. Never will. Musk thinks way too highly of his own wit. You'll never get rid of him now. It's a race to the bottom. Nothing too stupid, nothing too great a lie.
I suspect many people will be leaving the platform-with the exception of news/political types ( I left years ago).
And as I'm given to understand, the Saudis are now part owners of Twitter, as well.
Such a toxic mix of ownership does not bode well, at all.
What's really scary is that he Tweets something, which is then reTweeted and so on. In the end, because they have seen it so many times, it MUST be true, even though it all stammed from one Tweet. Just look at what's going on with Pelosi's husband. It was a "lover's tryst," or it's a "pre-e;ection set-up," or everything to divert people from the hatred displayed by the perp on his Facebook page and assorted blogs. Blame the victim; look "over there" but not right here. The hatred I'm seeing on other boards is appalling, and now it seems that Musk will only further these lies and hatred. Add to this the intimidation of voters that is already happening and I'm honestly worrying about the fate of this country. As a student of history, I'm seeing elements of early 1930's Germany. People forget that Hitler was lawfully elected, which them encouraged the Brown Shirts to begin their reign of terror. This election will have a lot to say about our future as a Democracy.
what ever happened to the motto- "All the news that's fit to print" Musk's deplorable "twitter"is another example of "stochastic terrorism" in my opinion. Disgusting!
Ed Cherlin
The very nature of our sinking Democracy, to allow tax laws and privileges to benefit the wealthy and corporations means out of control billionaires like Musk can own and control and evidently say, whatever they choose. Our courts have given away powers. Citizen United could be renamed Corporations United. Changing campaign limits changed the power of the wealthy and of corporations to influence elections. Connect the dots as we witness the erosion of protection for our Democracy. From a Brennan Center report : “This is perhaps the most troubling result of Citizens United: in a time of historic wealth inequality,” wrote Weiner, “the decision has helped reinforce the growing sense that our democracy primarily serves the interests of the wealthy few, and that democratic participation for the vast majority of citizens is of relatively little value.”
https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/citizens-united-explained
Power and wealth corrupts.
Your statement about Musk's judgement and character are somewhat oxymoronic. On the one hand you say he lacks judgement and character to manage such a huge and public enterprise but, on the other hand, would a person with such blatant faults have the ability to judge himself and decide he isn't really up for the job? Get real...please. Didn't this sort of thing used to be within the responsibilities of the Federal Communications Commission?
I jumped off. I'm not missing the chaos at all.
Musk got what exactly he wanted... a platform to spew his racism, hate, and MAGA-inspired lies.
I jumped from twitter to Tribel 3 days ago. Everybody with a sense of decency should deactivate their account.
Let me make this short.
Having billionaires is bad for a democracy, because money can be leveraged to exercise power.
A power that your average Joe or Jane does not have.
As Twitter relies on advertising, posts like his is likely to reduce Twitter's advertising list quickly (after all, those companies targeting the loonies will now have to split their advertising budget between Twitter and Truth Social).
This suggests Musk will start to emulate Trump in driving businesses into bankruptcy: wonder which one will rack up the most bankruptcies? Better sell your Tesla stock.
I've already had veiled threats from extreme MAGAs coming out of the woodwork on Twitter who worship Elon. They actually worship him and Trump - it's like watching the black and white films of the crowds cheering on the Nazi propaganda in the 1930's.