Take a somewhat successful company, pay way more than it's worth and then run it into the ground through kack-handed incompetence fueled by unlimited arrogance. Only a true business genius could do that.
this post was submitted on 21 Aug 2023
180 points (95.5% liked)
Enough Musk Spam
2089 readers
261 users here now
For those that have had enough of the Elon Musk worship online.
No flaming, baiting, etc. This community is intended for those opposed to the influx of Elon Musk-related advertising online. Coming here to defend Musk or his companies will not get you banned, but it likely will result in downvotes. Please use the reporting feature if you see a rule violation.
Opinions from all sides of the political spectrum are welcome here. However, we kindly ask that off-topic political discussion be kept to a minimum, so as to focus on the goal of this sub. This community is minimally moderated, so discussion and the power of upvotes/downvotes are allowed, provided lemmy.world rules are not broken.
Post links to instances of obvious Elon Musk fanboy brigading in default subreddits, lemmy/kbin communities/instances, astroturfing from Tesla/SpaceX/etc., or any articles critical of Musk, his ideas, unrealistic promises and timelines, or the working conditions at his companies.
Tesla-specific discussion can be posted here as well as our sister community /c/RealTesla.
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
There's idiots at my office that think this is all still some part of an elaborate plan of his.
At best, I think it could be an actual plan of his, he was pissed when he was forced to buy Twitter after backing out, real pissed.
Maybe now he's intentionally destroying it as a way to destroy the accomplishments of those he was forced to buy it from, but he's doing it in a way that won't land him in legal trouble for intentionally destroying it.
I would believe it if it turned out to be true, but at the same time, he could simply be an extremely incompetent, super ultra mega wealthy idiot. I dunno.
I think that might be giving him too much credit, bit who knows. I don't think he'd willingly throw away that much money when he's been trying to build his brand around X for decades.
Could he get in legal trouble for intentionally destroying it? It's no longer publicly traded but a private company owned by Musk. I think he's within his rights to just lay everyone off and shut it down.
It wasn't entirely bought with his cash.
https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/how-will-elon-musk-pay-twitter-2022-10-07
What do they think he would gain out of it?
No idea, they think he's some king of genius meme lord. I take every opportunity to make fun of them for it when they start talk about him.
Could just be a shit plan
Another lemmer commented on a similar post and got me thinking... Who paid for Twitter, really? It was not all Musk. I have to wonder if he got marching orders from those bankrolling him to run it into the ground. Also what got deleted? Arab Spring.
Edited for link and more better words
Out of 46.5 billion total cost, 27 billion was out of Musk's pocket. 13 billion were bank loans, most as a leveraged buyout so technically Twitter owes the banks, but the banks do not own shares. 5.2 billion, only a little more than 10% came from other sources. The biggest is 1.89 billion from the Saudi Prince, but those are just his previously owned shares that he decided to keep. It wasn't a new investment. He obviously has influence (same as he did before the acquisition) but I doubt he's giving marching orders with less than 5% stake. https://www.ctvnews.ca/business/who-is-financing-elon-musk-s-us-44-billion-deal-to-buy-twitter-1.6100579?
You’re thinking like a shareholder.
A very rich friend helped out a very rich man, who now owes him a favor…
Stripping for assets and declaring bankruptcy incoming
They've already sold all their assets.
Not many assets to strip.
It's like someone who feels like there are some communication issues with their spouse go to marriage counseling and it somehow ends up with their house blown up. There was some struggle, but somehow the help turned it into a mess of an entirely different scale.
Talking a traffic ticket down to Murder 1
He must be incredibly shocked that nothing else he’s tried has caused it’s complete collapse yet. I guess just deleting it is all that is left.
He MUST have some ulterior motive.
Nobody could fuck up this comprehensively by accident, even roling dice to make his decisions he would have to roll the random good idea.
His other companies literally have "handlers" for him so he doesn't fuck everything up, redirect his attention, etc
Twitter doesn't, so when he spouts a stupid idea they just start doing it
"Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity." —Robert J. Hanlon
More likely, Musk drank his own kool-aid and makes snap decisions believing he's a genius that will invariably succeed, and no one is able to talk him out of his own hubris.
But surely he would have to make atleast 1 excellent snap decision. Even if it was an accident.
Maybe...
But there is a "flavour" of "stable genius" that is really just being arrogantly contrarian.
And, if you're surrounded by people around you giving you generally good advice, and your schtick is to say "when the crowd zigs, I zag", then you're doomed to be making generally bad decisions.
I still believe that he is running it into the ground out of a combination of childish pride and demands from his authoritarian financiers in Saudi Arabia.
He wanted the platform dismantled or reduced to his personal echo chamber because people were making fun of him and he couldn’t do much about it, and the regime wanted the platform under control because free communication is dangerous to their rule.
He probably wanted to make space for more data by simulating an "accident" to avoid paying for more memory.
That's what happens when you're so powerful that you only have bootlicking yes-men around you that applaud every stupid of your ideas. At that point everyone trying to tell you that you're wrong in some way looks like the weird one.
Why is everyone so confident that Musk can't be this stupid and incompetent?
Have you never had a clueless manager or higher up?
I'm thinking it's what red states are doing. Cutting their nose off to spite the left, so they leave.
Unlike his other ventures, Twitter was already in decline. Trump and his outrage machine was the only thing propping up the aging, relevancy-challenged platform. And in the rest of his endeavors he had competent people managing around him - an isolation and filter layer - that he's decided he doesn't need or want at X.
Anything to distract from the fact that the $13bn debt the purchase entailed is what actually killed the business.
This is like a bigger version of when a millionaire wraps a Ferrari around a tree.
Can’t stop staring lmao
"Glitch"
Aka saving on server costs..
Good. If you're still on Twitter, you're part of the problem.
What in the fuck is a technologist? Is that what journalists are calling themselves now because they realized how embarrassing the journalist title has become?
as if destruction wasn't his entire goal.. assuming he did this to make money is silly..
At this point I'm thinking destroying twitter is just a scheme to write off losses so he can sell more TLSA stock and avoid taxes.
i think it's more about fun.. there weren't many other toys he could buy and have this much fun with.. and he's just a nasty kid who likes to destroy other people's nice things..