Taming

Do people writing about Musk buying Twitter think it has anything to do with money? It does not. Musk didn’t buy it for money and he would’ve never received the backing for it financially if it had a thing to do with money because it’s an objectively terrible deal. It’ll never be profitable and even the dumbest analyst from Dumbassville could take one look and determine that.

No — it’s all about eliminating a thorn in the plutocrat class’s side. Twitter is a largely-unfiltered font of information where people can and do tell the powerful to shove off. This harms them in an ego sense and financially/politically. Musk buying Twitter is just cover for the next step. As mentioned, not even the biggest dumbass in the universe would’ve approved a deal like that (remember, it’s not Musk’s money at stake here) from a financial perspective if there were not other motivations at work.

This is all about taming and with plausible deniability (ah, a clown ruined Twitter because he’s an idiot!) destroying information sources that are a threat to the ruling classes. That’s all.

It has already to some extent, but I’d expect Reddit to be up next to be further destroyed.

I’m right and all y’all are wrong.

Voce

I have no idea what this thread is about and don’t know most of the people she’s referring to, but that scene in the LOTR (books) is one of the best-written in any work I’ve read. I’ve never understood people who hate Tolkien’s writing as he achieved exactly what he wanted to very precisely with his words — which is more than I can say for most writers.

Saruman’s speech after he’s defeated is so convincing it almost swayed me. That chapter is one of the few times where I thought, I wish I could’ve written that.

Those Goals

Exactly. People pay attention to Musk because he acts like a clown, but I suspect that it is (mostly) an act, designed to distract from what the rest of the billionaire class is doing. Whether or not it’s an act it does nevertheless achieve those goals de facto.

Zeynep — as usual — knows where we should be looking and why. God I love her brain so much.

Boneus Round

I was playing some song in the 1990s that had a line in it, “She don’t eat meat but she sure likes the bone.” My grandmother was around, heard it, and said, “Does she just chew on them like a dog?”

Trying to explain to your very conservative grandmother that line…not recommended. Nothing good can come of that.