Elon Musk’s recent tweet is a true master class in the worst ways to respond to the situation and I am all fucking for it, I hope twitter loses him so much goddamn money.
The tweet, for context: “Twitter has had a massive drop in revenue, due to activist groups pressuring advertisers, even though nothing has changed with content moderation and we did everything we could to appease the activists.
Extremely messed up! They’re trying to destroy free speech in America.”
Here’s some of the issues:
•He is revealing that the backlash is getting to him. This just encourages more dunking on him.
•By doubling down on the “they’re trying to destroy free speech!” narrative, he’s hammering in the fact that he’s not going to sit back and pretend to be a neutral party like the previous leadership, he is worsening the rhetoric that’s making the company such an unstable investment in the first place.
•He’s reminding all the advertisers that haven’t yet left that A BUNCH OF MUCH LARGER AND SMARTER COMPANIES ARE LEAVING.
•Elon insists that they’ve “done everything we could” to “appease” the left. This pisses off conservatives, who WANT him to be abrasive and stick it to the libs.
•Elon insists said left wingers are evil and trying to destroy free speech. This pisses off lefties (at least, those few who weren’t already pissed) because it’s again driving home the fact that he refuses to be neutral and will openly side with the right
•He says no changes have been made but also that they’ve done everything they possibly could to appease the left. This obvious contradiction harms the tweet’s credibility and makes it even more transparently a frantic attempt to stop the bleeding.
I foresee a few options in the future.
1: Elon steps back and writes off twitter as unwinnable, he takes the Jack method of pretending to be neutral and not trying to get involved. Result: pre-Elon status quo, where leadership is biased in favor of conservatives but at least makes an attempt to seem even handed. Unlikely because I don’t think he has the willpower to recognize when he should be hands off and ignore something.
2: Elon sells twitter as soon as possible for a massive loss, recognizing the time bomb he’s been handed. Result: Some other poor sap buys the company and has to deal with the chaos. Unlikely because Elon is past the point where he can easily back out and holds his reputation as “very smart business guy” in extremely high regard, taking such a huge loss would be unthinkable to him, even if there was a buyer.
3: Continuously escalating twitter meltdowns, growing more and more spectacular and unmarketable until the site either collapses entirely or becomes Gab/Parler/Truth Social/iFunny from scaring off too many liberals.
Whatever happens I’m looking forward to the insanity