Elon Musk to buy Twitter in $44 billion deal

[DKW 86 7,411]

Elon Musk to buy Twitter in $44 billion deal

Opinions on the outcome?

Mine: I support Free Speech at all times, in all forms. Let people talk and they will translate ideas. Some of those ideas are just how Bat Crap Crazy the speaker truly is  

I believe that the only ones that are fearful of this are those that want to control debate in America. THAT is always a bad thing. I trust that the Average American will see the crazies as Crazies!

 

Edited April 26, 2022 by DKW 86

[TitanTiger 20,471]

I'm pro free speech. 

That said, I don't see how he's going to ultimately be able to simply not moderate Twitter at all.  If that's his plan, it's doomed to fail.  If you let the crazies take over and say anything they want, they'll eventually dominate the platform because all the normals will just leave.  So I'll be interested to see how he handles things on that end.

[Leftfield 2,585]

23 minutes ago, TitanTiger said:

I'm pro free speech. 

That said, I don't see how he's going to ultimately be able to simply not moderate Twitter at all.  If that's his plan, it's doomed to fail.  If you let the crazies take over and say anything they want, they'll eventually dominate the platform because all the normals will just leave.  So I'll be interested to see how he handles things on that end.

Only thing that makes me think it might work is that he's taking it private. That way he doesn't have to answer to shareholders to continuously push growth and revenue, and can change the algorithms so they don't promote the most sensationalistic content. That said, I'm not expecting much, but he has surprised before.

[wdefromtx 3,159]

It’ll be good to see Twitter go back to where there isn’t the bias and censorship that they have shown. Hopefully other platforms will wise up and follow. 

[TitanTiger 20,471]

14 minutes ago, Leftfield said:

Only thing that makes me think it might work is that he's taking it private. That way he doesn't have to answer to shareholders to continuously push growth and revenue, and can change the algorithms so they don't promote the most sensationalistic content. That said, I'm not expecting much, but he has surprised before.

Now that, I hope definitely improves.  But even in that, anyone that thinks he can just be a total libertarian there on speech isn't being realistic.  Even changing the algorithm to deprioritize sensational content or misinformation is an editorial decision.  It's still a form of moderating content.

[homersapien 11,354]

I completely understand the importance of free speech to a democracy but I also understand how technology has changed that universe. 

Bit I agree with Titan, I don't think un-moderated  speech in the age of internet technology is necessarily good for our society.  In fact, it can be very bad for democracy when said democracy does not consist of a majority of critical thinkers.

 

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2022/05/social-media-democracy-trust-babel/629369/

Why the Past 10 Years of American Life Have Been Uniquely Stupid

It’s not just a phase.

 

It would be supremely ironic if such a basis of democracy as free speech resulted in our downfall.

Here's an immediate and obvious example:

 

No Republican who participates in the war on truth deserves your vote

By Eugene Robinson

 

“First off, folks, let me be very clear tonight. The election in 2020 was rigged and stolen.”

That baldfaced lie was former senator David Perdue’s opening line Sunday in a primary debate against the fellow Republican whose job he is trying to take, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp. The shocking thing about this falsehood is that nobody should be particularly shocked. It would have been more surprising if Perdue had told the truth.

The GOP has made clear that it intends to run a “post-truth” campaign in the November elections. No Republican who goes along with this abominable strategy — no Republican who doesn’t publicly denounce it — deserves your vote. Not a single one of them.

It is no exaggeration to say that what the onetime Party of Lincoln is doing constitutes a dire threat to the very idea of democracy. A contest between liberal and conservative philosophies is healthy. An asymmetrical clash between one party grappling with nuanced reality and another party deliberately spewing paranoid fiction is dangerously corrosive to the fabric of the nation.

If the warp of our differences is no longer held together by the weft of an agreed-upon chronicle of events and a bipartisan encyclopedia of facts, there is no basis for meaningful political discourse. We can only speak past, not to, one another.

It must be acknowledged, because it is the simple truth, that this is not a “both-sides-are-to-blame” crisis. The Democratic Party is engaged in politics as usual, with the customary pull and tug between its progressive and centrist wings. The GOP has gone rogue in a way that is un-American and without modern precedent.

Republicans tolerated Donald Trump’s lies for years. But this tendency to excuse mendacity shifted from bad habit to mortal sin with the party’s embrace of that “big lie” about the election Trump lost to Joe Biden. Perdue was especially brazen in the way he trumpeted the proven falsehood. But no less guilty are the many other Republicans who perpetuate it by mumbling about “irregularities” in the 2020 vote — or by remaining silent. Their complicity in the lie is not excused by the fact that Trump will try his best to end their careers if they dare speak the truth. They know the difference between right and wrong, and they are opting for personal gain over public service. They should be ashamed of themselves.

The stolen-election lie is just the beginning, though. It establishes a post-truth ethos in which other lies become not just acceptable but also routine. Last week, for example, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) flatly denied a New York Times report that he had told GOP colleagues, in a phone call after the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection, that he planned to advise Trump to resign. Those who were on that call knew he was lying. None came forward publicly to say so.

When the Times and MSNBC released a tape recording of the Jan. 10, 2021, call — in which McCarthy says he will tell Trump, “It would be my recommendation you should resign” — the only public GOP criticism of McCarthy came from Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, who has already broken with the leadership and serves on the House Jan. 6 committee, and Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, who accused McCarthy of insufficient fealty to Trump. Most mainstream Republican members of Congress said nothing at all.

Democrats, understandably, were less constrained. “Kevin McCarthy is a liar and a traitor,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said Sunday. “This is outrageous. And that is really the illness that pervades the Republican leadership right now — that they say one thing to the American public and something else in private.”

Warren did not exaggerate. The whole GOP campaign for the fall elections promises to be built on lies — about critical race theory, about gay and transgender people, about purported attempts to “cancel” conservative voices. I know from private conversations that there are prominent Republicans who are deeply concerned about what their party is doing — but say nothing publicly. The party’s aim is to regain power, and truth is mere collateral damage.

The Democratic Party can be messy, disorganized, clumsy, starry-eyed and overly wonkish, prone to showing up at a political knife fight with a sheaf of briefing books. However, right now, the Democrats are the nation’s only hope for getting our democracy back on the rails. My personal views are obviously on the progressive side, but I believe journalists must stand, above all else, for truth, no matter where on the political spectrum it comes from. The Republican Party no longer acts as if truth matters.

And this state of affairs can’t be blamed entirely on Trump. Republican elected officials have a choice and are choosing to lie. Voters must choose to send the liars home.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/04/25/david-purdue-joins-the-republican-war-on-truth-reject-it/

Edited April 28, 2022 by homersapien

[Cardin Drake 1,809]

1 hour ago, TitanTiger said:

I'm pro free speech. 

That said, I don't see how he's going to ultimately be able to simply not moderate Twitter at all.  If that's his plan, it's doomed to fail.  If you let the crazies take over and say anything they want, they'll eventually dominate the platform because all the normals will just leave.  So I'll be interested to see how he handles things on that end.

Musk's plan is to moderate twitter with open source algorithms so that the moderation is completely transparent. A side benefit is that he will be able to fire 90% of twitter's workforce. 

[TitanTiger 20,471]

42 minutes ago, Cardin Drake said:

Musk's plan is to moderate twitter with open source algorithms so that the moderation is completely transparent. A side benefit is that he will be able to fire 90% of twitter's workforce. 

I don't think he's going to be able to moderate via algorithm alone either.

[Leftfield 2,585]

26 minutes ago, TitanTiger said:

I don't think he's going to be able to moderate via algorithm alone either.

I'm sure it will be as effective as Tesla's autopilot 😳

Edited April 26, 2022 by Leftfield

[creed 1,629]

If you are a participant on Twitter does that make you a Twidiot?

Seriously, I don't use Twitter. If I happen to mistakenly click on a Twitter link I close it and move on. I believe "normal" folks will rule the day as one poster has mentioned and leave Twitter to the Twidiots to enjoy. I suppose maybe Musk needs an investment to claim losses to offset the money he is making on Tesla and SpaceX. 

[johnnyAU 3,630]

Some moderation of content is ok as long it isn't the blatantly biased moderation it has been. He has stated that he intends to make the far left and far right equally angry. Stupid folks are going to say stupid things...just like in here. 

Hopefully it won't be the free-for-all some people are concerned about and the dangerous stuff will be culled regardless of what political side it's coming from. Reasonable folks see through the BS. 

[alexava 6,973]

Control freaks are going to tell you who they are. 

[Shoney'sPonyBoy 338]

A few random thoughts:

1.  Fewer than 20% of Americans use Twitter.  Our REPUBLIC will be fine no matter what Twitter does.

2.  I find it interesting that so many people assume that just because Twitter will presumably no longer censor true reports about Hunter Biden's laptop and other conservative viewpoints, that it will have no moderation at all.  That seems like a very false dilemma.  It seems highly unlikely to me that Twitter will have no moderation of any kind.  $44 BILLION dollars is a lot of money to flush down the toilet.

3.  If, as someone posted above, it is a danger to our REPUBLIC to allow people to post online without moderation because the majority of people are not thoughtful enough to handle such a liberty, then the 1st Amendment is not the first right we should be worried about.  If our REPUBLIC is in danger because too many people aren't intelligent enough to be trusted to post online responsibly, what the hell are we doing allowing any citizen who can fog a mirror vote?  And no, the point I'm making is not that we need to start making voting contingent upon passing knowledge tests or intelligence tests.  It's that if we feel like we can trust the REPUBLIC to the citizenry in something as important as electing our representatives (and since we are a REPUBLIC and not a democracy, other than state referendums on usually minor issues, electing representatives is the most important and significant act of self-governance we have access to), I think we can trust the same people to post online without fearing for the ruin of the country.  Even unmoderated.  Though again, I don't think that's going to happen.

 

[homersapien 11,354]

On 4/28/2022 at 9:34 AM, johnnyAU said:

Some moderation of content is ok as long it isn't the blatantly biased moderation it has been. He has stated that he intends to make the far left and far right equally angry. Stupid folks are going to say stupid things...just like in here. 

Hopefully it won't be the free-for-all some people are concerned about and the dangerous stuff will be culled regardless of what political side it's coming from. Reasonable folks see through the BS. 

Well, that means that over half of Republicans aren't "reasonable and incapable of "seeing through the BS".

Sounds about right.

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/53-republicans-view-trump-true-us-president-reutersipsos-2021-05-24/

53% of Republicans view Trump as true U.S. president -Reuters/Ipsos

 

[autigeremt 6,569]

On 5/4/2022 at 10:38 AM, homersapien said:

Well, that means that over half of Republicans aren't "reasonable and incapable of "seeing through the BS".

Sounds about right.

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/53-republicans-view-trump-true-us-president-reutersipsos-2021-05-24/

53% of Republicans view Trump as true U.S. president -Reuters/Ipsos

 

More than that will view Trump as the true president after they go see (or stream) 2,000 mules. lol

[CoffeeTiger 5,084]

56 minutes ago, autigeremt said:

More than that will view Trump as the true president after they go see (or stream) 2,000 mules. lol

That "documentary" made by the same man convicted of breaking election laws? 

[TexasTiger 12,811]

Dude is totally unraveling.

[icanthearyou 4,462]

https://www.yahoo.com/news/elon-musk-says-hes-wading-025721876.html

[jj3jordan 2,040]

On 5/9/2022 at 2:53 PM, CoffeeTiger said:

That "documentary" made by the same man convicted of breaking election laws? 

Thats the one. Horrible crime. Prosecuted equally among the parties. Oh wait. Good movie though. Not surprised you would go after the producer. watch it and see what you think.

[homersapien 11,354]

On 5/9/2022 at 2:55 PM, autigeremt said:

More than that will view Trump as the true president after they go see (or stream) 2,000 mules. lol

Nah. I have more faith in the average American intelligence than that.

I reckon there's an idiocy cap which the current MAGAS have already filled.

[CoffeeTiger 5,084]

On 5/21/2022 at 9:33 AM, icanthearyou said:

https://www.yahoo.com/news/elon-musk-says-hes-wading-025721876.html

 

Man gets accused of sexual assault and immediately goes full right wing/ "anti-woke"/ "they'll attack me for my conservative views". 

 

I'm sure it's a complete coincidence. 

[icanthearyou 4,462]

2 hours ago, homersapien said:

Nah. I have more faith in the average American intelligence than that.

I reckon there's an idiocy cap which the current MAGAS have already filled.

I wish that I had that faith. 

[homersapien 11,354]

1 hour ago, icanthearyou said:

I wish that I had that faith. 

 

Well, I am talking about maybe 30% of the total population falling under the idiocy cap,so it's not all that optimistic.  Don't let the "Southern skew" over-influence you.     

 

 

Edited May 24, 2022 by homersapien

[homersapien 11,354]

3 hours ago, CoffeeTiger said:

 

Man gets accused of sexual assault and immediately goes full right wing/ "anti-woke"/ "they'll attack me for my conservative views". 

 

I'm sure it's a complete coincidence. 

"Unless it is stopped, the woke mind virus will destroy civilization and humanity will never reached Mars."  

Yeah, that sounds reasonable.

[icanthearyou 4,462]

17 minutes ago, homersapien said:

 

Well, I am talking about maybe 30% of the total population falling under the idiocy cap,so it's not all that optimistic.  Don't let the "Southern skew" over-influence you.     

 

 

Okay but, don't let the "southern skew" skew your view of general idiocy.  Have you not noticed much of the midwest  now wanting to be Alabama/Mississippi?

Do not underestimate the IQ reduction program.  It is highly effective and, a highly effective means of control.  We are becoming the world's leading manufacturer of ignorance.

In short, I like your theory but, the current trend does not support it.

Bring on the AI.  We need any and all intelligence we can muster.