Robb Aley Allan

It's hard to defend the chaos and silliness around #ElonMusk and #Twitter these days, it's also hard to digest the extravagant claims about his motives. I'm a liberal -- and I'm also an investor in the new Twitter. And while I think Musk confuses the public and press with his often sophmoric and glib posts and his tolerance for rightwing celebrities, I doubt he wants to destroy it.

https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/elon-musk-trump-twitter-account-republican-rcna57861

Elon Musk's revival of Trump's Twitter account shows his political mission

Elon Musk is increasingly aligned with the hard right, and views Twitter as a powerful tool for advancing his interests and his ideology.

MSNBC
Nov 23, 2022 at 5:42amWeb
Show threadRobb Aley AllanNov 23, 2022
I doubt he's trying to reshape it as a personal megaphone, or for that matter as a #rightwing echo chamber. Rather he appears to seriously believe in an open, free-for-all public space in which everyone can talk and everyone can ignore what they want. My one fear is that expertise and #knowledge gets drowned out by frivolous opinionating and mob attacks when everyone's voice is "leveled".
Show threadGaryRLundbergNov 25, 2022

@robballan “Mob attacks”, that’s human I guess. Lynch mobs. The mob in China protesting forced zero Covid lockdowns plus disruption of pay and rations. The mob on January 6th; a weaponized mob. Tulsa race massacre. Stoning. Many iterations of human mob behavior. A desirable condition?

I think Musk is toying with and testing limits in social interaction, society and government. Testing limits of no moderation and cyber-social hysteria.

When will #birdsite offer Neurolink as blue check premium?

Show threadGaryRLundbergNov 25, 2022

@robballan

Cluster B-Listers
Weirdos Turning Pro

https://marginalcall.substack.com/p/cluster-b-listers

Cluster B-Listers

Weirdos Turning Pro

MarginalCall
Show threadRobb Aley AllanNov 26, 2022
@GaryRLundberg My best guess is that he is a full-blown #libertarian and wants #Twitter to be an open space for everyone. He probably expects that users will curate their feeds as desired. This is hard to do unless they limit their timelines to approved followers, which defeats the purpose.
Show threadCardboard RobotNov 26, 2022
@robballan @GaryRLundberg Yeah, no.
Show threadGaryRLundbergNov 26, 2022

@robballan So, sounds like full fail, with nasty repercussions and collateral damage.

When I was young the idea libertarianism was appealing. Pure. Once I realized, in America anyway, the high frequency and severity of personal delusion, bias, sociopathy among adherents I was outta there. Maybe capability for trust, respect and empathy among humans just isn’t there yet to make it work. It should theoretically embrace boundless diversity and pluralism. I only ever saw folks immersed in wanting.

Show threadRobb Aley AllanNov 26, 2022
@GaryRLundberg I think the current issue in #SiliconValley today is that Ayn Rand seems to have become the dominant social philosopher. #ElonMusk 's actions seem resonant of Rand's political philosophy.
Show threadGaryRLundbergNov 26, 2022
@robballan Mostly among venture capital and startup founders, right? Seems all too often when fiercely held objective individualism leads to meteoric success they inevitably trip over moral responsibility into some royal or deity complex; lords over society. So they invest and ‘donate’ to bulkhead their personal realities. Societies, governments, even rule of law, become “the other”; the problem. To paraphrase: Is it human Darwinism that absolute wealth/power corrupts absolutely?
Show threadRobb Aley AllanNov 26, 2022
@GaryRLundberg I'd add that the failure of libertarianism is that it is effectively Darwinian: those who succeed, thrive; all others struggle. Without government as a guarantor of some minimum quality of life (entitlements, etc.) those failed individuals become a drag -- or worse, a parasite -- on society.
Show threadGaryRLundbergNov 26, 2022

@robballan I like to think of human Darwinism as also including Tribalism and Collectivism as means of survival. The venn diagram of them, if you will, determining the quality and longevity of survival. Maximum overlap is best. America is very Tribal and Darwinian right now. We either come together, or fragment. Musk promotes shattering.

For me it always felt like that failure of Libertarianism was failure of individuals morality and respect for any and all others.