GB wants Tech UnionsNov 24, 2022
Robert Reich

Here's what Elon Musk fails to understand:

Much of a corporations' value lies in their workers — their knowledge, skills, and ideas.

When he fired half of Twitter’s workforce and drove off even more, he wasn't “cutting costs.”

He was actively destroying what he bought.

Nov 24, 2022 at 12:30amWeb
Show threadMiserable Old-GitNov 24, 2022

@rbreich

As I put it on the 'bird'

You don't buy a luxury car then rip out the luxury interior and replace it with a couple of old wooden crates!

Show threadEclectic ArtistNov 24, 2022
@Welshsprout @rbreich Oooohhh! Great analogy!!!
Show threadExcess G (Gregg, they)Nov 24, 2022
@Welshsprout @rbreich Apparently, you do if the luxury interior thinks you're an asshole.
Show threadsteelydan all lower case ✔️Nov 24, 2022
@rbreich let's all remember, he was born on 3rd base but him thinks he hit a home run
Show threadDan Berky "דן" ℞ MS 🇺🇲 🇩🇪 🇮🇱Nov 24, 2022
@rbreich He is destroying that platform, deliberately and with intention.
Show threadKim Spence-Jones #FBPENov 24, 2022
@Daniel_Berky The only question is whether Musk has a vision for rebuilding Twitter, deliberately wants to destroy it, or is just a twit who will fail by mistake. The jury’s out, but my money is a combination of one and three.
Show threadMark HalvorsonNov 24, 2022
@KimSJ @Daniel_Berky I’ve wondered if the destruction is intentional, too. But that suggests he has a strategy, presumably one that doesn’t flush his reputation as a visionary and business genius down the toilet. I can’t imagine many “Person of the Year” cover stories in his immediate future. Except perhaps for Breitbart.
Show threadMikeNov 24, 2022

@KimSJ @Daniel_Berky @someMAHoo

The $s involved are the part I can’t reconcile if the destruction is purposeful. The banks aren’t going to be eager to write down their $13b, either.

I think he made a stupid offer impulsively, got called on it by the sellers, tried to back out and got stuck. His ideal outcome was to reneg on the deal. Now we’re just watching him flail.

Show threadKim Spence-Jones #FBPENov 24, 2022

@DropTheMike I suspect that the banks have demanded security. Though if that was in Tesla shares they may still lose! Flailing is certainly going on.

Don’t discount the possibility that Musk is the ‘useful idiot’ in this deal — the Saudis and the Russians would love Twitter to collapse…

Show threadAtlantic Canuck 🇨🇦Nov 26, 2022
@DropTheMike @KimSJ @Daniel_Berky @someMAHoo That’s very plausible.
Show threadChris O’keefeNov 24, 2022
@someMAHoo @KimSJ @Daniel_Berky It’s amazing how the only people he responds to are incels and right wing grifters. He will never engage anybody else. I have a hard time believing this is a winning strategy.
Show threadKim Spence-Jones #FBPENov 24, 2022
@nockee I guess he just wants friends. 😁
Show threadAtlantic Canuck 🇨🇦Nov 26, 2022
@someMAHoo @KimSJ @Daniel_Berky He has too much money. He literally cares nothing about his reputation. He’ll purchase a new one with right-wing media whose sheep will, obviously, believe anything.
Show threadDan Berky "דן" ℞ MS 🇺🇲 🇩🇪 🇮🇱Nov 27, 2022
@AtlanticCanuck @someMAHoo @KimSJ Yeah, probably an "all of the above" applies to this ⬇️
Show threadAzura GraceNov 24, 2022
@KimSJ @Daniel_Berky i personally don't think it's an accident... Someone like Musk is dangerous, socially, politically, ideologically. Personally, I feel we should assume intent behind his actions. I would bet the end game ultimately isn't about Twitter's success as a business. It's a long-con so to speak in which he remakes Twitter and (at least to his mind) reshapes the global conversation to suit his personal vision and that of those who help inflate his ego or who he can intellectually or financially manipulate in ways which benefit him personally. Also, in the same way that Trump saying the crude things he said regularly helped to normalize that behaviour on a wide scale in both day to day and professional occasions, I think Elon's constant bullying and trolling will be more legitimized by the echo chamber he is seeking to create. 😵‍💫 .... Or maybe I put on my tinfoil hat too early this morning idk.
Show threadKim Spence-Jones #FBPENov 24, 2022
@missazuragrace I think you’re at least partially correct. Elon has a plan, almost certainly hatched in discussion with some of his technocratic mates. I just don’t think he’s capable of executing it, any more than Trump is. But my goodness these people can cause mayhem in the mean time.
Show threadAzura GraceNov 24, 2022
@KimSJ yes well said, it's entirely possible their egos are bigger then their britches- at least we can only hope 🥲
Show threadDan Berky "דן" ℞ MS 🇺🇲 🇩🇪 🇮🇱Nov 25, 2022
@missazuragrace @KimSJ Exactly!
Show threadAtlantic Canuck 🇨🇦Nov 26, 2022
@KimSJ @Daniel_Berky I vote for 2 or 3.
Show threadAdam WrightNov 24, 2022
@Daniel_Berky @rbreich correct.
Show threadMicheleNov 24, 2022
@Daniel_Berky @rbreich this is exactly what I’m concerned about.
Show threadMT NickersonNov 24, 2022
@Daniel_Berky @rbreich I have not posted there since Musk announced he was brown ngong back really awful people. It was getting bad before, but I got tired of blocking people.
Show threadDavidHortonNov 24, 2022
@Daniel_Berky @rbreich Taking Tesla down with it.
Show threadEclectic ArtistNov 24, 2022
@Daniel_Berky @rbreich It looks that way to me as well. Could it be because of his partnership with the Bluesky social platform development? Then again, his bigotry and hatred could be blinding him.
Show threadcharvakaNov 24, 2022
@rbreich If he actively wanted to destroy Twitter, what exactly would he be doing differently? Fire most of the employees, alienate advertisers who give you 90% of your revenue, reactivate habitual violators of your TOS which further alienates advertisers, destroy the authentication system to enable cheap imitations... what else?
Show threadMark HalvorsonNov 24, 2022
@charvaka @rbreich if he only wanted to destroy Twitter, why would he also establish himself as a narcissistic promoter of hate speech, toxic lies, and authoritarianism? He could pull the plug on Twitter with much less damage to his reputation, his other companies, and his bottom line. These are the actions of a pathetic man-child who has been stage-managed by his purchased businesses for years but has finally bought one that didn’t know that was part the mission.
Show threadcharvakaNov 24, 2022
@someMAHoo @rbreich Makes sense!
Show threadOveranalyzedNov 24, 2022
@rbreich Starting to look like that's his plan. I guess he wants the banks to take it over.
Show threadAtanu 🇵🇸Nov 24, 2022

@rbreich Like a lot of managers, they see people as easily replaceable widgets.

I'm not convinced that Twitter ever worked properly (oh no the algorithm). How would we know if it was broken?

Show threadRocco DimaseNov 24, 2022
@rbreich He is a man child with too much money. Billionaire lunatics are dangetous.
Show threadElysiumDesignsNov 24, 2022
@rbreich 100%
Show threadEd (Vote Blue)Nov 24, 2022
@rbreich Add to that he’s clueless about who’s buying Tesla’s. It’s NOT the Right.
Show threadCochise César Nov 24, 2022
@rbreich and even capitalist moguls understand this. Silicon valley giants buys startups every week to acquire their people.
Show threadLeon EsquireNov 24, 2022
@rbreich ditto
Show threadMichael RoufaNov 24, 2022
@rbreich I know I'm not the first to say this, but it sure does seem like the sink he brought in on day one was to show his commitment to sinking the company.
Show threadNTropy_SellersNov 24, 2022
@rbreich "They" (the powers that be) want everyone scattered, so they can control the narrative of the average voter more easily. It's all about disinformation, and propaganda.
Show threadMark DouglasNov 24, 2022

@rbreich

No.? He understand that.

Never thought it early in, but now it's pretty obvious, he's either killing Twitter or turning it into a right wing cesspool.

Wish all good media and users would get the hell off there. I understand why it's hard... Know what's harder? Leaving too late and arriving too late!

Show threadDavidHortonNov 24, 2022
@MDfromNY @rbreich There was once Alta Vista.
Show threadZelmo ZiggyNov 24, 2022
@rbreich Let’s see how it all works out. He has been in control of Twitter for less than a month.
Show threadSimon ColesNov 24, 2022
@rbreich @ZZiggy and oh, what a month! Even if he’s right to decimate the workforce (and I don’t think he is) he’s massively screwed up from a regulatory and employment perspective.
Show threadZelmo ZiggyNov 26, 2022
@simonc Time will tell.
Show threadCaroline WinfieldNov 24, 2022
@rbreich He also doesn’t seem to realize that we—the communities—are the draw to advertisers. We’re the product that he needs to market. If it’s a cesspool of Jenna Ellis, Tom Fitton, Nick Adams, MTG, Boebert, and millions of illiterate trumpies spewing bile, that’s unattractive to advertisers. Duh.
Show threadP Gurgel-SegrilloNov 24, 2022
@Mydoggyruss @rbreich it might be a lot worse than that 👇🏼 https://ohai.social/@juliusdelino/109395994426279568
juliusd (@[email protected])

@[email protected] I think the main thing Elon bought was people (the Twitter user base). People are the currency. People can be turned into an army, they can be induced to give money, they can be used as influence leverage. If people love you enough they will tolerate shitty products so I imagine he can degrade Twitter a lot and still retain or attract a lot of people.

ohai.social
Show threadCaroline WinfieldNov 24, 2022
@GurgelSegrillo @rbreich Well. That explains why he had a fake poll re unsuspending all the hate accounts. He WANTS them back. Study after study has shown that conservative brains respond to fearmongering far more than liberal brains. So whatever crap he tries to pull will not affect liberals—we’ll laugh, ignore, reject, etc—but will affect the weak minds of the easily manipulated. He (and the GOP) KNOW how to push these uneducated fools into doing their dirty work, and obeying “authority.”
Show threadP Gurgel-SegrilloNov 24, 2022
@Mydoggyruss @rbreich 🎯 exactly! And it sounds so much like Bolsonauro in Brazil!
Show threadDrDjNov 24, 2022
@rbreich It would appear it’s completely intential at this point.
Show threadpaul lukasiakNov 24, 2022

@rbreich

you're assuming that his intent is not to destroy it.

Show threadMarshaNov 24, 2022
@rbreich Elmo thinks that the only thing of value in any of his companies is himself.
Show threadDeeplyAwareNov 24, 2022
@rbreich he bought it, and has the right to do whatever he wants with it. The sooner you get over the fact that Twitter is gone, and you lost a really nice thing, the better. That’s the harsh reality. If you keep crying for Twitter, your tears sustain Musk and the right-wing trolls. Get used to it, leave it behind, and move on as soon as possible. Rip the bandaid off quickly.
Show threadtom4okstateNov 24, 2022
@deeplyaware @rbreich 100%. If you don't support right wing media in general don't support Twitter specifically.
Show threadChris O’keefeNov 24, 2022
@deeplyaware @rbreich totally agree. There is no chance of going back with a bad actor owner.
Show threadTom von AltenNov 24, 2022
@rbreich
He's also destroying the product, that being the user community that was engaged by it and providing the willing audience that advertisers would pay money to reach. Will the influx of deplorables make him whole? Seems unlikely. With the libs running for the exits, there'll be no one left to p*wn, and no fun it.
Show threadDavid BergNov 24, 2022
@rbreich This list of what Elon doesn't understand is way too short. Or perhaps too long... let's try this...Elon doesn't understand what it's like to not be rich.
Show threadjdwNov 24, 2022
@rbreich Yep. Exactly. He wouldn't dare run SpaceX this way. (In a way he does, just not with the attrition at Twitter scale). It's all part of another goal, or possibly panic, or just plain old buyers remorse. Who else do we know who likes to keep us in suspense for the next catastrophe. And, why do we care.
Show threadDianne HackbornNov 24, 2022

@jdw @rbreich

This is a really interesting view of how he does run SpaceX like this, it just is set up to protect itself from him: https://www.tumblr.com/numberonecatwinner/701567544684855296/elon-wyd

oops all spiders

I was an intern at SpaceX years ago, back it when it was a much smaller company — after Elon got hair plugs, but before his cult of personality was in full swing. I have some insight to offer here.…

Tumblr
Show threadE. C. ChangNov 24, 2022
@jdw @rbreich Rocket science is easy compared to managing human behavior.
Show threadPaulBNov 24, 2022
@rbreich I think he’s playing with house money and he could care less.
Show threadMoriNov 24, 2022
@rbreich
This is precisely what I’ve most failed to understand. He spent $44,000,000,000 (not all that was his money) and then set about wrecking things with a crowbar. What did he actually pay for?
Perhaps, little more than the world’s biggest troll