Twitter

[JohnRoberts]

One of his co-financiers is Sam Bankman-Fried, of FTX fame, albeit for a meager 100 million.

Bankman-Fried spent around $37 million during the last election cycle, almost all of which went to boosting Democratic candidates and causes. That made him the party's second-largest donor,

You can probably guess who the largest democrat donor was... ?

JR

 

[AnalogPackrat]

The guy has built his fortune through exploitation. Exploit government money so you don't actually have to compete on a level playing field,

Blame the left leaders in government who push the EV subsidies. And SpaceX has done more with less gov money than NASA w.r.t. advances in heavy launch vehicles and true reusability. Seems like a win.

exploit investors to get dollars at a discount,

Eh? No business leader can force investors to buy in. If gov gets involved to "facilitate" investment, then, again, blame gov.

exploit workers to get labor at a discount.

No one is forced to work for any company. At least he's created a lot of jobs here in the US. How do you feel about free market resulting in off-shoring to places like China that have lax environmental, labor, and other laws? Is that a level playing field?

Rinse and repeat.

Until the rules of the game are changed, can you blame him (or any number of other business leaders doing the same thing)?

He fooled the left into thinking he actually cares about the environment.

Hardly. The left voted in government that instituted subsidies to fund magic thinking. Musk saw better ways to build EVs and had a go at it. Tesla did pretty well even though the tech really isn't that great. At least he didn't do a Solyndra. And the rich left got their virtue signalling ego tripping fancy EVs.

And now he is fooling the right into thinking he actually cares about their speech.

How? Did he take money from "the right?" I think people on the side of free speech (which are now called "extreme right") are hopeful that he will improve the platform. Time will tell.

Twitter was basically a failed pump and dunnp. He is stuck with it and trying the same exploitation tactics.

Three weeks in and this is your take?

 

[ruairioflaherty]

One of his co-financiers is Sam Bankman-Fried, of FTX fame, albeit for a meager 100 million.

Vociferously denied by Elon today on twitter. And those trying to connect him to SBF definitely have a stink.

If Elon is just about money and power then he's going about it in a very strange way.

 

[ruairioflaherty]

Yes. That's been happening for quite some time now, in a variety of different places and ways. In fact, Twitter itself (and those who use it) has contributed extensively to this grip-loosening. There's a track record there we can examine--we've got access to info otherwise unavailable in nations where free speech and the press are harshly limited, but we also have the flourishing of attacks on people for their religion, skin color and sexuality (along with a wide variety of frauds and charlatans). Why would anyone assume that a multi-billionaire with strong financial ties to oppressive govts. would be a true champion of free speech? The Saudis are in for about 2 billion on this Twitter fiasco--they may want to break down the current information flow system, but what do you expect them to want in its place?

I'm not sure we have or had quite the free flow of information and access that you describe. That sounds a little more conspiratorial than I mean it to but those with power will exercise it, we all do in our own way.

Old media and entrenched interests have waged war on tech for 15 years now and done a very effective job at putting a target on their backs. Balaji Srinivasan makes this point over and over about the owners of the NYT Sulzberger et al, a name that almost no one knows.

Balaji is something of a techno utopian and I'm not behind everything he argues for, but in this case he is correct.

I think I'm all for the chaos at Twitter right now if it gives us some insight into who has been pulling the levers and who will in the future,

 

[hodad]

You can probably guess who the largest democrat donor was... ?

JR

And the CEO of FTX made equally large donations to GOP. Looks like they were playing both sides of the fence.

 

[hodad]

Iof the NYT Sulzberger et al, a name that almost no one knows.

Are you saying no one knows who Sulzberger is? Because I have been reading criticisms of the Sulzberger family in left-leaning media outlets for literally decades.

I don’t have a particularly utopian view of social media, butit does have its moments. It has opened up avenues of communication that were otherwise largely inaccessible in traditional media. Sometimes that’s good, sometimes bad, sometimes stupid and annoying. And as with anything that is successful, there is always some jackass with money or power (or the desire for them) who seeks to manipulate it for his own ends.

But I don’t think it likely that whatever fills the vacuum Musk may create with his possible destruction of Twitter is going to be better than what it replaces. Most likely it will be worse. At this point we have no idea how it will all play out; however, the path Musk is currently on does not look all that wonderful.

 

[cyrano]

Vociferously denied by Elon today on twitter. And those trying to connect him to SBF definitely have a stink.

I don't know, but I imagine a transfer of a 100 million in stock should be verifiable. Not that I'm that interested. It's just popcorn and a sofa to me. Whatever the outcome is fine. Haven't used my Twitter account in years.

If Elon is just about money and power then he's going about it in a very strange way.

I think it's about ego. He only cares about one human. And possibly his mum.

 

[scott2000]

And the CEO of FTX made equally large donations to GOP. Looks like they were playing both sides of the fence.

Heard it was only to the ones who voted to impeach or supported it or something.... but not sure if that's verified. Maybe a list would make it clearer.

 

[hodad]

Heard it was only to the ones who voted to impeach or supported it or something.... but not sure if that's verified. Maybe a list would make it clearer.

https://www.fec.gov/data/receipts/i...=2022&min_date=01/01/2021&max_date=12/31/2022
I am not familiar enough with House members to know who supported impeachment. I saw Murkowski on the list, and she did. However, opposing Trump does not by any means make a Republican liberal. Judging by the standard of likes/dislikes Trump is more abot cult of personality than political ideology.

 

[JohnRoberts]

And the CEO of FTX made equally large donations to GOP. Looks like they were playing both sides of the fence.

That is the new left leaning media whatabouts....

• Bankman-Fried himself donated $40 million to mostly liberal efforts, while fellow exec Ryan Salame gave $23 million primarily to Republicans.

Bankman-Fried, whose cryptocurrency exchange platform FTX has collapsed in recent weeks, funneled an estimated $262,200 to Republicans throughout the 2021-2022 election cycle, according to Federal Election Commission records. His contributions to Republicans paled in comparison to the nearly $40 million he contributed to Democratic campaigns but still represented a significant sum, compared to most Americans.

Noting that Bankman-Fried visited the Biden White House several times this year, Devine added, "And the Democrats, with their $40 million that they got at least this cycle to win the midterms, plus the $10 million that this guy put into Biden's campaign in 2020, they really owe it to the victims of this scam to give it back." To keep or not to keep

It looks like they were trying to buy access and influence from both sides (crony capitalism... aka corruption) and the "big guy" appeared to be receptive.

JR

 

[hodad]

That is the new left leaning media whatabouts....


JR

How about “fair and balanced?” (to coin a phrase”)? Right wing media focuses exclusively on donations to Dem, because that is what serves their narrative. Sometimes it’s helpful to hear “the rest of the story” (to coin another phrase).

 

[boji]

His deficiency (or suppression) at attributing emotion to choice might make him worthy of solving one of twitter's original problems, which was that it often incentivizes/monetizes the trading of emotional blows:

 

[JohnRoberts]

How about “fair and balanced?” (to coin a phrase”)? Right wing media focuses exclusively on donations to Dem, because that is what serves their narrative. Sometimes it’s helpful to hear “the rest of the story” (to coin another phrase).

Cute I already quoted fox business. In case you missed it here it is again.

Bankman-Fried, whose cryptocurrency exchange platform FTX has collapsed in recent weeks, funneled an estimated $262,200 to Republicans throughout the 2021-2022 election cycle, according to Federal Election Commission records. His contributions to Republicans paled in comparison to the nearly $40 million he contributed to Democratic campaigns but still represented a significant sum, compared to most Americans.

When buying influences it makes sense to slide more to the administration in office.

JR

 

[hodad]

Cute I already quoted fox business. In case you missed it here it is again.



When buying influences it makes sense to slide more to the administration in office.

JR

The $262K is a gross misrepresentation. Salame gave $2 mill the GOP Senate Leadership Fund alone. And another $120K to McConnell’s PAC. Et cetera. But I wouldn’t expect an honest accounting from a right wing source.

 

[fazer]

The buzz I heard lately is musk wants to create a more robust video platform on Twitter to compete with YouTube. It is fascinating to speculate on direction. I remember thinking about getting an account on Twitter years ago but never did. I would love to see something compete with YouTube but cannot imagine that happening.

Lately I’ve been reducing my YouTube use to mostly guitar and music theory. I wasted way to much time on YouTube drama in the past.

 

[JohnRoberts]

The buzz I heard lately is musk wants to create a more robust video platform on Twitter to compete with YouTube. It is fascinating to speculate on direction. I remember thinking about getting an account on Twitter years ago but never did. I would love to see something compete with YouTube but cannot imagine that happening.

Lately I’ve been reducing my YouTube use to mostly guitar and music theory. I wasted way to much time on YouTube drama in the past.

I think Musk would like to make it profitable. It has been losing money for years. He fired the marketing department because he is the buzz machine, just like at tesla.

JR

 

[Matador]

that it often incentivizes/monetizes the trading of emotional blows:

Based on local experience, this isn't strictly a Twitter thing...

 

[iampoor1]

Ita amazing seeing how the "citizen journalisim" happening in Twitter covering the SBF and FTX blowup has been way higher quality than any mainstream coverage. In fact it appears as if MSM has only written puffpieces ON SBF to make him look good, the wall street journal being the worst of the worst. I can understand why traditional media outlets have such a negative spin when hypocrisy of this magnitude can't be covered up.

 

[JohnRoberts]

Uh-oh.... Elon has pivoted from darling of the left to enemy.... Somehow free speech is now dangerous for democracy?

His first dump of internal TWITTER documents is just confirming what we already knew or suspected.... this will be pretty interesting to digest. I don't think twitter was an isolated example and Zuckerberg already admitted to facebook/Meta censorship being influenced by FBI, et al.

interesting times.

JR

 

[AnalogPackrat]

Uh-oh.... Elon has pivoted from darling of the left to enemy.... Somehow free speech is now dangerous for democracy?

The real hard "pivot" was the "Democrats" reversal on civil rights over the past 10 years or so. It should be apparent to everyone by now that that party no longer embraces actual liberty.

His first dump of internal TWITTER documents is just confirming what we already new or suspected.... this will be pretty interesting to digest.

What many denied for years.

I don't think twitter was an isolated example and Zuckerberg already admitted to facebook/Meta censorship being influenced by FBI, et al.

Also obvious to an honest impartial observer of facts.

interesting times.

Unfortunately, yes.

JR