(Elonās takeover of twitter was probably the secondāitās crazy that you can get that much power for $44 billion.)
I think this is pretty significantly understating the true cost. Or put differently, I donāt think itās good to model this as an easily replicable type of transaction.
I donāt think that if, say, some more boring multibillionaire did the same thing, they could achieve anywhere close to the same effect. It seems like the Twitter deal mainly worked for him, as a political figure, because it leveraged existing idiosyncratic strengths that he had, like his existing reputation and social media following. But to get to the point where he had those traits, he needed to be crazy successful in other ways. So the true cost is not $44 billion, but more like: be the worldās richest person, who is also charismatic in a bunch of different ways, have an extremely dedicated online base of support from consumers and investors, have a reputation for being a great tech visionary, and then spend $44B.
My story is: Elon changing the twitter censorship policies was a big driver of a chunk of Silicon Valley getting behind Trumpāseparate from Elon himself promoting Trump, and separate from Elon becoming a part of the Trump team.
And I think anyone who bought Twitter could have done that.
If anything being Elon probably made it harder, because he then had to face advertiser boycotts.
Ah, interesting, not exactly the case that I thought you were making.
I more or less agree with the claim that āElon changing the twitter censorship policies was a big driver of a chunk of Silicon Valley getting behind Trump,ā but probably assign it lower explanatory power than you do (especially compared to nearby explanatory factors like, Elon crushing internal resistance and employee power at Twitter). But I disagree with the claim that anyone who bought Twitter could have done that, because I think that Elonās preexisting sources of power and influence significantly improved his ability to drive and shape the emergence of the Tech Right.
I also donāt think that the Tech Right would have as much power in the Trump admin if not for Elon promoting Trump and joining the administration. So a different Twitter CEO who also created the Tech Right would have created a much less powerful force.
I think this is pretty significantly understating the true cost. Or put differently, I donāt think itās good to model this as an easily replicable type of transaction.
I donāt think that if, say, some more boring multibillionaire did the same thing, they could achieve anywhere close to the same effect. It seems like the Twitter deal mainly worked for him, as a political figure, because it leveraged existing idiosyncratic strengths that he had, like his existing reputation and social media following. But to get to the point where he had those traits, he needed to be crazy successful in other ways. So the true cost is not $44 billion, but more like: be the worldās richest person, who is also charismatic in a bunch of different ways, have an extremely dedicated online base of support from consumers and investors, have a reputation for being a great tech visionary, and then spend $44B.
My story is: Elon changing the twitter censorship policies was a big driver of a chunk of Silicon Valley getting behind Trumpāseparate from Elon himself promoting Trump, and separate from Elon becoming a part of the Trump team.
And I think anyone who bought Twitter could have done that.
If anything being Elon probably made it harder, because he then had to face advertiser boycotts.
Agree/ādisagree?
Ah, interesting, not exactly the case that I thought you were making.
I more or less agree with the claim that āElon changing the twitter censorship policies was a big driver of a chunk of Silicon Valley getting behind Trump,ā but probably assign it lower explanatory power than you do (especially compared to nearby explanatory factors like, Elon crushing internal resistance and employee power at Twitter). But I disagree with the claim that anyone who bought Twitter could have done that, because I think that Elonās preexisting sources of power and influence significantly improved his ability to drive and shape the emergence of the Tech Right.
I also donāt think that the Tech Right would have as much power in the Trump admin if not for Elon promoting Trump and joining the administration. So a different Twitter CEO who also created the Tech Right would have created a much less powerful force.