My story is: Elon changing the twitter censorship policies was a big driver of a chunk of Silicon Valley getting behind Trump—separate 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 “Elon changing the twitter censorship policies was a big driver of a chunk of Silicon Valley getting behind Trump,” 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 Elon’s preexisting sources of power and influence significantly improved his ability to drive and shape the emergence of the Tech Right.
I also don’t 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.
My story is: Elon changing the twitter censorship policies was a big driver of a chunk of Silicon Valley getting behind Trump—separate 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/disagree?
Ah, interesting, not exactly the case that I thought you were making.
I more or less agree with the claim that “Elon changing the twitter censorship policies was a big driver of a chunk of Silicon Valley getting behind Trump,” 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 Elon’s preexisting sources of power and influence significantly improved his ability to drive and shape the emergence of the Tech Right.
I also don’t 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.