Why do it? When I wrote about Musk’s tweeting earlier this yr, I leaned towards the concept that Twitter itself had led him into this 280-character recklessness. I described Twitter as a superhighway out of your foot to your mouth. But now that he owns the corporate, it’s gotten worse—and seemingly extra intentional. Musk appears to have programmed his Tesla navigation system to zoom instantly into his personal babbling entice. The definitive reply to why he’s doing that is solely accessible inside the large mind of the person who guidelines Tesla, SpaceX, mind implant and tunneling startups, and now additionally Twitter. I can’t ask Twitter for a remark as a result of Musk fired its PR staff. People round Musk I surveyed aren’t offering solutions, both. The one response I did get was from his buddy and fellow OpenAI cofounder Sam Altman. “Truly no idea,” Altman says.
One of Musk’s surrogates has addressed the tweets: Joe Lonsdale, an investor and Palantir cofounder who is aware of Musk and is rumored to be advising him on the Twitter rescue. As a latest visitor on CNBC, Lonsdale gushed about how “the possibilities are amazing” for Musk and Twitter. But when cohost Andrew Ross Sorkin introduced up the Markey tweet, he had the identical considerations I did. “I don’t understand it!” Sorkin stated. “Democrats control the Senate, that guy runs a whole number of committees—with subpoena power no less! … Doesn’t he put himself in some kind of real risk?”
Lonsdale defended his buddy by saying the tweets proved “how important it is that Elon wins.” It’s about freedom. “In China, if you do that, you’re definitely out,” stated Lonsdale, waving his hand in a chopping movement like a Maoist executioner. “It’s proving to everyone that it’s possible we have a free country, and you can push back, you can mock people who are attacking you, and you can still win. And that’s awesome! He’s saying we’re free and I’m not going to treat this like a Communist dictatorship.”
That comment might need landed higher if at that very second Musk had not been publicly firing—after which making enjoyable of—any worker who dared to submit something about this that was extra essential than a genuflection to his greatness. Since Twitter CEO Musk is main a dictatorial masterclass, I reject the Lonsdale Theory.
Another supposition is that Musk has misplaced his thoughts. We ought to due to this fact regard all his actions at his Twitter as Queeg-like lunacy. That doesn’t work both. These troublesome tweets aren’t new conduct. Remember 2018, when Must recklessly referred to as the man who received these Thai youngsters out of the cave a “pedo guy”? Musk gained the defamation lawsuit filed towards him by the rescuer, however paid a worth in distraction and popularity for his unjustified slur. And stored going. Or what concerning the time that very same yr when he tweeted, “Am considering taking Tesla private at $420. Funding secured.” Turns out the funding was not secured. Also, there was confusion over whether or not the tweet was a joke, since April 20 is named Weed Day, a time to fireplace up a fats spliff. In any case, the US Securities and Exchange Commission was not amused. Musk and Tesla each needed to pay $20 million to settle the company’s grievance, and Musk needed to step down as Tesla’s chair. But outdoors Twitter, Musk has been displaying no indicators of madness. Since these 2018 tweets, he’s finished a fairly good job at working Tesla and SpaceX, so one may assume he’s the identical not-crazy man now. Only loopy in his tweets.
