Getting to be quite a fan. Loving the TV series. He's exactly right on Twitter. It needs a decent job done on it. Taking Trump down was shocking (and I'm no Trump fan).

I don't know much about Elon Musk but note the opprobrium he generates so assume he must be interesting. So dlfar as I can determine the backlash to him is based on his "right wing" political views. Well if you believe in free speech that is intolerable: good luck to him, and let's hope he does keep speech free on twitter.

I've thought he was an idiot ever since he accused one of the men who went out to Thailand to help rescue those boys trapped in a cave of being a paedophile. He was sued over that, but apparently won.

www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-50695593

Yes Jo we all hated that but nobody is perfect. Not even me.

Jo wrote:
I've thought he was an idiot ever since he accused one of the men who went out to Thailand to help rescue those boys trapped in a cave of being a paedophile. He was sued over that, but apparently won.

www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-50695593

he either leaves it as it is with advertisers already edgy and backing off , or allow the right wing nutters and Trump back on (the "n" word already being bandied about freely) and advertisers flee.

Paid way too much for it, was taken for a ride on price and Jack Dorsey has already got a Twitter clone ready to go and now the fabulously paid off fired executives who made twitter great can go with Dorsey.

Rumours of his "brilliance" is vastly over-rated and he's basically a carpet bagger who was already wealthy to begin with (inherited) and is blowing the companies built by great minds (he plundered) with his antics (his "sink" business was utterly pathetic but he thought it was a knee slapper) but Tesla the real worry...it can so easily spectacularly implode like forerunners often do as the Chinese, Japan and Asian electric carmakers let Tesla make all the mistakes and blow their reputation with dangerous crashes.

I predict (as the only one who correctly predicted Rishi Sunak would be PM and Boris was over) that Tesla is Musk's real problem and Twitter will become a ridiculous behemoth he paid silly money for.

after all, it's just people preaching to the converted and it's influence is vastly over-rated.

Have you seen the three part series Hedda? I think you might change your mind after watching it.

Jo wrote:
I've thought he was an idiot ever since he accused one of the men who went out to Thailand to help rescue those boys trapped in a cave of being a paedophile. He was sued over that, but apparently won.

www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-50695593

Musk, can afford the best legal team and I think Musk, said it was under the first amendment and freedom of speech.

I have no idea why people idolise Elon Musk, he is a transhumanist and wants human and AI to mix.


www.cnbc.com/2017/02/13/elon-musk-humans...lligence-robots.html

JK2006 wrote:
Have you seen the three part series Hedda? I think you might change your mind after watching it.

no and doubt I will as I find him obnoxious.

# went for a ride in a pal's Tesla and thought it was beautiful..quite luxurious and some great features..the many cameras are brilliant.

But I was worried about the "self drive' aspect..what if it takes over? my pal has never used it.

But overall the Tesla was no better than a lovely Mercedes at a similar price.

Jo wrote:
I've thought he was an idiot ever since he accused one of the men who went out to Thailand to help rescue those boys trapped in a cave of being a paedophile. He was sued over that, but apparently won.

www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-50695593

Yes, he was my hero up to that point. I had over £10,000 shares in Tesla then, and decided to sell them all because of it. They since went up 1,500% or something (although have gone down a fair bit like all tech stocks recently).

The thing is, he doubled down on the slur, and also accused the diver of marrying his Thai wife when she was 14, even though she isn't even much younger than her husband. Then he used his vast wealth to pay private detectives to look into the diver's bins and try to find dirt on him. BTW, Elon Musk's wife looks very young. Not to mention that photo with miss Maxwell.

Incredible that he won the defamation case, but money talks in the USA.

But I guess as Jonathan says, nobody is perfect. If he restores free speech to Twitter and social media in general, switches the global population over to self-driving electric cars, and colonizes Mars - thereby ensuring that humanity does not destroy itself and instead spreads out to seed the entire universe with conscious life - then I suppose he will be forgiven.

OldBoy wrote:
Jo wrote:
I've thought he was an idiot ever since he accused one of the men who went out to Thailand to help rescue those boys trapped in a cave of being a paedophile. He was sued over that, but apparently won.

www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-50695593

Yes, he was my hero up to that point. I had over £10,000 shares in Tesla then, and decided to sell them all because of it. They since went up 1,500% or something (although have gone down a fair bit like all tech stocks recently).

The thing is, he doubled down on the slur, and also accused the diver of marrying his Thai wife when she was 14, even though she isn't even much younger than her husband. Then he used his vast wealth to pay private detectives to look into the diver's bins and try to find dirt on him. BTW, Elon Musk's wife looks very young. Not to mention that photo with miss Maxwell.

Incredible that he won the defamation case, but money talks in the USA.

But I guess as Jonathan says, nobody is perfect. If he restores free speech to Twitter and social media in general, switches the global population over to self-driving electric cars, and colonizes Mars - thereby ensuring that humanity does not destroy itself and instead spreads out to seed the entire universe with conscious life - then I suppose he will be forgiven.

AI does not to be developed the way it has. Scientists have a God complex.

I never get why people call celebrities or entrepreneurs "hero's".


Elon, would need to takeover Alphabet the Google parent company. To get freespeech on the Internet. However I don't think he could ever afford to buy YouTube from Google.

However, Rumble is pretty much the only video platform that challenges YouTube.


Elon, has a fragile ego who challenged hence the slander on the diver. Elon, wanted to be the hero with his submarine.

Judging from the comments under this article, Daily Mail readers are loving what Musk is doing. He sounds like a bully to me.

'Chief Twit' Elon Musk becomes the SOLE director of Twitter after dissolving the board of directors - as he now 'plans to fire 25%' of staff

... The Tesla and SpaceX chief immediately fired the social media company's CEO, chief financial officer, head of legal, and general counsel when he assumed command on Thursday.

The first round of layoffs will impact almost every department, and are expected to specifically impact sales, product, engineering, legal, and trust and safety in the coming days, the Post's source claimed. ...

According to a report from The Verge, Musk wants to launch a pay-for-play verification system in which verified users are charged $20 per month.

The problem is that engineers have until November 7 to launch the scheme or face being fired. Employees were only told of the project on October 30. ...

JK2006 wrote:
Yes Jo we all hated that but nobody is perfect. Not even me.
You don’t say!

Jo wrote:
Judging from the comments under this article, Daily Mail readers are loving what Musk is doing. He sounds like a bully to me.

'Chief Twit' Elon Musk becomes the SOLE director of Twitter after dissolving the board of directors - as he now 'plans to fire 25%' of staff

... The Tesla and SpaceX chief immediately fired the social media company's CEO, chief financial officer, head of legal, and general counsel when he assumed command on Thursday.

The first round of layoffs will impact almost every department, and are expected to specifically impact sales, product, engineering, legal, and trust and safety in the coming days, the Post's source claimed. ...

According to a report from The Verge, Musk wants to launch a pay-for-play verification system in which verified users are charged $20 per month.

The problem is that engineers have until November 7 to launch the scheme or face being fired. Employees were only told of the project on October 30. ...



My biggest of fear of Elon, is that wants humans and AI to be cyborgs.

Jo wrote:
I've thought he was an idiot ever since he accused one of the men who went out to Thailand to help rescue those boys trapped in a cave of being a paedophile. He was sued over that, but apparently won.

www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-50695593

One of the greatest inventors of all time who also intends to create good for humanity. Someone, however, who possibly is of little consequence in the scheme of things has the audacity to call him an idiot. Says more about that individual than Elon Musk.

Tom Stent wrote:
Jo wrote:
I've thought he was an idiot ever since he accused one of the men who went out to Thailand to help rescue those boys trapped in a cave of being a paedophile. He was sued over that, but apparently won.

www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-50695593

One of the greatest inventors of all time who also intends to create good for humanity. Someone, however, who possibly is of little consequence in the scheme of things has the audacity to call him an idiot. Says more about that individual than Elon Musk.

what has Musk invented?

he started off rich and got richer in a system that is designed that way.

Sure he cleverly took over the right companies but he invented nothing..employees did.

Twitter though is sheer folly.

As Stephen King who has nearly 7 million followers and sold multi million books basically said..why would I pay for a verified blue tick when he Musk should be paying me for contributing to Twitter.

Justin Beiber with what..150 million followers rarely uses Twitter..but he uses Tik Tok regularly..it's where the young are.

Musk seems to imply people should pay to use a social forum (maybe JK should make us pay ) where as other forums like YouTube pay it's contributors because it encourages advertisers.

I think Musk bought a pig in a poke and won't be able to change much at all...$44B god help us..remember he was forced to buy it or forfeit a billion bucks. Some deal.

# his Pelosi tweet was appalling and deliberate only removed because it frightened the hell out of advertisers.

Tom Stent wrote:
Jo wrote:
I've thought he was an idiot ever since he accused one of the men who went out to Thailand to help rescue those boys trapped in a cave of being a paedophile. He was sued over that, but apparently won.

www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-50695593

One of the greatest inventors of all time who also intends to create good for humanity. Someone, however, who possibly is of little consequence in the scheme of things has the audacity to call him an idiot. Says more about that individual than Elon Musk.
I'm not calling him an idiot for amassing so much wealth but for how he treats other people. It seems he not only accuses people of being paedophiles but also bullies his staff, both of which are in my view not just idiotic, but unpleasant. Even "big" people should treat the "little" people well, IMHO.

hedda wrote:
Tom Stent wrote:
Jo wrote:
I've thought he was an idiot ever since he accused one of the men who went out to Thailand to help rescue those boys trapped in a cave of being a paedophile. He was sued over that, but apparently won.

www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-50695593

One of the greatest inventors of all time who also intends to create good for humanity. Someone, however, who possibly is of little consequence in the scheme of things has the audacity to call him an idiot. Says more about that individual than Elon Musk.

what has Musk invented?

he started off rich and got richer in a system that is designed that way.

Sure he cleverly took over the right companies but he invented nothing..employees did.

Twitter though is sheer folly.

As Stephen King who has nearly 7 million followers and sold multi million books basically said..why would I pay for a verified blue tick when he Musk should be paying me for contributing to Twitter.

Justin Beiber with what..150 million followers rarely uses Twitter..but he uses Tik Tok regularly..it's where the young are.

Musk seems to imply people should pay to use a social forum (maybe JK should make us pay ) where as other forums like YouTube pay it's contributors because it encourages advertisers.

I think Musk bought a pig in a poke and won't be able to change much at all...$44B god help us..remember he was forced to buy it or forfeit a billion bucks. Some deal.

# his Pelosi tweet was appalling and deliberate only removed because it frightened the hell out of advertisers.


He designed PayPal with other people then sold it his share or the company, he just reinvested that money. PayPal makes so much any money because of Ebay and other online stores who accept PayPal as payment.


In the noughties, I was in a deli in NYC. The NYDP were there (like always), they saw a man reading Stephen King book. One said to each other "Why do King's books have children or young adults being murdered or being bullied" the other said "It's like Stephen, finds them fascinating".

Paypal is a huge success and great idea.

Apparently Musk is dreadful with staff and fires people on the spot on the factory floor if they become a bit tongue tied.

Twitter writers often say the dislike the forum. weird

Literally tens of thousands of views for this thread. As I said at the beginning Twitter really needs an overhaul. The dropping of Trump was shocking; whether or not one agrees with a point of view, censorship is very dangerous and very bad. However the danger of Twitter is that it gives a voice to some people who do not deserve to be heard; the haters and trolls, malicious, nasty, creepy.

Yes they are a tiny minority but they shout the loudest and encourage that part of all of us to grow.

Like the tiny amount of Brexit voters who are racists and, I think, swung the popular vote away from those of us who didn't vote in the referendum because we felt we didn't have enough information and anyway we employ politicians to deal with such trivial issues.

The problem I perceive is this :

Twitter has NO ADVERTISERS for 2023 where as for the past few years they have relied on at least 30% pre-sold advertising (normal for the industry).

This is down to Musk and his odd impulsive character flaw of saying too much too soon.

His Pelosi tweet was an example. Advertisers may hate Nancy Pelosi but they aren't fools.

The reason there is no pre-sold advertising is because of the odd way Musk handled the sale..impulsively saying he'd buy it and then spending a year in courts trying to back out..he's freaked out the very people he needs- advertisers.

Of course he may have some genius move up his sleeve. He took a failing car company and rocket company to success but needed government bail outs and contracts to do so.

there won't be any government subsidies for Twitter.

Much conspiracy talk that the Saudis on behalf of Russia want Twitter decimated but I do not believe the Saudis invest $9Billion without wanting a real return in profits.

Interesting times.