Elon Musk buys Twitter

[FogBlueInSanFran]

Go read some Ayn Rand

1957 called — it wants its literature back.

 

[FogBlueInSanFran]

you said “no platform is stifling anything” and twitters algorithms are 100% stifling open discussion.

I see, so if I don’t like the algorithms, am I forced to forever use the platform until death? Does this mean I am never free to speak my mind again?

Twitter’s algorithms aren’t stifling free speech inherently. They’re editing content on THEIR platform. Like literally every broadcast and media platform ever invented in the history of humans. It’s definitional.

Don’t like it? Then don’t use it.

 

[Mr Kobayashi]

1957 called — it wants its literature back.

 

[FogBlueInSanFran]

Ha.

As an English major who specialized in 19th century British fiction and went to Catholic schools for 13 years (including college), the line about “more morality in George Eliot than in all the gospels combined” was particularly well-crafted, I thought.

I read Rand when I was a teenager (Fountainhead and AS) and thought her drive was pretty transparent and unsubtle. The approach of utilizing self-determinism/objectivism to guide purpose is a tactical one but to most normal humans it’s pretty clearly circumstantial and to be used sparingly, not a global philosophy with which to approach the world, which is what she tried to instill. It’s a point of view, I guess. Weird that she liked Aquinas who I think would have hated her.

 

[Octavian]

Ha.

As an English major who specialized in 19th century British fiction and went to Catholic schools for 13 years (including college), the line about “more morality in George Eliot than in all the gospels combined” was particularly well-crafted, I thought.

To be honest it’s typical of the hyperbole that spewed out of that dishonest man’s pissed up mouth.

 

[threespires]

Does he moan about paying tax, or does he moan about government ineptitude at using taxes?

Different things.

Go read some Ayn Rand and gain an understanding as to why Musk and most billionaires dislike taxation.

My guess is you also dislike Bezos for similar reasons.

Personally think Ayn Rand was one mixed up bag of mince and you can drive a horse and coach through many of her arguments. She was destined to be a bit of footnote until she was co-opted by some deeply unsavoury people as some sort of pseudo intellectual justification for their unsavoury behaviours. Rich people per se I have no problem with, rich people who quote Ayn Rand can get in the bin as far as I'm concerned.

 

[Thaksinssoldier]

1957 called — it wants its literature back.

I see, so if I don’t like the algorithms, am I forced to forever use the platform until death? Does this mean I am never free to speak my mind again?

Twitter’s algorithms aren’t stifling free speech inherently. They’re editing content on THEIR platform. Like literally every broadcast and media platform ever invented in the history of humans. It’s definitional.

Don’t like it? Then don’t use it.

but that’s not the point is it. You said none did so, twitter clearly does.

like him or not he’s right in that people leaving the platform is only going to fragment free speech further.

twitter may be a company but it was happy to build itself as a town hall until it wasn’t. Like it or not twitter simply is.

I’m very conflicted on him buying it tbh. The concept needs rescuing and everything he has said on the matter is largely right. However the idea of one man stepping in to determine what free speech is also should be a red flag.

If he buys it and walks away from it as a financial concern then he’ll be doing a service to society, but he hasn’t done so on any metric so far.

 

[Thaksinssoldier]

Personally think Ayn Rand was one mixed up bag of mince and you can drive a horse and coach through many of her arguments. She was destined to be a bit of footnote until she was co-opted by some deeply unsavoury people as some sort of pseudo intellectual justification for their unsavoury behaviours. Rich people per se I have no problem with, rich people who quote Ayn Rand can get in the bin as far as I'm concerned.

like it or not however we live in a world hugely influenced by Rand. So many billionaires publicly say they were influenced by her writings.

We’re seeing it built out before our very eyes.

 

[SWP's back]

What makes you say/think he doesn't?

Some examples:

Elon Musk says he wants free speech, but his track record suggests otherwise

Musk's free speech advocacy seems to apply mostly to his own speech or that of his fans and promoters.

www.cnbc.com

 

[FogBlueInSanFran]

but that’s not the point is it. You said none did so, twitter clearly does.

like him or not he’s right in that people leaving the platform is only going to fragment free speech further.

twitter may be a company but it was happy to build itself as a town hall until it wasn’t. Like it or not twitter simply is.

I’m very conflicted on him buying it tbh. The concept needs rescuing and everything he has said on the matter is largely right. However the idea of one man stepping in to determine what free speech is also should be a red flag.

If he buys it and walks away from it as a financial concern then he’ll be doing a service to society, but he hasn’t done so on any metric so far.

Well it was MY point so maybe I didn’t express it well. Semantics aside, he’s not right — Twitter like all media will probably eventually be subsumed by another technology someday and anyone who thought it was ever a town hall is just pining for their own dashed hopes. As much as one wants to define a captive platform as the new free marketplace of ideas is isn’t, can’t be and won’t ever be a replacement. If Twitter really could somehow become the monopolistic provider of info and ideas and thus must of needs exist without regulation (like the air), it should be nationalized — an idea your buddy Ms. Rand would probably have disliked :)