Emerald Hairplug is boring.

world's smartest moron

I'm sure Musk hoped to turn Twitter into a money-maker, too, but he likely bought it to control the narrative.

Despite all its faults, Twitter was an effective tool for mobilization of movements and organization of protests, particularly for marginalized groups. That's why oppressive governments won't allow it in their country.

Musk was certainly aware of this. As an oligarch, the last thing he wants is the rabble having a platform to spread rhetoric and communicate. I'm sure he saw all the "jokes" about guillotines and all the talk about busting up monopolies & taxing the rich & corporations.

Also, his employees were talking about unionizing on Twitter and promoting labor unions in general. And his customers publicly complained about Tesla and the electric vehicles they'd purchased from it.

And people were mean to him.

While I'm sure he hoped to monetize Twitter, silencing critics and quashing uprisings against the wealthy was also a goal. That's not to say I think he's some 4D chess master. I think making Twitter profitable was his top priority and he fucked it up because he's an idiot. But whether Twitter survives or not, he still wins because he'll have hobbled a platform that was of great benefit to people trying to fight for justice & equity.

When Musk first announced he wanted to buy Twitter in April of 2022, I went shopping for a new social platform and found Mastodon. It was a bit of a learning curve, but I found a few interesting topics and people to follow. But since most of the artists, creators and fun people I liked were still on Twitter, I mostly used it.

Then, a little over a week after Musk walked into Twitter HQ carrying a sink, I was permanently banned from the platform for making a death threat.

During an argument over gun control, after I said we need to ban the manufacture & sale of all semi-automatic firearms (yes, even handguns) to civilians, a gun nut challenged me to "come and take [their] guns" if we passed such a law.

I explained we don't have to personally enter their house and take their guns when we can just bulldoze the house with them and the guns in it.

They told me they were reporting me for making a death threat.

I thought nothing of it. I had said the same thing before to other people, some of which had said they were going to report me for a death threat.

But when I went to Twitter the following evening, my account was permanently suspended.

So Mastodon became my new social platform. Not being able to keep up with the people I followed on Twitter was annoying, but many had websites and accounts on other social platforms. It had been nice having them all in one place, but I could still keep up with them.

Then a whole bunch of people, including many I had been following on Twitter, started setting up accounts on Mastodon.

And now Twitter is struggling because of Musk's shitty management style. I'm pretty sure he's either out to purge all the old workers so he can replace them with cheaper, more loyal personnel. That, or he's trying to bankrupt it so he can write it off as a loss on his taxes.

Sorry, Ron DeSantis. Elon Musk is the new Trump.