Should we ditch twitter?

[reohn2]

Ditches are a created low point,there to collect the waste water/crap run off from the land,a great place for Twitter/X and it's equally putrid owner to reside.FB can be as bad

This was an interesting radio 4 show today about twitter etc and the fact Musk may be facing criminal charges for posting certain stuff on twitter not only as a just poster but may have much more liability as an owner.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0021 ... are-mobile

I sincerly hope so!

[djnotts]

I don't/won't use twitter/x, nor have I ever bought on Amazon. I have other small boycotts. Musk should be incarcerated but of course won't face any legal response to anything he might do. Simply too wealthy - and a Trump supporter.

[mattheus]

I don't/won't use twitter/x, nor have I ever bought on Amazon. I have other small boycotts. Musk should be incarcerated but of course won't face any legal response to anything he might do. Simply too wealthy - and a Trump supporter.

A commendable approach.

[Psamathe]

An interesting article (report?) about what's behind Musk's shift to the radical right

For a time, Musk presented himself ... he spoke at length about the risk of climate change, while launching and investing in other projects like SpaceX, OpenAI and The Boring Company that could all be sold as matching a general vision of improving humanity’s future.
...
At the same time, his daughter Vivian came out as transgender and changed her name, declaring that she no longer wanted to “be related to my biological father in any way, shape or form”.

Musk himself has cited Vivian as a reason for his political shift, telling the pop psychologist Jordan Peterson that he had “lost [his] son [sic], essentially”, and concluding that his son “is dead, killed by the woke mind virus”.
...
The expert also believes Musk at his core is a man with practically no principles “except whatever will enrich him, and a deep need for attention and validation. He’s been getting the latter in spades from the far right ever since he started on his rightward radicalisation and he’s constructed for himself the world’s largest echo chamber, which will only continue to fuel that.”

The expert added: “It’s worth noting he has rarely, if ever, experienced consequences for his actions, and has found success in attempting to bully reality into conforming with his beliefs.”
...

But, I don't like articles quoting "one radicalisation expert, who asked not to be named because of fear of reprisal." - who can know said individual's credentials or bias and thus how solid their assertions.

Though the above excerpts give a poor representation of the article, it's not a long read.

Ian

[Psamathe]

Article/report about how Musk's radicalisation is (potentially) impacting Tesla as a brand

‘His rhetoric has made Tesla toxic’: is Elon Musk driving away his target market?
There are signs the billionaire is becoming unpopular with the very demographic group most likely to buy EVs
...

Another "Ratner"?

Ian

[pwa]

Article/report about how Musk's radicalisation is (potentially) impacting Tesla as a brand

‘His rhetoric has made Tesla toxic’: is Elon Musk driving away his target market?
There are signs the billionaire is becoming unpopular with the very demographic group most likely to buy EVs
...

Another "Ratner"?

Ian

I wondered about that too. If I had the dosh to splash out on a Tesla (I don't) I'd be (virtually) flicking through the brochures. Except that his acidic rants have made me determined to avoid anything I can that has his toxic fingerprints on it. I would actually go for an inferior product just to avoid adding to his profits. All because he can't keep his totally irrelevant personal views to himself.

[Psamathe]

Article/report about how Musk's radicalisation is (potentially) impacting Tesla as a brand

‘His rhetoric has made Tesla toxic’: is Elon Musk driving away his target market?
There are signs the billionaire is becoming unpopular with the very demographic group most likely to buy EVs
...

Another "Ratner"?

Ian

I wondered about that too. If I had the dosh to splash out on a Tesla (I don't) I'd be (virtually) flicking through the brochures. Except that his acidic rants have made me determined to avoid anything I can that has his toxic fingerprints on it. I would actually go for an inferior product just to avoid adding to his profits. All because he can't keep his totally irrelevant personal views to himself.

Maybe worse in the amount of money he takes from Tesla. (Some) Profit from a Tesla purchase will find it's way into Musk's personal bank account.

Elon Musk has won $56bn pay package despite judge ruling it void, Tesla argues

And US$56bn is a significant amount of money when it comes to bonuses.

Ian

[toontra]

Even rational people who abhor Musk and his views continue to use it, albeit begrudgingly. I reckon it's because they're actually addicted. The way Twitter works (along with other SM platforms) is to promote addiction by the way it feeds account-specific prompts. The more Musk riles people with his inflammatory nonsense the more people respond - on his platform - making him more money.

I'm fortunate never to have had an account so won't miss what I've never had, but others are having a real problem.

[ncutler]

I was about to post the link to The Guardian article when I noticed it linked in a previous post.

Excellent thread this. I am tempted to compare the moderation ethic on this forum ( and very little is needed ! ) with the FUBAR of moderation and governance on X

I don't use X, and our next car won't be a T***a.

[Biospace]

I don't/won't use twitter/x, nor have I ever bought on Amazon. I have other small boycotts. Musk should be incarcerated but of course won't face any legal response to anything he might do. Simply too wealthy - and a Trump supporter.

Small boycotts add up, the consumer has the ultimate power. I too avoid Amazon, X, Facebook etc. unless totally impossible (which is rare). Social media is a plague on all our lives!

[Psamathe]

I don't/won't use twitter/x, nor have I ever bought on Amazon. I have other small boycotts. Musk should be incarcerated but of course won't face any legal response to anything he might do. Simply too wealthy - and a Trump supporter.

Small boycotts add up, the consumer has the ultimate power....

I don't know about car production but often the first x% of sales covers costs and only the additional y% generate profit. eg Tesla sell only 10,000 cars per year (daft numbers) and they wont cover R&D costs, design costs, stock and facility costs, etc. They need a good level of sales to cover those moderately fixed costs. So a small'ish drop in sales can move them from profit into loss.

I'm not good at explaining but eg a 10% drop in sales doesn't (always) equate to a 10% drop in profits but often a far larger profit drop.

Ian

[djnotts]

^ "I'm not good at explaining but eg a 10% drop in sales doesn't (always) equate to a 10% drop in profits but often a far larger profit drop."

Marginal costing and the ratio of fixed to variable costs. Often variable costs can be reduced quickly if sales fall - fixed will either already have been incurred or take much longer to reduce.

[mattheus]

Even rational people who abhor Musk and his views continue to use it, albeit begrudgingly. I reckon it's because they're actually addicted. The way Twitter works (along with other SM platforms) is to promote addiction by the way it feeds account-specific prompts.

What a ridiculous presumption!

Loads of services are too convenient and/or useful for people to immediately abandon, just due to a new unpopular figurehead.

[pwa]

Even rational people who abhor Musk and his views continue to use it, albeit begrudgingly. I reckon it's because they're actually addicted. The way Twitter works (along with other SM platforms) is to promote addiction by the way it feeds account-specific prompts.

What a ridiculous presumption!

Loads of services are too convenient and/or useful for people to immediately abandon, just due to a new unpopular figurehead.

Convenience over conscience? Ultimately a personal choice based on one's own way of looking at the world. Throughout my life I have had an informal little list of things / services I boycott for ethical reasons, whether it inconveniences me or not. Musk is on that list right now.

[Cugel]

Even rational people who abhor Musk and his views continue to use it, albeit begrudgingly. I reckon it's because they're actually addicted. The way Twitter works (along with other SM platforms) is to promote addiction by the way it feeds account-specific prompts.

What a ridiculous presumption!

Loads of services are too convenient and/or useful for people to immediately abandon, just due to a new unpopular figurehead.

Convenience over conscience? Ultimately a personal choice based on one's own way of looking at the world. Throughout my life I have had an informal little list of things / services I boycott for ethical reasons, whether it inconveniences me or not. Musk is on that list right now.

Personally I long ago determined that many so-called social media "services" were anything but. They're essentially anti-social with the major objective of making money for already wealthy exploiters, out of addictive quarreling and spite (and worse) whilst harvesting the users' personal data and habits so as to devise further ways to exploit and manipulate them.

It was obvious, if you used message boards in the early years of the interwebbery, that conversations could soon degenerate into flaming; and that outrageous untruths could be promulgated hand over fist. Hence the need for mods and other controls of what was posted.

There are few if any controls in the likes of Twotter, especially now than the Musk-rat is setting the rules (or, rather, the absence of rules). Add to all that the fact that Musk-rat is himself using his immense megaphone to spread Trumpeter-style lies and slander ......

If participating in such a cesspit is convenient its tempting to ask what sort of "convenience" is meant. It is, after all, something of a mind-midden. Or so I read in places ..... like this! Good for organising riots-about-lies though, eh!? I bet that Goebbels wished he'd had it.