Musk Buying Twitter Part II

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ron123

Part of the Furniture Now
Jan 28, 2015
541
984
Park Ridge, IL
Some general purpose thought food about the recent dramatic increase in Western countries regarding the perceived importance of a person accepting the Latest Thing.

Meaning ideas and opinions about what is considered true. (What constitutes a woman being a good example)

It's especially relevant given the recent Twitter situation.



View attachment 189096
Kinda like this: Patients who raise concerns about trans women being put on female-only hospital wards are comparable with racists and may have to be “removed”, NHS guidance suggests.
 

georged

Lifer
Mar 7, 2013
5,491
13,919
Yes that gets to the heart of the matter. But other terms would work just as well as "communist"...it could be fascist or globalist, or whatever....it's all the same thing which is authoritarianism.

The Dalrymple quote is exactly what Orwell was depicting in 1984: "To assent to obvious lies...etc" ......2+2=5.....you must not just acknowledge it....you must believe it.

It's all just about obedience.....that's all authoritarians are after.......truth and reality mean nothing.

The "distilled essence" visual version is the How many fingers? movie scene, of course, where weeks later in the cafe with Julia, Winston has been "fixed," and is intensely concerned about the obvious bullshit government reports about the never-ending war.


Screen Shot 2022-12-22 at 8.19.08 PM.png
 

canucklehead

Lifer
Aug 1, 2018
2,863
15,323
Alberta
The "distilled essence" visual version is the How many fingers? movie scene, of course, where weeks later in the cafe with Julia, Winston has been "fixed," and is intensely concerned about the obvious bullshit government reports about the never-ending war.


View attachment 189123
Your posts reminded me of my favourite short story I studied in high school english class:


In the year 2081, the 211th, 212th, and 213th amendments to the Constitution dictate that all Americans are fully equal and not allowed to be smarter, better-looking, or more physically able than anyone else. The Handicapper General's agents enforce the equality laws, forcing citizens to wear "handicaps": masks for those who are too beautiful, loud radios that disrupt thoughts inside the ears of intelligent people, and heavy weights for the strong or athletic.

One April, 14-year-old Harrison Bergeron, an intelligent, athletic, and good-looking teenager, is taken away from his parents, George and Hazel Bergeron, by the government. They are barely aware of the tragedy, as Hazel has "average" intelligence (contextually meaning stupidity), and George has a handicap radio installed by the government to regulate his above-average intelligence.

Hazel and George watch ballet on television. They comment on the dancers, who are weighed down to counteract their gracefulness and masked to hide their attractiveness. George's thoughts are continually interrupted by the different noises emitted by his handicap radio, which piques Hazel's curiosity and imagination regarding handicaps. Noticing his exhaustion, Hazel urges George to lie down and rest his "handicap bag", 47 pounds (21 kg) of weights locked around George's neck. She suggests taking a few of the weights out of the bag, but George resists, aware of the illegality of such an action.

On television, a news reporter struggles to read the bulletin and hands it to the ballerina wearing the most grotesque mask and heaviest weights. She begins reading in her unacceptably natural, beautiful voice, then apologizes before switching to a more unpleasant voice. Harrison's escape from prison is announced, and a full-body photograph of Harrison is shown, indicating that he is seven feet (2.1 m) tall and burdened by three hundred pounds (140 kg) of handicaps.

George recognizes his son for a moment, before having the thought eliminated by his radio. Harrison himself then storms the television studio in an attempt to overthrow the government. He calls himself the Emperor and rips off all of his handicaps, along with the handicaps of a ballerina, whom he proclaims his "Empress". He orders the musicians to play, promising them nobility if they do their best. Unhappy with their initial attempt, Harrison takes control for a short while, and the music improves. After listening and being moved by the music, Harrison and his Empress dance while flying to the ceiling, then pause in mid-air to kiss.

Diana Moon Glampers, the Handicapper General, enters the studio with a ten-gauge double-barreled shotgun and kills Harrison and the Empress. She threatens the musicians at gunpoint to put on their handicaps again, but the television goes dark. George, unaware of the televised incident, returns from the kitchen and asks Hazel why she was crying, to which she replies that something sad happened on television that she cannot remember. He comforts her and they return to their average lives.
 

Briar Lee

Lifer
Sep 4, 2021
4,759
13,781
Humansville Missouri
Most of ignorance doesn’t come from authoritarianism or stupidity, nor even from the fears and prejudices of hidebound reactionaries or wild radicals.

A man smart enough to amass a 250 billion dollar net worth chose to squander 40 billion of it on a social media platform.


Fox Business

The Tesla chief executive sold 22 million shares worth $3.58 billion in the electric-vehicle maker, according to a regulatory filing.

The sales took place between Monday and Wednesday this week.

Musk has sold over $40 billion worth of shares in the past year, surrounded around his acquisition of Twitter.

—-

He could have bought a lot of the Las Vegas strip for 40 billion dollars.

I wonder what the folks he gave that money to, have done with their good fortune?
 

olkofri

Lifer
Sep 9, 2017
8,033
14,644
The Arm of Orion
Musk is a satanist. Why would anyone expect ANY good from him?

This whole S'witter thing stinks of yet another massive psy op.

"Oooo, look, we 'conservatives' are getting unbanned. Free speech is on again! Woooo"
Yeah, right. Bite the 'free speech' lure, start mouthing off and get your names taken. Grateful I'm not on S'witter.
 

brian64

Lifer
Jan 31, 2011
9,602
14,666
Musk is a satanist. Why would anyone expect ANY good from him?

This whole S'witter thing stinks of yet another massive psy op.

"Oooo, look, we 'conservatives' are getting unbanned. Free speech is on again! Woooo"
Yeah, right. Bite the 'free speech' lure, start mouthing off and get your names taken. Grateful I'm not on S'witter.
Does this mean you won't be getting his Neuralink brain implant?
 

Briar Lee

Lifer
Sep 4, 2021
4,759
13,781
Humansville Missouri
Tesla has reduced in market value 800 billion in the last year, which is about the annual Gross Domestic Product of all of Switzerland.

That’s a lot of watches and Swiss chocolates, you know?


Business Insider

Short-sellers made $15 billion this year betting that shares in Tesla would fall, as about $800 billion was wiped off its value, new research shows.


Analysis by S3 Partners showed bets against Tesla shares proved to be the most profitable of 2022, with shorts against Amazon shares making a return of $6.2 billion.


S3 said interest in betting against Tesla started falling in April as the stock began declining, reducing potential returns, but ramped up again in September as Elon Musk's acrimonious acquisition of Twitter entered its final stages.

——

I read where Amber Heard settled with Johnny Depp.

Maybe she’s lonesome, for old flames, you know?

Musk needs somebody to pick him up on his way down.:)
 

Briar Lee

Lifer
Sep 4, 2021
4,759
13,781
Humansville Missouri
Elon Musk
"To be totally frank, almost every conspiracy theory that people had about Twitter turned out to be true."



—-

The man intelligent and clever enough to become one of the richest men that has ever lived, has lost more wealth in a shorter time than any other man who has ever lived, chasing after dragons and tilting after windmills.

And it just gets worser and worser for him.



Shares of Tesla Inc. TSLA took a -11% dive 11.41% to $109.10 Tuesday, on what proved to be an all-around mixed trading session for the stock market, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA rising 0.11% to 33,241.56 and the NASDAQ Composite Index COMP falling 1.38% to 10,353.23. This was the stock's seventh consecutive day of losses. Tesla Inc. closed $293.57 below its 52-week high ($402.67), which the company achieved on January 4th.

—-

Pretty soon NASDAQ could delist Tesla, if the slide continues.
 

Briar Lee

Lifer
Sep 4, 2021
4,759
13,781
Humansville Missouri
Bloomberg Dec. 30, 2022

Elon Musk was the second person ever to amass a personal fortune of more than $200 billion, breaching that threshold in January 2021, months after Jeff Bezos.

The Tesla Inc. chief executive officer has now achieved a first of his own: becoming the only person in history to erase $200 billion from their net worth.

Musk, 51, has seen his wealth plummet to $137 billion after Tesla shares tumbled in recent weeks, including an 11% drop on Tuesday, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. His fortune peaked at $340 billion on Nov. 4, 2021, and he remained the world’s richest person until he was overtaken this month by Bernard Arnault, the French tycoon behind luxury-goods powerhouse LVMH

—-

When I read articles like that, it makes me glad I’m not one of them there titans of industry.

I’d have cashed in a long time before 200 million.:)

Even today, Musk could sell out and be fabulously rich.

The rich are very different than you and me. They keep on playing long after we’d quit winner.
 
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brian64

Lifer
Jan 31, 2011
9,602
14,666
The Tesla Inc. chief executive officer has now achieved a first of his own: becoming the only person in history to erase $200 billion from their net worth.
Zuckerberg's lost over 100 billion, so he may catch up to him.

And just my opinion based on info I've gleaned over the years, I can't prove it, but I don't believe these "lists" of the wealthiest people. The real wealthiest on this planet have trillions, not billions, but they're never mentioned on those lists and much of their wealth is well hidden.
 

Zeno Marx

Starting to Get Obsessed
Oct 10, 2022
238
1,264
And just my opinion based on info I've gleaned over the years, I can't prove it, but I don't believe...
This is the way of the world now. Opinions confused as facts. Not to single you out or this particular opinion. There must be historians out there who can tell us when we started believing our own BS. These billionaires certainly are confusing the two. Over-confident in our own convoluted inner dialogue.
 

sablebrush52

The Bard Of Barlings
Jun 15, 2013
19,621
44,831
Southern Oregon
jrs457.wixsite.com
It certainly is getting grim to be working there.

Twitter is stiffing its landlords in San Francisco and supposedly Seattle, has closed down one of its data centers, which may have created the recent temporary black out, reduced infrastructure to handle the message load, laid off more people, hired some staff without giving them sufficient training by cutting the 3 day orientation to 90 minutes, killed a couple more departments, consolidated remaining SF staff to two floors, and fired all of the janitorial staff because they wanted a raise.

Reports of a mixture of body odor and, um, bathroom related smells wafting through the bullpens are being reported by staff, who also have to bring their own toilet paper if they don't want to use their hands. A new policy stating that anyone caught reporting on conditions will be immediately fired was recently imposed. Evidently it's not working.

Good times.
 

brian64

Lifer
Jan 31, 2011
9,602
14,666
This is the way of the world now. Opinions confused as facts. Not to single you out or this particular opinion. There must be historians out there who can tell us when we started believing our own BS. These billionaires certainly are confusing the two. Over-confident in our own convoluted inner dialogue.
There's nothing confused or convoluted about it. I'm perfectly capable of distinguishing between things that are certain and things that are likely. There is much in this world we cannot know absolutely...but just as in legal terms, there are different standards of "proof"...there is beyond a reasonable doubt, and there is the "weight of the evidence". I believe what I stated meets the latter at minimum.

And I absolutely stand by what I said in exactly the way I said it...it's an opinion and was stated as such...but it's not baseless...it is absolutely an informed opinion. If yours differs, I couldn't care less...but had you had stated it as an opinion I would simply accept it as such...but you stated it as though you consider your comments facts...they are not, they are only your opinions. Perhaps it's you who is convoluted and confused.
 

Zeno Marx

Starting to Get Obsessed
Oct 10, 2022
238
1,264
There's nothing confused or convoluted about it. I'm perfectly capable of distinguishing between things that are certain and things that are likely. There is much in this world we cannot know absolutely...but just as in legal terms, there are different standards of "proof"...there is beyond a reasonable doubt, and there is the "weight of the evidence". I believe what I stated meets the latter at minimum.

And I absolutely stand by what I said in exactly the way I said it...it's an opinion and was stated as such...but it's not baseless...it is absolutely an informed opinion. If yours differs, I couldn't care less...but had you had stated it as an opinion I would simply accept it as such...but you stated it as though you consider your comments facts...they are not, they are only your opinions. Perhaps it's you who is convoluted and confused.
You'll please notice two things about my response to you: 1) I specifically said "not to single you out" 2) I used the pronoun "our" to further that and to include myself and the culture in which I also contribute.
 

briarbuck

Lifer
Nov 24, 2015
2,287
5,492
It certainly is getting grim to be working there.

Twitter is stiffing its landlords in San Francisco and supposedly Seattle, has closed down one of its data centers, which may have created the recent temporary black out, reduced infrastructure to handle the message load, laid off more people, hired some staff without giving them sufficient training by cutting the 3 day orientation to 90 minutes, killed a couple more departments, consolidated remaining SF staff to two floors, and fired all of the janitorial staff because they wanted a raise.

Reports of a mixture of body odor and, um, bathroom related smells wafting through the bullpens are being reported by staff, who also have to bring their own toilet paper if they don't want to use their hands. A new policy stating that anyone caught reporting on conditions will be immediately fired was recently imposed. Evidently it's not working.

Good times.
I am sure that's accurate reporting....not. He should move Twitter to Florida and away from Crazyland.
 

sablebrush52

The Bard Of Barlings
Jun 15, 2013
19,621
44,831
Southern Oregon
jrs457.wixsite.com
Most of ignorance doesn’t come from authoritarianism or stupidity, nor even from the fears and prejudices of hidebound reactionaries or wild radicals.

A man smart enough to amass a 250 billion dollar net worth chose to squander 40 billion of it on a social media platform.


Fox Business

The Tesla chief executive sold 22 million shares worth $3.58 billion in the electric-vehicle maker, according to a regulatory filing.

The sales took place between Monday and Wednesday this week.

Musk has sold over $40 billion worth of shares in the past year, surrounded around his acquisition of Twitter.

—-

He could have bought a lot of the Las Vegas strip for 40 billion dollars.

I wonder what the folks he gave that money to, have done with their good fortune?
When one amasses that kind of money it forms a distortion field, Musk looked at Twitter as akin to a fun toy he could play with according to his emails on the subject, which were released a week ago. Think your online communications are private? Think again.

This reminds me of another story about a titan of industry: