I find more issues with billionaires who aren’t self made than those who are. But generally, I don’t take issues with someone being wildly successful. I’m not going to demonize someone who is growing their business. I think what gets under people’s skin about Musk is that he is indeed doing what he wants rather than following others. He’s unafraid to be cancelled etc.
3 Likes
Hmm. IMO, he’s a person who likes tech and the instantaneousness of something like Twitter. Not sure if he’d go for FB. My wild guess is that he would build his own thing.
Technology isn’t rocket science and people are ready for new tech. There are ways to make a new service the next best thing. Remember myspace? Sometimes it’s easier to build something new based on what is current thinking and lessons learned. He has his hand on what’s innovative.
FB would be a wild move, however.
Well he offered $54 in cash and it’s at $45. If the market thought it would happen, it’d have jumped to $53. If there was thought that others like Facebook might jump in, it’d go over $54.
So the markets think it’s just an pr stunt. Time will tell.
2 Likes
The cynic in me thinks that the “free speech” Mr. Musk is so concerned about is not about democracy or whatever… it is about having a podium to fight with the SEC and manipulate the markets.
13 Likes
what power do you see Elon wielding?
(Twitter is a publicly-traded company, and if someone or something – other corporation – wants to take it over, that’s the risk when they took it public.)
More likely, he want to move the company to Texas
Funny, I thought he’d run this latest scam a little longer:
But hours after he made the $43 billion takeover offer, Musk said he was not sure he would be able to buy Twitter after all. Musk made the comments at the TED2022 conference in Vancouver.
2 Likes
“And the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate”
- Taylor Swift
4 Likes
He’s wielding the power of enormous, staggering wealth. His version of free speech is attacking anyone who tries to disagree with him. He’s a foul human being.
9 Likes
Separate the man from the mission. I wouldn’t want to hang out with Elon, and he wouldn’t want to hang out with me. But his free speech mission is important and valid. Free speech is often not appreciated until it is taken away.
6 Likes
It’s adorable anyone thinks this has anything to do with free speech. It’s about power and money. And an entirely un-self-made man.
14 Likes
No one is self-made.
The problem most people have with Musk is that he’s brash, outspoken, and rich beyond any measure. But with that he’s accomplished many things others could not:
Tesla has done what the incumbent car manufacturers could not (or would not) do.
SpaceX has done what NASA has never been able to do.
It’s OK to dislike Musk. I don’t think he minds…
5 Likes
Forbes gives him a score of 8, based on the scoring system described at The Forbes 400 Self-Made Score: From Silver Spooners To Bootstrappers
8 seems to correspond to an advantaged background, but did not rely on some large inheritance, gift, etc. to start getting to where they are.
1 Like
In that case we need many more of these type individuals - bringing new, innovative products to market, challenging tech to venture into space, employing more that 100,000, and having a sense of humor. We need many more of these, not fewer. IMO.
5 Likes
Most people do think I’m adorable IRL. 
2 Likes
Free speech protection applies to the US and State governments. Not to non-governmental actors like Twitter.
ETA:
Like school boards and municipalities banning books? Yup, I sure don’t appreciate that.
By contrast, Twitter is a private/non-governmental organization. It can set its own rules.
3 Likes
And a WHOLE lot of help from the US government in subsidizing Tesla with its sale of carbon credits which is the real money-maker for Tesla:
2 Likes
Business, business, business…
My first question to determine if someone is self made would be? How many products, jobs or services have you created?
People are jealous/unhinged/ and aggravated by Musk. He likes that. They like to attack billionaires. He likes to push back on lots of things. They can’t see that he’s baiting them. He’s bringing the popcorn then standing back to watch.
2 Likes
Not when it’s the public square. There’s lots out there regarding case law. You can’t do anything you like with regard to speech in a private business. Laws still apply. So many examples of free speech out there. Some recent some old. Many in private businesses. This idea that private businesses can do whatever they want isn’t law.