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After considering it for a bit, my opinion is that it's mostly a political ploy; if he buys it, he'll bring back Trump et. all, expecting that once the GOP is b

After considering it for a bit, my opinion is that it's mostly a political ploy; if he buys it, he'll bring back Trump et. all, expecting that once the GOP is back in power, they'll make any trouble he may be expecting with the SEC and the National Labor Relations Board go away I think there are probably other factors at play too. His ego, of course. And also the general desire, also evident among VCs like Andreesen, to discipline the Silicon Valley workforce and remind the uppity code-monkeys who's really in charge.

FFRefresh 4y ago
It's really fascinating seeing all the conspiracy theorizing going on with this offer. You have a number of really creative threads going on here. To step through this... So we have someone with a net worth near 300 billion dollars that is going to go through all this trouble to: -Unblock one user -Which will then trigger an American political party to like him -This political party will then make it less likely the SEC will bother him, potentially saving him tens of millions of dollars (or 0.01% of his current net worth) in some hypothetical scenario What a theory! This same political party and twitter user was in power when the SEC fined him+Tesla $40 million in 2018. How do you make sense of that with your theory? If politics was his main driver, why wouldn't he just use his wealth to directly incentivize politicians?
- browserman 4y ago
  I don't think it's a straight quid pro quo or that he's on a secret Signal chat with Trump or anything. Just part of a broad alignment of the tech oligarchy with the Republican Party on anti-labor and anti-regulation lines.
  - FFRefresh 4y ago
    Again, why would Elon Musk, with net worth near 300 billion dollars, go through all this trouble to maybe save 0.01% of his net worth in fines in some hypothetical scenario? The ROI seems absolutely terrible for that theory. And why when Trump and the Republican party was in power in 2018, did they allow Musk+Tesla to be fined if there is such a tight relationship along 'anti-regulation' lines between the SEC and the President/political party in power? And again, if he cares about political influence, why go through all this trouble and why not just directly incentivize politicians?
    - browserman 4y ago
      I think 2018 is exactly the kind of thing he is trying to avoid; I think you are underestimating the impact vigorous enforcement of labor and securities laws would have on his business prospects. Elon and his companies of course also spend quite a lot of money on campaign donations, lobbying, and political activity. I think this is probably only one factor at play here, and who really knows to what degree, but it's certainly more of a factor than marketing pablum about Elon being a futurist deeply concerned with the optimal future of humanity or whatever.
      - FFRefresh 4y ago
        None of my questions have been addressed, so I'm guessing you are pretty deep into your theory. I do wonder whether there is any piece of evidence or logical thinking through probabilities/incentives that would alter your theory of "Elon Musk buys Twitter to curry favor from Trump & the Republican party"? Would the fact that Tesla mostly just donates to Democrats alter anything [1]? Or that Elon Musk makes more personal donations to Democratic politicians [2]? I'm guessing not. I'm guessing you'll ignore this and see that he and his companies donated some money to Republicans (even though he gives more to Democrats) and that therefore means he's a diehard Republican who is driven to look out for the party. Have a nice day! [1] https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/totals?cycle=A&id=D000057516 https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/totals?cycle=A&id=D00005751... [2] https://www.opensecrets.org/donor-lookup/results?name=elon+musk&order=desc&sort=A https://www.opensecrets.org/donor-lookup/results?name=elon+m...
        browserman 4y ago
        That he also donates to Democrats does not seem at all fatal to my speculation, as many avowedly right-wing (in the economic sense), anti-labor, anti-regulation businessmen donate freely to both parties. You seem to have some very confused notions about U.S. politics and political economy more generally.
        FFRefresh 4y ago

FFRefresh 4y ago

It's really fascinating seeing all the conspiracy theorizing going on with this offer. You have a number of really creative threads going on here. To step through this... So we have someone with a net worth near 300 billion dollars that is going to go through all this trouble to: -Unblock one user -Which will then trigger an American political party to like him -This political party will then make it less likely the SEC will bother him, potentially saving him tens of millions of dollars (or 0.01% of his current net worth) in some hypothetical scenario What a theory! This same political party and twitter user was in power when the SEC fined him+Tesla $40 million in 2018. How do you make sense of that with your theory? If politics was his main driver, why wouldn't he just use his wealth to directly incentivize politicians?

browserman 4y ago
I don't think it's a straight quid pro quo or that he's on a secret Signal chat with Trump or anything. Just part of a broad alignment of the tech oligarchy with the Republican Party on anti-labor and anti-regulation lines.
- FFRefresh 4y ago
  Again, why would Elon Musk, with net worth near 300 billion dollars, go through all this trouble to maybe save 0.01% of his net worth in fines in some hypothetical scenario? The ROI seems absolutely terrible for that theory. And why when Trump and the Republican party was in power in 2018, did they allow Musk+Tesla to be fined if there is such a tight relationship along 'anti-regulation' lines between the SEC and the President/political party in power? And again, if he cares about political influence, why go through all this trouble and why not just directly incentivize politicians?
  - browserman 4y ago
    I think 2018 is exactly the kind of thing he is trying to avoid; I think you are underestimating the impact vigorous enforcement of labor and securities laws would have on his business prospects. Elon and his companies of course also spend quite a lot of money on campaign donations, lobbying, and political activity. I think this is probably only one factor at play here, and who really knows to what degree, but it's certainly more of a factor than marketing pablum about Elon being a futurist deeply concerned with the optimal future of humanity or whatever.
    - FFRefresh 4y ago
      None of my questions have been addressed, so I'm guessing you are pretty deep into your theory. I do wonder whether there is any piece of evidence or logical thinking through probabilities/incentives that would alter your theory of "Elon Musk buys Twitter to curry favor from Trump & the Republican party"? Would the fact that Tesla mostly just donates to Democrats alter anything [1]? Or that Elon Musk makes more personal donations to Democratic politicians [2]? I'm guessing not. I'm guessing you'll ignore this and see that he and his companies donated some money to Republicans (even though he gives more to Democrats) and that therefore means he's a diehard Republican who is driven to look out for the party. Have a nice day! [1] https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/totals?cycle=A&id=D000057516 https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/totals?cycle=A&id=D00005751... [2] https://www.opensecrets.org/donor-lookup/results?name=elon+musk&order=desc&sort=A https://www.opensecrets.org/donor-lookup/results?name=elon+m...
      - browserman 4y ago
        That he also donates to Democrats does not seem at all fatal to my speculation, as many avowedly right-wing (in the economic sense), anti-labor, anti-regulation businessmen donate freely to both parties. You seem to have some very confused notions about U.S. politics and political economy more generally.
        FFRefresh 4y ago