La Mauvaise Herbe janvier 2023
I have been thinking about Elon Musk, which is probably the case with anyone who follows the news. I didn’t pay much attention to him until recently, when it was rumoured he wanted to buy Twitter. I don’t have a Twitter account and my only contact is through comments or videos which sometimes follow articles I receive in my news feed. But this alone underlines Twitter’s importance: it has become a go-to place for powerful people.
Articles about Musk would often include a photo and looking at them is instructive. He always seems to be striking a pose, projecting an image. But what he reveals is not what he would like. The adolescent smirk. The sneer. The gloating “look at how wonderful I am” that inspires people to hate him. Class hatred.
Of course what turns many off is what turns others on. The projection of power. The raw odour of money.
I wonder how his admirers believe they relate to him, the psychology at play. Do they think his money and power somehow rub off on them?
He has been compared to Donald Trump, an interesting comparison. Trump is a narcissist and a sociopath who is said not to have feelings for anyone except himself. And that’s the mystery: how did such a mediocre individual build a cult? How does he bond?
Like Trump, Musk is taking up a lot of space. Which is understandable. Beyond their preening, both are news. Every day seems to bring a new twist to the Musk saga. On the one hand there are his antics. On another the importance of what is happening, his unilateral ownership and control of a major media. He recently ignited a firestorm by briefly banning a number of mainstream journalists, a sure fire way of attracting attention! And enmity.
The rules at Twitter have become the moods of the boss. Changes are imposed by a tweet from Musk and frequently rescinded when the change backfires.
An amusing outburst of schadenfreude occurred at a San Francisco comedy club (Twitter is headquartered in San Francisco) when Must appeared unannounced during one of the acts. A veritable hatefest ensued and Musk was booed for ten minutes. “Sounds like some of the people you fired are in the audience,” quipped comedian Dave Chapelle. Musk looked stunned, one account described.
“Controversy, buddy,” Chapelle commented.
“What should I say,” Musk asked, unable to respond.
Having tried to back out of buying Twitter, a transaction which makes little sense financially because of the debt load he’s taken on, Musk implemented brutal job cuts and created harsh working conditions that caused many others to quit.
He has recommended voting for the Republican Party and has opened the floodgates, letting in nazis, homophobes, transphobes and misogynists, conspiracy theorists and assorted crackpots and scumbags who have other places to hang out on the internet.
One unusual aspect is Musk’s selective use of polls, in a context where workers who criticize him are typically fired. It has been pointed out that these occasional polls are often geared to affirm a predetermined response, such as letting Trump back on, or the thumbs down on his role as CEO, having announced from the outset that he would be looking for someone else. A blow to the ego just the same!
A central question of course is how Musk got his hands on Twitter in the first place. As has been noted, he did it because he could. A rich man’s whim. He had amassed enough billions and was able to convince financial institutions and people with bucks to back him. That he had been able to amass so many billions demonstrates distortions whereby money is sucked up toward the top one percent. Ironically, his personal fortune has recently precipitously declined, in part because in 2022 the value of Tesla stock fell 65%. Worth a staggering 340 billion in November 2021, he is down to (only…) 137 billion. He may not be a better businessman than Trump!
Even with a new CEO, Twitter will still ultimately be controlled by one person, a example of the concentration of power in the digital media in few hands.
But beyond whatever communication takes place through Twitter, Facebook etc., lies an alienation, an impoverishment. Digital bubbles have replaced face to face communication. It feels safer in the bubble, where you can take on the personnage you wish.
At the same time, creating the gadgets and infrastructure necessary to run the digital universe continues to contribute to the destruction of the planet.
On many levels, Musk is the incarnation our current dilemma.