What is Elon Musk up to now..

[Irrev-Black]

Never shook the apartheid germs off, did he?

Evan Smith
@evansmithhist
There’s something about this white South African playing out settler colonial fantasies in Texas - a desire to present an image of whiteness, masculinity and ‘defender’ of the frontier.

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10:56 AM · Sep 29, 2023

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/elon-m ... 023-09-29/

[Irrev-Black]

For an immigrant, Musk has intensely nasty attitude to immigrants.

https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-mu ... r-x-2023-9

[Irrev-Black]

This article claims Musk never turned right, and what he did to birdsite was quite predictable.

Elon has probably harbored far-right views his whole life. The Atlantic recently showcased part of the new Musk biography, specifically focused on the billionaire’s grandfather: Joshua Haldeman. And let’s just say that grandpa had some strong, vile views. The article lays it out:

“An examination of Joshua Haldeman’s writings reveals a radical conspiracy theorist who expressed racist, anti-Semitic, and antidemocratic views repeatedly, and over the course of decades—a record I studied across hundreds of documents from the time, including newspaper clips, self-published manuscripts, university archives, and private correspondence. Haldeman believed that apartheid South Africa was destined to lead “White Christian Civilization” in its fight against the “International Conspiracy” of Jewish bankers and the “hordes of Coloured people” they controlled.”

While this might not be exactly shocking, given Musk’s recent statements and his identity as a wealthy white South African, the idea that he was influenced by someone who moved all the way from Canada to South Africa expressly because of his supremacist beliefs makes everything a bit less surprising. And it makes the possibility of a premeditated fascist shift after the purchase of Twitter seem well within the realm of possibility.

https://open.substack.com/pub/newmeans/ ... ed-fascism

[stevebrooks]

It seems as long as he keeps his nose far enough away it's amazing what almost unlimited money can achieve! I wonder of it was his personal intervention that saw the first Starship try and launch on a launch pad the was entirely unsuitable for it, I am sure the engineers could have worked that out, if they were allowed to.

[stylofone]

Admittedly I only briefly perused it, but that entire youtube channel seems to be devoted to slavish worship of Musk, as if he's Kim Jong Un, and SpaceX as if it's North Korea. It also looks like a source of attack videos against US space regulators (FAA). The comments contain frequent Libertarian ejaculations about how the government fucks everything up, and the private sector is the way to REALLY make progress.

[Irrev-Black]

Entwittified Shitter, oops, enshittified Twitter, not worth as much as it owes?

Despite Musk’s big pronouncements about pushing into subscriptions, X has historically relied on advertising, which contributed over 90% of revenue when it was a public company. But that business is spiraling, and the platform’s shifting policies could threaten more branding deals. In July, Musk posted that cash flow was negative because of a 50% drop in advertising sales.

The apparent strategic disconnect between the company’s ad-focused chief executive and its subscription-hungry owner comes as valuations are falling. TikTok parent ByteDance was recently valued at $224 billion, down by about a quarter from a year ago, the Information reported. Disappearing messaging app Snap’s market value has slumped by more than 10% over the past year.

Put it all together, and X isn’t just worth less than Musk paid for it, but likely less than its debt. Assume that the company’s revenue last year was $4.7 billion, based on results before it was taken private. If advertising has dropped by half, then this year’s sales should be a bit over $2.5 billion. Put that on the same enterprise-value-to-sales multiple as Snap, which is down to a mere 3 times, and X is worth around $8 billion.

https://www.breakingviews.com/considere ... -of-value/

[wadaye]

If he just adds a handle to each corner of the X all pointing in the same direction ...

[stevebrooks]

Admittedly I only briefly perused it, but that entire youtube channel seems to be devoted to slavish worship of Musk, as if he's Kim Jong Un, and SpaceX as if it's North Korea. It also looks like a source of attack videos against US space regulators (FAA). The comments contain frequent Libertarian ejaculations about how the government fucks everything up, and the private sector is the way to REALLY make progress.

Oh yeah I didn't look past the first video, just the fact it was interesting in the data it contained about the number of launches and the re-usability of the boosters. This is what unlimited money can achieve, the fact that it is financed by a nutter is a pity, if only a sane human being had control, I have heard that a lot of hard work goes into the task of just keeping Musk's attention elsewhere, distract him with shiny's basically and hope he doesn't get involved to much and just keeps giving us money. They are fortunate Twitter came along and acted as the ultimate shiny toy he could play with!

[stylofone]

In the age of misinformation, when you want some suggestions for reliable sources, Elon Musk is your man... to avoid.

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[Irrev-Black]

Musk gets mail.