Musk’s acquisition has been greater than slightly crazy-making on a platform the place many customers’ leader obsession is the web page itself. The textual content field of Twitter nonetheless activates each and every consumer with “What’s taking place?” What’s taking place, invariably, is that they’re having a look at Twitter. This straightforward truth accounts for in all probability 99 p.c of the acrimony on there, which is never about occasions within the outdoor global and steadily in regards to the content material of alternative tweets. Almost about everybody who makes use of Twitter feels that he’s being wronged through it come what may, however he can’t prevent having a look. And one of the vital perverse information about it’s that the extra energy and fans one accumulates, the extra one dangers turning into held forth for example of all that’s improper on the planet — none extra so than the winner of all of the sport of world capitalism. No marvel Musk thinks there’s nonetheless worth to be unlocked: He loves the web page, even if his revel in with it’s possibly terrible.
And since Musk is the only wealthiest particular person on this planet, it’s simple for plenty of to imagine that the deal isn’t a few want to refurbish and renew “the virtual the town sq.” however one thing extra nefarious or silly. Some — together with the second one wealthiest guy on this planet, Jeff Bezos — have speculated that Tesla’s publicity to the Chinese language marketplace will if truth be told make it extra prone to censorship underneath Musk’s possession. Others have fretted about his now proudly owning reporters’ D.M.s; some assume that’s hilarious. There are some who concern that he’s going to carry again former President Donald Trump, every other billionaire energy consumer of the platform; quite a few others to find that concept exhilarating. He’s mentioned a want to rein in bot accounts, which most certainly appear to be a larger drawback to you if in case you have 85.4 million fans and tweet about crypto and inventory costs and the numbers 420 and 69. On Monday, other folks saved posting unflattering footage of him — from his PayPal days, or status subsequent to Ghislaine Maxwell — joking it’ll be the ultimate day they are able to escape with it.
And that is what’s so unsettling about his acquisition: the robust sense that — even at its maximum anodyne — it’s an act of self-importance, a way of bettering the non-public revel in of 1 consumer of the agora. And there’s one thing to it. Musk oozes with a desperation to be considered humorous, an ailment no sum of money can repair and in all probability his maximum relatable high quality. His day trip on “Saturday Night time Reside” was once borderline painful to observe, even through recent “S.N.L.” requirements — specifically his monologue, which was once stuffed with interesting be-nice-to-me protection mechanisms: a press release that he was once the primary host with Asperger’s syndrome; an look through his mom, who hugged him and instructed him she beloved him; and a declaration of his imaginative and prescient for the longer term: “I imagine in a renewable-energy long run; I imagine that humanity should change into a multiplanetary, spacefaring civilization.”
He paused after that section: “The ones appear to be thrilling targets, don’t they? Now I believe if I simply posted that on Twitter, I’d be wonderful. However I additionally write such things as ‘69 days after 4/20 once more haha’ ” — a real submit from June 28, 2020, which was once certainly 69 days after April 20 — “I don’t know, I assumed it was once humorous. That’s why I wrote ‘haha’ on the finish. Glance, I do know I every now and then say or submit bizarre issues, however that’s simply how my mind works. To any individual I’ve angry, I simply wish to say: I reinvented electrical vehicles and I’m sending other folks to Mars in a rocket send. Did you assume I used to be additionally going to be a relax, standard dude?”
By no means sooner than has the Twitter-user mentality been so smartly summarized: I do know you won’t like my jokes, however what you need to perceive is that I’m in truth cool. The capital markets have rewarded Musk richly for all of that; Twitter, house of the guillotine meme, has no longer — or no less than no longer uniformly. However as a result of the previous, any frustration Musk could have with the latter can doubtlessly reshape the nearest factor we need to a virtual the town sq.. It’s no longer transparent that there’s the rest to mourn on this converting of the guard, apart from in all probability for the truth that it will probably occur in any respect.
