and that he identifies with one "side" over another and sees the other as some sort of an enemy says it all.
Nobody can serve as a successful moderator of a community with that dynamic going on, and he'll have an enormously tough time ahead trying to forge anything like a functional Twitter if he carries on like that (which he will, because I don't think he's capable of changing). Any successor will also face a huge task because Musk's poisoned the well.
With the majority of Twitter's active users seemingly utterly fed up (or worse) with Musk and paid blue-tickers rapidly gaining pariah status and being blocked by some on sight, it's not exactly a well thought out recruitment campaign for the paying customers he's fixated on getting.
Divisions obviously exist on Twitter, always have. But they're not as simple as that bipolar framing.
Musk pissed off a number of users he'd probably assume to be on his "side" with that stupid and shortlived scheme to ban outlinks to rival platforms. Opposition came from all quarters - and that's what you'd expect given the libertarian populist rhetoric he's been spouting.
It's like his commitment to free speech - the more you pay, the freer it is, unless he takes something you post personally, in which case you'll be forced to go take your speech elsewhere and be free with it.
It's been fun watching him trying to rationalize his decisive defeat in the poll about whether he should quit as CEO or not. Kim Dotcom (yes, he's still around) insisted it was down to liberal bot activity, and pointed out that Musk now had data from the poll to identify those bots and eliminate them. Musk's response was the reply "Interesting."
This on a platform where he was gloating a few weeks ago at having conquered the bot problem, posting a GIF of him gurning and gesticulating over a bot grave!
What he did when he posted that poll was fire the starting pistol for a competition between those who wanted him to remain as CEO and those who didn't. Both sides of opinion had access to similar tools to spread the word and mobilize votes. It just so happens that one side is more numerous on Twitter and has better networks (including DU). If the result came as a surprise to him, then he should take it as a wake up call. His reaction since doesn't convince me that the poll was a clever ruse to let him back away from Twitter gracefully. He's moaning that nobody who could fulfil the role wants to take it on. He's trapped himself, with nobody involved in any of his three main businesses happy with what he's doing, and like quicksand, the more he struggles at the moment, the more trapped he becomes.
So now you have his acolytes wandering around Twitter moaning after the event that they didn't know about the poll, that 12 hours was too short for it to run, that it was held at the wrong time of day on the wrong day of the week, etc. etc. Some have even been driven to frame the poll as a brilliant trap set by Musk to weed out users who're disloyal to him! Whether that means they think he's going to kick off those millions who voted to fire him, I've no idea, but some of them are crazy enough.
Most of Musk's angst at the moment seems to be to do with money (despite the fact he's a nominal multibillionaire), and more notably, Twitter's looming bankruptcy, which he's discussed openly with some on Twitter itself. It's almost like he has no pals or trusted peers to turn to in his everyday life.
It's incredible, but less and less surprising as we watch him flailing in action, that he didn't realize from the start that Twitter's been very good for many things over the years. It's just that making money hasn't been one of them.
= new reply since forum marked as read