My inside sources tell me the complex deal had many moving parts.
Here are a couple: The Cleveland Browns sent disgruntled quarterback Baker Mayfield to Russia; and Warren Buffet donated a trillion dollars to the Gates Foundation, which promptly purchased 200 million shares of Berkshire Hathaway, Buffet’s company, thus driving up the price of the stock for Warren.
But basically---Elon Musk now owns planet Earth.
Twitter users can now say they support Trump, without fear of reprisal.
Our problems have gone away.
Of course, there is an easier solution---and nobody has to pay a dime. Ignore Twitter, and ignore those who talk about how many people are lining up on Twitter to support or shout down somebody.
Don’t assume Twitter is the “public square.”
However, people don’t seem to want this solution. They believe the news and the voice of the people should be articulated in tweets.
It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that belief is a direct consequence of a) the illiterate education system and b) television news, which reduces issues to 30-second chunks.
Twitter had to happen.
Contrast it with this, from a time before television, before schoolteachers stopped reading and started attending Zoom conferences on non-binary genitals:
Consider the 1858 Abraham Lincoln-Stephen Douglas face-off. The two men were running for a US Senate seat in Illinois.
The issue in the debates was slavery, so the interest was intense and it was national. Here was the agreed-upon format: seven debates in seven Illinois towns over the course of three weeks; in each debate, the opening candidate would speak for 60 minutes, his opponent would speak for 90 minutes, and then the first candidate would return for 30 minutes.
The debates drew large crowds. Chicago newspapers had stenographers in each town. The stenos took down every word, and newspapers across the nation printed, in full, the texts.
Those were debates. No host with sprayed hair was present asking questions. The men talked. And talked.
If you could transport a current presidential debate back in time to one of those Illinois towns, the audience would conclude, in short order, that the candidates were insane, possibly suffering from brain damage.
“These people are running for…what did you say? President??!!?? You’re joking. This a joke, yes?”
I’d really like to see a current presidential candidate take the podium and speak coherently for 90 minutes about a single issue. You’d have to have support teams standing by to administer oxygen and possibly methamphetamines, just to keep him upright.
We’re talking about a candidate staying on point, on one topic.
As opposed to: “I remember my grandmother telling me, when I was nine, you can do it, you can be anything you want to be. I remember Mrs. Gallbladder, my third-grade teacher, spending time with me when I---people say we should have a balanced budget, but they just don’t understand how economics---a single purpose for all of us in this great---I care about each and every---there weren’t any emails, well there were but none of them--- attacking terrorists by insulting them isn’t---equality isn’t just for---this isn’t the first time a woman has tried to win the Presidency but—“
Goo and more goo running everywhere.
How about Donald Trump and Joe Biden, in the Lincoln-Douglas format, debating the issue: “Describe a workable COVID policy for America.” As their seven events turn into a Niagara of opposing non-sequiturs and self-inflating jive, it’s on parade for all to see.
---So now we have Twitter employees screaming and howling and weeping and making appointments with psychiatrists, because Elon Musk bought 10% of the company---whose sole product is tweets.
And the behavior of these employees is considered understandable.
-- Jon Rappoport
Jon also writes at NoMoreFakeNews.com and OutsideTheRealityMachnine.com
Once again, you hit the proverbial nail on its glaring head and killed it.
I like your writing, and the fact you are writing it feels important like the sweet taste of rationed Chocolate.