A full account of the complexity and absurdity of the Musk takeover would be an impossibly long story to tell, but for all of the high-minded rhetoric of his desire for ‘free speech absolutism’, the main result of his actions
ever it is measured, the loss in his net worth over the past year has been vast: possibly as much as US$200 billion at the time of writing. The Twitter saga and the coverage surrounding it has also proven catastrophic for his repu- tation away from the platform; in early
Titanic – a mix of action, panic and then shocked acceptance. As yet, grand plans for a ‘common digital town square’ have not come to fruition, any more than they had before Musk’s involve- ment in Twitter. But perhaps in other ways he has achieved a portion of his goal: the media hasn’t stopped talking about him, he has drawn in plenty of new supporters willing to fight his corner, and his influence is now bigger than ever. Intentionally or otherwise, he has achieved what might go down in history as the most expensive and spoken-about internet prank ever conceived. Musk is well known for his histrionic behaviour; his accounts have been among the most popular on the platform for years. It is not hard to understand why this is the case: there is an undeniable en- tertainment factor in the image of a middle-aged, exponentially wealthy futurist who spends a great deal of time posting memes or stream-of-con- sciousness remarks on social media. Perhaps Musk has misinterpreted this ironic popularity, perhaps not. What can be seen in his online behaviour is the attempt to present himself in the mould of the pro- verbial ‘great man’. This is an idea which has per- meated history: the notion of an extraordinary man whose visionary gifts allow him to lead humanity into a brighter future. While I believe that Musk’s desire to solve the negative effects of social media is a worthy goal, I struggle to believe that complex solutions will be achieved through the blunt force of an all-knowing and self-appointed ‘great man’, certainly not one who posts ‘goblin mode’ Breaking Bad memes as an attempt to justify the destabi- lising corporate policy predictions he may or may not enact, or, more worryingly, one who spreads false January 6 conspiracy theories to his audi- ence of hundreds of millions. And Musk is not the only ‘great man’ in our midst. Last year there were plenty of other examples of abject failure or worse driven by the super-wealthy male ego, from Putin’s impulsive and unsuccessful invasion to Mark Zuck- erberg’s laughably unappealing Metaverse. Perhaps it’s time to bury this idea that ‘great men’ can drive the world in a better direction, and in- deed, that they should even try. ◎
in the past year has been to cause controversy. He boasted of the platform reaching a record num- ber of active users in the months following the take- over, yet arguably lacked the self-awareness to see what they were truly there for – the spectacle. Instead of driving forward the
December he was round- ly booed by much of the stadium crowd in a surprise appearance at a show held by comedian Dave Chap- pelle. Chappelle’s dry re- mark that the people booing were those who were in the ‘terrible seats’ and Musk’s clamour of ‘I’m rich b****!’
For better or for worse, any wealthy or famous individual can now hop online and spout their beliefs directly into the ears of millions of followers worldwide
thoughtful exchange of views, Musk fuels hot-blooded reactions, polarisation and chaos. There was a day last November when it seemed as though Twitter might break down completely; it felt slightly like the final hours of the
only served to increase the crowd’s hostility. Videos of the incident were repeatedly removed from Twitter in the aftermath, and the event was one of many embarrassing public low points for the billionaire.
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THE ALLEYNIAN 711
OPINION, INTERVIEWS & FEATURES
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