I actually think Elon’s not doing a terrible job with Twitter – this isn’t some master plan, no, but we’re getting an effective reset of the employee base and the site culture; it might fail whale for a while but the user base is being reminded that however it is, they need it, and brand loyalty will carry through to relaunch if it’s down for less than a full year

The real issue was that it created a groupthink so strong it captured parts of its own structure – advertisers, staff, finance – and I think whether consciously or not, the people talking about how it would fall apart were trying to speak that into existence.

Musk is really the only figure out there with deep enough pockets, including established personal relationships with funders – like, whatever Anil fucking Dash says wouldn’t come into it, and where would he even say it? – to tank the hit and power through

Also like, breaking that capture will have ripple effects on the tech economy and even national and world cultures – the groupthink was hostile to capital in significant ways – that Huge Capital might find worth the expense in its own right