Tag: Elon Musk
Trump’s Favorite Oligarch Gets Even Richer
$353 billion
Elon Musk’s net worth is now estimated at $353 billion, up $91 billion over the last month, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Musk’s Wealth Hits Record $348 Billion
$348 billion
“Elon Musk’s net worth hit an all-time high of $347.8 billion on Friday, driven by Tesla Inc.’s ongoing stock rally and a new funding round valuing his artificial intelligence startup xAI at $50 billion,” Bloomberg reports. “Musk’s numerous businesses have been surging in value since Donald Trump’s election victory propelled Musk, the so-called ‘first buddy,’ into the political spotlight.”
Musk Is Poisoning the Minds of X Users
1.2 billion
NBC News: “False or misleading claims about the U.S. election that Elon Musk has posted to X this year have generated nearly 1.2 billion views, according to an analysis published Thursday by the nonprofit Center for Countering Digital Hate.”
Musk to Donate $45 Million a Month to Trump
$45 million
“Elon Musk has said he plans to commit around $45 million a month to a new super political-action committee backing former President Donald Trump’s presidential run,” the Wall Street Journal reports. “Formed in June, America PAC is focused on registering voters and persuading constituents to vote early and request mail-in ballots in swing states.”
We’re Guessing Musk Means Facebook
“The sad truth is that there are no great ‘social networks’ right now. We may fail, as so many have predicted, but we will try our best to make there be at least one.”
— Elon Musk, on X.
The Atlantic: Twitter Is a Far-Right Social Network
The Atlantic: “As a public figure, [Twitter owner Elon Musk] has demonstrated an unwavering commitment to the right’s culture war against progressivism—which he refers to as “the woke mind virus”—and his $44 billion Twitter purchase can easily be seen as an explicitly political act to advance this specific ideology. Now the site itself has unquestionably transformed under his leadership into an alternative social-media platform—one that offers a haven to far-right influencers and advances the interests, prejudices, and conspiracy theories of the right wing of American politics…
“Twitter is essentially following the playbook of platforms like Rumble, which used to be the go-tos for canceled and deplatformed right-wingers seeking a soft landing and the promise of revenue. Like Rumble, which pivoted from a struggling YouTube alternative into a full-fledged far-right platform in the late 2010s, Twitter appears to be dipping into the well of popular right-wing shock jocks as a way to revive the financially adrift website…
“If Musk weren’t too preoccupied lapping up approval from trolls, reactionaries, and Dogecoin enthusiasts—a few of the constituencies left on his site that still seem to adore him—the Parler statement should worry him. Right-wing alt-tech platforms may attract investors and a flood of indignant new users with persecution complexes, but they are, ultimately, bad businesses.”
Musk’s Twitter has Become Just another Far-Right Website
“Twitter has long been described, even by its most ardent users, as a hellsite. But under Elon Musk, Twitter has evolved into a platform that is indistinguishable from the wastelands of alternative social-media sites such as Truth Social and Parler. It is now a right-wing social network.”
— Charlie Warzel
Sick of Politics? Take a Quick Quiz!
The New Republic (not necessarily known for its sense of humor) has published a pretty fun quiz that poses the question, “Who Said It: Elon Musk or Mr. Burns?”
The quiz offers a series of quotes and you have to choose whether the snarky, obnoxious or cruel comment was made by Twitter’s new owner (whom Keith Olbermann calls “Elmo Muskrat”) or the reliably horrid businessman character from “The Simpsons.”
It’s entertaining, but it’s not easy. I missed two and scored an 83%.
