Twitter destroyed Musk’s reputation for half the country, says ‘Breaking Twitter’ author

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Author Ben Mezrich joins Morning Joe to discuss his new book ‘Breaking Twitter: Elon Musk and the Most Controversial Corporate Takeover in History’.

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Twitter destroyed Musk’s reputation for half the country, says ‘Breaking Twitter’ author

#ElonMusk #X #Twitter

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38Comments

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  1. 1
    @AnyoneCanSee

    I think he is very like Elizabeth Holmes. Notice it's "he is going to" do these things. He has been claiming self-driving for ten years. He is lying.
    I will say this though. I met a genuine genius. One of the greatest minds in the world when I worked at Oxford University. He was a petty, childish, narcissistic little bully.
    We assume a genius is going to be emotionally mature but they are the opposite. They act like kids throwing toys around.

  3. 3
    @DovZeev

    Edison was a vein and cruel POS that used other people's inventions and ideas to make himself wealthy, so yea, Musk is a modern Edison

  5. 5
    @340wbymag

    When it comes to Tesla (the company), I am a huge fan and a stockholder. However, Elon himself has been a terrible disappointment to me. His behavior and his political opinions have shown the world that he is not a nice person. My wife absolutely hates him. I feel let down almost every time he speaks and believe he is responsible for the low value of Tesla stock today, down about 40% from the pre-Twitter fiasco. I personally believe Elon is a great genius and that he is changing the world in amazing ways. I admire him immensely for that, but he is also a real jerk. I would like to add one note before I go. I have always thought of Twitter as just a chat room, but recent discussions about AI and large language models have made me realize that I was wrong. Twitter may have little social value to me, but to AI learning, it is a vast wealth of data.

  6. 6
    @earthknight60

    He never wanted actual free speech, he wanted the freedom to control the speech, a very important distinction. He wanted to control the narrative.

    And considering how much Edison stole from other people, and what a terrible person he was, well, maybe that comparison still holds.

  9. 9
    @SjPedro

    I respected Elon Musk up until the whole Twitter stuff.
    Then I started digging deeper about his past and realized that he didn't deserve my respect.
    Everything that made Tesla what it is today has nothing to do with him. He's good at taking over, stealing other people's work and then try to bury them.
    It doesn't help that he surrounds himself with "Yes Men" that instead of fighting him in key decisions, they just say "yes sir" and no one bats an eye

    Also it's not half the country that his reputation has been damaged. It's global

  17. 17
    @dublindutch6346

    yeah, he completely destroyed his own brand. The cool guy with the electrci cars, and plans for mars colonization, reduced to a screaming biggot, unable to see past race, religion or political beliefs. I feel sad for him honestly, hope he takes a good look in the mirror, and makes steps to better himself.

  20. 20
    @danf4447

    elon is a grifterof the first order- full self driving 7 years later? nope. cybertruck 5 years late..and still nope . tesla roadster? nope. tesla solar roof? solf power houses and cars? hyperloop…nope nope nope nope. 25K tesla?? nope.. old cars old designs…yep… getting caught up and passed by everyone from BYD to Ford to Mercedes as he plays with vanity projects.. Boring company underground high speed transit- 7 years later and 7 miles of tunnels in vegas with teslas with drivers…. pathetic. Starship?? sure he blows one up every few months and laughs about it. Starlink?? who uses that? nobody. He is literally a bad idea factory… none of he stuff works he didnt even create tesla or the cars!!!… Tesla semi redesigning the trucking business out next year!!! in 2017-2018-2019-,,,,,,,2023 still NOPE…he just says stuff and looks sincere and says engineery sounding things and people eat it up…but investors are starting to pull the covers back and its NOT GOOD>

  21. 21
    @MPR2

    It didn't "destroy" his reputation, it exposed his authentic self which is clearly scum! He ruined Twitter!

  22. 22
    @jessaabraham

    We need more Elons mind wise. It’s a miracle Steve and Steve came together. That was a one time miracle. He did it for free speech. Twitter was a disaster for human voice freedom. I think X yes scary now but at least we have free speech. It was expensive but worth every penny for every human being.
    It will be a waste of time for him to anyway spent time with that lady.

  27. 27
    @carlyar5281

    Has anybody noticed that the people who believed in Elon Musk are almost entirely men?
    I cannot think of a single woman who is a fan of him. It’s almost like women see the red flags.
    So when the author talked about half the population, and he’s already forgotten half of the population and what he really means is half of the male population.

  28. 28
    @carlyar5281

    2:49 no we didn’t all used to think he was the Edison of our time. His incompetence and arrogance was clear too many many people, sadly many people got caught up in the hype and mistake arrogance for confidence. Elon is a narcissist, and like most narcissist they can fool many many people into believing how great they are, but when they feel threatened their deep insecurities come out, and they lash out in anger.

    I almost feel bad for this author, because it sounds like Elon was the hero in his mind, and the reality of who Elon is became blatantly apparent because of increased attention and coverage of Elon musk. Prior to taking over Twitter, only Elon’s fan boys paid attention to him. However, as soon as he started threatening to take over Twitter, the media star to cover him, and the average population saw him. Elon loves attention, and this attention fuelled more of his behavior, which is where we started to see who he truly is. That drew more attention and you see where the cycle goes. The thing is that what a narcissist fears most is that their true self will be revealed, which is that they are deeply deeply self-conscious. But at the same time his self-aggrandizing had him convinced that he was the amazing savant that his fan boys believed him to be so he made decisions that contradicted experts and advisers which was destroying Twitter. All the media coverage and attention when he was utterly failing was deeply psychologically threatening to his sense of self so it is not at all surprising that Elon started to have a mental crisis.

  31. 31
    @richbl1690

    I thought that I knew Elon for what he was but after the purchase of tweeter, he went 180 deg. in a deferent path that I didn't understand. Like a completely deferent person. Some times I think that he should have never bought tweeter.

  34. 34
    @janicewolk6492

    But his answers come straight from the universe. Beam me up, Elon . Aren't there other shareholders? So his arrogance and self entitlement, as true of so many, has tanked his image. He really thinks he is the ruler a fake universe?😮😮😮

  36. 36
    @i-love-space390

    Musk may have already harbored authoritarian, right wing ideas before, but I think the real event that made him fall down the right wing rabbit hole was when the Democratic infrastructure and anti-Global Warming initiatives were designed to favor unionized companies. I think in his very self-centered view, he was "betrayed" by the "ungrateful" progressives for not appreciating his sustainability goals and initiatives. Since he, like Edison, and other company leaders HATE unions, he could not see that the Democratic Party and the Progressives are not just centered on Green infrastructure, but also good paying jobs that favor a middle class in America.
    The Second event that turned him against the progressives was the CoVid lockdowns in California. He has come to view such things as a waste of time, and therefore he was very susceptible to the Anti-Vax and "Covid is not that bad" disinformation campaigns. He is just like many people – he believes what he WANTS to believe.
    Like many people, I applaud Elon's progressive goals and his determination to change American and world industry for the better and build an exciting future. But I also know that the negative flip-side of Determination is Stubborn pig-headedness. Elon has both in spades.
    Since Edison was a real SOB personally as well, perhaps Elon IS the "Edison of our Age".

  38. 38
    @PiCheZvara

    We had Jobs, Gates, Bezos and just like the world was kinda reaching a point of being too much pre-COVID, Musk IMO is a guy who will go down in history as a product of his time of hyperboly and the illusion of some permanent growth.

    Musk is weird. He quotes movies, dates celebrities, acts like a nerd crossed with a celebrity, he goes on dumb shows like Rogan, he is IMO mentally unstable, possibly ill, and he is just selling this image of some crazy genius when he doesnt really back it up with something truly ingenious and post COVID he positively went off his rocker.

    When he is ultimately revealed as a fraud, I'm not going to be surprised.

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