This Carbon Based Life

By David Glenn Cox

How can one person be so wildly successful and a tragic figure all at the same time? The curse of fabulous wealth destroying all perspectives, I guess. This century’s Henry Ford Aka, “Mister Know it all.” Ford thought because he was pretty handy at building cars, he could solve all the world’s problems. If only we’d listen. Ford published his own newspaper and forced all Ford Dealers to offer the paper for sale.

The ravings of a bigoted 19^th century Michigan farm boy. Laid on the foundations of fabulous wealth and worldwide acclaim. Henry Ford went from one to the most admired Americans to one of the most despised in just ten years. Staying too long at the party and saying too much.

If you own one septic tank cleaning truck, you’re a lowly entrepreneur but if you own a hundred trucks, you’re somehow a genius. Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite Internet system is poised to become a dominant player in world satellite Internet services. Potentially earning Musk billions upon billions of dollars per year, while his mouth makes him fantastically unpopular.

Musk’s version of the Dearborn Independent newspaper is his website. Twitter or X whatever confusion Musk is sowing this week. The name change is important as it illustrates that “I can if I want too” mentality. I don’t care what it costs! I can do what I want! The name change outside of the legal ramifications is a masterpiece of modern self-destructive behavior. Costing the company millions of dollars in name recognition and or goodwill.

Musk paid $44 billion for Twitter, DBA, “X” in 2022, including a lot of debt. Twitter had rarely made money and never made much. Stand back! I alone can fix it! Musk took over and what the company is worth today is anyone’s guess. But however low your guess might be, rest assured the company will reach there eventually.

Musk’s phony libertarian philosophy is a clumsy smoke screen for his anti-Semitic bigotry. “I’m not a bigot; I just believe in free speech, that’s all.” This is where the perspective thing comes in, he really thinks people believe him. Surrounded by sycophants, fanboys and yes men, Napoleon comes into his own! “That’s a real good idea boss!”

But there is society and then there is polite society. Rules that must not be broken and lines that must not be crossed if you want to get invited to the Astor’s. No smoking in the house or spitting on the carpets. Lest they be removed from the ranks of polite society. In response to Elon’s latest “Free Speech” IBM and the European Union will pause advertising on the platform. “Good idea boss! We don’t need them! They’re just customers with a lot of money!”

Citizen Musk doesn’t care if he makes a profit as X is a vanity project. A platform to share with the world the views and opinions of Elon Musk.

After a series of unfortunate remarks and revelations. Henry Ford went from a man always ready to make a statement to a reclusive living behind iron gates with armed guards. Sometimes when you touch the world, the world touches you back.  

The platforms CEO Linda Yaccarino tweeted, “X’s point of view has always been very clear that discrimination by everyone should STOP across the board – I think that’s something we can and should all agree on,”

I’d like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony with apple trees and honey bees and snow-white turtle doves. Got that? Everybody just stop being racists! There, we’ve done our due diligence. What else do you want us to do now?

Henceforth, the anti-Semitic posts in question will be labeled as “Sensitive material.” Orwell Lives! The destruction of language is a beautiful thing. It isn’t racist or offensive material, it’s “Sensitive!” because It might offend “some” people. The same some people referenced in the Anti-Semitic posts.

Ms. Yaccarino  was hired to right the ship after Mr. Musk sent the first group of advertisers headed for the exits. “X’s point of view has always been very clear that discrimination by everyone should STOP across the board – I think that’s something we can and should all agree on,”

Clearly, Yaccarino is the boss’s mouthpiece. Hear no evil, see no evil, say whatever you want. Time and customers lost are never found. Twitter is as doomed as the Flying Dutchman becalmed on a sea of a billionaire’s hubris. The latest stock price is less than half of what brother Elon paid for Twitter, and he still owes the debts from the company he bought for $44 billion.

Ironically, Musk would face competition from other platforms but because nobody has yet managed to make any money on a Twitter style platform, few are anxious to try. Fools rush in where angels fear to tread. A fool and his money soon go seperate ways. Musk will always be rich while forever being poor.

“Everyone sees what you appear to be, few experience what you really are.”― Niccolò Machiavelli