00:00His name is Elon Musk. He saved free speech. He created so many different great things.
00:08Where is he? Come on up here, Elon. He created the first major American car company in generations
00:17and his rocket company is the only reason we can now send American astronauts into space.
00:24Come here. Take over, Elon. Yes, take over.
00:32He took what we might call in the Twitter era a public sphere, a place where you and I and
00:37others who were interested in curating a following, following people who had interesting things to
00:44say, fellow social scientists, scholars, etc., we could actually use Twitter to educate ourselves,
00:51to become aware of recent trends, new articles. Today, what Musk has done is turned X into not
00:58a public sphere, but a sort of a blow horn that is attempting to highlight his predilections,
01:07his ideas, his beefs, his views, and there are serious consequences to that.
01:13So
01:30what Musk is doing is turning X into just another alternative right-wing platform, and that removes
01:38the opportunity for conservatives and liberals to exchange ideas. X is becoming a mouthpiece for
01:46the right and even the far right, and that's going to end up undermining his advertising base. It's
01:53going to continue to cause a deterioration in the kinds of users, in the sheer number of users on X.
02:09I mean, there have been periods of times where, you know, hundreds per day have flooded from Musk,
02:15and of course, we know that the algorithms are baked so that his posts receive inordinate
02:23degrees of attention. To say that Musk is using his platform to promote the Trump administration,
02:30or pending Trump administration, that's, that might be a bit more complicated than it is.
02:37That's, that might be a bit more complicated than we imagine because, first of all, Donald Trump
02:42isn't exactly a clear ideologue. What he believes in seems to shift from day to day.
02:57At some point, I think a lot of progressive, a lot of liberals, or a lot of people who don't
03:02support Trump are interested in expressing a political view, point of view, by simply
03:08leaving X behind. And that's going to be a problem. Musk spent a lot of money, and a lot of other
03:13people's money, in acquiring this platform, and he seems sometimes that he's doing his best to kill it.
03:33I think we have to, moving forward, ask the question, is the tail wagging the dog, by which I mean,
03:42who is leading on whom? Is Musk using Trump, or is Trump using Musk?
03:51In some ways, certainly, Musk doesn't have the military capabilities that Trump has at his
03:59disposal. He does have Starlink, which has military implications.
04:04I just wonder if the long-term goal for Elon Musk is an even more power, is an even more
04:13concentrated authority. Certainly, Angela Merkel, for example, the former chancellor of Germany,
04:19has raised concerns about this. I think those are really deeply well-founded concerns.
04:25I think moving forward, the answer to your question is, is that Musk sees an opportunity
04:29to further his own interests. And that's the bottom line. Musk wants to further his own interests.
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