Performative Demolition
Saturday, November 19th, 2022 08:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
snoozefestaudioAll the talk the past week was about Twitter, and what a dumpster fire it's become over there, thanks to the astounding ineptitude of Elon Musk, at it's helm.
The implosion of Twitter's already the stuff of legend, because it's impossible to tease apart fact from conspiracy theory about what's been going on over there, and why.
As best I can tell, it began with Musk just wanting to sit on the board of Twitter... he'd already been an avid user of the platform, as had every attention seeking megalomaniac of the day.
He used it much the way Donald Trump did... to spark cheep controversy, to steal a few headlines... and also to get a rise out of his cult fanbase, to affect the value of crypto currnecy on the world markets.
Yes, it was all fun and games, until he decided to get on the board... thinking he could help to promote, "free speech," on the platform.
Of course, for billionaires, "free speech," means; the hate speech and disinformation necessary to remain wealthy, by sowing division among lower class workers and voters, such that they attack one another, rather than banning together to eat the rich!
It's an old reliable strategy, that works!
Unfortunately, to get on the board, Elon lied about having certain educational degrees. And when this was found out, and he was in danger of getting kicked off the board... he did what all billionaires do, and offered to simply BUY Twitter... for an insane amount of money they couldn't refuse!
Simple enough!
But Twitter locked him into that insane offer early on, so that when he started having second thoughts, he couldn't back out!.. and he DID have second thoughts, once he realized Twitter wasn't very profitable at all, and that he'd wind up taking a long bath on the deal.
He fought hard to back out, but was unsuccessful.
And I think what happened next was simply what happens with all egomaniacs, when they finally get cornered, and forced to face the consequences of their dumb-ass decisions... something I guess I'll call, "performative demoliton."
--<>--
When you look like a total clown, and everybody's laughing AT you... Performative Demolition is a way for the clown to get scary! You turn those laughs into gasps of horror... and you just keep going until you're to a point where somebody can argue you were a misunderstood genius the whole time.
Here's how it works...
PERFORM, because for egomaniacs, there is no such thing as negative attention. Just start singing and dancing, to stay in the spotlight, and let your fans figure out how to spin the performance later.
DEMOLISH, because... when you have no skills or intelligence, repairing things is not an option. And leaving things alone is also not an option, becuase you're only in this spot, because you claimed it was broken and you could fix it.
Demolition often preceeds big repairs anyway right? So if you just start breaking everything, your apologists will go out there and say you're just playing three dimensional chess, and it only looks like demoliton to those who can't see the genius vision that will follow... eventually.
And then you hope and you pray that somebody somewhere comes along to save your ass, and rebuild the thing you broke. Then, you retroactively take the credit and say this was your plan the whole time!
Embarassment, erased!.. and anger, violently expressed!
Win-win!
------------{=0=}------------
Musk walked into Twitter headquarters purportedly holding a toilet or some ridiculous shit... the day he finally had to own up to his responsibilities... in an over the top clown performance.
He then immediately got down to business, dissolving the power structure to become sole operator of the company.
Twitter immediately devolved into a shit show of hate speech... which caused advertisers to flee!
His kneejerk reaction was to hand out blue check marks to everybody, for a subscription fee!
THAT immediately lead to thousands of fake Elon Musk accounts, with blue check marks... REALLY roasting his ass, and making him look like more of a clown than EVER before!
And after that, it's just been demolish, demolish, demolish!
Mass firings, ridiculous demands that have caused mass quittings, he even locked down all the Twitter office building around the globe... paranoid that disgruntled employees might try to sabotage the company on their way out... as if he wasn't doing a good enough job of that himself.
------------{=0=}------------
Apologists are trying to say he has some genius vision that will transform Twitter eventually into... whatever sounds good... some bastion of truth on a mountain where everybody is free to write, Unibomber Manifesto-length posts and share video and photos and art and audio and..!
Meanwhile, on the other side, they're saying that Musk is deliberately destroying Twitter to end the free and timely communication it offered to the masses globally... to put power back in the hands of dictators and corporations.
But if it was the latter... Wow!.. the guy's sure blowing a LOT of money to help out the powerful by downing free communication. And he's sure doing it in a strange way, that makes him look like a total clown, when he could just... quietly decomission Twitter over a year... or... shutter it tomorrow.
--<>--
It may look like Musk is doing this as part of a consipiracy... but that's becuase all billionaires kinda benefit from the same things. They don't need to conspire. They just naturally do what helps all of them, even if the individual billionaire does so at his own expense.
The other reason to suspect conspiracy is just that... even those who don't like Musk, have a hard time imagining he's REALLY as STUPID as he'd have to be, for this to be happening!
How could somebody THAT stupid have ever become a billionaire in the first place?
The answer, of course, is that he was born into wealth and got lucky with PayPal!
People like that are usually surrounded by smart people, in the beginning, who help them succeed, and allow them to take the credit.
But if megalomania is allowed to advance... inevitably, the egomaniac will rid themselves of smart people, in favor of loyal people... who seem smart because they are loyal... but are actually loyal... because they are stupid!
And then something like this happens!
------------{=0=}------------
Twitter was a sensational app, like nothing the world had ever seen. And for a very long time, it was a revolutionary force for good in the world.
But...
Twitter was also a popularity contest, that very much stratified it's users into castes. And when you do that, you invite monsters to inhabit the place... and their minions. And it's been rife with monsters and toxic minions for years!
It was only a matter of time before a megalomaniac monster took it over... electrocuting himself in a horrific display, yes... but also killing it.
Tale old as time.
------------{=0=}------------
At any rate, no, I don't think Elon is a misunderstood genius, or even very smart. And no, I don't think he's destroying Twitter as part of a conspiracy to destroy mass communication.
I think he's a spoiled idiot, who got into an embarassing situation... and since then, it's all been Performative Destruction.
Thank you for coming.
Have a great weekend!
°¦}
https://soundcloud.com/snoozefestaudio
The implosion of Twitter's already the stuff of legend, because it's impossible to tease apart fact from conspiracy theory about what's been going on over there, and why.
As best I can tell, it began with Musk just wanting to sit on the board of Twitter... he'd already been an avid user of the platform, as had every attention seeking megalomaniac of the day.
He used it much the way Donald Trump did... to spark cheep controversy, to steal a few headlines... and also to get a rise out of his cult fanbase, to affect the value of crypto currnecy on the world markets.
Yes, it was all fun and games, until he decided to get on the board... thinking he could help to promote, "free speech," on the platform.
Of course, for billionaires, "free speech," means; the hate speech and disinformation necessary to remain wealthy, by sowing division among lower class workers and voters, such that they attack one another, rather than banning together to eat the rich!
It's an old reliable strategy, that works!
Unfortunately, to get on the board, Elon lied about having certain educational degrees. And when this was found out, and he was in danger of getting kicked off the board... he did what all billionaires do, and offered to simply BUY Twitter... for an insane amount of money they couldn't refuse!
Simple enough!
But Twitter locked him into that insane offer early on, so that when he started having second thoughts, he couldn't back out!.. and he DID have second thoughts, once he realized Twitter wasn't very profitable at all, and that he'd wind up taking a long bath on the deal.
He fought hard to back out, but was unsuccessful.
And I think what happened next was simply what happens with all egomaniacs, when they finally get cornered, and forced to face the consequences of their dumb-ass decisions... something I guess I'll call, "performative demoliton."
When you look like a total clown, and everybody's laughing AT you... Performative Demolition is a way for the clown to get scary! You turn those laughs into gasps of horror... and you just keep going until you're to a point where somebody can argue you were a misunderstood genius the whole time.
Here's how it works...
PERFORM, because for egomaniacs, there is no such thing as negative attention. Just start singing and dancing, to stay in the spotlight, and let your fans figure out how to spin the performance later.
DEMOLISH, because... when you have no skills or intelligence, repairing things is not an option. And leaving things alone is also not an option, becuase you're only in this spot, because you claimed it was broken and you could fix it.
Demolition often preceeds big repairs anyway right? So if you just start breaking everything, your apologists will go out there and say you're just playing three dimensional chess, and it only looks like demoliton to those who can't see the genius vision that will follow... eventually.
And then you hope and you pray that somebody somewhere comes along to save your ass, and rebuild the thing you broke. Then, you retroactively take the credit and say this was your plan the whole time!
Embarassment, erased!.. and anger, violently expressed!
Win-win!
Musk walked into Twitter headquarters purportedly holding a toilet or some ridiculous shit... the day he finally had to own up to his responsibilities... in an over the top clown performance.
He then immediately got down to business, dissolving the power structure to become sole operator of the company.
Twitter immediately devolved into a shit show of hate speech... which caused advertisers to flee!
His kneejerk reaction was to hand out blue check marks to everybody, for a subscription fee!
THAT immediately lead to thousands of fake Elon Musk accounts, with blue check marks... REALLY roasting his ass, and making him look like more of a clown than EVER before!
And after that, it's just been demolish, demolish, demolish!
Mass firings, ridiculous demands that have caused mass quittings, he even locked down all the Twitter office building around the globe... paranoid that disgruntled employees might try to sabotage the company on their way out... as if he wasn't doing a good enough job of that himself.
Apologists are trying to say he has some genius vision that will transform Twitter eventually into... whatever sounds good... some bastion of truth on a mountain where everybody is free to write, Unibomber Manifesto-length posts and share video and photos and art and audio and..!
Meanwhile, on the other side, they're saying that Musk is deliberately destroying Twitter to end the free and timely communication it offered to the masses globally... to put power back in the hands of dictators and corporations.
But if it was the latter... Wow!.. the guy's sure blowing a LOT of money to help out the powerful by downing free communication. And he's sure doing it in a strange way, that makes him look like a total clown, when he could just... quietly decomission Twitter over a year... or... shutter it tomorrow.
It may look like Musk is doing this as part of a consipiracy... but that's becuase all billionaires kinda benefit from the same things. They don't need to conspire. They just naturally do what helps all of them, even if the individual billionaire does so at his own expense.
The other reason to suspect conspiracy is just that... even those who don't like Musk, have a hard time imagining he's REALLY as STUPID as he'd have to be, for this to be happening!
How could somebody THAT stupid have ever become a billionaire in the first place?
The answer, of course, is that he was born into wealth and got lucky with PayPal!
People like that are usually surrounded by smart people, in the beginning, who help them succeed, and allow them to take the credit.
But if megalomania is allowed to advance... inevitably, the egomaniac will rid themselves of smart people, in favor of loyal people... who seem smart because they are loyal... but are actually loyal... because they are stupid!
And then something like this happens!
Twitter was a sensational app, like nothing the world had ever seen. And for a very long time, it was a revolutionary force for good in the world.
But...
Twitter was also a popularity contest, that very much stratified it's users into castes. And when you do that, you invite monsters to inhabit the place... and their minions. And it's been rife with monsters and toxic minions for years!
It was only a matter of time before a megalomaniac monster took it over... electrocuting himself in a horrific display, yes... but also killing it.
Tale old as time.
At any rate, no, I don't think Elon is a misunderstood genius, or even very smart. And no, I don't think he's destroying Twitter as part of a conspiracy to destroy mass communication.
I think he's a spoiled idiot, who got into an embarassing situation... and since then, it's all been Performative Destruction.
Thank you for coming.
Have a great weekend!
°¦}
