Musk is monetising fringe anger at our elites. If I run an influence campaign, I’m sure as hell going to pay Twitter tens of thousands of dollars to silence my opposition.
That is good for Twitter and good for me. It is good for the incumbency (who do you think benefits from a vote-by-wealth scheme). It’s terrible for public discourse. And it does nothing for the fringe.
It’s the only public, text-based venue where almost every influential person converses. Some less. Most too much. But getting something trending on Twitter leads to a significant number of people gaining awareness of it, directly and through amplification channels.