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Comment by JeremyNT | Hacker News Reader

> Everything about the purchase and the way the company has been run since Elon took the reigns has been baffling. The bizarre forced-push of the X brand is just the tip of the iceberg.

I dunno, is it that baffling? It seems like he really loved using the product but didn't like the leadership, and he just wanted to own it so he could mess around and have fun following his own whims.

Once you get the idea that he doesn't actually care about financial success it all seems pretty reasonable. Like any hobby, for X/Twitter to be a "success" it just has to amuse him, and based on his usage of the platform it seems to be doing that.

The amounts of money he's losing are staggering to us but also meaningless to him. Our society has allowed him to accumulate so much wealth that nothing he could do "wrong" in a business sense would meaningfully impact his lifestyle.

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If the money he is losing is meaningless to him, why has he launched lawsuits to back out of the purchase and sue media watchdog orgs? Why did he replace himself as CEO with an advertising exec? Seems like the money is pretty meaningful to him.

It's really just an extreme version of a boat. They seem like fun, but they're money pits, and a lot of work goes into keeping them running. Alternatively, it's the Cartmanland scenario.

I imagine you're right that the lost cash does have meaning to him, but it doesn't appear to be the primary motivator for his decisions (and is definitely not driving his near-term decision making).

Primary motivator being insecurity and rapidly deteriorating mental health

> Our society has allowed him to accumulate so much wealth that nothing he could do "wrong" in a business sense would meaningfully impact his lifestyle.

This is the frustrating part. If I went around my office tomorrow endorsing nazi propaganda, I would be out of a job by the end of the day and probably struggling to pay my mortgage in a few months.

But this fuckstick can do whatever he wants and never face any real repercussions. He could bankrupt Twitter, SpaceX, and Tesla and just decide to retire early on a private island.

It's so incredibly hard to actually fuck things up when you're rich that it's downright impressive when someone like SBF comes along and manages to actually do it.

So you're incredibly envy of person who actually can express freedom of speech?

If anything, the problem is with your workspace which forces a particular political viewpoint on you.

No, I think actions should have consequences.

I'm frustrated that being born into money can make you functionally immune to most of those consequences.

There are two sides to freedom of speech. You have the freedom to say dumb shit, and I have the freedom to not associate with you because I don't like the dumb shit you say. If one of my employees started expressing pro-Nazi sentiments at the office, I would fire them, because I have a right to do so and because I believe the rest of my employees have a right to a safe working environment where they don't have to put up with people who think they are inferior just because of their race or cultural background.

> expressing pro-Nazi sentiments at the office ...

nazi speech would incur this consequence because it is classified as hate speech.

However, termination of employee cannot apply to just _any_ speech that the boss doesnt like. Of course, the boss would have other ways to "manage out" that troublesome employee, but directly firing for the speech cannot be one of them.

Nazi is strong word that you're throwing around. But let's say you're pro-republican manager and you're firing pro-democratic workers (assuming you're US citizen). Or the other way around. Does it still work for you? Where's the line?

I draw the line at disrupting the workplace. If you're constantly badgering people about your political beliefs enough to make them uncomfortable, left or right, that's a problem. You can't (and shouldn't) fire someone solely based on their politics, but you absolutely can fire someone for creating a hostile work environment. In most cases, I would talk with the problematic employee with HR and try to get them to fly straight. I'm vehemently pro-choice, but I would still have just as much of a problem with an employee harassing a devout Christian about abortion laws.

What I have zero tolerance for is hate speech. These infractions don't get second chances.

> Once you get the idea that he doesn't actually care about financial success it all seems pretty reasonable.

Yes, once one throws reason out the window, just about anything becomes "reasonable"

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