He Who Has No Sense of Humor, or the recent purchaser of Twitter, Elon Musk, sure did drop a pretty penny when he bought the long-running social media platform for $44 billion.
And of course, the criticisms arose, as they should, about what else Musk could have done with that exorbitant wealth: feed the hungry, house the homeless, clean up the planet, all those good things. Musk could have chipped away at any of that and more with his $44 billion. (Seriously, can you even imagine what that physically looks like in a vault? You can’t. You can’t even properly imagine what $4 billion actually looks like, be serious.)
Instead, Musk has spent the past several weeks almost exclusively tanking Tesla stock or befouling whatever work people did at Twitter before he showed up. He’s driven away advertisers, welcomed hate speech and its peddlers on the platform, and alienated longtime users.
He’s banned journalists frivolously for reporting on him or his already-publicly-available-whereabouts accurately. He’s lost more than $100 billion in personal wealth in the past year, according to reports from the World Bank.
For $44 billion, he could have done so much more with his time or his legacy. He could have been more than the SpaceX guy or the Mars guy or the Tesla guy. Tell me, what has SpaceX done to make your life or the lives of anyone you know on this planet any easier lately?
(And for the record, the man didn’t invent electric cars. He didn’t even start Tesla. He came to Tesla in 2008 with tons of inherited money and a willingness to invest alongside existing CEOs.)
He could have taken $44 billion and invested it here on Earth in a way that would make his name synonymous with greatness—true greatness. Not the “greatness” bestowed upon him by his fanboys online as they suckle at his teat awaiting just one reply from him to validate their existence.
True greatness can be amplified by wealth, and it can be honed. Money is, after all, useful. But you can’t buy respect. That’s earned. You can’t buy human decency. That’s taught. You can’t buy a sense of humor. That comes through experience.
You cannot, try as you might, buy the world’s adulation.
Musk bought Twitter for reasons that seem abundantly clear if the world’s history of power and wealth stratification is to be considered: It's about control.
Wealth doesn’t change you, they say. It only shows you who you are.
Well, thanks to what Musk’s money could buy, the rest of the world is finally starting to see him for who he really is.
And of course, the criticisms arose, as they should, about what else Musk could have done with that exorbitant wealth: feed the hungry, house the homeless, clean up the planet, all those good things. Musk could have chipped away at any of that and more with his $44 billion. (Seriously, can you even imagine what that physically looks like in a vault? You can’t. You can’t even properly imagine what $4 billion actually looks like, be serious.)
Instead, Musk has spent the past several weeks almost exclusively tanking Tesla stock or befouling whatever work people did at Twitter before he showed up. He’s driven away advertisers, welcomed hate speech and its peddlers on the platform, and alienated longtime users.
He’s banned journalists frivolously for reporting on him or his already-publicly-available-whereabouts accurately. He’s lost more than $100 billion in personal wealth in the past year, according to reports from the World Bank.
For $44 billion, he could have done so much more with his time or his legacy. He could have been more than the SpaceX guy or the Mars guy or the Tesla guy. Tell me, what has SpaceX done to make your life or the lives of anyone you know on this planet any easier lately?
(And for the record, the man didn’t invent electric cars. He didn’t even start Tesla. He came to Tesla in 2008 with tons of inherited money and a willingness to invest alongside existing CEOs.)
He could have taken $44 billion and invested it here on Earth in a way that would make his name synonymous with greatness—true greatness. Not the “greatness” bestowed upon him by his fanboys online as they suckle at his teat awaiting just one reply from him to validate their existence.
True greatness can be amplified by wealth, and it can be honed. Money is, after all, useful. But you can’t buy respect. That’s earned. You can’t buy human decency. That’s taught. You can’t buy a sense of humor. That comes through experience.
You cannot, try as you might, buy the world’s adulation.
Musk bought Twitter for reasons that seem abundantly clear if the world’s history of power and wealth stratification is to be considered: It's about control.
Wealth doesn’t change you, they say. It only shows you who you are.
Well, thanks to what Musk’s money could buy, the rest of the world is finally starting to see him for who he really is.