Using messengers like Elon Musk
Hmmm.
Now, despite the setbacks Russia has suffered on the battlefield, [Fiona] Hill thinks Putin is undaunted. She sees him adapting to new conditions, not giving up. And she sees him trying to get the West to accede to his aims by using messengers like billionaire Elon Musk to propose arrangements that would end the conflict on his terms.
“Putin plays the egos of big men, gives them a sense that they can play a role. But in reality, they’re just direct transmitters of messages from Vladimir Putin,” Hill says.
And then they buy Twitter to be even more dedicated messengers for Putin.
Reynolds: We’ve recently had Elon Musk step into this conflict trying to promote discussion of peace settlements. What do you make of the role that he’s playing?
Hill: It’s very clear that Elon Musk is transmitting a message for Putin. There was a conference in Aspen in late September when Musk offered a version of what was in his tweet — including the recognition of Crimea as Russian because it’s been mostly Russian since the 1780s — and the suggestion that the Ukrainian regions of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia should be up for negotiation, because there should be guaranteed water supplies to Crimea. He made this suggestion before Putin’s annexation of those two territories on September 30. It was a very specific reference. Kherson and Zaporizhzhia essentially control all the water supplies to Crimea. Crimea is a dry peninsula. It has aquifers, but it doesn’t have rivers. It’s dependent on water from the Dnipro River that flows through a canal from Kherson. It’s unlikely Elon Musk knows about this himself. The reference to water is so specific that this clearly is a message from Putin.
…
This is a classic Putin play. It’s just fascinating, of course, that it’s Elon Musk in this instance, because obviously Elon Musk has a huge Twitter following. He’s got a longstanding reputation in Russia through Tesla, the SpaceX space programs and also through Starlink. He’s one of the most popular men in opinion polls in Russia. At the same time, he’s played a very important part in supporting Ukraine by providing Starlink internet systems to Ukraine, and kept telecommunications going in Ukraine, paid for in part by the U.S. government. Elon Musk has enormous leverage as well as incredible prominence. Putin plays the egos of big men, gives them a sense that they can play a role. But in reality, they’re just direct transmitters of messages from Vladimir Putin.
And now he owns Twitter.
One more justification for me to add to my collection for never going there.
Meanwhile, it’s Monday morning and Twitter continues to function and has not fallen over in a heap. It’ll be interesting if Musk proceeds to demonstrate that he can run Twitter with a fifth of the previous workforce. (I guess armies of DEI consultants are not needed after all.) And the woke are upset that they’ll no longer be able to impose arbitrary bans on anyone they dislike.
And regarding Musk as a Russian stooge is rather silly, he was one of the first to provide real and direct aid to the Ukrainians, re-jigging his Starlink network to provide internet and GPS to the Ukrainian troops, which he has done ever since. In the era of drone warfare this is crucial.
According to Robert Reich in the Groan, Twitter will shortly become available in some bargain basement, courtesy of Musk’s mismanagement and ignorance of the nature of the Twittering business he has just bought. A popular online site now headed for the cybernetic scrap heap.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/nov/21/elon-musk-went-on-a-firing-frenzy-at-twitter-now-hes-paying-for-it
Robert Reich is blatantly wrong in that article. The value of Twitter is not in its employees, it is in its users. It is far more valuable than, say, Parler or Mastodon, because it is the place everyone uses, and as a result of that it’s where companies pay to advertise.
Now, if Musk’s takeover leads (over time) to far fewer users and far fewer advertisers, then, yes, Twitter’s value will be far lower. But so long as he has enough employees to keep it working, and so long as he maintains the user numbers and advertising income, then doing so with fewer employees (and thus greater profitability) would mean, Mr Reich, that it is more valuable, not less valuable.
Anyhow, he didn’t buy it to make money.
Coel,
Yes, I’m sure that 80% of Twitter’s workforce was DEI consultants. That sounds totally plausible.
Screech:
Maybe trans-DEI consultants? Just asking.
Hi Screechy:
You’re right, it sounds much more like academia, doesn’t it?
Coel, I’m not sure what that’s supposed to mean? Academia is 80% DEI consultants? Academia has an unbalanced ratio of employees? That last is true – most colleges and universities have way more administrators than are needed, and way fewer faculty and support staff. But I find it a strange comment.
I have no desire to see Twitter go under, even if it made Elon Musk look like a dick. I would have thought though it was too early to say whether the staff he has chucked out were ornamental rather than useful. He hasn’t just been chucking out the Diversity Officers in HR but technical staff. Twitter may be working fine now, but six months down the line the team that did XY&Z to prevent an overload or whatever may not be there (I need some techy brains to help out at this point).
Still, this owns the libs, and owning the libs as flamboyantly as possible seems to be part of his raison d’etre for buying it. Witness him conducting that twitter poll to reinstate Trump – which Trump seems not to have taken up – perhaps because he doesn’t want to seem beholden to Musk. Aaargh, why can’t they both shut up and we never have to hear from them again?
I suppose something like Twitter will come into being again as it is too useful to lose. It does seem bad though that such an important communications device should be in the hands of one vain egomaniac.
I don’t know if Musk is “messaging” Putin or not – his “solution” to the war in Ukraine is fairly similar to the tankies’ and the realpolitikers’ like Kissinger.
I read somewhere today that Trump can’t return to Twitter without risking a big cash hit, because he swore up and down to stick to Troof Soshul as a condition of investment, so if he doesn’t stick to it they’ll come after his ass.
@OB#10 – oh, another twist. It’s more likely that, rather than him keeping his gob shut when he has an opportunity to open it.
Since Biden was elected, I can’t tell you the sense of relief of not hearing that awful resentful bray on our news all the time.
Oh god I know – I listened to about 3 seconds of him saying something yesterday and could not stand more of that hoarse blurry Croak of Stupidity.
Late, but relevant:-
“Never ascribe to an ingenious masterplan that which can be adequately explained by a deep hunger for attention”
https://twitter.com/oliverburkeman/status/1596106224415694848