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Is Musk trying to use Twitter’s failure to position himself politically?

I’ve been instinctively sceptical of the theory that Musk has been playing 4D chess with Twitter from the outset. Instead I’ve ascribed it to a combination of hubris and dysfunction; the degree to which Musk’s erratic behaviour is being shaped by regular Zopiclone and Ketamine shouldn’t be underestimated, particularly when he’s tweeting late at night. But I find Alex Kirshner’s suggestion that he has moved into deliberately crashing Twitter now he sees it can’t be salvaged more plausible:

He is no longer interested in salvaging Twitter as a business. As a financial investment, he has taken $44 billion (mostly his and his banks’ money, with a few billion coming from other investors) and lit it on fire. Musk will never make Twitter worth anything near what he paid for it, but he can use it to make himself a free-speech martyr and recast his own business failures as an ideological stand against censorship. That, today, is what he wants with Twitter. Take Musk seriously when he threatens (if that’s the word) that advertisers will kill Twitter. He might like that just fine.

https://slate.com/technology/2023/11/elon-musk-advertisers-curse-out-dealbook-antisemitism.html
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