It’s tough to put the correct attitudinal inflection in these text boxes. And if you over-explain, the comment loses its punchiness. Such is life. My comment was an attempt at a “both true/somewhat snarky/meant to be cynical wry comedy as much as anything”.
Every person grew up in a certain social milieu which includes certain attitudes embedded in the language and style. (Conversely, people tend not to take this into consideration, me included)
I grew up in a beach town in Southern California in the 60’s. As I think of it now, a large segment of SoCal youth culture had a backdrop of “this world is a joke”. There was a certain sneering cynicism that most people understood. (Part of that is natural to any teenager, I think). Our defense against the obvious hypocrisy of the day was : making over-the-top snide remarks in a left-handed manner with a U turn at the end. So, you didn’t just say “look, the emperor has no clothes”. No, you’d say, “dude, check out the rad tattoo on the emperor’s butt”. (And of course you never really meant the tattoo was actually rad) Sigh. Sometimes it’s a challenge for me to say things in a straight line. This style of communication became an art form, but I digress.
While I tend to think Musk is a tool, I do appreciate his own snarkiness that oozes out and I can totally relate. Like tooootallly.
Yes, he is selling overvalued Tesla stock to finance this deal. (And keep it and Twitter afloat) And thereby driving down the value of Tesla stock. Genius? Or just making the best of a bad situation? He is in a difficult position. It is quite possible he is at the Rubicon sinking in quicksand. We shall see. Why did he offer to buy Twitter in the first place when he is already spread so thin? Is Twitter really a more valuable asset than Tesla? I don’t think so. (They are both massively overvalued at this point) if he was trying to exchange overvalued Tesla stock for better assets I don’t think he’d be buying Twitter. How about a Lithium miner instead? Or a hundred other assets that could benefit Tesla or Starlink?
Furthermore he made this deal and managed to box himself in with severe legal financial consequences if he tried to weasel out. He had no kill switch on the deal. Didn’t he box himself into a corner. That’s our genius?
Or, Did a little MK Monarch whisper in his ear to buy Tweety Bird? If so, he, like Gates is not a genius but just another puppet. That’s my working hypothesis. I don’t see Musk as a legit, sincere player like Putin. I see Musk as a kind of clownish stooge, albeit a very amusing one, in the grand kabuki. Dorsey is the guy who absconded with the Twitter value, isn’t he? Is he no longer a part of this equation?
But it is a wonderful soap opera, isn’t it?!
I wonder what we are not supposed to be looking at while this saga goes on and on?