Elon Musk and The Worst-Case Scenario of a Nuclear Apocalypse

Every generation has its tech heroes, among other more super (fictional) and less regular (real-life) ones. For the Millennials and Gen Zs, that hero is undeniably Elon Musk. For my Gen X, AKA the “forgotten” and/or “lost” generation, that was/is Kim Dotcom.

What could these two distinguished and controversial individuals have in common? Well, to begin with, they’re Twitter buddies.

Elon “Lekker” Musk and Kim “Kiwi” Dotcom

You can please some of the people all of the time, you can please all of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time.

― John Lydgate

So, one fine day, Kim Dotcom wasn’t feeling fine about Elon’s “sleeping” Starlink satellites. By the way, a great song by Tasmin Archer. Look for it on YouTube.

Elon entered into the full “mea culpa” mode with his reply:

Then, we had a series of tweets about love, humanity, peace in the world, and other commonplaces every Miss Universe contestant knows by heart.

Love is in the air, but at a lower altitude than “kamikaze drones” and the Internet satellites, obviously.

What’s fair is fair, Kim Dotcom has a lot on his plate too. The Ukrainians may forgive Elon’s peace “suggestion” one day, but Hollywood won’t let Kim slip through their copyright fingers, which is more certain than death and taxes. The silver lining for Kim is the fact that he’s living in the doomsday-bunkers-for-billionaires-friendliest country in the world.

In the worst-case scenario of a nuclear apocalypse, it’s good to have Kim Dotcom for a friend, even if it’s only on Twitter.

The basic survival premise is to get to New Zealand’s apocalypse-proof bunkers just in time before, you know what. But, that’s another story.

Just before we leave the founder of MEGA, not to be confused with MAGA, to enjoy in the company of Peter Jackson’s Hobbits (LOTR and The Hobbit Trilogy filming location), let’s not forget to mention Kim’s political “tryouts” as an independent candidate and with the MANA Movement, again not to be confused with MAGA Movement. Why is that even a thing? Well, big money, big tech, and politics are simply destined or doomed to cross paths, this way or another.

The “Damnation” of the Political “Wrong Turn”

Does Elon Musk have to be omnipresent? There’s no other way to put it, and this is a legit question to ask. Whenever there’s an event that captures the entire world’s attention, there’s no high probability, but certainty Elon would be there, involved. I’m not talking about the war in Ukraine. Do you remember the trapped Thai youth soccer team? There has to be a bitter taste of controversy left behind Elon. It’s just the way it or he is. In his own defense, he has every right to say that the road to bad publicity is paved with good intentions.

The cherry on top was delivered by Larry T Bird. The Twitter takeover is a done deal judging by the locked staff stock accounts. So, we’re free to address the Elephant in the room. Elon is bringing back Trump on Twitter to spice Midterms up, that’s the plan. Nah, I don’t think so. Why so serious? I see “Batman Begins” rather than how Twitter ends.

and setting some new rules about the pool area…

Also, I wouldn’t go that far as judging someone’s character or personality based on tweets.

"In addition to being the world’s wealthiest man, Elon Musk also seems to be exhibiting the symptoms of histrionic personality disorder. HPD, as it’s known in the psychiatric sciences, resides in the ‘Cluster B’ garden of personality disorders and is associated with narcissism, attention-seeking behaviors and manipulation. HPDers tend to be charming and lively, often verging into flirtatiousness and excitability," Politico’s Jack Shafer wrote.

Why so personal? All I see are Bruce Wayne and Clark Kent in one of the final scenes of “Justice League.”

I’m not the first nor the last who has compared Elon Musk with Bruce Wayne, but those who compare Trump with Clark Kent should consult that Politico’s columnist I quoted. What’s wrong with this picture? Nothing.

The man who is taking us to Mars has to worry about what he’s going to tweet next because he might get suspended. C’mon! Seriously?

But, what’s going to happen with the current Twitter employees?

Let’s say, for the sake of this story, that I have a friend who works at Twitter. He’s asking me for a piece of advice on whether or not he should leave or stay.

I’d say, if you want to leave only because you don’t like Elon as a person, then you’re about to make a mistake, which you’re very likely to regret. But if you want to leave because you believe that Elon is way over his head with the whole Twitter thing, then you’re right. You work at Twitter; you know the ins and outs of it. In that case, I understand and support you.

I have had clients from all over the world. With some of them, I shared the turbulent and brutal history of our nations and countries. But what does that have to do with business? NOTHING!

Are you a professional regardless of the circumstances OR an activist regardless of the “agendas?”

What you do in your free time; it’s your thing. Your workplace should be sacred. There’s no room for politics, ideologies, bias, and similar at work.

Twitter Don’t Cry - Midterms Have A Bigger Fish To Fry

Can the richest man in the world decide the outcome of the Midterm Elections in 2022? Nope! By the way, a great movie by Jordan Peele. You’re free to ask Kim Dotcom where you can watch it for free, but I wouldn’t recommend you that.

Elon Musk can’t fix inflation and the southern border crisis. He can’t make pro-choice and pro-life activists come up with a win-win scenario, nor make Zelensky and Putin shake hands and smile. However, Elon could get caught in the midterm crossfire. What’s even worse, he could become the very tree distracting us from seeing that the tech forest is on fire.

“The Supreme Court will hear two cases that could change Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. Slate's senior writer Mark Joseph Stern tells "Nightcap's" Jon Sarlin why big tech and social media companies are calling this a "fundamental threat to their existence.”

When you’re facing an “existential threat,” you aren’t yourself. This means that the big tech could and would become extremely biased. Elon Musk, with or without Twitter, can afford to be “politically neutral,” but YouTube and Facebook can’t.

“Especially at a time when many Republicans would like to rewrite Section 230 to include ham-handed safeguards for political conservatives.” This means that the big tech would have to be even more generous with their donations to the Democrats because “members of Congress regularly consider legislative changes to Section 230, so the Court may not, in the long run, have the last say.”

Plain and simple, while you’re deciding whether or not you should tweet under the “rule” of Elon Musk, you may lose your immunity as a content creator because “Section 230’s protections are essential for website publishers and app services to offer user-contributed content and that restrictions on the statute’s historically broad immunity would impede innovation and prove unduly burdensome.”

As you can see not even all the money in the world can’t guarantee that you will have it your way. It’d take one Supreme Court decision to change Section 230 and make Elon’s $44B investment in Twitter - worthless.

Elon Musk will be damned whether he turns left or right, does something, or does nothing, but you won’t if you support my nomination for the HACKERNOON CONTRIBUTOR OF THE YEAR- ELON-MUSK with your votes at this year’s Noonies that will last longer than midterms.