Twitter speaks to the inner masochist in all of us
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 2, 2022
I think this is his theory of why we're going to want to pay $8 a month to use Twitter. But maybe not. Maybe he deplores our love of pain and aims to lead us out of our lowly condition. Or is it meaningless chatter — alluringly enigmatic?
ADDED: I created the tag "masochism" for this post, then added it retrospectively to many posts in the archive. I found a few interesting things, and I'll excerpt them here, because it may shed some light on today's Muskism or spark some creative thinking:
November 25, 2008: Christopher Hitchens accused Obama of "foolhardiness and masochism" for selecting Hillary Clinton — "the unscrupulous female" — as Secretary of State.
January 19, 2011: My commenters were redesigning the Gadsden flag and Dr. Weevil — quipping "Here's my submission" — came up with this:
November 1, 2013: I found what I called "a frisson of masochism" in something Ana Marie Cox attributed to Hillary Clinton.
May 28, 2015:
I quoted Bernie Sanders, writing in 1972: "Many women seem to be
walking a tightrope now. Their qualities of love, openness, and
gentleness were too deeply enmeshed with qualities of dependency,
subservience, and masochism."
February 2, 2018: I quoted William Safire, writing in 1970: "A spirit of national masochism prevails, encouraged by an effete corps of impudent snobs who characterize themselves as intellectuals."
October 30, 2018 — a study showed that Republicans and Democrats have different sexual fantasies: "The largest Democrat-Republican divide on the BDSM spectrum was in masochism...."
Posts
66 comments:
I'd say most likely it's just a funny thought he wants us to know he had.
Elon Musk
@elonmusk
To all complainers, please continue complaining, but it will cost $8
Oh, it was pretty clear on Twitter yesterday that paying for a blue check wasn’t the problem.
The problem is anyone can now get one. And the special people won’t feel special anymore.
Maybe that’s the most masochistic Twitter move yet?
Forcing the elites to choose between losing their status or losing their platform?
Don't you only pay the $8 to get the blue checkmark? Others can participate for free, no?
I just read that some Twitter employees found out their new pronouns sre Was and Were.
Try the veal.
Free twitter is like living in a tent on the front lawn -- exposed to the vicissitudes of nature and every horse's-hind-end that passes. Paid twitter moves us into the house -- protected from foul elements and objectionable opinions.
But do we want that protection, and will the price be so high that we just decide to move to a nicer neighborhood?
Thus endeth the simile.
Whatever we think Elon Musk is doing, what he’s actually doing is apt to be quite different. This is a guy who doesn’t just think outside the box; he seems unaware that there ever was a box,
I think he means it literally.
I ceased commenting on Twitter, although I still read some posters. I quit because argument on Twitter is so psychologically brutal and tortured that it blows to hell my peace of mind and undermines my ability to focus on my work as a musician. The brutality and the psychotic hatred on display on Twitter makes the old days of all night fights on this blog look kinda tame.
I don't think Elon puts a lot of thought into comments like that. I'm it only means what anyone wants it to mean. Just like art the meaning is lost as soon as you start talking about it.
Meanwhile #Trumpisdead is trending on Twitter. Elon's free speech Twitter is getting trolled.
When Elon meets with advertisers in the next week, I get the feeling that content moderation is going to quietly go back in place. Subscription fees are never going to make Twitter profitable if any signicant amount of advertisers leave.
"I get the feeling that content moderation is going to quietly go back in place"
There was always going to be moderation in the sense of banning threats to individuals, criminal behavior, and the strongest form of hate speech. What's important is that the moderation be viewpoint neutral.
Mark said...
Meanwhile #Trumpisdead is trending on Twitter. Elon's free speech Twitter is getting trolled.
Your side thinks they are so cute and that THAT will bother us after all your side has put us through in the last 6 years?? We are laughing at you. Words don't hurt US, but they kill your side. They can't handle the truth.
This post reminds me of how much I miss William Safire.
The 'fee' will not only help Twitter become viable financially, and attract more investment for new innovations which are badly needed, but it'll filter out a lot of bullshit. It'll become a premium level whine platform. You'll have to pay to play. Others will be watching it's success or failure to see what they can do.
Of course there will be some moderation. Moderation does not have to come in the form of censoring views that are not of The Narrative. It could simply be a way to keep the boat flowing between the bouys.
We can all cheer in a crowded theater. But, from what I'm told, you cannot yell 'Allahu akbar' and claim it's only free speech.
@Althouse: "What's important is that the moderation be viewpoint neutral."
To include fact checks that address actual facts rather than opinions. To include a definition of misinformation isn't an effort to misdirect attention from establishment screwups.
Upon reading that William Safire quote, who else immediately thought of Bill Kristol?
Well this could be the most relevant quote I’ve seen in awhile. From above;
February 2, 2018: I quoted William Safire, writing in 1970: "A spirit of national masochism prevails, encouraged by an effete corps of impudent snobs who characterize themselves as intellectuals."
Amazing that it was 50 years ago. If anything they’ve gotten more effete and impudent. Best and brightest? I think not.
On Twitter, I got on for the first time over the weekend. I see why the above mentioned snobs want to control it. It puts the peasants with pitchforks right on their front door step. It’s tough to be an effective effete snob when some average Joe can point out every error in your self righteous argument.
"A spirit of national masochism prevails, encouraged by an effete corps of impudent snobs who characterize themselves as intellectuals."
To make it apply to today, I would replace the word "intellectuals" with "experts."
Who's really considered an "intellectual" these days?
And then maybe "effete" and "snobs" seems out of date.
I mean, we've gone downhill from then. In Safire's day, the elite put on a more impressive show. These days, it's more shut up and believe.
"Who's really considered an "intellectual" these days?"
One answer is: Jordan Peterson. And the experts who need you to shut up really want him to shut up.
"The problem is anyone can now get one. And the special people won’t feel special anymore."
The Sylvester McMonkey McBean gambit.
Next up--chartreuse checks for $12.00.
Or--have your blue check removed--$20.
Retrotag Wednesday!
Ann linked to a discussion between Glenn Loury and John McWhorter last year. In it, they worked out John’s definition of woke. Based on that conversation alone, I’d nominate both as intellectuals.
Seeing Safire's name calls to mind another memorable phrase, "nattering nabobs of negativism."
You need to recognize up front that Musk can be a loose cannon. Maybe it goes with his Asperger's. What he does and says may just be erratic, rather than part of a deep, brilliant strategy. So if one day he disappoints you or turns against you, you don't take it too seriously, and if he fails completely and goes bankrupt, you don't ridicule him, but recognize that it was always a possibility. The failure or the perceived betrayal are part of what gave you successes and victories. Even with people who aren't brilliant and people you don't agree with -- much of the time they are just being impulsive and talking nonsense.
"The largest Democrat-Republican divide on the BDSM spectrum was in masochism...."
Aren't you tired of social psychology analyses of people's political beliefs and personalities by now? The usual point is to portray those one agrees with as normal and opponents as pathological. But beyond that, the most interesting opinions -- often the most valuable opinions -- come from the outliers, the people who aren't typical this or typical that, and don't fit the psychological profile.
Thanks for interjecting clarity and depth Althouse and Shouting Thomas. I see that my absence from Twitter has blinded me to it's main bug that is exploited as a feature for keeping people in constant psycho pain. People volunteer to be subsumed into the Outrage-paying attention matrix. Neuroscientists at Stanford show this keeps people trapped in the default mode network with the voices in their heads loud and quiet producing angst. Social media is Free Market capitalist entrepreneurial Big Brother.
The sick can't want to be healed, they keep hitting the bar for a progressively lower dose of dopamine until their frequency becomes a vibration. Not the sort Brian Wilson envisioned when he recorded Pet Sounds. Neuromuscular memory gets locked in to the point where the only form of pleasure is shopping Amazing Amazon Prime members only and McDonald's adult diaper meals.
Seeing Safire got me wondering whatever happened to my Spiro Agnew watch. And then
wondering if that's some kind of masochism.
Whip me!
Beat me!
Make me write bad checks!
Thanks for interjecting clarity and depth Althouse and Shouting Thomas. I see that my absence from Twitter has blinded me to it's main bug that is exploited as a feature for keeping people in constant psycho pain. People volunteer to be subsumed into the Outrage-paying attention matrix. Neuroscientists at Stanford show this keeps people trapped in the default mode network with the voices in their heads loud and quiet producing angst. Social media is Free Market capitalist entrepreneurial Big Brother.
The sick can't want to be healed, they keep hitting the bar for a progressively lower dose of dopamine until their frequency becomes a vibration. Not the sort Brian Wilson envisioned when he recorded Pet Sounds. Neuromuscular memory gets locked in to the point where the only form of pleasure is shopping Amazing Amazon Prime members only and McDonald's adult diaper meals.
Wait ‘til you see how much it costs to get a gold checkmark on Twitter!
Leave your basement, Howard. It’s a beautiful world out here!
Get a life.
Iman said...
"Leave your basement, Howard. It’s a beautiful world out here!
Get a life."
His dopamine rush IS being pissed off and scared.
Yet another example of the Althouse Synchronicity Effect! Just yesterday I was watching the liftoff and recovery of the SpaceX Falcon Heavy mission for the Space Force. I was particularly thrilled by the landings of the two strap-on stages as they slowed from supersonic speed to near-zero in just a few thousand feet of altitude to touch down like butterflies barely a mile from their launch pad. And I thought, what would it be like to succeed at everything I tried like Elon Musk, particularly pioneering projects that have frustrated other brilliant and powerful men. Wouldn't I feel the need for a little suffering for the sake of my soul? ...Well, that explains his Twitter acquisition, doesn't it?
However, Musk misattributes that need to masochism, which is fake suffering and utterly detrimental to the soul. Besides, the Twitter thing is, so far, another brilliant Musk triumph, though should the Nazis who control the Democratic Party and the New York Times succeed in their effort to crucify Musk and the Bill of Rights with the same set of nails, he will have achieved something better than redemptive suffering -- apotheosis.
"Twitter speaks to the inner masochist in all of us—" Elon Musk
What is a masochist? Is it's opposite Enlightened?
A lot of people tend to focus on the sexual and abusive connotations but this doesn't really apply to the point of his tweet. There are also connotations of a willingness to do difficult and uncomfortable things.
We are all on a spectrum of self discipline with people who always live in the moment on one side and the people who are always delaying self gratification on the other.
I think with respect to this discussion the opposite of masochist is hedonist.
Musk views himself as an outlier on the far end of the masochist scale and I would posit that he has gone so far that direction he came back around to the other side.
He is having a good time now.
Meanwhile #Trumpisdead is trending on Twitter. Elon's free speech Twitter is getting trolled.
How utterly awful! [Clutches pearls]
“an effete corps of impudent snobs“
Effete and impudent?
What's the question, Left Bank? Is there a problem with the juxtaposition of "effete" (affected in manner) and "impudent" (snarky)?
“ Effete and impudent?”
Yes. Plus they look down on those of us who lack their skills at effeminacy and disrespectfulness.
This is an example of the rule to always replace "we" by "I" and see if you'd still write it.
Althouse writes, "There was always going to be moderation in the sense of banning threats to individuals, criminal behavior, and the strongest form of hate speech. What's important is that the moderation be viewpoint neutral."
I disagree. Twitter shouldn't moderate anything that isn't objectively criminal, which includes "the strongest form of hate speech". How else are we to identify the Nazis? The most dangerous of them aren't nearly as stupid as Senator Dick Durbin. We must allow them to ascend those lofty rostra from whence they eventually launch themselves mouth-first onto the jagged rocks below.
Perhaps the (soon to be) released Twitter coders can earn to mine col or drill for oil.
That'll up their masochism dose.
"What's the question, Left Bank? Is there a problem with the juxtaposition of 'effete' (affected in manner) and 'impudent' (snarky)?
Yes. It's the same problem as mirrors in Castle Dracula.
I like Achilles' interpretation, but - if that's what Musk was going for - wish he would have contrasted, say, asceticism with hedonism. The problem with using the word "masochism" is that it does indeed have those sexual connotations.
Walter Kirn is out with a very perceptive thumbnail history of Twitter and other related illnesses, on Substack.
https://www.commonsense.news/p/free-bird-on-elon-musk-and-twitter?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=260347&post_id=81835758&isFreemail=true&utm_medium=email
Ann @ 7:04: “…These days, it's more shut up and believe...”
Stated with your characteristic eloquence.
Left Bank loves dat dirty water.
tim maguire said...
Upon reading that William Safire quote, who else immediately thought of Bill Kristol?
I immediately thought of Spiro Agnew. I remembered him using the phrase "effete corps of impudent snobs" in a speech, to the loud dismay of all correct-thinking people at the time.
If you talk about Agnew quoting Safire, then you are providing clues about your old age.
Blogger Temujin said...
This post reminds me of how much I miss William Safire.
I agree completely. I even read his novel.
@Wilbur, I preferred the alliteration of “nattering nabobs of negativism.”
@Mike Sylwester, yeah, I’m old enough to have voted for Nixon/Agnew twice. Do you have a problem with that?
@Wilbur, I preferred the alliteration of “nattering nabobs of negativism.”
@Mike Sylwester, yeah, I’m old enough to have voted for Nixon/Agnew twice. Do you have a problem with that?
I'm old enough to have voted for McGovern once.
I'm also old enough to recall an article by Walter Kirn--who shows up on Gutfeld!--in Harper's or The Atlantic in the 80s, lamenting the decline of rock music into tastlessness.
For real. Dude thought rock and good taste have anything to do with one another.
(That's not a criticism of rock music by the way.)
"impudent" means shameless.
Is "pudent" a word? George Bernard Shaw used it in 1908 in his introduction to the W. H. Davies book "Autobiography of a Super-tramp": "These pudent pages are unstained with the frightful language..of the fictitious proletarians of Mr. Rudyard Kipling and other genteel writers."
Althouse said: "I think this is his theory of why we're going to want to pay $8 a month to use Twitter"
From what I understand the $8 per month is if you want to get verified with a blue check.
If you don't care about verification and a blue check, you can continue what you're doing for free.
The French word "pudeur," is sometimes used in English to mean modesty, including sexual modesty. It's not much of a jump to impudence to mean a shameless impertinence. "Pudent" also shows up in dictionaries with a "chiefly British" label.
Elon used a wonderfully old method of setting the price at $8 for blue checks. He started at $20, a ridiculously high amount, and immediately "folded" when challenged on it, all the way "down" to $8 per month, still a ridiculously high amount. But he "dropped" the price $12!!!!
Well played, well played.
"who else immediately thought of Bill Kristol?"
I was once suspended on Twitter for replying to a typically-inane Kristol tweet about something that will probably never affect him in the future with "Don't worry, you're old and you'll be dead soon."
Apparently, you cannot remind anyone of their mortality on Twitter. It's harassment.
“ Narr said...
I'm old enough to have voted for McGovern once.”
So am I. So old that I voted for Democrats for 25 long suffering years.
Ah but I’m younger than that now.
After my youthful fling with McGovern (I hauled old B/black ladies to the polls in my Bug) I tended Libertarian but wasn't consistent, and didn't always vote.
I voted Libertarian again in '16 and reluctantly for Trump in '20.
My reluctance to vote R diminishes every day.
Oh, there are some on Twitter who try to be the mean girl, and grow censorious when they can't take what they dish out. But, to remain on Twitter as it is, is to subject yourself to being twitted.
Twit
To vex by bringing to notice, or reminding of, a fault, defect, misfortune, or the like; to revile; to reproach; to upbraid; to taunt; as, he twitted his friend of falsehood.
[1913 Webster]
On her back, on my back, eye to eye, in intimate embrace.
I’m glad you cleared that up with the “eye to eye”, as the impulse to shout “yer doing it wrong!” was immediate, nn.
Meanwhile #Trumpisdead is trending on Twitter. Elon's free speech Twitter is getting trolled.
Laugh out effing loud.
You tools think something like that bothers us. It doesn't. At all.
But were the roles reversed? You'd be losing your shit.
See, we're not like you. In any way, shape or form.
And you hate that.
typingtalker said...
Free twitter is like living in a tent on the front lawn -- exposed to the vicissitudes of nature and every horse's-hind-end that passes. Paid twitter moves us into the house -- protected from foul elements and objectionable opinions.
But do we want that protection, and will the price be so high that we just decide to move to a nicer neighborhood?
I've got a really good tent, and there's no nicer neighborhood.
Now, if they want to sell an $8/month "Verified Alias" that I can pay with bitcoin or a pre-paid credit card, they might suck me in.
But I'm not giving them my id to have "accidentally exposed"
Mark said...
Meanwhile #Trumpisdead is trending on Twitter. Elon's free speech Twitter is getting trolled
So?
If you think we're going to care about that, you are just more proof that the Left can't meme, and can't troll.
When Elon meets with advertisers in the next week, I get the feeling that content moderation is going to quietly go back in place. Subscription fees are never going to make Twitter profitable if any signicant amount of advertisers leave.
The problem, Mark, is that Musk is going to be even-handed
Like when they fact-checked the White House tweet about SS payments going up.
And you losers can't handle that.
Heck, if moderation for "hate" and "violence" gets kept, there's going to be a LOT of Lefties getting the boot.
Starting with all of Antifa
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