Elon Musk Amplifies Baseless Conspiracy Theory in Pelosi Attack
Category: News & Politics
Via: revillug • 2 years ago • 32 commentsBy: Tracy Connor (The Daily Beast)
Just days after promising advertisers that Twitter would not be a "free-for-all," the new owner promoted a right-wing rumor about the vicious hammer assault on Paul Pelosi.
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
WELCOME TO THE HELLSCAPE
Just days after he promised advertisers that Twitter would not become a "free-for-all hellscape," Elon Musk used the platform he now owns to amplify a baseless conspiracy theory about the hammer attack on Nancy Pelosi's husband by an intruder.
"There is a tiny possibility there might be more to this story than meets the eye," Musk tweeted Sunday morning in reply to a tweet by Hillary Clinton blasting the Republican Party for creating a toxic environment that lays the groundwork for violence against politicians.
Musk linked out to a story, which is no longer accessible, in an online conservative rag called the Santa Monica Observer claiming that the suspect did not break into the Pelosis' San Francisco home hunting for Nancy.
Instead the invisibly sourced "story" alleged that Paul Pelosi, 82, was having a liaison with a male sex worker. While others have also hinted at this rumor—twisting themselves into pretzels to explain such details as the broken window and a 911 call—none of them have the reach or influence of Musk.
And the outlet he cited is particularly unreliable. As the Los Angeles Times has reported, Santa Monica Observer has been the source of other patently false, ridiculous articles, including one that a body double for Hillary Clinton was sent to a debate with Donald Trump and that Kanye West was given a top job in the Interior Department.
Musk's irresponsible tweet comes just hours after Nancy Pelosi said in a statement that she and her family are "heartbroken and traumatized" by the attack on Paul, which left him with a fractured skull that had to be repaired in surgery.
The House speaker was in Washington during the attack, allegedly carried out by David DePape, 42, a Bay Area man who has promoted QAnon ideas and other far-right conspiracy theories online. He is expected to be formally charged on Monday.
Musk's takeover of Twitter has been cheered by conservatives who hope that he will reverse lifetime bans from the platform for various violations of the rules.
But that hasn't happened yet: Musk announced last week that he is forming content "councils" and will not be un-banning anyone or setting new guidelines until they start meeting.
After Musk spread the Pelosi story, several people replied to him saying they had reported his tweet. But hours later, his reply to Clinton remained up and it was unclear if anyone had reviewed his post.
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Whelp, that didn't take long.
Sickening all the way around.
Not unexpected.
Twitter conservatives flooded it with memes and quotes that Trump won, Covid was a Hoax but Ivermectin works, while seeming to tempt the moderators to clamp down on that behavior or people competing to see how many times they could use the word "nigger" in a sentence.
If Twitter tanks of becomes another parlor, so be it. Musk is sometimes his own worst enemy.
He paid 10% more than Twitter was worth, now it's delisted as a private company
but investors keep punishing Tesla for Elon's behavior at Twitter
Tesla lost 75 billion in value Thursday.
Good. He is trash.
Has also has 'favorable feelings' for The Putin Regime. That must mean something, right?
April 4 Tesla was trading for $404 per share
It dropped to $209.38 by May 24 before starting to recover to just over $300 per share in October.
After Musk walked into Twitter HQ with a sink and started firing everyone
Tesla shares plummeted to $216 Oct 27 as he vowed to purge the company.
Of what?
Value?
How much did you lose? What was the cost when you bought?
I sold my private shares in April.
My old 401K listed Tesla as a major investment and has lost enough to keep me working for the foreseeable future.
I hear you, and some here think that it's primarily the 1% in the market and we are all winners.
Nobody wins if everybody loses.
I think it looks more like a bathroom sink, rather than a kitchen one. Think of the significance of that. LOL Personally I think it means he's going to turn twitter into shit, or run it down the drain.
Yes he is. To be fair, he may have not known that his retweet was bullshit but he's no longer in a position where he can just fire from the hip. As the CEO of the company he has a duty to factcheck everything before he tweets.
As far as Tesla losing $75 billion, it's still worth $716 billion and his net worth is still around $224 billion. So I don't think he's sweating it too much.
Probably not but the just fired upper echelon of Twitter will probably be going to court soon.
They were reportedly fired "for cause" to allow Musk to not pay severance or any stock value
owed under their contracts.
That may bite him in the ass eventually.
Yeah, maybe. I don't know the employment laws in CA well enough to know one way or the other. I know CA is strong on unions but I don't live there so really havn't paid that much attention to the employment laws of CA. Time will tell just how badly it bites him.
Today Musk was "just thinking out loud" when he suggested that Twitter
should charge members $20 per month to verify their accounts and prove they aren't bots.
I'm with Steven King, "fuck that"...
Does it seem like Musk wants Twitter to fail?
Because buyers will shun Tesla cars.
Anybody can make an electric car at this point.
Hyundai has the Kona for around $24,000. Considerably cheaper than a Tesla.
If I was going to spend as much as a tesla costs I would just get an Audi.
Did Tesla lose the $75 billion or did some select investors get purged?
The value in the company plunged hurting investors more than it hurt Tesla or Musk.
Overall Tesla lost $128 Billion in April and 75 Billion this past Thursday.
Musk personally lost $25 Billion in April and another $15 Billion thgis week.
Every time he runs his mouth publicly he seems to lose a ton of $$.
In June he told Tesla to downsize by 10% because "he had a super bad feeling about the
economy" and share prices plunged 09%.
He's no Warren Buffet. He shares too much.
Some people wonder how the Tesla stock price ever got this high in the first place.
And that is my point. Is Musk a 'ponzi dude'?
Tesla makes a great deal of money selling its tax credits to other EV builders.
It was reported that for many years the selling of their EV tax credits keep it afloat.
You just have to love our tax code.
One way to destroy twitter. Make it another 4chan.
tweet by Hillary Clinton blasting the Republican Party for creating a toxic environment that lays the groundwork for violence against politici
as if this has any more basis In reality.
If ever there was a case of physician, heal thyself.
Putin needs all of the cover he can get. Although I suspect Putin and Musk may be a dollar short and a day late.
Musk is protecting something. Is it the 'wealth class' or is it something else more sinister?
Elon Musk embodies everything bad about modern America rolled into one.
He thinks money buys him omnipotence.
He is narcissistic in a very public way.
Has no respect for truth.
Is a very eccentric personality with a big megaphone.
Probably either bipolar or a mildly autistic savant.
If the "new and exacerbated" Twitter becomes a right wing echo chamber, I suspect it will lose some of its value and most of its appeal.
CEOs who spread political dogma usually hurt their potential bottom line.
Tesla will probably lose more of its value too (it's still overpriced).
Much cheaper EVs are coming online now, so Tesla may become a battery company.
Keep your eye on Ford. The F-150 will soon become the largest selling EV.
Interesting.
Ford has two things Tesla doesn't have yet besides nostalgia.
The F150 and the Mustang.
By 2026 Ford will be the leader.