If you want to judge Musk on his business acumen, I'm not sure Twitter is the right example to use. He bought Twitter, at least to my understanding, not because he was believed he could turn a big profit there, but because he believed the American people deserved a true "town hall", and not one moderated and controlled by the communist, dictatorial demands of the administration. By opening the Twitter files up to independent journalists, Musk exposed just how far this administration is willing to go to control the narrative, even if it means suppressing the truth. Personally, I'm thankful this was exposed, and continued to be disappointed and dismayed by the laissez faire attitude of fellow citizens regarding the abuse of power foisted on them.
I'm not a Musk historian and I'm not really out to defend him, but it seems to me he had a number of successful businesses prior to SpaceX (an incredible accomplishment, by the way, one with which I'm personally familiar and do business with), including Zip2 and Paypal, neither of which were dependent on government subsidies, unless I'm mistaken. Those might be better examples to judge his business success free of government influence.
By the way, I would hardly say that Twitter/X were free of government subsidies prior to Musk's purchase, as the Twitter files have laid bare the payment schemes by the administration for Twitter to do their bidding. This is but one reason they were so panicked when Musk made his offer. And I would not say that Twitter/X are operating in a truly free market right now, as government influence is weighing heavily on their operations. Will it be able to withstand the heavy thumb of this administration? That depends on how much Americans value their freedoms (and also in no small part on the many law suits against this administration, and the judgements of the courts). |
