Elon Musk is worth $250 billion and holds the title of the world’s richest man. His immense wealth has instilled in him a sense of invincibility, leading him to believe he can say whatever the hell he wants. Because he can. For Musk, there will never be meaningful consequences: no lawsuit too expensive to settle, no public backlash too severe to weather. Even after paying $44 billion for a platform that subjects him to daily criticism and mockery, his core beliefs remain unchanged. He continues to view his fortune not merely as evidence of his intelligence but as a mandate that elevates his opinions above those of others.
Much of the public fascination with Musk is our desire to see him fail. We want to see Karma bite him in the ass. We want to see comeuppance delivered. But listen to me: That is not going to happen. Ever. There are no laws against saying stupid shit, and even if he spends millions of dollars to help Donald Trump win an election and he loses, it won’t change a thing. He will not learn from it. It doesn’t matter that the Secret Service is aware of a tweet he posted asking why no one has bothered to try to assassinate Joe Biden or Kamala Harris. He is the most privileged person on the planet. There’s nothing to be done about it.
The only thing we can hope for is that he is eventually deprived of the $44 billion megaphone that allows him to push his opinions out to the world. It won’t humble him. It won’t even quiet him. But it may reduce his ubiquitous presence in public discourse.
Could Twitter/X be heading toward bankruptcy? Fortune reports an increasingly dire financial situation, with ad revenue reportedly down 84% since Musk’s acquisition. This decline may force Musk to sell an additional $1-2 billion in Tesla stock to keep the platform afloat, potentially impacting the valuation of Tesla.
The question remains: How long will Musk allow Tesla’s stock to suffer to maintain his social media influence? While he could theoretically use his personal fortune to sustain Twitter indefinitely, at some point, the platform’s failure might outweigh his ego’s demands.
X/Twitter’s declining influence is evident in its app store rankings. In August, it placed 43rd among the most downloaded apps in the Apple store, while competitor Threads ranked second, behind only TikTok. As X/Twitter’s user base shrinks, so does its influence—and with it, Musk’s ability to leverage the platform for his purposes.
However, it’s worth noting that Twitter’s potential demise won’t fundamentally change Elon Musk. It may simply mean we hear less from him. Barring extraordinary circumstances, the public is unlikely to witness the comeuppance we all so desire, the reality of which makes posts like this a lot less gratifying.
You know the deal: We use images of Lee Pace in lieu of Elon Musk for aesthetic reasons, with apologies to Lee Pace.