…just out of interest, what kind of review did the advertising team (which generated over 4 billion dollars last year) go through before many (if not most) of them were laid off in a fairly quick manner?
Nobody involved in your linked thread was an $8 subscriber. Just take the L and do better going forward.
It was a doctored tweet. I’ve done this before, no big deal, it’s just the nature of the Internet nowadays: we’ll all get taken in, given time.
On the other hand, I think the original tweet (which was deleted) was much worse:
Regardless, this entire kerfuffle is showing that Twitter is degrading as a reliable source of information. Which was the point.
The one where he’s shown responding to hitler-whatever is doctored, yes.
But he did actually make this reply:
Where he’s responding oddly to a random innocuous post about wildlife in Madagascar with what seems like a non sequitur about the future … unless you know that references to “88” are coded nods between neo-Nazis. For someone as terminally online as Musk is, there’s no way he doesn’t know this.
At best, he noticed the “88” in the wildlife tweet, and is making a weird and tacky joking reference to the number. Which invites a question about why he’s searching for “88” in people’s tweets.
The fabricated replies are then taking off from Musk’s own bizarre specific example, not invented from nothing.
@JohnT. I know you know this, though Elon seems not to.
There is nothing “conservative” about the reactionary right’s counter-narrative. Nothing at all. It’s a far more radical proposal than anything trotted out by the wokerati.
Because tweeting “Heil Hitler!” is a bit too on the nose even for a lickspittle like Musk. He does like his emergent fascism, though:
Stranger
Are you saying he wasn’t?
Moderating
Please don’t make it personal. This is IMHO, not the pit.
We realize, he is trolling us all, don’t we? He knows that people, both pros and antis, will get hung up on “88”(*) and satisfy his thirsts both for attention and for making others uncomfortable with impunity.
(* aside of that: is every instance of the number 88 for the rest of Internet history going to require a linked cite to prove that is in reference to an actual numerical value? or only if it’s an annoying putz posting it?)
Deciding to quickly form a loyal opposition, I am going on the record as saying this is more-likely-than-not a reference to the original tweet which was itself referencing the linked Wiki article which mentioned “88 million years”.
Sometimes a cigar is just a smoke, ladies and gentlemen. 
When it comes to this guy?:
Stranget
For the longest time, I wondered why discussions of Elon Musk were often illustrated with photos of Doug Benson
Aside from discussions of pianos, most likely.
Well, 88rising is an Asian record company, more specifically Asian-American (they also have a channel on SiriusXM radio) which has nothing to do with the other thing. In Asia the number 8 is a symbol of good luck.
Well, in Chinese culture at least. However, I haven’t seen any indication that Musk has any interest in Chinese numerology, while he has definitely courted right-wing figures and clearly enjoys a good dogwhistle, whether it is making oh-so-clever references to drug use or flaming up “the Libs”, and it isn’t as if the association of “88” with neo-Nazi movements is an unknown thing.
Stranger
Well, definitely. However I was answering the other question. “Does the number 88 on the internet have any other meaning?”
…an hour ago the New Zealand contingent of white supremacists had their accounts restored. :: sigh :: Including the guy who was jailed for sharing the livestream of the Christchurch shooting who is now trying to get people to subscribe to his political party.
Thanks Elon.
I have never heard this usage of ‘88’ before as a code word for Nazis. Where does it comes from?
As for other usages, maybe he was just trying to keep things straight:
i.e. the obvious other ‘88’ is the number of keys on a piano.
How about using 820 for Heil Twitler?