# Now that Elon Musk has bought Twitter - now the Pit edition (Part 2) **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Tags:** elon-musk\ **Created:** [August 13, 2024, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-2/1005634 "2024-08-13T00:48:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 113
**Author:** ![filmore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/7993a0/32.png) [@filmore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/filmore)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2025, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-2/1005634/2262 "2025-04-21T21:10:39Z")
Assuming they actually use the money to pay people to do science-y stuff, it might work out okay. Even if there is nothing that directly comes out of it, there could be benefits from pouring massive amounts of money into this field. The International Space Station seems that way sometimes. It seems like we’re spending billions of dollars to do somewhat silly stuff like see if dandelions can grow in space. But the side benefit is that lots of people are employed in the space technology field which creates a lot of trickle down benefits. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2025, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-2/1005634/2263 "2025-04-21T21:13:24Z")
> [@filmore](#): > > Assuming they actually use the money to pay people to do science-y stuff This is an administration waging a full-on war against science-y stuff, so I don’t think this is a very safe assumption. > **[Pres. Trump Brings His Anti-Science, Destructive Agenda to White House on Day...](https://www.ucs.org/about/news/pres-trump-brings-his-anti-science-destructive-agenda-white-house-day-one)** > > Trump signals with executive orders onslaught his intent to dismantle science-based public health and environmental protections for the American people while propping up polluting industries’ interests. Statement by the Union of Concerned Scientists. And it only got worse from there. [NPR: Top scientists warn that Trump policies are causing a ‘climate of fear’ in research](https://www.npr.org/2025/04/01/nx-s1-5347411/scientists-trump-research-national-academies-open-letter) ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2025, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-2/1005634/2264 "2025-04-21T23:18:56Z")
Soviet Russia had nothing _but_ a climate of fear, and they still got to space first. Besides, if there’s one thing Nazis are good at, it’s building rockets. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2025, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-2/1005634/2265 "2025-04-21T23:25:16Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > Soviet Russia had nothing _but_ a climate of fear, and they still got to space first. Mainly because the USSR invested early in a dinosaur of an ICBM that the USA would never have bothered with. The R-7 was a “zeroeth generation” ICBM, almost more of a proof of concept than a practical military missile. But it was what the USSR could build in 1957, and if what the Kremlin wanted was to scare the living crap out of the folks at the Pentagon, they succeeded. The Space Race was almost an incidental by-product of this. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2025, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-2/1005634/2266 "2025-04-21T23:25:18Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > Soviet Russia had nothing _but_ a climate of fear, and they still got to space first. Not the same at all. Russia actually wanted science to succeed. Trump wants to suppress science. Here are more articles to demonstrate: > **[Trump cuts would cripple NOAA’s wide-ranging science partnerships](https://www.eenews.net/articles/trump-cuts-would-cripple-noaas-wide-ranging-science-partnerships/)** > > The agency's cooperative institutes study everything from salmon stocks to tropical cyclones. [Reuters: Trump funding freeze upends agricultural research at US universities](https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-funding-freeze-upends-agricultural-research-us-universities-2025-04-17/) > **[Student visa cancellations could hurt U.S. innovation](https://www.marketplace.org/story/2025/04/21/student-visa-cancellations-could-hurt-future-innovation)** > > Anxiety spreads as Trump administration revokes over 1,000 student visas. Many international learners fill jobs in science and technology. > **[Trump administration’s attack on university research accelerates](https://arstechnica.com/science/2025/04/trump-administrations-attack-on-university-research-accelerates/)** > > With billions in grants put on hold, targeted universities will see research crippled. It goes on and on. Russia was in a race with the United States, as each power tried to beat each other to innovation, trying to get an edge on one another on the world stage. There is no such race today, nobody challenging the US and nobody the US is trying to overcome in the field of science. Just a race to the bottom. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2025, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-2/1005634/2267 "2025-04-22T01:01:30Z")
> [@The\_Librarian](#): > > Nope, you clearly self-identified as a cunt. [Moderating] Calling other posters “cunts” is too overtly misogynistic, even for the Pit. Avoid this sort of language in the future. No warning issued. [/Moderating] ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2025, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-2/1005634/2268 "2025-04-22T21:45:11Z")
Well, here’s your classic good news/bad news. The bad news is that Tesla stock is up 4.6% today, on a very good market day. The good news is that Tesla waited until the market was closed to announce first quarter results, in which they missed earnings estimates, with Q1 profit down 71%. After market trading on the stock was generally flat, so we’ll see what happens tomorrow… maybe a lot of this is already priced in. But keep up the good work, haters! ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2025, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-2/1005634/2269 "2025-04-22T22:49:15Z")
See also the Tesla-specific stock price discussion beginning roughly here: > [@Investment general discussion thread](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/investment-general-discussion-thread/1015169/550): > > As we get closer and closer to this moment I’ve been banking on, I realize that it’s too corrupt and irrational to go the way I want. Tesla is either going to cook the books or zoom up even with terrible numbers. They’re going to make a bullshit claim about some new product and the market is going to fall for it. Maybe Trump will tweet something to spike the market to help his owner. I think Tesla is going to go up significantly on bad news. It wouldn’t surprise me at all to see it hit 280 this … ---
**Author:** ![icon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c6cbf5/32.png) [@icon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/icon)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2025, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-2/1005634/2270 "2025-04-27T16:33:23Z")
This made me smile: [https://www.npr.org/2025/04/25/nx-s1-5369456/anti-elon-musk-bumper-sticker-tesla](https://www.npr.org/2025/04/25/nx-s1-5369456/anti-elon-musk-bumper-sticker-tesla) Entrepreneur has now made thousands on anti-Elon stickers. `//i\\` ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2025, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-2/1005634/2271 "2025-04-28T20:15:08Z")
And made a more-successful business than Musk. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2025, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-2/1005634/2272 "2025-05-01T04:58:05Z")
Looking for a sweet CEO gig? Tesla’s hiring! > **[Tesla board looked for new CEO as Musk focused on White House, WSJ reports](https://finance.yahoo.com/news/tesla-board-opened-search-ceo-011913820.html)** > > The current status of the board's push, which, according to the report, was sparked by Musk's heavy involvement with the Trump administration, could not be determined, WSJ said. Musk last week said he would cut back significantly on the time he... Why does my mental compiler interpret “the board’s push, which, according to the report, was sparked by Musk’s heavy involvement with the Trump” as “the board finally realized that it needed to cut the toxic lunatic loose”…? ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2025, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-2/1005634/2273 "2025-05-01T14:30:48Z")
Well, all the _de rigueur_ denials are already flying, but it’s a nice thought. [https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/tesla-board-opened-search-ceo-succeed-elon-musk-wsj-reports-2025-05-01/](https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/tesla-board-opened-search-ceo-succeed-elon-musk-wsj-reports-2025-05-01/) ---
**Author:** ![Buck\_Godot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buck_godot/32/6573_2.png) [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2025, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-2/1005634/2274 "2025-05-02T03:53:08Z")
Boy that decision last year to give him that $56 billion bonus has sure paid off. /s ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2025, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-2/1005634/2275 "2025-05-02T04:58:10Z")
Elon Musk, the Deshaun Watson of Tesla. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2025, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-2/1005634/2276 "2025-05-06T15:22:03Z")
> **[Musk’s politics see Tesla sales collapse in Europe](https://arstechnica.com/cars/2025/05/tesla-sales-fall-by-62-in-the-uk-46-in-germany/)** > > Last month, Tesla sold just 512 cars in the UK and 885 cars in Germany. The decline continues. ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2025, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-2/1005634/2277 "2025-05-06T18:41:50Z")
At this point it wouldn’t surprise me if Tesla goes belly up even if the board of directors managed to oust him from the company, not just for ruining the brand with his toxic antics but also for saddling Tesla with a huge backlog of increasingly unsellable Cybertrucks, ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2025, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-2/1005634/2278 "2025-05-06T22:07:15Z")
> [@EddyTeddyFreddy](#): > > also for saddling Tesla with a huge backlog of increasingly unsellable Cybertrucks, Yes, Elon’s policy of doing no market research really paid off with that one! ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2025, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-2/1005634/2279 "2025-05-06T23:04:20Z")
To be fair, all Tesla models’ sales are cratering due to muskhate. Well deserved muskhate. Looking across many industries and multiple decades, many decent businesses and products died a horrible death from being introduced at the wrong point in the business cycle. The CT had the misfortune to enter large scale production just as that mostly exogenous muskhate shock hit. And had no reservoir of market momentum to carry it across the ongoing abyss. I’d say it, like many idiosyncratic autos before it, had a decent shot at routine success and an outside chance at extreme success. It just didn’t happen, mostly due to bad timing. None of which excuses musk from being a raging psycho threat to all of humanity. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2025, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-2/1005634/2280 "2025-05-07T00:16:49Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > I’d say it, like many idiosyncratic autos before it, had a decent shot at routine success and an outside chance at extreme success. It just didn’t happen, mostly due to bad timing. I think a high price and serious flaws were going to hurt its sales and reputation regardless of Musk’s extracurriculars. I can objectively say there are definitely some good features in that metal fuglytruck. It’s apparently really easy to drive and corners well for a truck. Maybe future models could have built off of its good points and tried to fix the bad ones, as happens with many new products. (Look at the original iPhone and look at how much it has improved over the past couple of decades.) But it probably won’t get a chance for the very reasons you stated. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2025, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-2/1005634/2281 "2025-05-07T05:53:11Z")
> [@EddyTeddyFreddy](#): > > At this point it wouldn’t surprise me if Tesla goes belly up even if the board of directors managed to oust him from the company The dilemma for the company is that Musk’s continued tenure is the only thing propping up the stock price, because there continues to be this mystifying cultish belief in his entrepreneurial techbro superpowers. If the board ousts Musk, that cult evaporates, and Tesla stock collapses down to its proper valuation, somewhere in the $20-25 range, which means the company financially implodes. They have to hang onto the tiger’s tail and hope for the best. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-2/1005634.md?page=112) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-2/1005634.md?page=114)