On this timely episode of The Editors, Rich questions the panelists about Elon Musk’s first day at Twitter HQ. Phil is here for it, and says he “might have to go to Costco this weekend and stock up on popcorn. . . .”
He draws listeners’ attention to a stunt pulled by some employees, who decided to write a letter to Musk: “One of the things I found fascinating about it . . . it was from ‘the undersigned,’ but not actually signed by anyone because they don’t feel safe enough to actually say it. And it was just sort of the ridiculous liberal-arts-college-freshman-activist sort of language about ‘We demand this, and we demand these benefits, and we demand x, y, and z.’” The stunt often works, Phil reminds listeners. “And one of the reasons is that . . . you’re dealing with a class of executives that are frightened about being perceived as being on the wrong side of the current . . . ‘correct’ side of the culture wars.” Not only that, but he points out that these CEOs were terrified of losing tech talent, because “the perception is all these people who are techies are all on board with all of this woke nonsense.”
Trying to get a read on Musk is tricky, but Phil argues it’s obvious that the entrepreneur “clearly doesn’t give a damn about this stuff. He’s not worried about offending people, and he doesn’t seem to have fear about all these people walking.” Hopefully, Phil reasons, Musk’s stance will make an impact on other leaders. “It might make them think, ‘Hey, as the chief executive, I actually have more leverage over people, and I can’t live in fear of whatever my workforce is going to be offended by on any given day.’”
There is definitely a general panic from various progressives over Musk’s move, and Maddy thinks that “people are just very uncomfortable with it because it’s a loss of power for them.”
She also addresses the elephant in the room: Trump. “I think obviously a huge thing’s been made of Trump and whether Trump would return [to the platform] . . . but again, I think people have short memories. I’m not sure Twitter really served Trump that well. He was on Twitter all before the 2020 election, and he lost it. . . . . Phil’s right: I think we should just get popcorn and enjoy watching this unfold.”
Does MBD agree? Listen to find out.