One of megalomaniac right-winger Elon Musk's traits, beyond his pure weirdness, is his knack of biting off more than he can chew. His purchase of Twitter is a good example: he swept in, fired over 75% of the employees, trashed the platform's moderation standards, and caused advertisers to abandon him as he allowed hate speech and conspiracies back on the site. His defect-prone electric vehicle's performance has caused its stock to sink, as buyers were also turned off by his right-wing brand.
However, even after last week's disastrous roll out of Gov. Ron "Bootsie" DeSantis' campaign on Twitter Spaces, Musk has pretensions of turning Twitter into the right-wing's premier go-to place for disinformation, conspiracies and propaganda, replacing a weakened Fox:
"For years, Fox News has attracted the right-wing base and served as a powerful force in Republican politics so much so that officials target the network's coverage as a political tactic.
But with the recent firing of Carlson, who raked in millions of views, Fox's recent ratings have slumped and its grip on the Republican base is slipping, presenting a ripe opportunity for another platform to surpass the network's reign. [snip]
The new owner of Twitter has already won over the far-right by relaxing Twitter's policies on hate speech and disinformation and reinstating previously banned right-wing extremists.
His actions are increasing Twitter's reputation 'as the wild west of disinformation,' said Jill Garvey, chief of staff at Western States Center.
'This is the place now where people can go who want to spread conspiracy theories and content that is not allowed on other platforms,' she said. 'Fox News isn't going anywhere so the threat may be less about Twitter replacing Fox News and more about Twitter just becoming an ever-expanding network of places where disinformation can spread.'" (our emphasis)
Musk will be vying with other growing right-wing outlets that are already winning Fox's audience, like Newsmax, that are more sophisticated about the media than Musk has been with his deconstruction of Twitter. He's hired a supposed whiz at marketing from NBC/Universal to be Twitter's CEO, although there's much doubt about how much authority she'll wield over Musk's toy. He'll also face competition from emerging Twitter alternatives like Bluesky and Mastodon that provide an alternative to the increasing hate speech and right-wing vitriol. We'll see if his plans to be the new "Bullshit Mountain" succeed or flame out like some of his Teslas.
