[ExI] Twitter: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

Fri Feb 27 22:40:59 UTC 2026

From: John Clark <johnkclark at gmail.com> 
Sent: Friday, 27 February, 2026 1:11 PM
To: spike at rainier66.com
Cc: ExI chat list <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org>
Subject: Re: [ExI] Twitter: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

On Fri, Feb 27, 2026 at 10:43 AM <spike at rainier66.com <mailto:spike at rainier66.com> > wrote:

 > I watched the video. 

>…Did you really? There was nothing in it that made you think twice about using TwitterX as your primary news source?

TwitterX isn’t a news source.  It is a medium.  TwitterX doesn’t stand behind anything posted there as being true.  Nor should its users.  It is up to the users to determine if the news they find there is true or false.

> You make it sound like a bad thing to be the richest man in the world.  Clearly he knows his business. 

>…Elon Musk has virtues, but not nearly as many as I once thought he did.

As do we all.

>…Yes, and you can pick how you choose to get your news…

I do.

>…The richest man in the world has ordered his minions to engineer the master Twitter algorithm such that it's very easy for you to find things that he wants you to find, and very difficult for you to find things that he doesn't want you to find….

Of course.  Every news agency is that way.  Solution: have several different news agencies.

>…I know something I bet you haven't read on TwitterX. Tesla is no longer the biggest electric car maker in the world….

I know that well, for I have been following the industry in order to guide my investment in power infrastructure.  I don’t care which one is the biggest.  I only care how many EVs are sold.

>… And BYD is able to sell Electric cars that are as good or better than Tesla's for considerably less and still make a profit….

Good for them.  Now if they sell enough of them, they will make power infrastructure a good investment.  In the meantime, it isn’t.  Reason: the other big power eater, the AI people, have turned to building their own power generation facilities.  So the investment opportunities are in that area, not in building up the grid.  EV sales in the US are flat.  They were supposed to be going up steeply by now.

https://ourworldindata.org/electric-car-sales

> If Musk didn’t do good things, he wouldn’t be rich.

>…If Musk had not bought Twitter in 2022…

Then Twitter would be out of business.  That would be bad.

>…and instead invested that $44 billion into AI he'd be even richer today, although he'd have less political influence, so I suppose he figures it was worth it….

It is worth it.  Elon has enough money.  It is a good thing there is a place on the internet where anyone can post whatever they wish, so long as it isn’t criticism of Musk.  I don’t think that is such an onerous restriction.  I have nothing against him.

> Without Musk, there would be no TwitterX today. 

>…Yes, and the world would be a better place… John K Clark    See what's on my list at  Extropolis <https://groups.google.com/g/extropolis> 

This is an odd position for one who created Extropolis as a free speech site.  TwitterX is good.  It is a place where true stuff can be found that isn’t as easily available elsewhere.  No one is compelled to be there.  You can hang out in safer spaces if you prefer.  Musk is rich.  Being rich is good.  Saving Twitter is good, even if it isn’t yet generating money.

spike  

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