Character Limit

Character Limit: How Elon Musk Destroyed Twitter by Kate Conger

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Elon Musk, richest man in the world (and wannabe super-villain/savior of the human race) decided that he wanted to run the so called “Digital Public Square,” a place where millions (like myself) updated and pontificated, made jokes and shared our innermost thoughts. Somehow there is something so cathartic and addictive about telling hundreds/thousands of people some random bit of life story, a deep dark secret you might never tell people in the real world.

But Musk wanted it all for himself. Declaring that he wanted to bring freedom of speech back, he began his push to force the board of Twitter and Jack Dorsey et al into accepting an offer for the site…

Rumblings of this began in 2022…friends of mine left the site in advance, wanting nothing to do with a wannabe fascist who seems to get his own way in all things. Others (like me) stayed on to see what would happen next…maybe he wouldn’t buy it…and indeed, as Character Limit chronicles, it was not a direct line from here to there. But Musk pushed for it, offering 44 billion dollars (based on the number of shares x 54.20 stock price). He made the offer, which was generally agreed to be way more than the company was worth…tried to back out of it, was forced into following through…then completed the sale in 2023 and as we know now, used all his power to elect the allegedly business friendly Donald Trump to a second term as president, by the narrowest of margins…
The book ends well before the 2024 election. But that’s what wound up happening.

Character Limit takes us all the way through the sale. Conger and Mac do a thorough job of walking us through it, revealing the iron fist and shocking level of immaturity of the new corporate overlord. Musk could do anything he wants to…anything at all. When he brought a sink into the office to make a photo op/bad joke “Let that sink in” we were all condemned to a site that would be his personal repository for unfunny jokes and observations that would carry weight because…well, he’s the richest man in the world and he must know something…

He manages employees through fear and personal whims. He fires and makes cost saving cutbacks with no regard for an employee’s value and certainly no regard for them as a person.
He believes he knows everything, and that the existence of Twitter (now: “X”) is vital to the survival of humanity. (I mean, who talks like that?) Where are the religious leaders speaking out about someone who essentially is trying to say he’s the next Jesus?

It’s a terrific book. If you want the blueprint for how he is proceeding with DOGE and wrecking the Federal Government thus paving the way to fascism, you really have to check this out.




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