It was a bad week for Governor Ron DeSantis. I’m still trying to determine whether it was a bad week for Elon Musk, but whether it was or wasn’t isn’t going to make me feel good or bad for the guy. But the two of them together failing was priceless. It was one of those moments that made me believe in karma.
The reason? They are the King Doofuses of trying to convince us that they are manly men who are competent at anything anymore. They take over companies or statehouses, remain out of touch with the general population, and act tough against their opponents because…I dunno, maybe they’re trying to compensate for something?
Could there have been a more tone deaf presidential campaign announcement to show the country that you are the representative of all the people than sitting down with the world’s second richest man? (Musk vacillates between the first and second spot based on how much he’s destroyed Tesla shareholder value on any given week.)
Musk has now made it clear that he will deploy his precious social media purchase without any regard for questions of media bias. He sees what Rupert Murdoch and Fox News have wrought, he watches as they get hit by high 9-figure lawsuits, and he welcomes the opportunity to be the voice of the billionaire class and people who can’t see the world beyond 280 characters.
For an evening, 280 characters were reduced to 2 characters, and the result was some expected BS, an unexpected HM, some OW for the two of them, and (to add one character) some LOL for their opponents across the political spectrum.
If I had to choose between these two characters, I’d have to choose Musk, because at least he’s not hating on women who want abortions, the LGBTQ+ community, Latin American migrants, “the woke,” or anyone else who offends his superior sense of morality. Musk has actually built companies and put a lot of people to work, while DeSantis has put a lot of gun-toting anti-gay and anti-immigrant protestors on the streets.
So why would Musk, a very smart guy, align himself with a divisive governor and presidential candidate who is both anti-gay and anti-business at the same time? Why put his platform behind a guy who defines himself more by what he’s against than what he’s for? For a businessman, this moment was tone-deaf too, and I’m glad it failed and made both of them look bad.
I just checked my Twitter account. I haven’t tweeted in almost 10 months, and I’ve done so only 5 times in the past 5 years. As a user, I find it a cacophonous place where people shout at each other constantly. (As a digital marketer by profession, I find it a horrible place to find customers.) If you’re a reporter, or if you like to follow celebrities or pundits, it may be a good place to hang out, but I wouldn’t consider it a place for thought leadership. If you can’t think deeper than 280 characters—even in our short-attention-span, ADHD society—then you have shallow thought leadership, which typically isn’t very far-sighted. Ergo, Musk and DeSantis.
Silly moments are soon forgotten in American politics. Trump standing still on an elevator as it descended didn’t stop him from winning the White House. Bill Clinton trying to define “is” didn’t lose him the White House. DeSantis and his white booties didn’t stop him from getting this far. We’ll move on to the next chapter in the coming parade of idiocy that is another presidential election, and DeSantis will go on to spread his usual brand of bile again. But don’t expect it to go much deeper than 280 characters. You don’t need to read that much of DeSantis to know what he’s all about. In fact, four letters and some punctuation might do the trick: TL;DR
Maybe that’s something all of us should do with Twitter, in the name of deeper thought leadership.
