The cruelty does seem to be the point.

Not sure how we escape that the gravity of it.

Part of the mostly made up version of the American Dream is like "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" which oddly also implies "and then once you have, close the door behind you. Don't want this party getting too crowded". My point is that fetishizing capitalism requires a taste for squeezing others for all their worth. If others aren't, then that means you endured that bootstrap pain for no reason!

I mean, if you don't like Twitter, and don't like musk, the whole thing is very entertaining

lulz certainly abound here--there's been a lot of great comedy in this.

But I read the GP to mean they've seen people crossing a thin line.

I doubt any of us are above a bit of schadenfreude when the fates deal a fair dose of karma to someone we think deserves it.

But actively cheering (and trying to multiply, in the case of aggressive trolling) the sadism in public is a kind of dark prayer.

Spot on.

Oh, some highly paid people (that made product that actively made society worse) will need to find a new job, how utterly sadistic /s

Finding pleasure in the suffering of other people is quite literally the definition of sadism. Be proud of it if you want, but that’s what it is.

I think this is nearly as destructive of a perspective. People have become way, way too obsessed with what is entertaining and are willing to accept way too much horrible stuff in the name of the lulz.

It’s really not a game show. There are important ideas being tested and norms being created (or destroyed).

How is it horrible? In my view, Twitter is actively harmful to society, so seeing it crash and burn is not only funny, but looks like a good thing, even if it means some highly-paid SWEs need to find new jobs.

A 160MM+ DAU social network “crashing and burning” doesn’t mean “poof” one night and it’s gone.

The biggest self-own in the industry will be if Elon is successful and then the whole software industry suddenly is inspired not by (yes, perhaps excessive) kindness/comfort/generosity of a good work life but by cut throat PE-style management with an added layer of emotional manchild tantrums.

There’s a reason VCs are cheering this on and it’s because lower standards in the software industry will save them all money.

Well hopefully Twitter will completely implode and what's left will be sold off for a tiny, tiny fraction of what Elon spent for it. Then the VCs will have to come to grips with the idea that having lower standards and cutthroat management doesn't result in profitability, but rather utter failure.

Well I see Twitter in its previous form as actively harmful to society, especially since few years ago when Twitter decided that they no longer just show what's popular but actively manipulate it [1]. Like, the short format was bad enough on its own (encourages shouting in the void instead of actual discussion), and that's just more bad on top of bad

And I also see musk's compulsive lying and arrogance as harmful, althought in more limited scope.

So from my perspective it's one bad thing destroying other bad thing. What's not to be happy about ?

Sure, Twitter transforming into not a vile piece of shit it is today into something decent would also be nice outcome but I don't even know how that would work so it burning is next best thing.

* [1] https://www.forbes.com/sites/olliebarder/2022/11/14/japanese...

There are a lot of things to criticize about Twitter but it shows a lack of imagination if you think the worst possible thing you could do with a 160MM+ daily active users is give them short form conversation dynamics, and that the other possible outcome is “it burns.”

It is absolutely possible that Twitter turns into a 4chan-esque cesspool of vitriol and hatred but at massive scale due to a gradual frog boil of 160MM+. Not to say Twitter had none of this, but again, it takes little imagination to worry about it getting much, much worse.