Just a month or so into his tenure at the helm of Twitter, Elon
Musk has left little doubt – for both denizens of the
platform and casual observers alike – that he appears to
believe the adage about there being no such thing as bad
publicity.
Were this a tale of an obscure, new tech start-up or a novice
executive, the deluge of barely half-baked ideas, hastily
promulgated and swiftly publicized policies, and quarrelsome
rhetoric would be easy to brush aside as awkward growing pains or
perhaps even charitably characterized as an admirable if
wrongheaded willingness to think outside the box.
However, because of Mr. Musk's high profile and the
supersized influence that Twitter has on our public discourse, Mr.
Musk's idiosyncratic views and erratic style are difficult to
ignore. More than that, they are also worth taking seriously to the
extent that they have the potential to set the tone on topics
ranging from freedom of expression to employment relations.
