Elon Musk’s Twitter Retreat Really Says It All
We’re starting to see the limits of the social media-driven memestock pop.
Just an ordinary Twitter user worth $200 billion.
Photographer: Britta Pedersen/Getty Images
Crowds are easily exploited by their leaders, theorized 19th-century psychologist Gustave Le Bon, whose mantra for guiding the masses was: “Assertion, repetition, contagion.” Today’s financial markets are much the same — but crowd control has its challenges.
Easily-shared memes, GIFs and tweets have fueled a volatile stampede into corners of the stock market, metals and cryptocurrencies, with tech billionaires such as Elon Musk or Chamath Palihapitiya goading them on. Screenshots of brokerage balances are flaunted like war wounds. Slogans like “Crash JPMorgan, buy Silver” are shared at speed before there’s time to point out their inconsistencies. Memes of Bart Simpson writing “I will never sell AMC” serve as a warning to those who chicken out and fail to “hold the line.”