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Meet the new boss

Does it matter that Elon Musk will apparently own Twitter?

That's the news this Tuesday morning: $44 billion for outright ownership.

Not to define things by what they are not, but Understandably.com is unusual among email newsletters in that very few people come to it from Twitter. I think that's because most don't use Twitter very much to begin with.

Currently, I'm on Twitter for three things. Maybe four.

First, (a) cute things my daughter says, (b) jokes that generally fall flat, (c) observations about American democracy like: “the presidential line of succession is a ticking constitutional time bomb, just saying.”

Don't say I didn't warn y'all.

Oh, I also use Twitter because the "save tweet" button makes it easy to remember links that might make for good items among "7 other things." (BTW, my Twitter handle is: @billmurphyjr.)

Anyway, among the universe of individual bazillionaires who might have acquired Twitter, Musk seems to me to be among the least-worst. Because even if you don't use Twitter, the conversations there often drive "the agenda" in the broader world.

Case in relevant point, Libs of TikTok, a Twitter account (mostly anonymous), despite its name, which had a big impact and LGBTQ+ people and public schools over the past nine months—including new new laws in Florida and several other states.

You can like that or not like it, but it's largely what drove the conversation, and it’s largely in turn, because of Twitter.

Now, one person will own the platform on which conversations like that are driven. Hmmm.

I've realized recently that I'm a bit of an institutionalist. I am inclined to want to believe in the long-term efficacy of tested institutions, even despite the inadequacies of the people who currently hold positions in those institutions.

So, not to make this 100 percent autobiographical, but:

• As an American citizen living in the U.S. in the 21st century, who ...

• Grew up in the Roman Catholic church, and who still believes mostly, but that's a different newsletter—and who...

• Served in the U.S. military during the Iraq War (2003-2011)—and who..

Well, etc; we could go on—but as a card-carrying Gen-Xer, I think I've got two choices (further use of bullet points):

1. Resolve to burn it all down, or else

2. Try to believe that institutions might often be greater than the people who sometimes (even often) control them.

I land on the latter. Individual people often disappoint me, but I do tend to have faith in humanity as a whole, because what's the alternative?

And yet, now Twitter, which punches above its weight, the institution comes down to a single man.

Heh-heh-heh. What could go wrong?

Maybe I should embrace my against-all-odds optimism.

What could go right?

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7 other things worth knowing today

• Prime target if Republicans win Congress: Hunter Biden, according to reports. (AP)

• ‘Plane swap' stunt is unsuccessful, spirals out of control. (USAT)

• Popular Democrat Joe Manchin, U.S. Senator from deep red West Virginia. (Morning Consult, National Review)

• NASA “holoported” a doctor onto the International Space Station. (CNET)

• My take, many years ago, when a political amateur (Jeff Bezos) bought the Washington Post. (Archive: Inc.com)

• Elon Musk’s mother’s advice a few years back. (Archive: Inc.com).

• Latest thing people are upset about is this 1978 SNL skit:

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