The era of “dissidents” like Elon Musk, Donald Trump and Kanye West is over

Last Sunday, Elon Musk Post a poll on his new game, Twitter, leaving his future as CEO of the platform in the hands of its users. “Should I step down as president of Twitter?” he wrote. “I will stand by the results of this poll.”

In retrospect, this may just be one of the billionaire’s less wise decisions (that’s the man who named his son X Æ A-Xii).

With more than 17.5 million votes cast, some 57.5% of respondents decided that the 51-year-old founder of SpaceX should not remain the head of the site, which undoubtedly hurts the vanity so much that, paradoxically, it is already visible from space. .

Now, Twitter is actively searching for a new CEO with Musk tweeting that he will remain at the post until he finds a new CEO.Someone foolish enough to take the job!”

In buying Twitter for $44 billion, Musk may have just reached that tipping point when a maverick’s ego begins to eat away at their more rational thought processes, especially one that has only turned a profit occasionally since it went public in 2013 and It was, of course, a deal he tried to undo.

This is the problem with defectors. Yes, they do things differently, pushing boundaries and envelopes and people getting in the way, but eventually, their egos become their own obstacle – and we all end up suffering in the process.

Yes, fame, massive riches, and all that endless self-lacking will inevitably change anyone. But in the hands of a Maverick, it could cause untold damage. Just ask any Brit who has had to put up with Boris Johnson’s endless rants until very recently.

With his tattered suits and haystack hair, Johnson has long portrayed himself as a political maverick, and for the most part, the UK seems to like him — which is why he scored a landslide victory in the 2019 general election.

But he thinks it’s bulletproof.

He hosted parties against COVID rules and made friends with Russians with KGB connections. He had extramarital affairs and an unspecified number of children. And in his final act as Prime Minister, he promoted a friend, even though he was a known sexual predator.

In the end, power always goes to the dissident’s head.

Donald Trump, Johnson’s fellow maverick, once called Johnson “Britain Trump” (sic), a genius epithet that not only succeeds in describing the chubby former prime minister’s inflated self-opinion, but also the effect, real or imagined, that Trump has had on Himself had the leadership style of Johnson.

Trump also possessed that exclusivity and blatant disregard for the status quo that gave him true independent status, emboldened his followers and distinguished him in the world of business and politics.

And we all know how that ended. Two impeachments, the Capitol riot and his organization were found guilty this month of criminal tax fraud. Although he announced his third candidacy for the presidency in 2024, his popularity has seriously declined among the followers of the Republican Party.

Too often, dissenters become idiots. Take Kanye West. Following his pointless presidential campaign in 2020 and, most recently, changing his name to “Ye,” Kanye West seems to be courting controversy on an almost daily basis with opinions that range from the bizarre to the offensive, most notably his general admiration for Hitler and Hitler. Perspectives on the Holocaust.

And there were dire consequences.

Just this week, a Jewish man was assaulted in Central Park. As the attacker carried out the attack, he shouted “Kanye 2024!” — a nod to the rapper’s next inclination to the presidency.

Fortunately, most defectors have a limited shelf life. Look at Alex Jones (fined $1.5 billion, then went bankrupt) or Steve Bannon (sentenced to jail). Both are like sex on the beach — at first, new and interesting only to quickly become annoyingly nasty.

Then there’s the former vice presidential candidate, Sarah Palin, the original “maverick.”

She never stopped using the word to describe herself and running mate John McCain during their presidential campaign in 2008. And though it certainly struck a chord at the time, that label now seems to lack any purchasing power with the American public.

Despite her national stature, Alaska’s first-ever woman governor failed to win congressional elections this year, losing to a lesser-known Democrat — suggesting that her race, like Trump’s, may finally be running.

The Mavericks may be entertaining, but in 2023, it would be nice to see clarity of vision, stability, and sanity return.

To paraphrase Justin Timberlake, we need to bring back the boredom.

Gavin Newsham is a British writer, author and columnist.