This is a good discussion, but I think misses the power of the "500 nuts." It's not so much that Musk *needs* them politically, it's that he's spending his waking hours addicted to a real-life videogame where the goal is to get the approval of his chosen set of peers.

Semafor

@semafor · Twitter · 2025-03-28 14:32 UTC

Elon Musk has "fallen for audience capture," Gawker founder Nick Denton says. "Rubio, Musk, Vance, Trump — they're all competing for the applause from these 500 nuts on X," he tells @semaforben and @maxwelltani on Mixed Signals.