Or was it Twitter itself? Salesforce? Google? Neoliberalism? A16Z? An act of god?
Marc Andreessen — billionaire Netscape founder , famed venture capitalist — will forever be a Twitter legend , even though he took a leave of absence from thetroubled social networklate Saturday night . Never afraid to shy away from controversy , Andreessen shared his very Silicon Valley views freely on Twitter , comment on topics ranging fromhow in effect the poors have ittothe evil of anti - colonialism .
The technical school and tech - adjacent community would frequently joke about getting that fresh Andreessen block — a rite of passage for any young , upwardly mobile shit who gets off on challenging the power that be online . Twitter , the most democratic of social connection , is the perfect platform for trolling , so attached to free language that the company ’s been havinga littleabuse problemas of late .
So when the tech giant deleted all his tweets yesterday and said a temporary goodbye to the struggling political program , a question arose : Who killed @pmarca ?
https://twitter.com/embed/status/779934446917083136
1. Me
Andreessen get going following me ahead of time this year , and did so up until approximately3:01PM EDTon September 24 . ( To give you a sense of the timeline , he annunciate his Twitter interruption on the same solar day at 11:43PM EDT . )
I was always confused by Andreessen following me . The tech billionaire was the most delicious of my hatred follows — always a punch - up , still willing to engage — and I expect to get blocked when webeefedaboutwhether Uber should treat its driver like employees . ( I retrieve it should ! ) When I told him I retrieve the one - percentage of Silicon Valley mightbe inherently out of touchwith the remainder of us , I recollect I might get at least unfollowed , but Andreessen remained close .
But something wear out in Andreessen when I went for him on Saturday , trip something giving . Here ’s how it went down :
Andreessen bumped on this old tweet of his Saturday sunup :
I spat out this ( not so ) spicy take .
https://twitter.com/embed/status/779683920006832129
It was n’t a particularly well - thought - out own , but I thought Andreessen ’s claim that capitalism somehow combats state of war and religion ( it does n’t ) was so patently preposterous , I did n’t need to get into the particular .
concisely after , I got jam .
https://twitter.com/embed/status/779757672325349376
Then , he vanished .
2. The term “neoliberalism”
interrogatively enough , when Andreessen deleted all his situation , a single retweet remained .
While @poundstoremikesuspectsthis was an error—“he rt’d this a while ago , I suppose , but I was deactivated so mayhap it fucked up”—in a panoptic sense , the tweet , which effectively called out Andreessen ’s bullshit neoliberal worldview , could have shoot down his Twitter .
Andreessen and his sidekick / confrere Benedict Evans have a taste for squeeze about their disdain for being call neoliberals , a term unremarkably used to draw their government .
https://twitter.com/embed/status/772130568188235776
If you ’re like ol’ Benny over here and not sure what neoliberalism means , like any political ideology , it ca n’t be tot up up in a simple sentence , but here ’s a decent definition fromThe Guardian :
Neoliberalism sees competition as the defining characteristic of human relations . It redefines citizens as consumer , whose popular pick are well exercise by buying and merchandising , a process that rewards merit and punishes inefficiency . It uphold that “ the market place ” delivers benefits that could never be reach by planning .
Perhaps Andreessen said goodbye to all that because he could no longer handle meet criticism of his neoliberal prospect .
3. A yearning for a safe space
Back in the olden daylight , people could manage taking shit . Now they ca n’t and needsafe spaces . Perhaps Andreessen ’s “ Twitter break ” was instigate by his desire to experience dependable online . Leslie Jones shortly quit the connection fora similar reason , although she might have a small bit of a stronger case .
4. Facebook
Feelsplausible :
Conspiracy theory – FB will buy Twitter , Zuck tell Marc to shut out that shit down before he screws something up , like the India deal
— George Happens ( @GeorgeHappens)September 25 , 2016
5. Twitter itself
Twitter is having a really hard time right now , and might soonbe sell . Last week , CNBCreported hearsay that both Google and Salesforce were concerned in buying Twitter . Other tech blogsspeculate that Andreessen ’s “ Twitter break ” has to do with A16Z ’s role in potentially acquire the company . in the end , this is Twitter ’s fault . The troupe should ’ve done well . Then it could have continue independent , and maybe my darling Andrees would still be add up at us with the spicy return .
6. No, it was probably me
The timeline makes sense . I was probably the straw that broke the camel ’s back . Even though his takes were never not forged , Andreessen ’s tweet leave me with a perverted sense of delight . For that , I am grateful . Please return my deary ball . The misrepresented common people of Twitter mourn your absence . We might not be deplorable , but we still want you back .
gizmodo nightsinternet jailMarc AndreessenX ( Twitter )
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