Elon Musk's journey with the letter X

by Dorian Hribar, Features Editor

Elon Musk’s recent messy takeover of Twitter and his rebranding of the app to ‘X’ has caused ripples among those on and off the internet. This is not, however, Musk’s first time digging his grubby little tendrils into a company, or his first show of love for the letter X.

Musk’s humble beginnings (disregarding his family’s lucrative Zambian emerald mine wealth), were in an online payment company he co-founded, X.com. You may recognize this site from the iconic photo of Musk in his PayPal days, pre-hair plugs, sporting a 1200s Catholic monk style haircut that displays his glistening cranium. Musk was ousted from his CEO position within months of the company’s founding, due to investors seeing him as incompetent.

X.com later merged with PayPal, and Musk returned as CEO. He was, however, coup’d again and replaced due to not giving any sort of direction to the company.

Elon’s next step was the foundation of SpaceX, a spacecraft manufacturer. The company had a rough start, with 3 failed spacecraft launches that nearly caused Musk’s bankruptcy. SpaceX’s most recent project is an attempt to make the largest, most powerful rocket ever, Starship. Starship was first tested in April of this year, where multiple engine failures led to the self-destruction of the craft. Musk calls this test a success.

Notably, Musk’s child with synth-pop artist Grimes is also named X, with their full name being X AE A-XII Musk. Their second child has a similarly monstrous and dweebish name, Exa Dark Siderael Musk, nicknamed “Y.”

Musk’s purchase and takeover of Twitter has been a bit messy. Musk initially tried to illegally back out of the deal, however he was sued by Twitter and agreed to buy the company. As soon as Musk had control, he fired more than 6,000 employees, claiming that they were unnecessary. This included the CEO, whose position he took.

Musk forced his new Twitter employees to work very long hours or be fired, causing numerous security and content moderation executives to leave the company, along with integral engineering teams that kept the platform alive. Musk also banned numerous journalists from the platform for writing articles about his foolhardy takeover of the company, despite his outspoken dedication to “free speech” being the reason he wanted to take over Twitter.

These odd business practices are not new for Musk, who has described himself as a “nano-manager.” He makes new hires sign non-disclosure agreements, and is prone to firing sprees. Musk also refused to close Tesla plants during the COVID-19 pandemic and threatened to revoke workers’ unemployment benefits if they did not violate the stay-at-home order by coming into work.

Musk’s most recent antics include building a giant, glowing X sign on the top of the Twitter building without a permit. The sign was incredibly bright, and flashed at random times well into the night, in an area surrounded by residential buildings. Because of several incidents of residents in the area having seizures, it was taken down within days of being put up.