Elon Musk buys and ruins Twitter

[Thaksinssoldier]

No he just doesn’t like paying tax, and Ayn Rand is a **** too. Interesting woman though, but ripped of Nietzsche in many of her philosophical ramblings. Totally right wing capitalist, so obviously she would have an excuse for billionaires not liking taxation.

gotcha.

 

[Gareth Barry Conlon]

Elon Musk gives off a very creepy and very unpleasant vibe, there is something disturbing and wrong about him, similar to way Jimmy Saville made people uncomfortable without them knowing why. Makes my skin crawl and makes me feel a bit grubby listening to him, in the same way I do when I hear anything Donald Trump speak

I work in finance and have dealt with some A grade arseholes over the years. A colleague of mine once said after speaking to a client on the phone that he felt like he needed to go and wash his hands. That is the vibe you get from Musk.

 

[I'm With Stupid]

Elon Musk gives off a very creepy and very unpleasant vibe, there is something disturbing and wrong about him, similar to way Jimmy Saville made people uncomfortable without them knowing why. Makes my skin crawl and makes me feel a bit grubby listening to him, in the same way I do when I hear anything Donald Trump speak

Well he's already paid money to silence a sexual assault allegation, so he's on the way.

 

[I'm With Stupid]

Elon Musk and Joe Rogan deliberately appeal to the right because it's good for them on a commercial level. That doesn't necessarily mean they're genuinely right wing in their beliefs, it just means they know their audience and what sells.

But it would hardly be a surprise if a white, male billionaire and a white, male millionaire living in America were a bit right wing.

It's worth mentioning that Elon Musk doesn't just "appeal to the right." If anything, it's the opposite. He appeals to the left because they are who buys his eco-friendly cars. But look at his stance on unions, taxes, government regulation, etc, and he's as right wing as they come.

 

[Tugay One Cup]

But it would hardly be a surprise if a white, male billionaire and a white, male millionaire living in America were a bit right wing.

It's worth mentioning that Elon Musk doesn't just "appeal to the right." If anything, it's the opposite. He appeals to the left because they are who buys his eco-friendly cars. But look at his stance on unions, taxes, government regulation, etc, and he's as right wing as they come.

He's recently explicitly aligned himself with the right and it ramped up at the same time that the news of his sexual misconduct leaked.

Personally, I don't believe people like him have any real political affiliation outside of what serves them best at any particular moment. Right now, there's a pretty clear template which has been set by right wing politicians in order to discredit any and all dissenting views and he's followed it to the letter.

 

[I'm With Stupid]

He's recently explicitly aligned himself with the right and it ramped up at the same time that the news of his sexual misconduct leaked.

Personally, I don't believe people like him have any real political affiliation outside of what serves them best at any particular moment. Right now, there's a pretty clear template which has been set by right wing politicians in order to discredit any and all dissenting views and he's followed it to the letter.

Well sort of, but he was spreading conspiracy bullshit during the pandemic too, which was almost all coming from right wing sources. He praised the Canadian truckers. He responded to criticisms of sexism in Tesla by making sexist jokes about women in tech. And he voted Republican. So like most people who self-identify as moderate.

 

[inbetween]

Elon Musk and Joe Rogan deliberately appeal to the right because it's good for them on a commercial level. That doesn't necessarily mean they're genuinely right wing in their beliefs, it just means they know their audience and what sells.

It's the same way that Musk doesn't legitimately support freedom of speech but he knows that if he throws that idea out there early on then he can get away with more later because idiots tend to think and say things like "he stands for freedom of speech?! So do I!"

People have allowed themselves to buy into a social paranoia that our freedom of speech is under threat because they've been spoonfed stories about cancel culture and political correctness gone mad for years.

Musk supports it as long as it benefits him and will deprive others of theirs when his finances or public image are at risk.

But he can say it's what he stands for and people will nod, clap and cheer because even atheists want a preacher.

To be honest I don't think Musk gives two shites about politics just like the vast majority of people don't. His only involvement in politics is to push for an environment where he can create products without political meddling and I don't understand how anyone can't be 100% behind him. Whether people like the guy or not is irrelevant, his achievements speak for themselves.

I think the greatest threat to humanity at the moment is politics and political trenching. When you go on social media or even on here the one thing that divides us and causes all the problems is politics. The funny reality though is the pointlessness of it all. If we burnt down Westminster then honestly what would change? Nothing. That's the impact of branding people by politics, it's utterly and completely pointless. I'm much more interested in his cars to be honest.

Personally I really admire Musk, he's a person pushing forward technology and he should be given all the help he needs. In comparison, do we really think having Labour or the Tories in power for 100 years will change the planet? Will it balls, it'll make absolutely no difference who is in power so why do we even give a toss?

Bring back Guy Fawkes I say and let's do away with the politics, treat each other with respect and allow these extremely clever people to get on with what they want to do.

 

[Jazzyblue]

He's recently explicitly aligned himself with the right and it ramped up at the same time that the news of his sexual misconduct leaked.

Personally, I don't believe people like him have any real political affiliation outside of what serves them best at any particular moment. Right now, there's a pretty clear template which has been set by right wing politicians in order to discredit any and all dissenting views and he's followed it to the letter.

You could say he has the makings of a dictator. He's very skilfully appealed to the right using culture war memes and talking points, but he's also brings together a lot of ideas that the libertarian and populist wings of the right would otherwise consider as horsemen of the 'NWO' - technocracy, transhumanism, and UN sustainable development goals. I understand that many genuinely believe he has humanity's best interests at heart, but I just get the sense that if anyone has the potential to be a dictator in a sci-fi dystopia, it would be him. When you bring together enormous wealth, technological power and charisma, and combine all that with a following among a public disillusioned with conventional politics you can do a lot of good, but there's also a lot of potential for things to go terribly wrong.

 

[Paladin]

Here’s an interesting fact I read about the ****.

if you were born in the year 80,000 BC and you saved $10,000 a day and never spent a cent, today you wouldn’t have as much money as he has.

He moans about paying tax. Why not send yourself to Mars you ****?

It's not true.

82,000 x 365 x $10,000 = $299,300,000,000

Elon Musk net worth 2022 = $218,000,000,000.

 

[threespires]

I think I spend a reasonable amount of time reading what billionaires say (at least about their businesses) and maybe I missed it but I can’t recall many if any quoting Rand as their guiding force. Maybe I’m reading the wrong billionaires!

That's very true, it's often claimed by sources or people in their orbit but the only one I can think of directly saying it themselves was the fella who used to be at Uber, think maybe Steve W said Jobs was well into her too? Either way my personal experience is that if someone starts eulogising about her it's normally a red flag for me.