Political impacts of Ukraine war

[Brad Sallows]

That's one interpretation. A very narrow and useful one if you harbour specific ideologies...

No, it's very broad. "Attacks" means "pretty much all attacks".

Are you intentionally avoiding the reality that one does not become a trillionaire if one can be happy with "enough"?

My measure of Musk is that he's driven more by his ambition to realize certain ideas than to amass wealth, and perhaps an outsize ego. I've noticed he doesn't necessarily hang onto one thing when he moves on to another. People who provide goods and services get really, really wealthy by providing goods and services other people really, really want.

I get it, we have had these arguments before. You live in a world of theoretical absolutes, and can't seem to fathom a world where theory and reality collide in messy ways.

People advance all sorts of ideas about Musk. They can't all be correct, so most of them must be wrong, and I suppose that's particularly true of all of the ones that have a close relationship with political partisanship.

It absolutely works in Starlink/Musk's favour to drag out the war, collect even more money from prolonging the war, and use the profits to do whatever fantasy Roadster flying car foolishness they want.

Starlink revenues from Ukraine and Russia are not likely to be the vital ground of Musk's entrepreneurial empire. Do you suppose Starlink revenues are greater from Ukraine and Russia at war than the revenues would be if Ukraine and Russia were at peace?

The "flying car" was a stunt. Musk's companies and what they do definitely are not stunts.

The simple explanation for theories that Musk is somehow pro-Russia is that their originators hate Musk because Musk supports Trump.

 

[PrairieFella]

Musk has supported far right governments and elcetions worldwide. Hell he tried to tip the scales in Berta just a couple weels ago. I dont see a world where any sane person can carry water for a Seig Heil throwing trillionaire who has actively made the world a worse place in the past four years, but here we are.

 

[Czech_pivo]

Musk has supported far right governments and elcetions worldwide. Hell he tried to tip the scales in Berta just a couple weels ago. I dont see a world where any sane person can carry water for a Seig Heil throwing trillionaire who has actively made the world a worse place in the past four years, but here we are.

Thankfully he's not eligible (as of now....) to be able to run for US President.

 

[dapaterson]

Thankfully he's not eligible (as of now....) to be able to run for US President.

Trump's not eligible to run in 2028, yet is talking about doing so... the rules appear to be mere suggestions.

 

[Brad Sallows]

Musk has supported far right governments and elcetions worldwide. Hell he tried to tip the scales in Berta just a couple weels ago. I dont see a world where any sane person can carry water for a Seig Heil throwing trillionaire who has actively made the world a worse place in the past four years, but here we are.

Musk's supposed "Seig Heil" gesture was nothing of the kind. That was a fabrication of critics, and it is a shame anyone perpetuates their propaganda. Is it really so hard for people to admit that some of the short video clips they see, and narrowly tailored quotations they read, do not substantiate what they would like to be substantiated?

To claim the world is a worse place because of Musk is absurd. The value of Starlink alone exceeds by several orders of magnitude the cost of any "damage" people would like to lay at Musk's feet. Starlink didn't have to be invented in time for the current round of the Russia-Ukraine wars, but it was, and as imperfectly as it has met the requirements of people who demand it be provided to Ukraine and blocked from Russia, it has mostly been available to the former from almost the start of the current war, and denied to the latter.

 

[Brad Sallows]

Thankfully he's not eligible (as of now....) to be able to run for US President.

He isn't ineligible to run; he's ineligible to be elected to the office.

 

[Colin Parkinson]

Musk's supposed "Seig Heil" gesture was nothing of the kind. That was a fabrication of critics, and it is a shame anyone perpetuates their propaganda. Is it really so hard for people to admit that some of the short video clips they see, and narrowly tailored quotations they read, do not substantiate what they would like to be substantiated?

To claim the world is a worse place because of Musk is absurd. The value of Starlink alone exceeds by several orders of magnitude the cost of any "damage" people would like to lay at Musk's feet. Starlink didn't have to be invented in time for the current round of the Russia-Ukraine wars, but it was, and as imperfectly as it has met the requirements of people who demand it be provided to Ukraine and blocked from Russia, it has mostly been available to the former from almost the start of the current war, and denied to the latter.

I think Musk finds democracy messy and inefficient. Along with being an impediment to his longterm visions. He seems to like being able to manipulate from behind, the people in power to ensure that things go smoothly for him. So someone like Putin appears to be more consistent, predictable to Musk, than someone like Zelensky. Zelensky hard stance of defending Ukraine's territorial integrity aggravates Musk and Zelensky appears "slippery" to him , by his continuously diplomatic weaving through the various corridors of power. Putin plays Musk, appearing to be able to support Musk's visions, whereas Zelensky does not have the time or energy to play nice with Musk.
For Musk the war is inefficient and a waste of resources and human life and people should just accept what Russia has done and focus on his longterm visions.

 

[Brad Sallows]

The progressive/Democratic fixation with Musk gets funnier by the day (if you can ignore the profound deranged raving illiberalism). Life is starting to look a bit like a parody of a work of fiction which was in part a parody of life.

The character of Tony Stark in the MCU movies was developed in part with reference to a few actual people, including Elon Musk. In Iron Man 2, Stark (who decided to turn his company away from weapons) is pursued by a senator who wants to confiscate the Iron Man suit. Robert Reich (a former cabinet secretary) is calling for the nationalization of Starlink and SpaceX...

 

[Eaglelord17]

The progressive/Democratic fixation with Musk gets funnier by the day (if you can ignore the profound deranged raving illiberalism). Life is starting to look a bit like a parody of a work of fiction which was in part a parody of life.

The character of Tony Stark in the MCU movies was developed in part with reference to a few actual people, including Elon Musk. In Iron Man 2, Stark (who decided to turn his company away from weapons) is pursued by a senator who wants to confiscate the Iron Man suit. Robert Reich (a former cabinet secretary) is calling for the nationalization of Starlink and SpaceX...

You mean the guy who led the illegal harvesting of American data for personal gain with the doge committee is being targeted by the opposing party? Shocker.

Musk put himself into this position by meddling in things outside his realm. If he just focused on cars, spacex, starlink, etc. he would be fine and not many would care about what he does.

Instead his political activism, active interference in elections and political campaigns globally, and straight up criminal activity (such as what he was doing with DOGE) means he can be and will be a target for all.

 

[Brad Sallows]

You mean the guy who led the illegal harvesting of American data for personal gain with the doge committee is being targeted by the opposing party? Shocker.

No, I mean many of the people who object to Trump and consequently object to almost anyone who has done something that supported Trump have suffered brain melt downs, losing their senses of proportion and humour. They continue to talk about applying standards that they have never applied to themselves.

"Musk should be pursued using every law available in every possible jurisdiction, but other government employees who manifestly interfere with investigations and other public business and participate in anti-constitutional activities ought to be protected from the Trump administration" is approximately the frame. There are correspondence trails that have been released publicly for some of this stuff; the most that can be claimed is that some discretion should be applied because every administration has people who do it at some point. Some are so stupid that they have interpreted Musk's use of "live by sword, die by sword" as a direct death threat. (It should be obvious that he means meeting means with the same means, ie. litigation).

And Reich's rant remains amusing because of the context, even though I have no doubt he means it seriously.