Musk has the political wisdom of a 16 year old Reddit board poster and Trump has given us a whole new definition of demagoguing idiocy. So we have two giant kaiju stumbling around our city, the World’s Richest Troll and the World’s Most Moronic Supreme Leader, and we’re all waiting to which buildings they’re going to bring crashing down.
I don't think Elon cares as much about the issues as he lets on, as least not for elections. DeSantis made it clear that he's open to crony capitalism, as did Ramaswamy. Trump is too, but he's unreliable. If the last person to kiss his ass disagrees with you, you're in trouble until you can get in there and kiss better ass.
I think there's at least some evidence that Musk's ideology is as fluid as Trump's. Musk supported Biden until Biden left him out of his EV plans, and then Musk became critical of Biden's every move.
At the same time, pandering to white supremacists/transphobes/8kuns/whatevers garners him adulation. It's the people dumb enough to worship him, so he plays to that crowd.
I think Musk's ideology is fluid in so far as he's very, very credulous. Like, you're right--he repeats the talking points of the people who give him attention, to get more of it. But I get the strong impression that unlike Trump he actually thinks he does believe these things, if that makes sense. Like he's not driving the ideology, the ideology is driving him, he's just feeding it gas. He's like a magician's mark who thinks he's picking a card but the card is forced. Trump is pretty dumb but I think he's smarter than Musk in a lot of ways. Musk gets painted as the smart one when he's just petulant.
I think Musk and Trump together set fire to the persistent and pernicious (at least in America) myth that the best people to look to for political leadership are successful business people. (I’m know there is disagreement on just how successful Trump really has been, but I’m assuming the point here.) No, being successful in business requires certain skills, shrewdness, social IQ, strong work ethic. But it doesn’t require wisdom. It doesn’t require depth of learning. Hubris in business can earn you millions. Hubris in government can lead millions to their deaths. If someone has never spent significant time engaged in work where they had to persuade instead of command, and if they never read anything more complicated than bulletpoint summaries, they have no fucking business anywhere near political power.
My kid & I were just talking about the idea that they're each other's evil twin. Xeir theory is that that works as far as it goes, but xe agrees with you that Musk is the (more) idiot twin & Trump is the (more) evil one.
What Trump and Musk really believe is something I often wonder. They're both white men that were born into wealth but seem to believe they deserve it. Setting aside how successful they've been in business (or not) I think we can agree they both think they're superior to everyone else.
If someone is open to believing that, what else are they willing to believe?
Musk has the political wisdom of a 16 year old Reddit board poster and Trump has given us a whole new definition of demagoguing idiocy. So we have two giant kaiju stumbling around our city, the World’s Richest Troll and the World’s Most Moronic Supreme Leader, and we’re all waiting to which buildings they’re going to bring crashing down.
I don't think Elon cares as much about the issues as he lets on, as least not for elections. DeSantis made it clear that he's open to crony capitalism, as did Ramaswamy. Trump is too, but he's unreliable. If the last person to kiss his ass disagrees with you, you're in trouble until you can get in there and kiss better ass.
I think there's at least some evidence that Musk's ideology is as fluid as Trump's. Musk supported Biden until Biden left him out of his EV plans, and then Musk became critical of Biden's every move.
At the same time, pandering to white supremacists/transphobes/8kuns/whatevers garners him adulation. It's the people dumb enough to worship him, so he plays to that crowd.
I think Musk's ideology is fluid in so far as he's very, very credulous. Like, you're right--he repeats the talking points of the people who give him attention, to get more of it. But I get the strong impression that unlike Trump he actually thinks he does believe these things, if that makes sense. Like he's not driving the ideology, the ideology is driving him, he's just feeding it gas. He's like a magician's mark who thinks he's picking a card but the card is forced. Trump is pretty dumb but I think he's smarter than Musk in a lot of ways. Musk gets painted as the smart one when he's just petulant.
I think Musk and Trump together set fire to the persistent and pernicious (at least in America) myth that the best people to look to for political leadership are successful business people. (I’m know there is disagreement on just how successful Trump really has been, but I’m assuming the point here.) No, being successful in business requires certain skills, shrewdness, social IQ, strong work ethic. But it doesn’t require wisdom. It doesn’t require depth of learning. Hubris in business can earn you millions. Hubris in government can lead millions to their deaths. If someone has never spent significant time engaged in work where they had to persuade instead of command, and if they never read anything more complicated than bulletpoint summaries, they have no fucking business anywhere near political power.
My kid & I were just talking about the idea that they're each other's evil twin. Xeir theory is that that works as far as it goes, but xe agrees with you that Musk is the (more) idiot twin & Trump is the (more) evil one.
What Trump and Musk really believe is something I often wonder. They're both white men that were born into wealth but seem to believe they deserve it. Setting aside how successful they've been in business (or not) I think we can agree they both think they're superior to everyone else.
If someone is open to believing that, what else are they willing to believe?
> In the online media landscape it’s going to play out as two grown men waiting for the other to kneel.
We are all so genuflucked