this post was submitted on 21 Jul 2024
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US Authoritarianism

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[–] [email protected] 118 points 2 months ago (10 children)

He’s trying to buy a pardon

https://gizmodo.com/elon-musks-x-is-reportedly-resisting-a-subpoena-in-jeffrey-epstein-related-legal-case-2000476538

Though if trump’s dismantling of the FBI occurs maybe he won’t need to. Either way, drops in the bucket for the most successful emerald mine offspring

[–] [email protected] 37 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Wait until you hear what he did with the jewel money. He rented a huge mansion in college and threw huge parties charging people to enter, how many people he enabled to party and drop out including himself? He's even proud of it he thinks he's so amazing and self made for doing that. This is who this country idolizes. A ketamine addicted, crime family son. Everyone else? Fuck you, swat team raids your college mansion party, charges you for illegally running a night club among whatever other charges. It almost glows in the dark that something was protecting that family from any prosecution.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 2 months ago

He’s even proud of it he thinks he’s so amazing and self made for doing that.

The real joke of these elite universities is how education has become an entirely tertiary function. Social networking with rich people and padding your resume matter so much more than attending actual classes.

Elon throwing a continuous kegger for a few years probably was what introduced him to all the children of spooks and bureaucrats and investment bankers necessary to make him into the billionaire he is today.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago

I like when be bought an obscenely expensive luxury sports car to impress Thiel, and promptly wrecked it.

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[–] [email protected] 64 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Democrats: Let's give this man billions in subsidies.

[–] [email protected] 43 points 2 months ago (4 children)

Are you saying there is a law that explicitly states to give Elon Musk billions on subsidies or are you just giving a bad faith argument for the effort of Western government trying to cut dependence from petrostates?

[–] [email protected] 16 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (4 children)

They have specifically given at least one of his companies a lot in subsidies. SpaceX lives off the government teet.

Edit: People in this thread don't seem to realize that specifically over paying for something is itself a subsidy. SpaceX has been overcharging for DoD contracts, missing deadlines, and running cost overages for years now. They've also been given contracts where other competitors weren't even considered.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 2 months ago (1 children)

SpaceX got key govt contracts early on and is the most cost competitive launcher. The comercial space program paid off tremendously for the US.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 2 months ago (1 children)

the most cost competitive launcher

We defunded the NASA launch program and gave it to a bunch of defense sector flakes who had to reinvent what NASA had already accomplished while still kicking back cash to their investors.

These aren't competitive bids. They're kickbacks that occasionally get us a little space technology along the way.

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 2 months ago

Subsidies for EVs are one thing, government contracts to deliver satellites and astronauts to space is another (essentially government just using and paying for the service)

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 months ago (1 children)

So if you go to the supermarket and buy a carton of milk, you're subsidizing the supermarket?

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[–] [email protected] 43 points 2 months ago (6 children)

Among other things already mentioned here, he thinks trump can help him take revenge on Norway, which invested in him early on but now does not allow Tesla vehicles to be sold there.

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[–] [email protected] 39 points 2 months ago (8 children)

Fascism is just capitalism when you try to say no.

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[–] [email protected] 34 points 2 months ago

Musk is pumping up Trump's coffers so that he gets elected and follows through with his promise to ban EV imports from other countries, essentially cementing his monopoly on the EV market that Tesla currently dominates.

Long story short, don't buy a Tesla. They're kinda shitty anyway.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 2 months ago

Also there's no EV mandate.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 2 months ago (1 children)

The guy, no, I mean child, who recently whined that he wasn't getting $50+ billion compensation package doesn't have a problem throwing $45 million a month to another child. Because "money." Obscene.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Let's scale those amounts to something more understandable to non-billionaires

Imagine earning $50k per year and buying the president's favor for $45 per month. Elon is buying access to the most powerful person on the planet for the equivalent of a monthly phone bill.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 months ago

And what amounts to a phone bill to him could change hundreds of thousands of people's lives for the better. But "Muh taxes..."

[–] [email protected] 18 points 2 months ago
[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 months ago
[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 months ago (2 children)

No, fascism is capitalism at its endpoint. It's the Natural Evolution.

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 months ago

Musk already made his billions from government subsidies and investments. Now is the time to pull the ladder behind him.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

We gotta stop getting hung up on these animals being inconsistent with themselves and each other.

While I see the humor in this, it's not the kind of thing that the right wing would care about. Both of these takes are from people that believe in strong class hierarchy, with those on top owning/controlling most everything. The contrary take on EVs doesn't even clock as dissonant if all you care about is punching down on people not like you, and want big powerful men to do the punching for you. It's not seen as dysfunction, it's toxic masculinity on display where guys are constantly jockying for their spot in the pecking order; that's normal for people like this. So, they really are on the same team in the eyes of their constituents, with Musk having some political power without being a politician per-se.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Smedley Butler, aka, "Devil Dog" was first class bad ass, honest and patritoic Marine/citizen.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 months ago (2 children)

At first, I was thinking "If Trump is anti-EV and Elon owns a company that makes EV's, why would Elon support Trump?"

then I was like "ohh. Oooooohhhh"

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