Elon Musk’s financial interests put him in a position of having his own personal foreign policy, but new reporting shows that whether it’s manufacturing in China or the Starlink network being used in Ukraine, Musk’s decisions can run counter to stated US policy.

    • @Lexam@lemmy.ca
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      9910 months ago

      They should exist, but we are not utilizing them correctly. Once someone has reached a billion dollar networth then they are thrown a big party and then sacrificed to a valcono. I believe this would curb emissions and fix climate change.

      • @Blaiz0r@lemmy.ml
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        3710 months ago

        There was a native American tribe that every ten years had individuals return all personal wealth back to the tribe and the threw a big party, then start it all over again

      • @doggle@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        1410 months ago

        Maybe we just seize all their assets, nationalize them and make them start over with nothing. Call it new game +.

        • @Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works
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          10 months ago

          They just need to make a point system. The incredibly wealthy don’t care about money itself, those are already just points to them. So once you get to say 100 M, you get a trophy saying you won capitalism. After that amount 99% is taxed, you get a penny on the dollar. But all of that taxed money gets you Capitalism points. Capitalism points have no real value and can only be exchanged/traded/gambled with other winners of capitalism. Those with most points will be published each month in the top 100. And the top 10 each year get the prestigous title if honorary economic leader. They can get a medal and a pat on the back by the president.

          You can also donate extra money for more capitalism points at a 10:1 exchange rate to get people to play the game even harder and further drive down wealth.

          (I believe there are slightly less than 10,000 people in the US who would currently get their capitalism trophy. There are >140,000 people worth more than $50M, is 100 to high?)

          Oh and the 100M amount is pegged to minimum wage. Any increase to the capitalism cap has to be matched to the same percent increase to minimum wage.

      • @derpgon@programming.dev
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        410 months ago

        Polluting a volcano with a bag of shit isn’t really green. I say we just bury them so they can at least be used as fertilizer.

    • @jonne@infosec.pub
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      10 months ago

      Just too much power for one person. Even if they’re not in charge of a global internet provider, your average billionaire can singlehandedly affect the lives of millions of people (employees, customers, bystanders) with no democratic oversight at all. It’s just not something that should exist.

    • @gnuhaut@lemmy.ml
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      2010 months ago

      You: Want to abolish billionaires because they do not support the war enough.

      Me: Want to abolish billionaires because they exploit and oppress the working class.

      We are not the same.

          • dumdum666
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            1110 months ago

            I chose it so you could jerk yourself off about it and feel good at least once in your life :)

          • dumdum666
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            710 months ago

            Please enlighten me what a Patsoc is - I am really curious.

            • @gnuhaut@lemmy.ml
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              410 months ago

              “Patriotic socialist”, someone who claims to be a champion of the working class, but is actually more of nationalist. They only care about the working class of a certain nationality or racial group, and are generally bigoted in their view towards marginalized groups. Real socialists are internationalist. You wanting to get rid of Musk, because he’s not sufficiently gung-ho about a war fought between capitalists on the back of workers, implies you consider the national interest more important than the lives of workers. This is anti-worker class collaborator shit, which is what patsocs are really.

              • dumdum666
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                1110 months ago

                What the fuck are you even talking about? Russia is throwing thousands of „working class“ lives away, since it wants to expand its territory in aggressive moves since decades. They are forcing Ukraine to defend itself and yes, those are also working class people.

                So you, as a good socialist, are probably on the barricades because of this unprovoked attack on the Ukrainian working class. How are you fighting to defend them from getting killed? Please don’t answer something in the likes of „Ukraine should give up“ because then everyone would only see that you are actually advocating the Murder of the Ukrainian people.

              • @Varixable@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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                410 months ago

                Lol what the fuck is this? “You’re an enemy of the working class because you don’t support Elon Musk!”

                This is some brain worm shit my dude.

      • @Blaiz0r@lemmy.ml
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        1910 months ago

        Well you’ve jumped to conclusions there, I’m not talking about the war but Billionaires in general and their respective countries in general.

        Billionaires have too much power, live outside the existing system of government and laws, gained their money and power through exploitation and in general are undemocratic.

        So I agree with your second statement, but not the first

      • Fushuan [he/him]
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        2110 months ago

        Meanwhile, until he was supporting USA and Ukraine, he was the good white hero for your ilk.

        Yeah, because of that. This isn’t the gotcha you think it is, you aren’t uncovering a double standard. People deem helping Ukraine righteous, and helping Russia treasonous, this is no secret.

        • @TheAnonymouseJoker@lemmy.ml
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          310 months ago

          People deem helping Ukraine righteous, and helping Russia treasonous, this is no secret.

          Only Anglo people and white worshippers. The rest of the world has over 6 billion people, that you conveniently choose to disrespect and ignore.

            • @TheAnonymouseJoker@lemmy.ml
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              210 months ago

              It has to. You generalised that all people hate Russia and love Ukraine. A lot of the world is NOT what you imply to be the whole world, and is a mere 10-15% of the world’s population. Rest of the world fears the Nazi disease brewing in Ukraine, having the potential to travel around to Asia and Middle East. We do not want America-funded Mujahideen clones. Russia is helping us.

          • Fushuan [he/him]
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            710 months ago

            No I didn’t, I didn’t ignore anyone. I am answering your statement. We are talking in the context of whom was considering him a “good white hero”. As per your statement:

            he was the good white hero for your ilk.

            I’m not going to specify the whole context of the conversation when it’s clear whom I’m talking about. You established the group of people that worshipped him in your original comment, I explained why.

            • @TheAnonymouseJoker@lemmy.ml
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              310 months ago

              People deem helping Ukraine righteous, and helping Russia treasonous, this is no secret.

              Oh you did ignore over 6 billion people that condemn Ukraine’s Nazism issues on the UN voting, and their support for Russia. Anglosphere consists of merely ~12% of the world’s population, and their Russia bashing undemocratic stance is NOT representative of what the whole world thinks. What white people think or say is not that important.

              • Fushuan [he/him]
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                110 months ago

                You seem to not understand how context in a conversation works. Look, The original comment said the following in a post about how Elon is acting agaisnt US interest:

                This is why billionaires shouldn’t exist they are treasonous

                So they are probably american. Then you answered them with:

                he was the good white hero for your ilk.

                Then I said the following, to you, after your comment:

                People deem helping Ukraine righteous, and helping Russia treasonous, this is no secret.

                In this context, “People” can mean everybody, yes, but can also mean the subset of people we are talking about already, which I obviously was mentioning. I don’t really get why you are being so confrontational because I didn’t include the opinion of everybody in the world when trying to explain why americans or the west now think that Elon is a traitor.

                Let me give you an example in good faith. When there’s a meeting between neighbours, they vote on X, and the president of the community states “The people have talked”, are they also ignoring the other 8 billion people that exist in the world? No, because it’s obvious that “pople” in that context refers to the subset of people only referring to the neighbours.

                I really can’t explain to you more how context works, if you are that hellbent in chastisizing me for explaining to you why “those people” think like that in general, we have nothing more to talk about.

      • @Blaiz0r@lemmy.ml
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        1610 months ago

        My ilk?

        You’re jumping to conclusions.

        Billionaires are treasonous because they live outside the laws of their country, hold power over the government there and gain their money through exploitation

        • @TheAnonymouseJoker@lemmy.ml
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          210 months ago

          Were you opposing Musk and billionaires since forever, or are you one of the fresh new liberal “converts” that hate Musk just because he shat upon the toilet of the town square?

          • @Blaiz0r@lemmy.ml
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            410 months ago

            Yes since forever, they’ve always been a problem for the same reasons I mentioned above, same story with oligarchs.

            I don’t care about Musk, I feel the same way about Bezos, Gates and whomever else

            • @TheAnonymouseJoker@lemmy.ml
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              210 months ago

              I am usually skeptical of people calling out on posts with such polarised headlines and hypocritical standard. My bad, perhaps you are not one of those people.

  • @s20@lemmy.ml
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    7410 months ago

    What the hell? Look, man, I hate the guy but he’s remarkably consistent: he works for his interests. Even when he does dumbshit things like buy Twitter, the thinks he’s operating in his interests.

    He’s not complicated. He’s a self absorbed piece of shit. That’s really all you ever need to know about the fucker.

    • Hot Saucerman
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      3710 months ago

      “Elon desperately wants the world to be saved. But only if he can be the one to save it,” Altman added.

      From an interview with Sam Altman. It’s grandoise narcissism, plain and simple.

    • @vzq
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      2210 months ago

      But he’s also a contrarian asshole.

      • d-RLY?
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        410 months ago

        Which he is also pretty consistent about. Yet somehow these children’s cartoon evil/greedy businessmen are just handed power and trusted by such a shocking amount of people. It is kind of impressive in a “we’re fucked” kind of way.

  • @arc@lemm.ee
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    10 months ago

    He posted the other day about being proud American etc. and yet he’s actively giving comfort to hostile adversaries like Russia and screwing US allies. I think if I were the US federal government I wouldn’t touch SpaceX or Starlink with a shitty stick given the mercurial, manchild in charge of them with his own agenda.

    • @zik@lemmy.world
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      710 months ago

      A proud American who takes money from the US military to provide Starlink service to the military in Ukraine and then deliberately defeats US military interests there when it comes to the pinch. There’s a word for that - a couple actually. Traitor. Treasonous.

    • @hydrospanner@lemmy.world
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      210 months ago

      There’s an interesting thought.

      While there’s no doubt the US government could withstand any difficulty inflicted on it by Musk’s corporate empire, would the foot shot to their own efforts be worth it to sever ties with Musk?

      • @Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works
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        210 months ago

        How is it a shot to the foot? Just install a new CEO or privatize SpaceX. Ford is going to eat Teslas lunch in a few years (maybe GM too if they stop being idiotic about car play) so I am not all too worried about Teslas value to the consumer.

        • @arc@lemm.ee
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          10 months ago

          Slightly OT but I think Ford’s chance to beat Tesla has flown out the window. Ford is partially withdrawing from Europe - it might linger on selling commercial vans & tractors but as a consumer brand they’re nearly gone. GM has pulled out of Europe (and China). GM sold it’s European Opel operation to Stellantis. There is talk of GM trying to enter Europe with EVs but we’ll see.

          Anyway the point is they both kind of blew it and are retreating to their domestic market, probably hoping they can cling on there, weather the storm and come back later. I think Tesla has taken over as the dominant auto maker and it’s unlikely to change unless Elon does something spectacularly dumb or drops dead.

          • @Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works
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            210 months ago

            Tesla doesn’t even have the production capacity to satisfy domestic markets. By 2025 Tesla plans to up their capacity to 2 Million cars a year, meanwhile Ford alone should be puming out around that amount of vehicles, and they are more affordable. And that doesn’t even bring in GM or any other car company.

            Unless they change their plans and grow production dramatically, Teslas doesn’t have the capacity. They are only 10% of the global market and most of their competitors have just gotten started. And China is rapidly starting to export cars to the EU, to the point where they are considering raising tariffs even higher.

            By 2030, China is projected to be a third of the global market. So if we are talking internationally I think Tesla needs to worry about companies like BYD, NIO, GAC, etc. I mean BYD is set to beat Tesla in production and sales very soon already.

            • @arc@lemm.ee
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              110 months ago

              This is gilding the lily. Ford and GM know they are screwed and are adopting a defensive posture in the hopes of recovery. Maybe they perceive retreat as a way to moneyball their resources - wait for the EU carnage to subside and step back in. But thinking that this is coming from a position of strength though is a nonsense. Ford and GM are are fucked in Europe, and China and they’re getting out. I haven’t seen any sign the same applies to Tesla.

              • @Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works
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                110 months ago

                I guess my point is more about Tesla and less about GM and Ford, come 2025 and beyond. Tesla doesn’t have the production capacity, nor do they seem to have the plans to ramp up capacity in the near future to have any chance to have a huge share of the global EV market. Chinese companies are ramping up faster, VW also has a huge planned production that I am sure will help satisfy European demand.

                Unless Tesla makes plans to ramp up way faster than they have currently stated, their best bet would be to make better cars and just compete in the high end premium market. But that would take Musk to admit that his cars aren’t up to par to premium cars to make the necessary changes to quality to compete. I don’t see that happening.

  • @Burn_The_Right@lemmy.world
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    4410 months ago

    He’s juggling fire. His money can only do so much to protect him if he makes enough mistakes fucking with these dangerous governments.

    • @taladar@sh.itjust.works
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      3010 months ago

      I disagree. Every other billionaire out there also has a shared interest in governments leaving the super-rich alone and not punishing them. That is a powerful lobby.

        • BrokebackHampton
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          10 months ago

          One of the reasons billionaires managed to gather so much power and influence in our current system is because they are more coordinated and way better at class warfare than us workers.

          I’d say that and the obvious mind-boggling amounts of hoarded wealth are the two main ones. And never forget those billions are, for the most part, stolen from workers through wage theft, which circles back to billionaires waging class war on us.

          • @taladar@sh.itjust.works
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            110 months ago

            In a sense it is unavoidable. Few individuals, each wielding vast amounts of power, will always have an easier time coordinating their efforts than many, many individuals each wielding a tiny bit of power since coordination has a quadratic complexity (each person has to coordinate with every other person in their respective group).

  • @ShaggySnacks@lemmy.myserv.one
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    4010 months ago

    Remember folks, the rich only care about one thing and one thing only, getting richer. A bunch of these shit heads got together and started actively planning on overthrowing the US government because the election of FDR was going to affect their interests.

    The Business Plot

    • Storksforlegs
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      310 months ago

      Kind of the same thing thats happening right now, only instead of plotting they are spreading conspiracy theories and rage bating people into supporting them.

    • @cobra89@beehaw.org
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      210 months ago

      I’d argue Musk cared more about being able to bloviate on Twitter than he did about getting richer from that transaction.

      Of course there’s the very real possibility that he was foolish enough to believe he could make money on the deal.

  • lanbanger
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    2610 months ago

    Then he’ll have to be sanctioned. Which would be a shame.

  • @mwguy@infosec.pub
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    1710 months ago

    Musk is South African. We should expect his loyalties to reflect his home country more than the US.

  • @gnuhaut@lemmy.ml
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    Elon Musk is a US interest. The US is a bunch of business interests in a trench coat, and they don’t always agree on everything. Some want to do business with China, some want the Chinese competition destroyed, and some want to create tension so they can sell more weapons.

    The idea that Musk is “counter” to US interests is wrong, he just represents a faction of the ruling class that’s not on board with the (trade) war on China. Since it’s not in the interest of the working class to have a US-China (trade) war, neither in the US nor anywhere really, he is inadvertently aligned with the interests of the majority of humanity on this one.

    • @Dead_or_Alive@lemmy.world
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      1710 months ago

      I see, so it’s not in the working class interest to have a trade war with, checks notes… A genocidal authoritarian government whose stated aim is to subjugate a smaller Democratic neighbor. That same China who is allied with a war mongering mafia state and has aggressively targeted whole industries with intellectual theft, product dumping, and unfair trade practices which has hollowed out whole domestic industries and has been one of the leading causes of low wage growth.

      It is now a terrible thing for workers, that the US is in a low intensity trade war which is decoupling it’s economy from said genocidal power and rebuilding the industrial plant in North America. Reshoring millions of jobs and keeping the unemployment rate at historic lows despite increased interest rates.

      It was a lot to unpack, I just wanted to make sure I understood that correctly.

      • @gnuhaut@lemmy.ml
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        10 months ago

        You’re just thinking of the worker aristocracy in the West, not the global working class, clearly. China has lifted hundreds of millions out of poverty. And it’s neat how you blame China for something done by your own ruling class. Furthermore, this trade war (not to mention a war war) will be terrible for workers everywhere. Do you think the billionaires are going to bail you out? No, they’re going to squeeze workers even more to finance this conflict, and they’ll tell you suffering is your patriotic duty.

        And imagine thinking China is the genocidal one out of those two. The US has had a hand in so many genocides and has directly and indirectly killed millions in the last decades. If you compare this to what China has done recently they look like angels.

        • HuddaBudda
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          710 months ago

          Less Evil, is still evil.

          Besides, it is not like people can’t multitask, this isn’t a zero sum game.

          I can hate the fact that Americans don’t have paid family leave, or sick leave, but we send billions to Israel because we are scared of other religions.

          I can also hate China’s policies on Uyghurs basically enslaving them and putting them in concentration camps.

      • ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆
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        610 months ago

        A genocidal authoritarian government whose stated aim is to subjugate a smaller Democratic neighbor.

        It’s absolutely terrible what the genocidal US regime is doing to Cuba, but the rest of your comment doesn’t make a lick of sense.

        • dumdum666
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          210 months ago

          Actually I personally think it is wrong what the US is doing to Cuba… you throwing the argument into an non related discussion about Ukraine is whataboutism on the other hand.

  • @gnuhaut@lemmy.ml
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    10 months ago

    You’re mad at Musk for this???

    Musk has done so many terrible things. Treats his workers like shit, destroys the environment, platforms racists (he’s a racist pos himself), false advertising, siphons government subsidies, scams investors (including pension funds, I don’t particularly care about scamming venture capitalist and the like), lobbies against public transport and god knows what I forgot right now.

    But oh no! He only supports the war effort up to a point, and he doesn’t want to have a cold war with China. For once he’s kinda reasonable, and for that the libs are calling him a traitor.

    • drewdarko
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      2510 months ago

      We are calling him a traitor for having Starlink turned off in Ukraine to protect Russia from a counter attack.

      • @gnuhaut@lemmy.ml
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        510 months ago

        That’s because you identify with the US empire, which is not, and never was, on your team. And neither was Musk.

        Musk isn’t even against the US empire, he just didn’t want to escalate. The White House regularly does (not) do a thing because they don’t want to escalate. They’re all traitors to the US too, are they?

        Treason is not wanting total war, got it.

        • drewdarko
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          510 months ago

          If Musk really wants to prevent escalation then he should help the US and it’s allies stop Russia from invading other countries as they have been doing for decades.

          Russia is starting total war. Musk is helping them continue by preventing efforts to stop Russia.

          • @gnuhaut@lemmy.ml
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            310 months ago

            help the US and it’s allies stop Russia from invading other countries as they have been doing for decades

            Wait, you think the country that has by far done the most invasions should be supported to stop *checks notes* an invasion? This is like putting the fox in charge of the henhouse. And apparently by any means necessary too.

            I wonder what would have happened if the US’s whole Mediterranean fleet were destroyed thanks to Russian help during one of their “humanitarian interventions”. I wonder if you were also moralizing about the need to start WW3 in those situations?

            • mrnotoriousman
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              10 months ago

              Yes, Russia should stop invading and get the fuck back to their own country. Whatever you want to whine about someone else doing is irrelevant. Russia invaded and can gtfo or die.

            • @Honytawk@lemmy.zip
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              110 months ago

              Just because the US is doing illegal invasions of sovereign nations, doesn’t mean Russia is allowed to.

      • FaceDeer
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        510 months ago

        Last I heard, he simply didn’t turn it on when Ukraine asked him to, before the DoD had explicitly contracted him to support Ukraine’s military. The narrative of him throwing a switch mid-attack and laughing maniacally as Ukrainian drones drifted helplessly to shore has been spreading like wildfire but that seems to be based on a quote from one guy who has since walked it back.

        Is there some Fediverse equivalent to /r/enoughmuskspam? My feed is starting to get flooded with these five-minute-hates of Elon Musk and it’s wearying.

        • drewdarko
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          610 months ago

          Nope, Starlink was already in use. Musk used his position as CEO of Starlink to cut off service to Ukraine. But only long enough to interrupt a counter attack on the Russian fleet. Once the opportunity had passed he had it turned back on.

          His intentions are obvious.

          • FaceDeer
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            310 months ago

            What is it with this complete lack of nuance surrounding things? Elon Musk is not my hero. He’s a terrible human being, by everything I’ve read about him as a person. But just being a terrible human being doesn’t mean that every negative rumor or clickbait headline that shows up about him must automatically be true.

            Bill Cosby is a terrible human being, for example. Hey, I heard he eats kittens! Let’s circulate that news, it must be true because Bill Cosby is awful.

      • @mwguy@infosec.pub
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        210 months ago

        Civilian space assets cannot be used for warfare or they become legitimate targets in a war. When the US commits to defending and replenishing starlink satellites lost in conflict I’ll blame Musk for not enabling his network to be used for warfare.

        • drewdarko
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          710 months ago

          The Ukraine military was already using starlink. Starlink agreed to provide their service to the Ukraine military as a US military contractor with the US paying the bill.

          So they can do that because they have already done that.

          The US has committed to defending and replenishing Starlink because they’ve been doing that by protecting the antennas and replacing them as they get attacked.

          Again. Starlink already agreed to be used in Ukraine and at the time that Musk interrupted service to the Ukrainian military it had been in use for a long time.

          Musk only interrupted service long enough to prevent the counter attack on Russia. Then agreed to turn it back on after the opportunity for a counter attack had passed.

          Seems pretty obvious that Musk stepped in to help Russia as a traitor to the US.

          • @mwguy@infosec.pub
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            110 months ago

            If Congress declared war or maybe an Authorization for Use of Force (like Iraq/Afghanistan) it would be fair to consider him a traitor. Until then not really.

    • @FiskFisk33@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      …sometimes, absolutely!

      Youtube is a video hosting platform, just saying a piece of news is hosted on youtube says exactly nothing about it’s credibility.

      Youtube did not create this video, if you want to say anything useful about its validity you’ll have to be a bit more specific about the actual video itself or it’s creators.

      But I guess cheap pot shots make for easier upvotes.

    • stopthatgirl7OP
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      10 months ago

      A YouTube clip interviewing a New Yorker journalist from a news station’s official channel. 🤨

    • Ben Hur Horse Race
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      510 months ago

      I know dude what the fuck… I saw the “headline” and looked at the source. what in the real fuck

  • @TheAnonymouseJoker@lemmy.ml
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    910 months ago

    When he was providing Starlink to Ukraine, and supporting USA, he was the good white hero. Now, he is the bad guy. All it proves is to never trust USA. To be an enemy of USA is dangerous, but to be a friend is fatal.

    • @drcobaltjedi@programming.dev
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      1410 months ago

      You do know his public image has been slipping for years unrelated to this right? He tied himself so closely to the tesla brand and pushed so hard that liberals either thought positively of him or neutrally until he started spewing right wing BS at which point he was alienating his own target demographic who saw owning a tesla as bad.

      • @TheAnonymouseJoker@lemmy.ml
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        310 months ago

        I am pretty sure everyone with an internet connection and a few brain cells knows how husk brained Musk really is. My problem is with this article’s headline implications, and with the weird nonsensical takeaways people end up having.