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It raised his profile with the current conservative news media/pundits which ate it up. Whether or not that was the purpose is speculation but being held up as

It raised his profile with the current conservative news media/pundits which ate it up. Whether or not that was the purpose is speculation but being held up as a champion of free speech (as if) I’m sure did great things for his ego too.

phs318u 4y ago
Let's hope if he ever has a tilt at president, his campaign lasts as long. Then again, I kind of feel like we've been here before...
- sime 4y ago
  He’s ineligible
  - LightG 4y ago
    - jstummbillig 4y ago
- rmbyrro 4y ago
  President of South Africa? He wasn't born in the US, a prerequisite for being president there.
  - ant6n 4y ago
    Well, he’d need to be “natural born citizen”. I think at birth he was Canadian and South African, and naturalized to the US much later. …maybe they’ll change the law one day and he can run against Schwarzenegger.
    - zamalek 4y ago
      Schwarzenegger is a governor, not a president. Elon could run against him today.
      - HWR_14 4y ago
        When Schwarzenegger was governor, many people said he would likely make a serious run for president if he was a natural born citizen. It was mostly used as a statement by people about what a good job they thought he was doing and how they wished he could legally run, not a real desire to amend the law.
        zamalek 4y ago
        I was simply pointing out the facts. The parent comment incorrectly implied that Elon could not run against him.
        HWR_14 4y ago
        You misunderstood the parent comment. They were saying if the law changed then the US presidential election (or frontrunners if they compete in the primaries) would be Arnold vs Elon. Meanwhile, Elon could not run against Arnold for governor of California: Elon is not a citizen of California and Arnold has been disqualified from running again since 2011 due to term limits.
        ant6n 4y ago
        California has citizenship?
        HWR_14 4y ago
        All US states have citizenship. It cannot be denied to any US citizen. Basically, it determines which state you get to vote in and what state you primarily owe income taxes on. In California it's automatic if you are a US citizen who primarily lives there for 3 months with no clear indicator you plan to move on. The process is similar, but the amount of time is variable, between the states. It can get tricky and people (or states) can argue/sue about it because it can make a big difference in taxes. Elon became a citizen of Texas before he made all the money that resulted in his 11 billion dollar federal tax bill last year and in doing so probably saved himself 5 to 7 billion dollars that otherwise would have gone to California.
  - moomin 4y ago
  - phs318u 4y ago
    Doh! Forgot about that. In Australia foreign born citizens of Australia can stand for parliament (and hence qualify to be PM) as long as they’ve renounced any other citizenship (or right to another citizenship).
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- philjohn 4y ago
  Not a natural born US Citizen, so can't be President.
altacc 4y ago
And maybe the pro-oil and anti-green conservatives will now hate electric cars a bit less because Elon is one of them. Benefits Tesla and benefits Musk.
noduerme 4y ago
$1B is pretty pricey for being labeled a champion of free speech for a second. He could've gone on Fox and said something controversial and gotten just as much mileage. I'm tempted to believe he actually thought he could turn Twitter around, and then realized it was a fool's errand.
- tsimionescu 4y ago
  It's not just $1B, he can't back out of the full $40B deal or whatever it was except for a few very special corner cases, and only in those corner cases does he pay just $1B, as far as I understand.
zthrowaway 4y ago
You don’t have to try and spend billions of dollars to become a fan of conservatives. All you have to do is publicly push back against leftist views. That’s all it takes to be conservative in our culture. In a Political Science lens, Conservatives aren’t some homogeneous group who share the same politics. They are anyone who opposes the left. It’s a broad spectrum. Musk is not fully trusted by either side. He says a lot of things that traditional conservatives (especially those who don’t buy into climate change) oppose. The left ideology is the dominant force in pop culture, and those views are in vogue. He’s speaking out against some of those things and that’s getting him a lot of attention.
throwwy7633 4y ago
This was my theory. Electric cars are seen as a “left wing thing” now they won’t be. It will be interesting to see if conservative car types decide to give electric cars a go. Keeping a close eye on a famous YouTube mechanic.
- AndrewUnmuted 4y ago
  > Electric cars are seen as a “left wing thing” now they won’t be. You'd have to live very far away from any so-called "conservative car types" to believe this. Currently, the conservative base is much more prone to thinking that electric cars are going to be _forced_ on them by a cabal who want to erase fossil fuels use from the earth. Not saying they're correct, but your theory is just as baseless as theirs is.
- natch 4y ago
  Mechanics have a vested interest in maintenance-prone ICE vehicles, so I would discount their stated opinions on this.
sanderjd 4y ago
The problem with him re: US politics is that every job besides president is too small for his ego, but he can't be president.
bradneuberg 4y ago
This is key - I believe Musk wants to gain more favor with the right so they purchase the new Cybertruck pickup truck.
- natch 4y ago
  This isn't a problem he had though. When they experience 0-60 in 3.2 seconds, they will buy it.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
  - thedrbrian 4y ago
    Because all the traditional pickup buyers do is rip off 0-60s all day.
    - natch 4y ago
      Probably the number of traditional sheep pickup buyers who will buy it will be very low. But the non traditional ones.. it won’t be demand constrained.

phs318u 4y ago

Let's hope if he ever has a tilt at president, his campaign lasts as long. Then again, I kind of feel like we've been here before...

sime 4y ago
He’s ineligible
- LightG 4y ago
  - jstummbillig 4y ago
rmbyrro 4y ago
President of South Africa? He wasn't born in the US, a prerequisite for being president there.
- ant6n 4y ago
  Well, he’d need to be “natural born citizen”. I think at birth he was Canadian and South African, and naturalized to the US much later. …maybe they’ll change the law one day and he can run against Schwarzenegger.
  - zamalek 4y ago
    Schwarzenegger is a governor, not a president. Elon could run against him today.
    - HWR_14 4y ago
      When Schwarzenegger was governor, many people said he would likely make a serious run for president if he was a natural born citizen. It was mostly used as a statement by people about what a good job they thought he was doing and how they wished he could legally run, not a real desire to amend the law.
      - zamalek 4y ago
        I was simply pointing out the facts. The parent comment incorrectly implied that Elon could not run against him.
        HWR_14 4y ago
        You misunderstood the parent comment. They were saying if the law changed then the US presidential election (or frontrunners if they compete in the primaries) would be Arnold vs Elon. Meanwhile, Elon could not run against Arnold for governor of California: Elon is not a citizen of California and Arnold has been disqualified from running again since 2011 due to term limits.
        ant6n 4y ago
        California has citizenship?
        HWR_14 4y ago
        All US states have citizenship. It cannot be denied to any US citizen. Basically, it determines which state you get to vote in and what state you primarily owe income taxes on. In California it's automatic if you are a US citizen who primarily lives there for 3 months with no clear indicator you plan to move on. The process is similar, but the amount of time is variable, between the states. It can get tricky and people (or states) can argue/sue about it because it can make a big difference in taxes. Elon became a citizen of Texas before he made all the money that resulted in his 11 billion dollar federal tax bill last year and in doing so probably saved himself 5 to 7 billion dollars that otherwise would have gone to California.
- moomin 4y ago
- phs318u 4y ago
  Doh! Forgot about that. In Australia foreign born citizens of Australia can stand for parliament (and hence qualify to be PM) as long as they’ve renounced any other citizenship (or right to another citizenship).
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
philjohn 4y ago
Not a natural born US Citizen, so can't be President.

altacc 4y ago

And maybe the pro-oil and anti-green conservatives will now hate electric cars a bit less because Elon is one of them. Benefits Tesla and benefits Musk.

noduerme 4y ago

$1B is pretty pricey for being labeled a champion of free speech for a second. He could've gone on Fox and said something controversial and gotten just as much mileage. I'm tempted to believe he actually thought he could turn Twitter around, and then realized it was a fool's errand.

tsimionescu 4y ago
It's not just $1B, he can't back out of the full $40B deal or whatever it was except for a few very special corner cases, and only in those corner cases does he pay just $1B, as far as I understand.

zthrowaway 4y ago

You don’t have to try and spend billions of dollars to become a fan of conservatives. All you have to do is publicly push back against leftist views. That’s all it takes to be conservative in our culture. In a Political Science lens, Conservatives aren’t some homogeneous group who share the same politics. They are anyone who opposes the left. It’s a broad spectrum. Musk is not fully trusted by either side. He says a lot of things that traditional conservatives (especially those who don’t buy into climate change) oppose. The left ideology is the dominant force in pop culture, and those views are in vogue. He’s speaking out against some of those things and that’s getting him a lot of attention.

throwwy7633 4y ago

This was my theory. Electric cars are seen as a “left wing thing” now they won’t be. It will be interesting to see if conservative car types decide to give electric cars a go. Keeping a close eye on a famous YouTube mechanic.

AndrewUnmuted 4y ago
> Electric cars are seen as a “left wing thing” now they won’t be. You'd have to live very far away from any so-called "conservative car types" to believe this. Currently, the conservative base is much more prone to thinking that electric cars are going to be _forced_ on them by a cabal who want to erase fossil fuels use from the earth. Not saying they're correct, but your theory is just as baseless as theirs is.
natch 4y ago
Mechanics have a vested interest in maintenance-prone ICE vehicles, so I would discount their stated opinions on this.

sanderjd 4y ago

The problem with him re: US politics is that every job besides president is too small for his ego, but he can't be president.

bradneuberg 4y ago

This is key - I believe Musk wants to gain more favor with the right so they purchase the new Cybertruck pickup truck.

natch 4y ago
This isn't a problem he had though. When they experience 0-60 in 3.2 seconds, they will buy it.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- thedrbrian 4y ago
  Because all the traditional pickup buyers do is rip off 0-60s all day.
  - natch 4y ago
    Probably the number of traditional sheep pickup buyers who will buy it will be very low. But the non traditional ones.. it won’t be demand constrained.