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Elon was liberal until he wasn't. Politics is like sports teams. It's an immutable identity for the poor. But for the wealthy they are open to purchase any team

Elon was liberal until he wasn't. Politics is like sports teams. It's an immutable identity for the poor. But for the wealthy they are open to purchase any team.

rqtwteye 2y ago
Exactly.
srameshc 2y ago
Perfectly said. I wish I could send it to my friend who is all consumed by the Faux and believe some billionaire is watching his back and about to send him some checks.
taeric 2y ago
Hard to really say Elon was ever liberal, though. Rather, he was always opportunistic. And the hilarious saga of his gaming skills really calls into question all of his general decision making. Which, fair, you can point to his giant bankroll. Hard to square that with his public persona over the years. Easy to say he has declined recently. But, I'm starting to question how long it was always there.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
- MichaelZuo 2y ago
  I can’t imagine he would have had enough free time to develop any “gaming skills” whatsoever past the PS1 generation.
  - taeric 2y ago
    Similarly, I can't imagine he has enough free time to do much of anything with how often he is tweeting nowadays. Still, none of that stopped him from claiming this quite strongly. Which, it would be fine if this was offhand statements. Because, yeah, who cares? But it seems he has pushed this idea for many years, whenever he could. Not exactly the sign of a healthy person. :(
- ben_w 2y ago
  In retrospect, I think the warning signs were present at least as far back as the incident with harming the name of the person who told him that submarines aren't helpful during cave rescues. Possibly even further back, given the fight with the Top Gear car review show: https://www.drive.com.au/caradvice/remember-when-tesla-tried-to-sue-top-gear/ https://www.drive.com.au/caradvice/remember-when-tesla-tried... Those two incidents together definitely make a hypocrite out of Musk, even if he did win the lawsuit as defendant in the caving case.
  - esalman 2y ago
    Even before the submarine stunt, he called an entire field of nanotechnology BS. As a PhD researcher that was the moment I knew he cannot be trusted as authority on any matter related to science and engineering- not because he's an idiot, but because of his bias. Which is a very odd and difficult realization given his business involving renewable energy and space travel.
rainonmoon 2y ago
That's only true if you see politics as hewing to the two party paradigm. Sam Altman, Elon Musk et al., aren't liberals or conservatives, they're capitalists. Their ideological consistency, their only alignment, is to the growth of their individual wealth. That is and always has been their team.
rayiner 2y ago
That's an odd thing to say given that republicans just flipped working-class cities like Passaic, NJ that voted 74% for Clinton in 2016: https://nypost.com/2024/11/06/us-news/nj-dems-scratch-their-heads-of-trump-win-in-passaic-county/ https://nypost.com/2024/11/06/us-news/nj-dems-scratch-their-.... Net swing in Little Bangladesh, Queens, where some of my family lives was over 50 points from 2020. When I was growing up in the 1990s, there were about as many conservative democrats as liberal ones: https://news.gallup.com/poll/467888/democrats-identification-liberal-new-high.aspx https://news.gallup.com/poll/467888/democrats-identification.... In just the last 20 years, the party has become much more liberal, which has pushed many Democrats into the GOP. At the same time, educated professionals have left the GOP and become Democrats. Political alignments are actually quite fluid.
- turtlesdown11 2y ago
  > The Democrats in Congress have become 6.5% more liberal, while the Republicans have become 26.5% more conservative. https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2022/03/10/the-polarization-in-todays-congress-has-roots-that-go-back-decades/ https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2022/03/10/the-polar...
hmmokidk 2y ago
Elon does what is in Elons interest. It’s not about principles. It’s just about throwing immigrants under the buss so people don’t realize the amount of resources the rich have is increasing and that is the reason they have so little resources. It’s not about any principle besides lining his pockets, even if it destabilizes the world and leads to people moving further in the direction of blaming the other. This may create an environment where someone more extreme than both he and trump will flourish and that will be a nightmare the likes of which we do not want to know.
CamperBob2 2y ago
One envisions a new take on Seneca: "Politics is that which the commoners see as necessary, the wealthy see as optional, and the rulers see as useful."

Elon was liberal until he wasn't. Politics is like sports teams. It's an immutable identity for the poor. But for the wealthy they are open to purchase any team.

rqtwteye 2y ago

Exactly.

srameshc 2y ago

Perfectly said. I wish I could send it to my friend who is all consumed by the Faux and believe some billionaire is watching his back and about to send him some checks.

taeric 2y ago

Hard to really say Elon was ever liberal, though. Rather, he was always opportunistic. And the hilarious saga of his gaming skills really calls into question all of his general decision making. Which, fair, you can point to his giant bankroll. Hard to square that with his public persona over the years. Easy to say he has declined recently. But, I'm starting to question how long it was always there.

deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
MichaelZuo 2y ago
I can’t imagine he would have had enough free time to develop any “gaming skills” whatsoever past the PS1 generation.
- taeric 2y ago
  Similarly, I can't imagine he has enough free time to do much of anything with how often he is tweeting nowadays. Still, none of that stopped him from claiming this quite strongly. Which, it would be fine if this was offhand statements. Because, yeah, who cares? But it seems he has pushed this idea for many years, whenever he could. Not exactly the sign of a healthy person. :(
ben_w 2y ago
In retrospect, I think the warning signs were present at least as far back as the incident with harming the name of the person who told him that submarines aren't helpful during cave rescues. Possibly even further back, given the fight with the Top Gear car review show: https://www.drive.com.au/caradvice/remember-when-tesla-tried-to-sue-top-gear/ https://www.drive.com.au/caradvice/remember-when-tesla-tried... Those two incidents together definitely make a hypocrite out of Musk, even if he did win the lawsuit as defendant in the caving case.
- esalman 2y ago
  Even before the submarine stunt, he called an entire field of nanotechnology BS. As a PhD researcher that was the moment I knew he cannot be trusted as authority on any matter related to science and engineering- not because he's an idiot, but because of his bias. Which is a very odd and difficult realization given his business involving renewable energy and space travel.

rainonmoon 2y ago

That's only true if you see politics as hewing to the two party paradigm. Sam Altman, Elon Musk et al., aren't liberals or conservatives, they're capitalists. Their ideological consistency, their only alignment, is to the growth of their individual wealth. That is and always has been their team.

rayiner 2y ago

That's an odd thing to say given that republicans just flipped working-class cities like Passaic, NJ that voted 74% for Clinton in 2016: https://nypost.com/2024/11/06/us-news/nj-dems-scratch-their-heads-of-trump-win-in-passaic-county/ https://nypost.com/2024/11/06/us-news/nj-dems-scratch-their-.... Net swing in Little Bangladesh, Queens, where some of my family lives was over 50 points from 2020. When I was growing up in the 1990s, there were about as many conservative democrats as liberal ones: https://news.gallup.com/poll/467888/democrats-identification-liberal-new-high.aspx https://news.gallup.com/poll/467888/democrats-identification.... In just the last 20 years, the party has become much more liberal, which has pushed many Democrats into the GOP. At the same time, educated professionals have left the GOP and become Democrats. Political alignments are actually quite fluid.

turtlesdown11 2y ago
> The Democrats in Congress have become 6.5% more liberal, while the Republicans have become 26.5% more conservative. https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2022/03/10/the-polarization-in-todays-congress-has-roots-that-go-back-decades/ https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2022/03/10/the-polar...

hmmokidk 2y ago

Elon does what is in Elons interest. It’s not about principles. It’s just about throwing immigrants under the buss so people don’t realize the amount of resources the rich have is increasing and that is the reason they have so little resources. It’s not about any principle besides lining his pockets, even if it destabilizes the world and leads to people moving further in the direction of blaming the other. This may create an environment where someone more extreme than both he and trump will flourish and that will be a nightmare the likes of which we do not want to know.

CamperBob2 2y ago

One envisions a new take on Seneca: "Politics is that which the commoners see as necessary, the wealthy see as optional, and the rulers see as useful."