19 ms·

Elon has total control of Starlink and he’s currently enjoying his bond villain phase. I am very happy my tax dollars are not going into his pockets. It’s not

by rapind 3mo ago

Elon has total control of Starlink and he’s currently enjoying his bond villain phase. I am very happy my tax dollars are not going into his pockets. It’s not a crusade. You send him your money if you want. It’s none of my business. Pretty sure they are doing a bunch of AI training with your data now too. Opt-in by default. So yeah, no thanks.

dmix 3mo ago
Tax payers are already responsible for the fees paid to cancel the contract early, but won't tell the public how much it cost. They also already paid for a test run with a first nations community in 2020 https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/spacex-deal-ontario-settlement-9.7127757 https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/spacex-deal-ontario-s... I personally see more value in connecting poor and isolated rural communities. Plus I highly doubt a provincial government contract in Canada will be a major influence on a Elon's dumb twitter politics.
- overfeed 3mo ago
  > Plus I highly doubt a provincial government contract in Canada will be a major influence on a Elon's dumb twitter politics. I don't think the decision was meant to influence, rather, it's self-defense against said "Elon's dumb Twitter politics." Americans having challenges conceptualizing how problematic Starlink is to non-Americans: imagine the same satellite service was provided by Huawei - but helmed by Chinese Elon.
  - rayiner 3mo ago
    Imagine Europe importing natural gas from Putin through 2027.
    - overfeed 3mo ago
      Imagine the US buying rare earths critical for national security from China with no planned end date. The empirical evidence that your rejoinder is a false equivalence is that the US also expunged Huawei hardware from its telecoms infrastructure. It's much harder to subvert extractive resources, compared to frequently updated software platforms like 5G switches or internet terminals.
deleted 3mo ago
[deleted]
questiona 3mo ago
The primary purpose of Starlink and SpaceX was from the start to support military goals, civilian goals were never the primary purpose. SpaceX and Elon Musk claimed that reaching Mars was a primary goal, but these are blatant and repeated lies, also by shills in this comment section, as is evident by Michael D. Griffin, under secretary of defense for research and engineering from 2018 to 2020, being involved from the beginning. Strangely enough, no comment in this Hacker News section seem to discuss the role Starlink plays in Ukraine currently. > In early 2002 he met entrepreneur Elon Musk and accompanied him on a trip to Russia, where they attempted to purchase ICBMs.[8] The decision to found the company SpaceX was made on the flight home, and Griffin briefly considered serving as chief engineer,[9] but eventually he instead became president and COO of In-Q-Tel, a private enterprise funded by the CIA to identify and invest in companies developing cutting-edge technologies that serve national security interests.[10]
- skybrian 3mo ago
  Would you prefer that it weren’t used in Ukraine? I believe they find it rather useful.
nbardy 3mo ago
[flagged]
- karmakurtisaani 3mo ago
  Someone did not follow the news last year.
- kmarc 3mo ago
  Does a nazi salut make him one? Regardless, the technology itself is amazing, and eventually should (will) be common infrastructure
- watwut 3mo ago
  Trying and helping to incense violence surely counts. He is one of the most harmfull men in the west. It is tight competition, sure, but he is there among the worst. Backing fascist parties actually do make you a villan, regardless of whether they win or not.
- digdugdirk 3mo ago
  Really? It's what he did after he spent nearly a third of a billion dollars to influence an election (which doesn't include the incalculable value of his influence via Twitter!) that makes him a Bond villain. It's Chesterton's Fence[0] in action - Elon took a self-proclaimed woodchipper to the United States government without understanding what he was destroying and without concern for the repercussions to society. He used that influence to benefit himself and his companies directly. It's not sharks with laser beams, but it's far more impactful and the world will living with it for decades to come. [0] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G._K._Chesterton#Chesterton's_fence https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G._K._Chesterton#Chesterton's_...
  - ethbr1 3mo ago
    If you think that was Elon's doing, read up on Stephen Miller^, who was talking about what he'd like to do to the federal bureaucracy even before Trump won a second term. Elon has some racist and oligarchical views, but was also a convenient, socially-awkward autistic guy to brand as the face of DOGE (and stupidly fell for that) while Miller et al. rolled out their preexisting plans. Then knifed him in the back and tossed him overboard when public opinion soured on DOGE's excesses, since Elon never developed a political base. ^ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Miller#White_House_deputy_chief_of_staff_and_homeland_security_advisor_(2025%E2%80%93present) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Miller#White_House_dep...
Nervhq 3mo ago
[dead]
baranul 3mo ago
You might be right, SpaceX and xAI are merged. Starlink users better read the policy documents very carefully.

by rapind 3mo ago

dmix 3mo ago

Tax payers are already responsible for the fees paid to cancel the contract early, but won't tell the public how much it cost. They also already paid for a test run with a first nations community in 2020 https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/spacex-deal-ontario-settlement-9.7127757 https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/spacex-deal-ontario-s... I personally see more value in connecting poor and isolated rural communities. Plus I highly doubt a provincial government contract in Canada will be a major influence on a Elon's dumb twitter politics.

overfeed 3mo ago
> Plus I highly doubt a provincial government contract in Canada will be a major influence on a Elon's dumb twitter politics. I don't think the decision was meant to influence, rather, it's self-defense against said "Elon's dumb Twitter politics." Americans having challenges conceptualizing how problematic Starlink is to non-Americans: imagine the same satellite service was provided by Huawei - but helmed by Chinese Elon.
- rayiner 3mo ago
  Imagine Europe importing natural gas from Putin through 2027.
  - overfeed 3mo ago
    Imagine the US buying rare earths critical for national security from China with no planned end date. The empirical evidence that your rejoinder is a false equivalence is that the US also expunged Huawei hardware from its telecoms infrastructure. It's much harder to subvert extractive resources, compared to frequently updated software platforms like 5G switches or internet terminals.

deleted 3mo ago

[deleted]

questiona 3mo ago

The primary purpose of Starlink and SpaceX was from the start to support military goals, civilian goals were never the primary purpose. SpaceX and Elon Musk claimed that reaching Mars was a primary goal, but these are blatant and repeated lies, also by shills in this comment section, as is evident by Michael D. Griffin, under secretary of defense for research and engineering from 2018 to 2020, being involved from the beginning. Strangely enough, no comment in this Hacker News section seem to discuss the role Starlink plays in Ukraine currently. > In early 2002 he met entrepreneur Elon Musk and accompanied him on a trip to Russia, where they attempted to purchase ICBMs.[8] The decision to found the company SpaceX was made on the flight home, and Griffin briefly considered serving as chief engineer,[9] but eventually he instead became president and COO of In-Q-Tel, a private enterprise funded by the CIA to identify and invest in companies developing cutting-edge technologies that serve national security interests.[10]

skybrian 3mo ago
Would you prefer that it weren’t used in Ukraine? I believe they find it rather useful.

nbardy 3mo ago

[flagged]

karmakurtisaani 3mo ago
Someone did not follow the news last year.
kmarc 3mo ago
Does a nazi salut make him one? Regardless, the technology itself is amazing, and eventually should (will) be common infrastructure
watwut 3mo ago
Trying and helping to incense violence surely counts. He is one of the most harmfull men in the west. It is tight competition, sure, but he is there among the worst. Backing fascist parties actually do make you a villan, regardless of whether they win or not.
digdugdirk 3mo ago
Really? It's what he did after he spent nearly a third of a billion dollars to influence an election (which doesn't include the incalculable value of his influence via Twitter!) that makes him a Bond villain. It's Chesterton's Fence[0] in action - Elon took a self-proclaimed woodchipper to the United States government without understanding what he was destroying and without concern for the repercussions to society. He used that influence to benefit himself and his companies directly. It's not sharks with laser beams, but it's far more impactful and the world will living with it for decades to come. [0] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G._K._Chesterton#Chesterton's_fence https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G._K._Chesterton#Chesterton's_...
- ethbr1 3mo ago
  If you think that was Elon's doing, read up on Stephen Miller^, who was talking about what he'd like to do to the federal bureaucracy even before Trump won a second term. Elon has some racist and oligarchical views, but was also a convenient, socially-awkward autistic guy to brand as the face of DOGE (and stupidly fell for that) while Miller et al. rolled out their preexisting plans. Then knifed him in the back and tossed him overboard when public opinion soured on DOGE's excesses, since Elon never developed a political base. ^ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Miller#White_House_deputy_chief_of_staff_and_homeland_security_advisor_(2025%E2%80%93present) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Miller#White_House_dep...

Nervhq 3mo ago

[dead]

baranul 3mo ago

You might be right, SpaceX and xAI are merged. Starlink users better read the policy documents very carefully.