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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      1 year 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.

    • jonne
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      1 year 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.

    • zephyreks@programming.dev
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      1 year ago

      China seems to do a pretty good job of keeping their billionaires in check. Maybe we should take notes?

    • gnuhaut@lemmy.ml
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      1 year 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@kbin.social
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            1 year ago

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

            • gnuhaut@lemmy.ml
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              1 year 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@kbin.social
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                1 year 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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                1 year 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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        1 year 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

  • s20@lemmy.ml
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    1 year 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@lemmy.ml
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      1 year 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.

      • d-RLY?@lemmy.ml
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        1 year 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.

    • dangblingus@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      1 year ago

      He bought Twitter WITH $22B OF SAUDI MONEY. Should tell you everything you need to know about the purchase, the motivation, and why he’s “doing so badly” with it.

  • Tosti@feddit.nl
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    1 year ago

    I think this is the case for a lot of the extremely wealthy and multinationals. The difference is that Musk is just not good at being discreet.

  • arc@lemm.ee
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    1 year 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.

  • ShaggySnacks@lemmy.myserv.one
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    1 year 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@beehaw.org
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      1 year 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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      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.

    • exploding_whale@lemmy.ml
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      The irony of this is FDR wasn’t exactly lacking in wealth or at least access to it at any point in his life.

  • mwguy
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    1 year ago

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

  • Asymptote@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    1 year ago

    The past half century has been moving production out of the west and into China but it’s somehow just bad when it’s Musk?

    Come on, this circle jerk is getting more retarded by the day.

    • fosforus@sopuli.xyz
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      1 year ago

      Also in a time of moving everything to cheapo countries, Musk founded new car factories in the US and Europe. Also a couple in China, but those were as late as 2019 and 2021.

    • sunbeam60@lemmy.one
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      Said no one ever, until you just did it right there.

      As they say in Danish “talk about shooting sparrows with cannon-balls”.