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Opinion | Elon Musk Is Preoccupied With Something He Doesn’t Understand

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/23/opinion/elon-musk-great-replacement.html?unlocked_article_code=1.e00.hINs.XRrD51c8XuB7

Beyond the surface-level nonsense of the “great replacement” theory lies a more subtle issue.

Opinion | Elon Musk Is Preoccupied With Something He Doesn’t Understand

There is no particular mystery to unravel around the political views of Elon Musk, the billionaire technology and social media executive. He is — and for some time, has been — on the far right wing of American politics. He is an enthusiastic purveyor of far-right conspiracy theories, using his platform on the website X to spread a worldview that is as extreme as it is untethered from reality.

25 comments

xmunk

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It's racism. He's preoccupied with racism.

dexa_scantron

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If you're that much astronomically richer than everyone else, how could you possibly be comfortable with it? How do you convince yourself that you deserve it? You either genuinely try to do something good, or you convince yourself that you're just Better Than The Poors because of some innate attribute. I don't think there's another option.

maegul

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Yep, there’s gotta be a whole raft of psychological issues that any human would encounter being raised above everyone else in wealth and entitlement and power. I’ve certainly seen a glimpse of it … just weird trains of thought that start to run free.

An interesting comparison might be with people who reach the top of their field, up to celebrity status, but in ways that don’t afford them mass wealth and power, just adoration and fame within a very specific, if sometimes prestigious, field. While you’d often find arrogance there, I’d also imagine there’d be more groundedness and even humility through knowing how hard it is to do good and meaningful work and how many others in the world are also doing good work.

WeirdGoesPro

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just adoration and fame within a very specific, if sometimes prestigious, field.

Linus Torvalds looking smug

al177

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During CPU startup Transmeta's Dyson "It" style campaign leading to their first product launch, they widely publicized that Linus was on staff.

Ironically you chose a picture of Linus holding a laptop containing the only product he's famous for shilling.

WeirdGoesPro

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Dude, I went through so many people looking for someone famous and well regarded in a semi-prestigious field who isn’t outlandishly wealthy. TIL that Gabe Newell has 3 billion freakin’ dollars.

I chose this picture of Linus for the oddly smug expression on his face. What does he know???

al177

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He's daydreaming about going all Gordon Ramsay on the LKML after the photo shoot.

maegul

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Dude, I went through so many people looking for someone famous and well regarded in a semi-prestigious field who isn’t outlandishly wealthy.

Academics and artists strike me as the obvious examples, depending of course. You may get properly wealthy people in those categories, in that they're technically financially independent if they want to be ... but no where near "I'm gonna go buy a company" wealthy.

OldWoodFrame

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He has the history of doing the first option, his whole thing is going to Mars. That's close enough to something good. The real problem is that he's just doing both.

dexa_scantron

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I don't think that his plans for Mars are good for anyone but himself. Creating a small privately owned Mars colony is more likely to increase problems like climate change and inequality than reduce them. If it were Nasa or another government agency, we could argue that technological advances from the attempt would benefit everyone, like they did in the space race, but this won't even do that. Best case, it makes him even richer. Worst case, it pumps a lot of carbon into the atmosphere and wastes a bunch of resources for no benefit.

LEDZeppelin

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No no. He understands and loves that. That’s not what the headline is talking about

someguy3

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Musk’s current obsession, as Greg Sargent observes in The New Republic, is the “great replacement,” a far-right conspiracy theory that liberal elites in the United States are deliberately opening the southern border to nonwhite immigration from Mexico, South and Central America in order to replace the nation’s white majority and secure permanent control of its political institutions.

On X, Musk recently pinned a post to a slickly produced video that purports to expose a “Democrat open borders plan to entrench single-party rule,” in which Democrats shepherd millions of people into the United States and “keep them in the country at all costs.” Musk says, “This is actually happening!” The video had, at the time of this writing, well over 50 million views.

DogPeePoo

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It’s hilarious he pretends to be American.

Ladder pulling Musk often forgets that he himself is an immigrant to America.

He can fuck off and go back to South Africa if these are his views on immigration.

The US doesn’t want or need him.

underisk

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South Africa went through a lot of trouble to get rid of people like him.

RamblingPanda

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As did America. Those assholes are all descendants of European settlers that tried to replace indigenous people, but oh no, now they are being replaced 😭

... Which they are not.

LordR

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He obviously doesn't realize that his own business needs cheap labor to function and that is the major reason for immigration. I think he is even dumber than I thought...

13esq

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Opinion | If you don't like Musk, don't buy a Tesla, subscribe to starlink or use X

These posts are so boring, it's fanaticism. Imagine hating someone so much and yet being unable to shut up about them.

Edit: they hated him because he had an opinion

surewhynotlem

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I agree. Not because we should leave him alone, but because he doesn't matter.

There are billionaires out there doing worse things for humanity. He's just the most visible because he's an idiot. The rest stay out of the spotlight intentionally.

FenrirIII

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He's turned Twitter into a cesspool of racist, alt-right pieces of shit. He is actively trying to destroy labor unions and the laws that protect him. Keep this asshole in the spotlight too because he believes that he's rich enough to get away with it and his fanboys need to see him knocked down a peg.

eugene171

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https://www.space.com/spacex-military-concern-private-control-satellite-network-starlink

Hard to say he doesn't matter.

He shouldn't be allowed to have this much power over elected governments.

13esq

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Nail on head. There are plenty of other billionaires that are also massive cunts.

I'm quite frankly bored of Lemmy's hate boner for Musk. I mean, I do get it, loads of people are absolutely seething that twitter isn't their safe space anymore, but it's time to move on.

CommanderCloon

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Reposting Nazi political memes isn't "having an opinion". I mean, it is, it's just an opinion you deserve the wall for.

13esq

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Are you seriously equating my opinion on boring and repetitive "Musk bad" posts to reposting Nazi political memes and then implying that I should be shot?

Because if so, at least one of us has lost touch with reality.

CommanderCloon

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I thought you meant that "he", Musk, was just "having an opinion". He is posting nazi propaganda (great replacement BS).

You're getting downvoted because you're saying we should somehow ignore a highly powerful figure who is posting nazi propaganda; that's a terrible opinion

Edit: I also could have worded my comment a lot better. By "you" I meant whoever posts nazi apology, which you didn't do with your comment, sorry for the misdirected violence.

13esq

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Ok fair enough.

I stand by opinion though. The best way to piss off Musk is to make sure he doesn't get any of your money.

If you don't like Musk's opinions then the worst thing you could do is keep repeating them. Ignore him, no matter how much it sucks.