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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.

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[-] Blaiz0r@lemmy.ml 201 points 1 year ago

This is why billionaires shouldn't exist they are treasonous

[-] Lexam@lemmy.ca 99 points 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.

[-] Blaiz0r@lemmy.ml 37 points 1 year ago

There was a native American tribe that every ten years had individuals return all personal wealth back to the tribe and the threw a big party, then start it all over again

[-] doggle@lemmy.dbzer0.com 14 points 1 year ago

Maybe we just seize all their assets, nationalize them and make them start over with nothing. Call it new game +.

[-] Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works 9 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

They just need to make a point system. The incredibly wealthy don't care about money itself, those are already just points to them. So once you get to say 100 M, you get a trophy saying you won capitalism. After that amount 99% is taxed, you get a penny on the dollar. But all of that taxed money gets you Capitalism points. Capitalism points have no real value and can only be exchanged/traded/gambled with other winners of capitalism. Those with most points will be published each month in the top 100. And the top 10 each year get the prestigous title if honorary economic leader. They can get a medal and a pat on the back by the president.

You can also donate extra money for more capitalism points at a 10:1 exchange rate to get people to play the game even harder and further drive down wealth.

(I believe there are slightly less than 10,000 people in the US who would currently get their capitalism trophy. There are >140,000 people worth more than $50M, is 100 to high?)

Oh and the 100M amount is pegged to minimum wage. Any increase to the capitalism cap has to be matched to the same percent increase to minimum wage.

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[-] jonne@infosec.pub 68 points 1 year ago* (last edited 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.

[-] gnuhaut@lemmy.ml 20 points 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 31 points 1 year ago

I want to abolish them because of both - checkmate

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[-] Blaiz0r@lemmy.ml 19 points 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

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[-] s20@lemmy.ml 74 points 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.

[-] dingus@lemmy.ml 37 points 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.

[-] RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 12 points 1 year ago

He is the main character.

[-] arc@lemm.ee 48 points 1 year ago* (last edited 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.

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[-] Burn_The_Right@lemmy.world 44 points 1 year ago

He's juggling fire. His money can only do so much to protect him if he makes enough mistakes fucking with these dangerous governments.

[-] taladar@sh.itjust.works 30 points 1 year ago

I disagree. Every other billionaire out there also has a shared interest in governments leaving the super-rich alone and not punishing them. That is a powerful lobby.

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[-] ShaggySnacks@lemmy.myserv.one 40 points 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

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[-] lanbanger@kbin.social 26 points 1 year ago

Then he'll have to be sanctioned. Which would be a shame.

[-] Noerttipertti@sopuli.xyz 8 points 1 year ago

Sanctioned or...

Dramatic pause

"Sanctioned"?

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[-] mwguy@infosec.pub 17 points 1 year ago

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

[-] reverendsteveii@sopuli.xyz 14 points 1 year ago

What good does this really do south africa though? Id more expect his loyalty to be to himself and his own profit than any country regardless of where he's native.

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[-] gnuhaut@lemmy.ml 15 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Elon Musk is a US interest. The US is a bunch of business interests in a trench coat, and they don't always agree on everything. Some want to do business with China, some want the Chinese competition destroyed, and some want to create tension so they can sell more weapons.

The idea that Musk is "counter" to US interests is wrong, he just represents a faction of the ruling class that's not on board with the (trade) war on China. Since it's not in the interest of the working class to have a US-China (trade) war, neither in the US nor anywhere really, he is inadvertently aligned with the interests of the majority of humanity on this one.

[-] Dead_or_Alive@lemmy.world 17 points 1 year ago

I see, so it’s not in the working class interest to have a trade war with, checks notes… A genocidal authoritarian government whose stated aim is to subjugate a smaller Democratic neighbor. That same China who is allied with a war mongering mafia state and has aggressively targeted whole industries with intellectual theft, product dumping, and unfair trade practices which has hollowed out whole domestic industries and has been one of the leading causes of low wage growth.

It is now a terrible thing for workers, that the US is in a low intensity trade war which is decoupling it's economy from said genocidal power and rebuilding the industrial plant in North America. Reshoring millions of jobs and keeping the unemployment rate at historic lows despite increased interest rates.

It was a lot to unpack, I just wanted to make sure I understood that correctly.

[-] gnuhaut@lemmy.ml 11 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

You're just thinking of the worker aristocracy in the West, not the global working class, clearly. China has lifted hundreds of millions out of poverty. And it's neat how you blame China for something done by your own ruling class. Furthermore, this trade war (not to mention a war war) will be terrible for workers everywhere. Do you think the billionaires are going to bail you out? No, they're going to squeeze workers even more to finance this conflict, and they'll tell you suffering is your patriotic duty.

And imagine thinking China is the genocidal one out of those two. The US has had a hand in so many genocides and has directly and indirectly killed millions in the last decades. If you compare this to what China has done recently they look like angels.

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[-] gnuhaut@lemmy.ml 13 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

You're mad at Musk for this???

Musk has done so many terrible things. Treats his workers like shit, destroys the environment, platforms racists (he's a racist pos himself), false advertising, siphons government subsidies, scams investors (including pension funds, I don't particularly care about scamming venture capitalist and the like), lobbies against public transport and god knows what I forgot right now.

But oh no! He only supports the war effort up to a point, and he doesn't want to have a cold war with China. For once he's kinda reasonable, and for that the libs are calling him a traitor.

[-] drewdarko@kbin.social 25 points 1 year ago

We are calling him a traitor for having Starlink turned off in Ukraine to protect Russia from a counter attack.

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[-] CollisionResistance@lemm.ee 10 points 1 year ago

If Rachel Maddow says it, then it must be true.

[-] stopthatgirl7@kbin.social 16 points 1 year ago
[-] CollisionResistance@lemm.ee 8 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I know redditors and lemmies are eager to fight to the last Ukrainian, but atleast half the country wants to stop unlimited Ukrainian funding. So Musk prohibiting Ukrainians to use his tech for offensive warfare against another country, is him saving the world from nuclear war.

In his own words, "The United States Congress has not declared war on Russia". And that is 100% true.

I know many of you guys had your bunkers ready for the nuclear fallout. But understand that many others want to live normally.

Here is Walter Isaacson (on whose book this story is based) himself saying,

To clarify on the Starlink issue: the Ukrainians THOUGHT coverage was enabled all the way to Crimea, but it was not. They asked Musk to enable it for their drone sub attack on the Russian fleet. Musk did not enable it, because he thought, probably correctly, that would cause a major war.

https://twitter.com/WalterIsaacson/status/1700342242290901361

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[-] zephyreks@programming.dev 10 points 1 year ago

Truly, the pinnacle of modern journalism: YouTube.

[-] FiskFisk33@lemmy.world 12 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

...sometimes, absolutely!

Youtube is a video hosting platform, just saying a piece of news is hosted on youtube says exactly nothing about it's credibility.

Youtube did not create this video, if you want to say anything useful about its validity you'll have to be a bit more specific about the actual video itself or it's creators.

But I guess cheap pot shots make for easier upvotes.

[-] stopthatgirl7@kbin.social 8 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

A YouTube clip interviewing a New Yorker journalist from a news station’s official channel. 🤨

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[-] PipedLinkBot@feddit.rocks 10 points 1 year ago

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this post was submitted on 12 Sep 2023
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