Big Brain Billionaire War Policy

PugJesus@lemmy.dbzer0.com to NonCredibleDefense@lemmy.world – 347 points –
lemmy.dbzer0.com
55

Musk saying he wants his internet to be used for peaceful thing is pretty funny considering the direction of twitter, and his overall points of view, let alone his blatant disregard for the health and safety of his employees.

I guess peace is another of the words that change depending on the situation, for musk.

you're asking civilians to be responsible for killing people who deserve it or worse, to be responsible if they fuck up for heroes dying.

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There once I a time when I respected this person. What the actual fuck.

I once thought he was a somewhat awkward nerd who fell upward from wealth into insane wealth.

Turns out, no, at one point he just had a functioning PR team.

I mean, you don't go from millionaire to billionaire in a decade without having some brains, you have to give him credit for that.

I just didn't realise what a terrible person he was.

Getting lucky (Paypal) and being a good grifter (Tesla) does not equal having brains. At most, if one wanted to be generous, you could say SpaceX was a venture made at an opportune time, but I would attribute that less to brains than luck, since the driving impetus for its founding was not "NASA is phasing out certain services which private companies will need to pick up" but "I just got rich and now I want to fund space exploration." Which, to be fair, is better than what most people do when they first get rich - but is hardly proof of intelligence.

SpaceX should have been a failure.

  • The US lost its primary source of engines and one of its main launch providers
  • the US was between rockets
  • Obama space advisors groked that the more people involved with space the higher the chance programs don't get cut. Hence private launch contracts.
  • every other country that can do something in space lost interest for decades but still had needs.
  • Wall Street scumbags took over Boeing.
  • they hired obsessed talent in the beginning.

Any of those things hadn't happened when they did and it would have been failure. Only one of them is because of something they did.

I mean, you don't go from millionaire to billionaire in a decade without having some brains.

It's not uncommon for the lottery to get up over a billion anymore and it doesn't take a whole lot of brains to gamble

Unlike many I do agree. Elon is extremely good at some things, like self-promotion. With some starting capital and understanding of venture capitalism it can get you a looong way.

Scamming people at that level requires serious skill. And makes you a terrible person.

Was it the "pedo guy" incident for you too? It was for me.

That's the point where I realised he was kinda an asshole, yes.

I think that was the point for a lot of people. I certainly was one of them as well, he really revealed to the world he was a petty little shit.

We all used to shit our pants, so don't judge yourself too harshly. At least you've learned from this mistake more quickly. (I assume.)

He should be in jail for treason. Also he's a piece of shit

Unfortunately, because we're not at war with Russia it can't count as treason, but there's a whole host of other laws he violated so they could definitely get him on something.

Subverting the foreign policy of the United States is a crime, even if you aren't at war with that nation.

Yes, it very much is. But it still isn't treason

Actually, subverting the foreign policy of the United States is actually a form of treason.

Like, you can say "I think we should trade with Cuba"

You cannot provide funding to a company that ships aid to Cuba. That is illegal, and actually a form of treason.

What Musk did is the latter. He saw a geopolitical situation the state department was handling, and inserted himself and his company into it. Up to thst point is fine. But then he inserted himself into the decision-making process of US strategic command because we was a vendor to the government.

If you supply rockets to send up satellites, the time to object is before you agree and load payloads to send up satellites. Not during or after.

You cannot provide funding to a company that ships aid to Cuba. That is illegal, and actually a form of treason.

Illegal yes, treason no.

Treason has a very specific definition in US law and almost nothing counts without a declaration of war or declaring a group an enemy of the state.

I think not wanting something you created to be used to kill people is fine.

Edit: Jesus Christ, I did not think the idea that a corporation would want to stay out of a national conflict would be such a controversial idea!

If I had invented something that I had designed to improve and benefit the world and I found out that it was being used for the purpose of killing, I'd be absolutely horrified, regardless of my allegiance to any side.

Downvotes away I guess!

Then he should stop making self driving cars. lol. lmao.

I know you're being fecetious, but there is clearly a difference in using something as a tool for the purpose of killing and accidental road traffic deaths.

Am I? There might be a difference; How would we know the FSD deaths were accidental? Could be a sort of Roku's fender bender.

Do we know Elon didn't cause those autopilot crashes?

For all we know the passengers were nazis with nukes 🤷‍♂️

Then don't enter into a contract at all with a nation at war to supply their military with Internet. They basically pulled the rug out from under Ukraine here which is way worse than just not supplying Internet in the first place.

He is fine with that:

It's funny cause the reply had "celebrating or praising violence" as it's second bullet point. Pretty sure if you don't interpret "gasthejews6969" as celebrating or praising violence you're kind of fucking retarded.

I think allowing an offensive username and actually killing people with something you helped create are different things.

Yes, they're different. Ukraine needed Starlink to defend itself. I don't think Gasthejews6969 has a valid self defense claim and only advocated for ethnic cleansing, which historically has proven to be quite successful.

But I do love that you defend Gasthejews6969. Tells everyone who you are.

When did I defend them? Please don't put such vile accusations towards me.

I'm merely saying the situations aren't comparible. I did NOT say that I condone antisemitism or twitter's decision on the matter, I literally said that the username was offensive. Jesus Christ.

You claim Gasthejews6969 is harmless, merely joking about genocide of jewish people. He, among many other on Twitter, are spreading genocidal rhetoric, be it against Jews, Ukrainians or some other ethnic group. Civilized countries criminalize such behavior recognizing measurable harm that they cause. Nazi propagandist have been tried and found guilty as well.

Twitter is being used to kill people, Musk is fine with that. It's entirely comparable, but the comparison looks damning for Musk and anyone who defends him.

Fucking hell. I DID NOT MAKE THAT CLAIM. YOU ARE PUTTING WORDS IN MY MOUTH AND INCREDIBLY INCENDIARY ONES AT THAT!!!!

I'm sorry that you have incorrectly interpreted my claim of two situations being different as defence of one of them. My claim that two situations are not comparable is not synonymous with with the idea that one of them is OK, you have read between the lines when there is nothing there to read.

For the record, I would like to state that I am against antisemitism, nazi propaganda, genocide, "twitter killing people" or whatever this fucking moron is going to accuse me of next.

JFC!

"I think not wanting something you created to be used to kill defend people against genocide is fine" there, fixed that for you.

Semantics

You don't think people being murdered in Ukraine are worthy of being defended?

https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/pentagon-buys-starlink-ukraine-statement-2023-06-01/

It would appear he had a DoD contract for the service depending on the actual contract he may be in violation.

That said this sub has a serious war hawk problem. Non-interventionism isn't some evil philosophy.

Musk intervening is not non-interventionism.

Musk seeking the contract and providing starlink certainly isn't but the broader concept of not providing a good or service of benefit to one side in a conflict is emblematic of non-interventionism. The most true incarnation of non interventionism in this kind of situation would have been to never get involved in the first place.

I'm in no way implying musk isn't and idiot without consistent guiding principles or beliefs.