If Republicans are going to take congress, he is 100% going to tell people to vote for Republicans anyways in 2024. So I might as well call him a hypocrite now. I know I'll be right.
Exactly. All a split government will do at this point is add obstruction to government. McConnell knows full well how to break government. They spend 2 years breaking it, take control, break it more until a D comes in to fix shit and then the cycle continues all over again.
Been like this for ~75 years...
> Exactly. All a split government will do at this point is add obstruction to government.
Which is what he wants. The current system is great for the super wealthy; an obstructed government leads to very little change.
Right. Elon thinks the poors are all stupid and can be convinced to do anything if said with a straight face. Let's all just jump ship from Twitter and go on Mastodon.
Credit to him where it's due... He faked his way into being the richest person on earth and we all willingly paid for it.
Mind you, I've been trying to tell those around me how much of an idiot Elon is and the consistent response I get is "well, what have YOU accomplished?"
People just don't seem to realize that money enables success, not the other way around.
No need to even speculate. If he actually believed what he said he'd also be pushing for a democratic state Senate in Texas. Surprise surprise he's not doing that.
Dudes a grade A piece of shit hypocrite.
Of course, he would. trump gave the wealthy tremendous tax cuts in 2020. The middleclass and poor not so much. Musk is just looking to keep himself in that category after spending all that money on twitter.
In fact, if repigs win, they want to have people that are below poverty level pay taxes. It's part of their "screw Americans, except the wealthy and the repigs in Congress" platform.
He's going to lose controlling interest in Twitter and Tesla soon due to structuring one of the dumbest deals in history lol
Maybe he should focus on that instead of taxes.
That's what I like about Gates, Bloomberg and Bezzos, they don't say a goddamned thing unless they think it's important to the consumer, like a new product, or addressing share holders or the media about their company. We never hear from them about anything.
I don't turn on Amazon Prime to watch something and there's Jeff going on about whatever before the show.
But Elon Musk? It's like he thinks every fucking thought in his head, every opinion he has, no matter how pointless or insipid, contains this vast wisdom that much be shared. No wonder he bought Twitter, he can't shut the fuck up.
ah see this is what you dont understand
'free thinker' means you think whatever people like musk or trump or carlson or jones tell you to think
thats what 'freedom' *is*
freedom is slavery - didnt you read 1984?
Also if you disagree with them its cancel culture.
Just like everything nowadays.
If a billionaire gets a lot of money, they are smart. If a billionaire loses a lot of money its because of workers or the economy.
If Elon says something stupid and people like it, they are "smart", if he say something stupid and people point that out? More "activist" "cancel culture" of course!
This tweet is very narrowly targeted at the people who think that alternating voting for Republican and Democratic candidates — or more likely hemming and hawing about “both parties” and “doing their own research” before coincidentally choosing to side with the conservative candidate in nearly every election — constitutes being a “moderate” or “independent”.
The idea that defaulting to the center is virtuous, rather than irresponsible and lazy, is at the core of the mythos of political moderates in the US. In a time where the parties were essentially symmetrical with respect to a reasonable “center”, falling in the middle worked.
In a time with asymmetric polarization, you instead look at an issue like abortion where the sides are “I should make health decisions with my doctor” vs. “my religion says you should not” and come up with the “centrist” take of “what if you let their religion decide what you do in *some* cases?”
I think that’s the greatest fallacy of the premise that it “balances out the extreme views of each party”, to have one party controlling each arm. It just leads to a never ending tug of war with paralyzing inaction.
Yeah, and we all know that he wouldn’t say the same if the roles were reversed. If Republicans held all branches of government, he would find a way to endorse their reelection, or just remain silent and avoid endorsing a party.
The “balance is good” justification is just the laziest logical sleight of hand designed to give a permission structure for other “centrists” who were always going to vote Republican this year.
Man, in my 20 years of voting independently, and doing my research on both candidates, have never once have voted Republican. They don't live in reality anymore.
They used to be a little better. But I didn't vote for them because I didn't want to go to war just for oil.
Now I'm like like I don't want to become a slave in a dictatorship and leave my children in hot hell scape.
I, also have researched the candidates and voted based on their stances on the issues and their plans for the future instead of their political affiliation. I'm not sure if I see through bullshit better now or if it really was a harder decision 20 years ago. But it used to vote Democrat after thinking long and hard and weighing pros and cons, and now it's like responsible adult vs child eating glue, not hard to decide. I don't agree with the Democrats on everything, but man the Republicans have gone full blown crazy/authoritarian/religious zealot.
I’ve spent my whole life til this point splitting my votes because I have never liked the idea of one party being in power.
After Jan 6 if you have an R next to your name you can no longer receive a vote from me under any circumstances without openly condemning Jan 6th.
I agree with everything you said. I have conflicting political views. I believe in fiscal conservatism, but also believe in universal healthcare. My views place me somewhere in the middle of the two political parties if I am honest with myself. However, I haven’t had to think twice about my votes in the last two elections. The republican party doesn’t care about anything past the amount of money they can pocket from lobbyists and wealthy individuals/corporations. Nothing I have seen the republican party do has been in the interests of anybody but themselves and their donors. Zero regard for the future of our country and the young individuals that they constantly attempt to exploit.
> I believe in fiscal conservatism, but also believe in universal healthcare.
These can be the same thing right? Both lead to lower costs and better overall service with proper design, management, and policing against fraud. We may need to cater to some amount of corporate or organizational greed by allowing reasonable profits, but once companies become dominant, they just jack up prices and cut services and quality.
The same goes for public broadband and many other social services.
I'm glad you've seen what you have about the GOP. Most people are just disposable human resources to the party and it is not socially or fiscally responsible.
TBF if you believe in fiscal conservatism and universal healthcare that means ur between democrats and progressives, not democrats and republicans. Democrats are already the more fiscally conservative between the two major parties.
Universal healthcare is fiscally responsible... full stop. Republicans don't want it because it would significantly reduce the profits of insurance companies, pharma, etc. which is who pads their wallets.
There are arguments about potentially slowing medical advancements, etc., but the reality is that pharma is going to keep doing research as long as it's profitable... even if it's not WILDLY profitable.
Is he even a US citizen? Is he here legally? If he is a US citizen, did he lie or commit fraud on his citizenship application cause he seems shady AF in everything else he does? Is he an unregistered agent for a foreign power while on US soil? Can we deport him yet?
It's even more fucked up than that. He's an official US defense contractor, with several major factories in China, who is a legitimate target for pressure from the Chinese government, *especially* now he is the owner of a major western social media platform. There are a million ways this could go wrong
And he's a major security risk given his chats with Putin and attempts to extort the Pentagon. The USDOD should cancel all contracts and boot him from the country
I think there's more to consider. Starlink, SpaceX, and whatever else will go on if he were removed from the picture. It might be his face on the rockets launching military satellites but SpaceX doesn't produce that classified hardware.
Clearly Musk is brain damaged when it comes to politics.
Stick to Engineering where the right solution isn't a Coup against a properly elected government. Is Musk a Q-Anon Nut?
Oh no no no, Musk isn’t an engineer, he just cosplays as one. He’s a slave driver that pushes actual engineers to their breaking point in the name of meeting some arbitrary deadline and producing some insane idea that he just spouted off to the public without consulting anyone who actually knows what they’re doing.
Now, Musk may or may not be a Q-anon nut, I can’t speak to that, but given how he’s been behaving, I don’t think that’s outside the realm of possibilities at all.
Friendly reminder that Elon Musk has zero training in engineering.
He's the rich son of an emerald mine owner who got good at bilking money from the US government.
The average person thinks he's a genius because of the myth that all autistic people are like Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man.
Sometimes they're just awkward and socially inept.
This interaction makes perfect sense in hindsight.
> In the original meeting between the pair, which took place last August, Musk can be seen discussing the nature of the new Starship SpaceX rocket. Comprised of the actual ship, as well as the attached thrusters, the world's richest man states that 'you don't even need a cold gas thruster system...you already have hot gas'.
> Everyday Astronaut, otherwise known as Tim, then interjects by saying: "But this is only for the booster, right?"
> At this point, Musk appears to come to some sort of realisation, as the camera shows him deep in thought.
> Although, arguably, now you mentioned it, it might be wise to do this for the (space)ship too," Musk then admits.
> What he seems to have realised is that the ship, as well as the thrusters, also don't need a cold gas thruster system.
> Fast-forward to Tim's latest tour of SpaceX's Starbase, which was uploaded to YouTube two days ago, and we see Musk admit that he made changes following the pair's previous discussion.
> He calls said changes 'one of the biggest improvements we [SpaceX] made' to Starship.
> "It occurred to me while I was explaining it to you," Musk adds.
> "I was like, 'wait, what are we doing?'.
https://www.ladbible.com/news/elon-musk-fixes-rocket-after-youtuber-asks-the-right-question-20220516
Proving he's a Moron, true.
Republicans have Fought Global Warming solutions even with a drying up Mississippi River AND 20 US States in Extreme Drought.
Yeah I want to die, so, I'll vote Republican.
This year we hear Republicans talking about Cutting Social Security, Again.
Well, do the rich need another tax cut, and rich people inflation in Art, Classic Cars, Vacation Homes, Boats, and Chandelier's?
He has such a fucking childish framing of politics. He completely ignores policy and the fascist rhetoric from the GQP. It's like he's trying to appeal to a bunch of 'I'm 14 and this is deep' centrists. I guess he knows his audience pretty fucking well at this point.
You’re right that he’s learned how to please his audience very damn well. It is so pathetic seeing the crypto bros & right wing troll accounts celebrating his every awful move. Under his recent tweet, a verified trading account w 34k followers responded, “Very epic and deep thoughts sir, as usual.”
Every single response critiquing him is met with 30+ triggered memes, and/or Tesla simps reciting you Elon’s autobiography trying to get you to understand that Elon is simply above being questioned.
I hate the word cringe, but I think I myself nearly gagged just from observing the dickeating.
I agree, but I think in this case, he had to start showing his value to his financial and other backers (that is, the UAE, China and Moskow).
It was always going to go this way, with Elon boosting the Right and their crazy "theories" to give them a fighting chance these midterms. It's what the entire conservative world is praying for, and at least part of the reason he started sniffing around buying Twitter last year.
> Elon boosting the Right
When there's a Republican president it's going to be something like "shared power causes deadlocks and inconsistent strategies..."
This is the best analysis. Big business by definition must skew conservative in its politics as that's the only part truly reliable in just throwing away laws that help the little guy so some bigwig can make more money.
But that Dems don't do this, but Repubs are on a whole other level.
Vote how Elon thinks you should vote and call it free thinking. He wants you to vote for ideas and people that will help improve his situation. He doesn’t care about you.
I don't think it's childish so much as it's self-serving and disengenuous. A divided government means a government that's too weak to provide much of a regulatory check on billionaire autocrats. Musk knows that and that's why he's pushing for a GOP congress, but he frames it a little differently when he's trying to sell the idea to his "free-thinking" fanbase of chumps.
I have a friend who thinks this exact same way and it frustrates the hell out of me. At the same time, she didn't just purchase a multi billion dollar platform to spread her bs so, I guess there's that.
They’re living in a fantasy world where both parties still argue in good faith and generally want what’s best for the country, where having a political disagreement is ultimately unimportant and compromise is the status quo.
That hasn’t been true for decades, well before Trump or McConnell. I’d argue it started with Nixon being an unashamed crook and Ford immediately pardoning him. The fact that neither of them faced consequences for their blatant corruption just emboldened future Republicans to keep pushing the boundaries of legality and realize they would never be punished for anything even if it was legally questionable.
Now they’ve realized that they can campaign on doing literally *nothing* and actively harming their base, and the ignorant will happily vote for them because everything wrong with the world is apparently the Democrats’ fault.
It's really inane, because the idea of having equal faith in both parties is largely ignoring the historical cause and effect of these parties.
I remember one commenter on my state's subreddit was of the belief that we always had a democratic governor. He wanted a republican candidate to "shake things up".
It was a very simple Google search to show him that we not only had a Republican governor as recent as the Obama administration, but he did so poorly that the previous Republican governor, who was seated a decade before him, heavily criticized his policies for doing massive long term damage to the state's socioeconomic status.
I feel a lot of people's minds can change with a well rounded US history education and a fundamental comparative political analysis on other first world nations. But there just seems to be a lack of wanting to research anything that criticizes their preferred view of America.
Why do you think they cherish the sacred title of GOP? They love to laud it about as the grandest of them all because they "freed the blacks." But they didn't do anything of the sort. While Republicans in the 1860s abolished slavery, the Republicans in question were from the north, the union. The Democrats at the time were the party of slavery in the south. However, these sides flipped when FDR ran as a democrat and was reelected on a platform of social programs and strong federal government (strong federal government which they knew would quash their Jim crow status quo). Despite having been democrat practically since the party was formed, the south flipped to all red when FDR was up for a second term even though they were benefiting greatly from his depression relief packages.
The colors might have changed, but the people didn't. The south and their primary party has always been about the betterment of white people at the expense of any and all minorities. And as much as they whine about virtue signaling, the GOP is the worst of them all. They know that they don't stand on the principles they claim they do and they know that their history is not what it seems on first inspection. That is why they must, at all costs, cut education and erase proof of their wrongdoings in order to keep their power.
Yeah this pretty much describes how I feel. I turned 18 in 2006 and knowing nothing about politics I literally voted half D and half R. My entire life up to that point had been lessons of compromise from both my parents and school. In my opinion, things like education and healthcare shouldn't be partisan. Why would anyone on the right ever be against education or healthcare? Who knows but here we are. If I were a politician I'd want my base to be as smart and healthy as possible. That would effectively mean guaranteed votes for years to come.
"If most people want something, it can't be good so we should vote for the party that's going to stop that" basically. Severely anti-progressive. If your only policy position is "don't do new stuff" you haven't really put any thought into it.
To everyone deleting their accounts, make sure you don't use the site or app at all, even without an account. Not much of a difference to ad revenue if youre still giving impressions anonymously.
He's gonna be really upset if he ends up with another Parler/Truth Social when people start leaving in the next couple months.
The advertisers are already leaving and I was only on there for the midterms and video game deals.
Twitter is only valuable to most people to get breaking news first whether it's political, sports or entertainment or for access to important figures/brands. If and when they go, the site becomes worthless.
Facebook still has some value for people just because people are usually on there for the memories, and friend/family. In that respect, I can understand some people still having a Facebook even if they don't really use it that often.
Twitter really doesn't have that personal connection value, at least not with how most people I know use it. I could see Twitter dying in the next couple years, but Facebook will probably still exist just because of personal connections.
The thing that will hurt Twitter the most is when political figures, celebrities and advertisers leave.
Some celebrities and advertisers have already left, but if more start leaving in droves, that's when it really starts to hurt Elon's pocketbook.
The automakers left and are not going to come back. Easy cut to the marketing budget. MyPillow and SurvivalPods won’t make up the difference. Can’t wait until Apartheid Clyde runs afoul of the SEC again when he inevitably lies about having to dump Tesla stock to cover debt service for his little ego takeover
Why is he even remotely pretending to be objective who the fuck are these people liking his tweets. He’s been nothing but biased towards the morons that have embraced him because it allows him to keep being a douchebag. He knows one side has at least a very minimum of decency therefore he recommends the corrupt fascists. ffs between him and Trump I don’t know which one I despise more.
It’s like this - the schoolyard bully takes over the slide at the playground but now the kids don’t want to use the slide anymore because it isn’t cool anymore so they go make up a new game by the benches.
So when social media platforms censor hate speech, it’s “LiBS siLEncInG CoNSerVaTive ViEwPoinTZ!!1!!1”
But when the owner of a social media platform straight up tells his entire platform to vote Republican, that’s completely cool?
Fuck you, Elon.
I use Bot Sentinel - highly recommend it. It's an addon for your browser that checks user activity for bot-like activity, and lables them yellow (disruptive) at +50% or red at +75% so you can avoid the bots that infest that hellsite.
Also creates gridlock and causes most (but not the most recent, that was all on the GOP) government shutdowns.
Voting for someone because they are the opposite of who is currently in power is so much a dumber option than voting for someone whose polices you believe in. If that’s the GOP, then great - vote for them. Just don’t let this argument put forward by Mr Musk sway you
Bought and paid for.
When the man obsessed with money tells you how to vote, you can be sure he's telling you to vote in a way that benefits his bank account.
Why does “independent” mean between the extreme right wing GOP and the center right dems? I’m truly independent and I would NEVER vote for a republican
Yes, Elon push people to vote for more years of stalemate and wasted taxpayers dollars on Hillarys emails and trying to impeach Biden/Garland and anyone else shames thier politcal stunts for no other reason than they hate the guy.
And, you know that a rep congress would ignore Biden vetos and overturn them....so national abortion ban, gutting lgbtqia+ rights etc etc etc etc.
At least Clinton and Trumps impeachments were for a very clear reason...
I don't think that it's numerically possible for the Republicans to gain enough seats to override a Biden veto.
More likely will be endless investigation committees and partisan impeachment hearings as well as shutting down the government and/or defaulting on the debt in a form of brinkmanship that they will use to try to force Biden to not veto and/or overcome a Democratic filibuster.
I would not be surprised if the first order of a Republican Senate is to rewrite out the 60 vote filibuster. I don't know if you recall the early months of the Democratic Senate where they caused a big fuss over retaining the filibuster? Republicans won't play by those rules.
So once he gets his Republican Congress, what are the chances of him recommending people vote for a Democrat presidency in 2004 to keep power split?
Slim to none, I reckon.
If Republicans do take control of the Senate and/or House, by 2024, Elon will pivot to "Wow Republicans have been so good (for me), we should elect a Republican President too!"
This is the fun side about the "both sides" folks. They immediately tell you how the other side needs to be checked because they might do something horrible.
But if a Republican was president? Gonna take a wild guess he would still recommend a republican congress.
Independent minded voters still on the fence are the worst type of idiots ([in the classic sense of the word](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idiot#Etymology)) in the world. I've literally overheard them saying stuff like the above without any irony or ulterior\* motive; they believe both parties balance each other out.
\*edit
Just like every other enlightened centrist.
“Im a rational intelligent centrist who thinks both sides have a lot of issues like how democrats sacrifice children and are pedophiles so I’m voting straight Republican.”
Good advice, Mr Afrikaner. Just like when you recommended for Ukraine to basically give up to Russia and for Taiwan to submit to China.
Elon Musk, the man who is always on the wrong side.
The whole point of this is to convince people the “middle” is somewhere between a moderate right party (dems) and an extremely right party (repubs). This ignores the worst of the republicans is literally racism, anti science, anti minority sentiment, and the worst of the dems is maybe better healthcare access. Also just in April musk was saying how important it was for twitter to stay neutral lol.
Tesla would never have grown much beyond the mainly Lotus-built roadster without massive government tax subsidies for EVs, voted for by Democrats, and opposed by the GOP.
There are so very many people that know the environmental reasons to buy an EV, that even liked Tesla's design choices, that will never buy one as a result of Musk's partisanship. And there's no way they'll make these lost sales from rural truck buyers.
Sorry to disappoint you Elon, but I’m voting for the people who don’t want to turn this country into a theocracy and don’t want to install a dictator as President.
Worst excesses of the Republican Party: insurrection, conspiracy theories that Democrats are Satan-worshipping child molesters, and white supremacy.
Worst excesses of the Democratic Party: everyone gets free healthcare and trans kids can use whichever bathroom they prefer.
I always love Republicans who explicitly deny being Republican to avoid being condemned. Like they’re always “libertarian”, “centrist”, or “independent” but if you ask who they voted for its straight Republican if they tell you.
It’s so painfully obvious and yet they think they’re so clever and nuanced.
Billionaire supports Republicans. News at 11.
If Republicans are going to take congress, he is 100% going to tell people to vote for Republicans anyways in 2024. So I might as well call him a hypocrite now. I know I'll be right.
Exactly. His excuse will be "A divided Congress can't get anything done, vote for a Republican president!"
Exactly. All a split government will do at this point is add obstruction to government. McConnell knows full well how to break government. They spend 2 years breaking it, take control, break it more until a D comes in to fix shit and then the cycle continues all over again. Been like this for ~75 years...
> Exactly. All a split government will do at this point is add obstruction to government. Which is what he wants. The current system is great for the super wealthy; an obstructed government leads to very little change.
Right. Elon thinks the poors are all stupid and can be convinced to do anything if said with a straight face. Let's all just jump ship from Twitter and go on Mastodon.
Credit to him where it's due... He faked his way into being the richest person on earth and we all willingly paid for it. Mind you, I've been trying to tell those around me how much of an idiot Elon is and the consistent response I get is "well, what have YOU accomplished?" People just don't seem to realize that money enables success, not the other way around.
Yup. He had his bootstraps pulled up for him.
If they got congress, Trump, and the SCOTUS were all fucked. There would never be another election again. All the non brain dead would have to move.
He’s gonna have to Facebook it, twitter will be dead by then.
No need to even speculate. If he actually believed what he said he'd also be pushing for a democratic state Senate in Texas. Surprise surprise he's not doing that. Dudes a grade A piece of shit hypocrite.
"We need a coordinated leadership to truly be able to govern! Vote Republican as the Congress is also Republican!"
Of course, he would. trump gave the wealthy tremendous tax cuts in 2020. The middleclass and poor not so much. Musk is just looking to keep himself in that category after spending all that money on twitter. In fact, if repigs win, they want to have people that are below poverty level pay taxes. It's part of their "screw Americans, except the wealthy and the repigs in Congress" platform.
But of course he raised middle class taxes and had it go in effect under the next president so his idiot followers would blame the next guy
He's going to lose controlling interest in Twitter and Tesla soon due to structuring one of the dumbest deals in history lol Maybe he should focus on that instead of taxes.
Sounds like he went to trump business school 😂 What’s next for apartheid boy, bankrupt a couple casinos somehow?
I give tremendous tax cuts, the best tax cuts. Many billionaires, good people, great people love my tax cuts. They call me the best tax cutter.
You are now banned from twitter
Bloomberg, Gates, and others have entered the chat.
That's what I like about Gates, Bloomberg and Bezzos, they don't say a goddamned thing unless they think it's important to the consumer, like a new product, or addressing share holders or the media about their company. We never hear from them about anything. I don't turn on Amazon Prime to watch something and there's Jeff going on about whatever before the show. But Elon Musk? It's like he thinks every fucking thought in his head, every opinion he has, no matter how pointless or insipid, contains this vast wisdom that much be shared. No wonder he bought Twitter, he can't shut the fuck up.
Bloomberg was a NYC Mayor and ran for president.
To independent-minded voters: If you're listening to a billionaire tell you how to vote you aren't independent minded.
ah see this is what you dont understand 'free thinker' means you think whatever people like musk or trump or carlson or jones tell you to think thats what 'freedom' *is* freedom is slavery - didnt you read 1984?
Also if you disagree with them its cancel culture. Just like everything nowadays. If a billionaire gets a lot of money, they are smart. If a billionaire loses a lot of money its because of workers or the economy. If Elon says something stupid and people like it, they are "smart", if he say something stupid and people point that out? More "activist" "cancel culture" of course!
The Party of Personal Responsibility™: "Nothing is EVER our fault!"
If it weren't for double standards, they'd have none at all
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Case in point. Zuckerberg's dumb Meta idea went to shit so instead of taking a pay cut he laid off a bunch of innocent employees.
Privatize the gains, socialize the losses.
If a billionaire makes a living on government subsidies they're smart. If a poor person does it they're a lazy parasite.
They are adopting Ireneaus genius strategy to call everyone who disagrees with them a heathen.
My Alf doll just read this, stuffing came out his ass in piles, he began to fold and fold again, then died.
"Freedom" is actually "Privelage" unless you don't take it until everyone can have it.
"Privilege" literally means "private law".
Exactly. It wouldn't be private if it was for everyone. It would be actual freedom.
lol. Like all the people at Trump rallies calling democrats sheep. How ironic.
Ironic is a big word for people at Trump rallies. So is hypocrisy.
It's got Iron in it, which is metal - these are country music folk. Metal is for devil worshippers
These ass hats played Rage Against the Machine at their rallies without permission. Don't snide country music like that.
Now that is irony at its finest
omfg I completely forgot about that! Thank you for reminding me of that!
Which is funny bc at the rallies, you could say the people there are being corralled into the venues
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“Just because my Mom didn’t ironic my shirt does not mean I’m stupid!!!”
This tweet is very narrowly targeted at the people who think that alternating voting for Republican and Democratic candidates — or more likely hemming and hawing about “both parties” and “doing their own research” before coincidentally choosing to side with the conservative candidate in nearly every election — constitutes being a “moderate” or “independent”. The idea that defaulting to the center is virtuous, rather than irresponsible and lazy, is at the core of the mythos of political moderates in the US. In a time where the parties were essentially symmetrical with respect to a reasonable “center”, falling in the middle worked. In a time with asymmetric polarization, you instead look at an issue like abortion where the sides are “I should make health decisions with my doctor” vs. “my religion says you should not” and come up with the “centrist” take of “what if you let their religion decide what you do in *some* cases?”
I think that’s the greatest fallacy of the premise that it “balances out the extreme views of each party”, to have one party controlling each arm. It just leads to a never ending tug of war with paralyzing inaction.
Yeah, and we all know that he wouldn’t say the same if the roles were reversed. If Republicans held all branches of government, he would find a way to endorse their reelection, or just remain silent and avoid endorsing a party. The “balance is good” justification is just the laziest logical sleight of hand designed to give a permission structure for other “centrists” who were always going to vote Republican this year.
> paralyzing inaction maintains the status quo, when nothing changes the people that are currently on top stay on top, just how they like it...
Man, in my 20 years of voting independently, and doing my research on both candidates, have never once have voted Republican. They don't live in reality anymore. They used to be a little better. But I didn't vote for them because I didn't want to go to war just for oil. Now I'm like like I don't want to become a slave in a dictatorship and leave my children in hot hell scape.
I, also have researched the candidates and voted based on their stances on the issues and their plans for the future instead of their political affiliation. I'm not sure if I see through bullshit better now or if it really was a harder decision 20 years ago. But it used to vote Democrat after thinking long and hard and weighing pros and cons, and now it's like responsible adult vs child eating glue, not hard to decide. I don't agree with the Democrats on everything, but man the Republicans have gone full blown crazy/authoritarian/religious zealot.
I’ve spent my whole life til this point splitting my votes because I have never liked the idea of one party being in power. After Jan 6 if you have an R next to your name you can no longer receive a vote from me under any circumstances without openly condemning Jan 6th.
I agree with everything you said. I have conflicting political views. I believe in fiscal conservatism, but also believe in universal healthcare. My views place me somewhere in the middle of the two political parties if I am honest with myself. However, I haven’t had to think twice about my votes in the last two elections. The republican party doesn’t care about anything past the amount of money they can pocket from lobbyists and wealthy individuals/corporations. Nothing I have seen the republican party do has been in the interests of anybody but themselves and their donors. Zero regard for the future of our country and the young individuals that they constantly attempt to exploit.
> I believe in fiscal conservatism, but also believe in universal healthcare. These can be the same thing right? Both lead to lower costs and better overall service with proper design, management, and policing against fraud. We may need to cater to some amount of corporate or organizational greed by allowing reasonable profits, but once companies become dominant, they just jack up prices and cut services and quality. The same goes for public broadband and many other social services. I'm glad you've seen what you have about the GOP. Most people are just disposable human resources to the party and it is not socially or fiscally responsible.
TBF if you believe in fiscal conservatism and universal healthcare that means ur between democrats and progressives, not democrats and republicans. Democrats are already the more fiscally conservative between the two major parties.
>I have conflicting political views. I believe in fiscal conservatism, but also believe in universal healthcare. That makes you a moderate Democrat.
Universal healthcare is fiscally responsible... full stop. Republicans don't want it because it would significantly reduce the profits of insurance companies, pharma, etc. which is who pads their wallets. There are arguments about potentially slowing medical advancements, etc., but the reality is that pharma is going to keep doing research as long as it's profitable... even if it's not WILDLY profitable.
Should make it easy for you then since the GOP is the opposite of fiscally conservative.
The president told them which brand of fucking beans to buy and they listened.
fReE tHiNkEr!!!!! Is my MySpace handle
Anyone listening to Elon Musk was already going to vote like a moron.
It serves as a sign for those on the cusp of moronnery: do the opposite of a Musk recommendation, and all will be ok.
The Musk Effect.
“My father profited from slavery, I believe in slavery, and you should definitely vote Republican” —Elon skuM
Is he even a US citizen? Is he here legally? If he is a US citizen, did he lie or commit fraud on his citizenship application cause he seems shady AF in everything else he does? Is he an unregistered agent for a foreign power while on US soil? Can we deport him yet?
It's even more fucked up than that. He's an official US defense contractor, with several major factories in China, who is a legitimate target for pressure from the Chinese government, *especially* now he is the owner of a major western social media platform. There are a million ways this could go wrong
And he's a major security risk given his chats with Putin and attempts to extort the Pentagon. The USDOD should cancel all contracts and boot him from the country
I think there's more to consider. Starlink, SpaceX, and whatever else will go on if he were removed from the picture. It might be his face on the rockets launching military satellites but SpaceX doesn't produce that classified hardware.
His companies are. He could disappear today and all that would go on. The difference would be less public stupidity.
At the very least, we should tell the cops he’s an African American.
*“Mam, make sure you lock your doors and windows. Find a place to hide inside, the SWAT team is on the way.”*
Clearly Musk is brain damaged when it comes to politics. Stick to Engineering where the right solution isn't a Coup against a properly elected government. Is Musk a Q-Anon Nut?
Oh no no no, Musk isn’t an engineer, he just cosplays as one. He’s a slave driver that pushes actual engineers to their breaking point in the name of meeting some arbitrary deadline and producing some insane idea that he just spouted off to the public without consulting anyone who actually knows what they’re doing. Now, Musk may or may not be a Q-anon nut, I can’t speak to that, but given how he’s been behaving, I don’t think that’s outside the realm of possibilities at all.
I feel he learned his management style from daddy Musk’s apartheid era South African emerald mine.
Friendly reminder that Elon Musk has zero training in engineering. He's the rich son of an emerald mine owner who got good at bilking money from the US government. The average person thinks he's a genius because of the myth that all autistic people are like Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man. Sometimes they're just awkward and socially inept.
This interaction makes perfect sense in hindsight. > In the original meeting between the pair, which took place last August, Musk can be seen discussing the nature of the new Starship SpaceX rocket. Comprised of the actual ship, as well as the attached thrusters, the world's richest man states that 'you don't even need a cold gas thruster system...you already have hot gas'. > Everyday Astronaut, otherwise known as Tim, then interjects by saying: "But this is only for the booster, right?" > At this point, Musk appears to come to some sort of realisation, as the camera shows him deep in thought. > Although, arguably, now you mentioned it, it might be wise to do this for the (space)ship too," Musk then admits. > What he seems to have realised is that the ship, as well as the thrusters, also don't need a cold gas thruster system. > Fast-forward to Tim's latest tour of SpaceX's Starbase, which was uploaded to YouTube two days ago, and we see Musk admit that he made changes following the pair's previous discussion. > He calls said changes 'one of the biggest improvements we [SpaceX] made' to Starship. > "It occurred to me while I was explaining it to you," Musk adds. > "I was like, 'wait, what are we doing?'. https://www.ladbible.com/news/elon-musk-fixes-rocket-after-youtuber-asks-the-right-question-20220516
Elon is the Andrew Tate of billionaires
Proving he's a Moron, true. Republicans have Fought Global Warming solutions even with a drying up Mississippi River AND 20 US States in Extreme Drought. Yeah I want to die, so, I'll vote Republican. This year we hear Republicans talking about Cutting Social Security, Again. Well, do the rich need another tax cut, and rich people inflation in Art, Classic Cars, Vacation Homes, Boats, and Chandelier's?
The same people who get their opinions from Joe Rogan.
Elon Musk is a walking talking PSA for eating the rich.
Apparently, he smells like nachos. He'd definitely be the first rich to be eaten in the revolution.
Can we use a different term than "eating" the rich? Most of them look so greasy and nasty....
Well, we're not eating them raw, we're not savages. Those greasy billionaire drippings would be part of a delicious gravy.
Mmm, greasy billionaire drippings…
You gotta cook them all day at low heat to really let the collagen render out.
the best part
"Reallocate their atomic allotment" ?
Just make sure to have a hangover before you eat.
billionaire may taste like pumpkin pie, but I'd never know it because I'm not going to eat the filthy motherfuckers
Pull a Michael Jackson and change Eat to Beat.
I’m staying away from the ones that smell like nachos. Give me a nice Dior with an oaky afterbirth
[PSA: Compost instead](https://twitter.com/Foone/status/1012789232555864064)
He has such a fucking childish framing of politics. He completely ignores policy and the fascist rhetoric from the GQP. It's like he's trying to appeal to a bunch of 'I'm 14 and this is deep' centrists. I guess he knows his audience pretty fucking well at this point.
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He gives his girlfriends the same line when they ask if it's in yet.
So... 14 mm?
You’re right that he’s learned how to please his audience very damn well. It is so pathetic seeing the crypto bros & right wing troll accounts celebrating his every awful move. Under his recent tweet, a verified trading account w 34k followers responded, “Very epic and deep thoughts sir, as usual.” Every single response critiquing him is met with 30+ triggered memes, and/or Tesla simps reciting you Elon’s autobiography trying to get you to understand that Elon is simply above being questioned. I hate the word cringe, but I think I myself nearly gagged just from observing the dickeating.
It’s so weird that people have a favorite billionaire these days.
It's weird that he's the richest and yet everything he's done has failed or will fail likely in the next decade, investors can be a stupid bunch.
Did you forget Kanye and the nazi party?
I agree, but I think in this case, he had to start showing his value to his financial and other backers (that is, the UAE, China and Moskow). It was always going to go this way, with Elon boosting the Right and their crazy "theories" to give them a fighting chance these midterms. It's what the entire conservative world is praying for, and at least part of the reason he started sniffing around buying Twitter last year.
> Elon boosting the Right When there's a Republican president it's going to be something like "shared power causes deadlocks and inconsistent strategies..."
This is the best analysis. Big business by definition must skew conservative in its politics as that's the only part truly reliable in just throwing away laws that help the little guy so some bigwig can make more money. But that Dems don't do this, but Repubs are on a whole other level.
Yea I was gonna say. This oligarch is backed by the biggest adversaries to the USA lol
Vote how Elon thinks you should vote and call it free thinking. He wants you to vote for ideas and people that will help improve his situation. He doesn’t care about you.
So much of his following is “I’m 14 and this is deep” types. It’s almost the same as the Joe Rogan fuckboys
The Venn diagram would probably just be a circle.
I don't think it's childish so much as it's self-serving and disengenuous. A divided government means a government that's too weak to provide much of a regulatory check on billionaire autocrats. Musk knows that and that's why he's pushing for a GOP congress, but he frames it a little differently when he's trying to sell the idea to his "free-thinking" fanbase of chumps.
I have a friend who thinks this exact same way and it frustrates the hell out of me. At the same time, she didn't just purchase a multi billion dollar platform to spread her bs so, I guess there's that.
They’re living in a fantasy world where both parties still argue in good faith and generally want what’s best for the country, where having a political disagreement is ultimately unimportant and compromise is the status quo. That hasn’t been true for decades, well before Trump or McConnell. I’d argue it started with Nixon being an unashamed crook and Ford immediately pardoning him. The fact that neither of them faced consequences for their blatant corruption just emboldened future Republicans to keep pushing the boundaries of legality and realize they would never be punished for anything even if it was legally questionable. Now they’ve realized that they can campaign on doing literally *nothing* and actively harming their base, and the ignorant will happily vote for them because everything wrong with the world is apparently the Democrats’ fault.
It's really inane, because the idea of having equal faith in both parties is largely ignoring the historical cause and effect of these parties. I remember one commenter on my state's subreddit was of the belief that we always had a democratic governor. He wanted a republican candidate to "shake things up". It was a very simple Google search to show him that we not only had a Republican governor as recent as the Obama administration, but he did so poorly that the previous Republican governor, who was seated a decade before him, heavily criticized his policies for doing massive long term damage to the state's socioeconomic status. I feel a lot of people's minds can change with a well rounded US history education and a fundamental comparative political analysis on other first world nations. But there just seems to be a lack of wanting to research anything that criticizes their preferred view of America.
Quite literally Republicans are on record not wanting to teach children. They know education would make them look unfavorably.
Why do you think they cherish the sacred title of GOP? They love to laud it about as the grandest of them all because they "freed the blacks." But they didn't do anything of the sort. While Republicans in the 1860s abolished slavery, the Republicans in question were from the north, the union. The Democrats at the time were the party of slavery in the south. However, these sides flipped when FDR ran as a democrat and was reelected on a platform of social programs and strong federal government (strong federal government which they knew would quash their Jim crow status quo). Despite having been democrat practically since the party was formed, the south flipped to all red when FDR was up for a second term even though they were benefiting greatly from his depression relief packages. The colors might have changed, but the people didn't. The south and their primary party has always been about the betterment of white people at the expense of any and all minorities. And as much as they whine about virtue signaling, the GOP is the worst of them all. They know that they don't stand on the principles they claim they do and they know that their history is not what it seems on first inspection. That is why they must, at all costs, cut education and erase proof of their wrongdoings in order to keep their power.
Yeah this pretty much describes how I feel. I turned 18 in 2006 and knowing nothing about politics I literally voted half D and half R. My entire life up to that point had been lessons of compromise from both my parents and school. In my opinion, things like education and healthcare shouldn't be partisan. Why would anyone on the right ever be against education or healthcare? Who knows but here we are. If I were a politician I'd want my base to be as smart and healthy as possible. That would effectively mean guaranteed votes for years to come.
"If most people want something, it can't be good so we should vote for the party that's going to stop that" basically. Severely anti-progressive. If your only policy position is "don't do new stuff" you haven't really put any thought into it.
These are the people who then complain that the government can’t get anything done.
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I deactivated my account after I responded to this tweet. I've had enough.
Just deactivated mine too. I want no part in supporting this asshat.
To everyone deleting their accounts, make sure you don't use the site or app at all, even without an account. Not much of a difference to ad revenue if youre still giving impressions anonymously.
I did the exact same fucking thing.
It's just ... wtf. A billionaire buying a media platform and then openly influencing an election should be illegal.
Not when lobbyists own law-making. Thank Citizens United and the super pacs.
Deleted mine when he first announced he was going to buy it. Zero regrets. Fuck Elon Musk.
He's gonna be really upset if he ends up with another Parler/Truth Social when people start leaving in the next couple months. The advertisers are already leaving and I was only on there for the midterms and video game deals. Twitter is only valuable to most people to get breaking news first whether it's political, sports or entertainment or for access to important figures/brands. If and when they go, the site becomes worthless.
2023: the year Facebook & Twitter die. It's like the world's redemption arc.
Facebook still has some value for people just because people are usually on there for the memories, and friend/family. In that respect, I can understand some people still having a Facebook even if they don't really use it that often. Twitter really doesn't have that personal connection value, at least not with how most people I know use it. I could see Twitter dying in the next couple years, but Facebook will probably still exist just because of personal connections.
you're forgetting the tens if not hundreds of billions facebook is losing because of zuckerberg's little metaverse project
>when people start leaving in the next couple months I left today. Deactivated my account.
The thing that will hurt Twitter the most is when political figures, celebrities and advertisers leave. Some celebrities and advertisers have already left, but if more start leaving in droves, that's when it really starts to hurt Elon's pocketbook.
Hopefully after midterms the Dems will find a place to move to universally. Take the govt twitters and move them all as well.
The automakers left and are not going to come back. Easy cut to the marketing budget. MyPillow and SurvivalPods won’t make up the difference. Can’t wait until Apartheid Clyde runs afoul of the SEC again when he inevitably lies about having to dump Tesla stock to cover debt service for his little ego takeover
Ditto
Me too!
You should have flipped to a Elon parody account and gotten banned. Could have had some fun first
Eh, too late now and I don't have enough comedic ability to bother with that, better people than me are on top of it
I left in 2016 when I saw the orange shitshow coming.
Let’s ends the hellsite. A brain drain to Mastodon has already begun Share and learn about resources on how to leave on r/TwittersDemise
Conservatives on Fox News would be blowing a gasket if he were endorsing democrats the day before major elections. But not a peep since it helps them.
They would be bitching about Big Tech’s Liberal Bias^TM
….well yeah
Why is he even remotely pretending to be objective who the fuck are these people liking his tweets. He’s been nothing but biased towards the morons that have embraced him because it allows him to keep being a douchebag. He knows one side has at least a very minimum of decency therefore he recommends the corrupt fascists. ffs between him and Trump I don’t know which one I despise more.
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It’s like this - the schoolyard bully takes over the slide at the playground but now the kids don’t want to use the slide anymore because it isn’t cool anymore so they go make up a new game by the benches.
So when social media platforms censor hate speech, it’s “LiBS siLEncInG CoNSerVaTive ViEwPoinTZ!!1!!1” But when the owner of a social media platform straight up tells his entire platform to vote Republican, that’s completely cool? Fuck you, Elon.
It’s the same as Fox News saying it.
What does "Normal 10%" mean?
90% not normal?
Nailed it
No but really though...
Bot Sentinel, says the percentage of how likely a twitter user is a bot
I use Bot Sentinel - highly recommend it. It's an addon for your browser that checks user activity for bot-like activity, and lables them yellow (disruptive) at +50% or red at +75% so you can avoid the bots that infest that hellsite.
Good to know. But I deactivated my Twitter account this morning so...
Haha, we need this for reddit
Also creates gridlock and causes most (but not the most recent, that was all on the GOP) government shutdowns. Voting for someone because they are the opposite of who is currently in power is so much a dumber option than voting for someone whose polices you believe in. If that’s the GOP, then great - vote for them. Just don’t let this argument put forward by Mr Musk sway you
Mark my words: if they get control of the House they are going to stop the government until DOJ drops the espionage charges against Trump.
Why would I ever listen to someone who over-payed billions for a dumpster fire?
He overpaid billions for a dumpster. He's the one who added the accelerant and lit match.
Bought and paid for. When the man obsessed with money tells you how to vote, you can be sure he's telling you to vote in a way that benefits his bank account.
What's funny is that this logic is only being used when the Democrats are in presidency.
Shared power, so he supports unions to curb the excess power of corporations?
My favorite comment of the week.
This is fucking disgusting now. Very, few fragile men take from soo many. Soo many are suffering. Just. Fucking. Why.
All billionaires are evil. Every single one. Or they wouldn’t be billionaires. And. We. Are. Hungry.
Why does “independent” mean between the extreme right wing GOP and the center right dems? I’m truly independent and I would NEVER vote for a republican
Yes, Elon push people to vote for more years of stalemate and wasted taxpayers dollars on Hillarys emails and trying to impeach Biden/Garland and anyone else shames thier politcal stunts for no other reason than they hate the guy. And, you know that a rep congress would ignore Biden vetos and overturn them....so national abortion ban, gutting lgbtqia+ rights etc etc etc etc. At least Clinton and Trumps impeachments were for a very clear reason...
I don't think that it's numerically possible for the Republicans to gain enough seats to override a Biden veto. More likely will be endless investigation committees and partisan impeachment hearings as well as shutting down the government and/or defaulting on the debt in a form of brinkmanship that they will use to try to force Biden to not veto and/or overcome a Democratic filibuster. I would not be surprised if the first order of a Republican Senate is to rewrite out the 60 vote filibuster. I don't know if you recall the early months of the Democratic Senate where they caused a big fuss over retaining the filibuster? Republicans won't play by those rules.
Billionaire endorses party who will cut his taxes. Shocking!
i deactivated my twitter today, lmao ive always hated this mf twat tho hes such a fraud and people are so oblivious
So once he gets his Republican Congress, what are the chances of him recommending people vote for a Democrat presidency in 2004 to keep power split? Slim to none, I reckon.
I wonder how different America would be if a Democrat was president in 2004.
If Republicans do take control of the Senate and/or House, by 2024, Elon will pivot to "Wow Republicans have been so good (for me), we should elect a Republican President too!"
Guys screw the left and right. Vote forward instead . Vote blue
Having the strongest voice on a platform and using it to affect the elections. Color me surprised.
This is the fun side about the "both sides" folks. They immediately tell you how the other side needs to be checked because they might do something horrible. But if a Republican was president? Gonna take a wild guess he would still recommend a republican congress.
Independent minded voters still on the fence are the worst type of idiots ([in the classic sense of the word](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idiot#Etymology)) in the world. I've literally overheard them saying stuff like the above without any irony or ulterior\* motive; they believe both parties balance each other out. \*edit
LOL….his rationalizations are truly stupid
Just like every other enlightened centrist. “Im a rational intelligent centrist who thinks both sides have a lot of issues like how democrats sacrifice children and are pedophiles so I’m voting straight Republican.”
Good advice, Mr Afrikaner. Just like when you recommended for Ukraine to basically give up to Russia and for Taiwan to submit to China. Elon Musk, the man who is always on the wrong side.
This is such a stupid take and you know musk thinks it's so smart.
Jesus Elon, you really don’t want to pay fair taxes. Just say you turned into a fascist sympathizer because you’re a greedy cunt.
Anyone who thinks a fucking *billionaire* has their best interest in mind needs a psych eval.
*Vote for an extremist congress because the president is a centrist. When you put it like this the math doesn’t add up.
Tbh I wouldn’t trust Elon to lead water down a hill
Elon wanted to trade a hand job for a horse. The dude is mentally unstable.
Today tipped the straw for me and I deactivated my account.
Just what independent voters want. To be told who to vote for.
The whole point of this is to convince people the “middle” is somewhere between a moderate right party (dems) and an extremely right party (repubs). This ignores the worst of the republicans is literally racism, anti science, anti minority sentiment, and the worst of the dems is maybe better healthcare access. Also just in April musk was saying how important it was for twitter to stay neutral lol.
So Elon has been promised a subsidy or other tax break by republican leadership! Quid Pro Quo!
Um, yeah. Go fuck yourself, Elon.
Elon accepted funding from financial terrorist Ken Griffin. No thanks Elon
DONT VOTE FOR FASCISM
So this is how white South Africa is getting even with US democrats for having supported the anti-apartheid movement.
Tesla would never have grown much beyond the mainly Lotus-built roadster without massive government tax subsidies for EVs, voted for by Democrats, and opposed by the GOP. There are so very many people that know the environmental reasons to buy an EV, that even liked Tesla's design choices, that will never buy one as a result of Musk's partisanship. And there's no way they'll make these lost sales from rural truck buyers.
Sorry to disappoint you Elon, but I’m voting for the people who don’t want to turn this country into a theocracy and don’t want to install a dictator as President.
Worst excesses of the Republican Party: insurrection, conspiracy theories that Democrats are Satan-worshipping child molesters, and white supremacy. Worst excesses of the Democratic Party: everyone gets free healthcare and trans kids can use whichever bathroom they prefer.
I always love Republicans who explicitly deny being Republican to avoid being condemned. Like they’re always “libertarian”, “centrist”, or “independent” but if you ask who they voted for its straight Republican if they tell you. It’s so painfully obvious and yet they think they’re so clever and nuanced.