Wait until you hear what he did with the jewel money. He rented a huge mansion in college and threw huge parties charging people to enter, how many people he enabled to party and drop out including himself? He's even proud of it he thinks he's so amazing and self made for doing that. This is who this country idolizes. A ketamine addicted, crime family son. Everyone else? Fuck you, swat team raids your college mansion party, charges you for illegally running a night club among whatever other charges. It almost glows in the dark that something was protecting that family from any prosecution.
He’s even proud of it he thinks he’s so amazing and self made for doing that.
The real joke of these elite universities is how education has become an entirely tertiary function. Social networking with rich people and padding your resume matter so much more than attending actual classes.
Elon throwing a continuous kegger for a few years probably was what introduced him to all the children of spooks and bureaucrats and investment bankers necessary to make him into the billionaire he is today.
The FBI is famous for stopping terrorist attacks before they happen and not at all notorious for chasing, harassing, and killing civil rights leaders, anti-war activists, LGBTQ groups, and religious minorities.
Are you saying there is a law that explicitly states to give Elon Musk billions on subsidies or are you just giving a bad faith argument for the effort of Western government trying to cut dependence from petrostates?
They have specifically given at least one of his companies a lot in subsidies. SpaceX lives off the government teet.
Edit: People in this thread don't seem to realize that specifically over paying for something is itself a subsidy. SpaceX has been overcharging for DoD contracts, missing deadlines, and running cost overages for years now. They've also been given contracts where other competitors weren't even considered.
We defunded the NASA launch program and gave it to a bunch of defense sector flakes who had to reinvent what NASA had already accomplished while still kicking back cash to their investors.
These aren't competitive bids. They're kickbacks that occasionally get us a little space technology along the way.
We defunded the NASA launch program and gave it to a bunch of defense sector flakes who had to reinvent what NASA had already accomplished while still kicking back cash to their investors.
Because everything NASA ever launched was crazy expensive, albeit they had some very cool projects
Subsidies for EVs are one thing, government contracts to deliver satellites and astronauts to space is another (essentially government just using and paying for the service)
Among other things already mentioned here, he thinks trump can help him take revenge on Norway, which invested in him early on but now does not allow Tesla vehicles to be sold there.
Very close. To me, the "free market" has never and could never exist. Its human nature to tip the scales in your own favour, be it through bribery or coercion.
The idea of a meritocratic market thats free of interference is capitalist-utopianism.
This can't be true if Stalinism and Khmer Rouge are kinds of fascism, which they are generally agreed to be.
Fascism is "might makes right" without checks and balances. With those it would be feudalism, but those don't form overnight. With checks, but without balances it would be absolutism. With balances, but without checks it would be free-for-all. So fascism is what you have after a society has fallen to barbarism, but before it has learned to live in it.
This can’t be true if Stalinism and Khmer Rouge are kinds of fascism, which they are generally agreed to be.
I'm not sure i see the link youre making here. Could you expand on that please?
Capitalism is (financial) might makes right, with the appearance of chacks and balances. All of which have been utterly compromised and perverted by capitalism.
History shows us that fascism is simply capitalism when you try to say no. There was 1900s capitalism. Then, there was a movement trying to say no to the workhouses, debtors prisons and wealth theft. In direct response to this, fascism arose to protect the assets of the wealthy from the people trying to say no to capitalism. You can see it in America where striking workers were gunned down by police, as one example there. In the UK too, where the Royal Hussars cavalry were set on protesting workers. So, where I say that, I mean it in a very literal way.
Most people just don't see it, as very few of us are even able to say no much less actual say it too. That doesn't make it any less true though.
I meant that in case of Nazi Germany, Italy, Spain and such it was what you say (in Spain not so clear though). But Stalinist regime with very similar traits was driven by then new Soviet bureaucracy willing to increase its control over society, grow heavy industries necessary for revolutionary offensive wars their ideology then demanded, and crush political opponents.
Musk is pumping up Trump's coffers so that he gets elected and follows through with his promise to ban EV imports from other countries, essentially cementing his monopoly on the EV market that Tesla currently dominates.
Long story short, don't buy a Tesla. They're kinda shitty anyway.
Let's scale those amounts to something more understandable to non-billionaires
Imagine earning $50k per year and buying the president's favor for $45 per month. Elon is buying access to the most powerful person on the planet for the equivalent of a monthly phone bill.
We gotta stop getting hung up on these animals being inconsistent with themselves and each other.
While I see the humor in this, it's not the kind of thing that the right wing would care about. Both of these takes are from people that believe in strong class hierarchy, with those on top owning/controlling most everything. The contrary take on EVs doesn't even clock as dissonant if all you care about is punching down on people not like you, and want big powerful men to do the punching for you. It's not seen as dysfunction, it's toxic masculinity on display where guys are constantly jockying for their spot in the pecking order; that's normal for people like this. So, they really are on the same team in the eyes of their constituents, with Musk having some political power without being a politician per-se.
Ever felt like you have been dealt a blow of injustice from a corporation? Brace yourself we are on a path to them gaining an even more powerful foothold over our lives.
A power that removes choice and forces the consumption of their conditions to maintain the high quality of life Americans have worked so hard for and have come to expect. A lot is at stake, let’s make the corporations suffer rather than us.
Someone who holds both beliefs at once presumably expects a future where people buy electric cars because they prefer (and can afford) electric cars. Could you elaborate on why that is an absurd thing to believe or why I'm off the mark here?
I'm not saying I agree with the above notion; personally, I'd prefer a future with fewer cars in general per capita, though I have no idea how likely either future is.
Excessive regulation in such areas as emission requirements could be seen as a defacto mandate.
I never saw Musk as the guy that wanted to make a bunch of money because the regulatory environment forced you to buy his cars. But rather create a competitive product people will like and let that move the needle.
This is just straight up not true. SpaceX is worth 210b and Tesla is at 712b. It's not even close. I think you really need to ask yourself why you're willing to either lie or be so easily manipulated into believing a lie and then circulating it just to try and make Musk look better to Internet strangers. 2 seconds of searching to find out that this is not true but you didn't even think about it. Why is that?
I think you really need to ask yourself why you’re willing to either lie or be so easily manipulated
Totally unnecessary. You're comparing a publicly traded company running on memes and a strange cult of personality to private valuation.
Now that China and other domestic competitors have ramped up EV production Tesla's dominance of the niche is going to fall, especially considering the flop that was the Cybertruck and the brand damage Elon has committed.
In short, SpaceX and Starlink have a market to dominate (whether we want it to or not, it seems) while Tesla, a grossly overvalued company, is only going to see more competition and deepened irrelevancy.
The ROI on electric vehicles dwarfs the SpaceX program. Whether Tesla flounders or not, the car market is more profitable (and therefore more valuable) both by the marginal return on units and the industry market cap.
Starlink might keep an edge over Chinese and Indian programs (doubtful, since India can send a probe to Mars for $75M). But the global satellite market was $4.23B last year. The global car market was $578B.
That's true, however Tesla's relevance in that market has really dwindled:
Tesla gross profit for the quarter ending March 31, 2024 was $3.696B, a 18.07% decline year-over-year.
Tesla gross profit for the twelve months ending March 31, 2024 was $16.845B, a 15.37% decline year-over-year.
Tesla annual gross profit for 2023 was $17.66B, a 15.31% decline from 2022.
the global satellite market was $4.23B last year
The thing is SpaceX and Starlink have weathered the Elon Musk storm. Starlink was predicted to make $6.6B in revs of, as you said, a market that is currently much smaller. Sure, it's not profit and firing things into space isn't cheap (nor desirable and should be legislated against). However, they're filling the niche and as EV manufacture ramps up, and with Tesla's image tainted, I do think Musk (and those around him) will be looking a bit more towards the steady government money.
If you own two businesses and are putting one of them in jeopardy for no good reason, that's still quite dumb.
I don't know if it is drugs, or some neural damage caused by covid, but his recent actions didn't bring him any profits only loses. Tesla is getting less and less sales despite sales of EVs going up.
I think it's the drugs. He used to be at least somewhat sensible. In recent years he's just been acting totally bonkers. But having unchecked power will do that to you too, of course.
I mean there were some signs earlier (of course those who know him will say he always was an asshole, but at least he was better at masking it) it was 2020 when he went full bonkers.
Would it help at all if he could shift the blame onto government policy?
I don’t pay much attention to things I can’t afford, but I remember reading a short conspiracy theory that Musk would absolutely love it if someone were to turn the market against EVs/Tesla, because he needs/wants Tesla to fail by excuse of “government” and not because he’s running into the ground. Exhibit A: AI Self Driving Exhibit C: Cybertruck.
Looks better on his resume that way? Gotta preserve that image to preserve that income.
In that case he miscalculated, because the Tesla is failing at the benefit of the competition.
Tesla did help to cross the chasm for EV, but instead of maintaining lead in the area it is right now on the path to irrevelance and largely thanks to Musk.
As for the prices, I don't know what country you live in, but in the US EVs now cost about the same as ICE.
Also for cyber truck, yeah that's a total failure. I mean I see few of them in my area, but it feels like people bought it more to show that can spend that much, but it feels like they have some regret. Right now I see more and more people covering them with wraps too make them look a little bit nicer. I expect that they will quickly disappear.
He’s trying to buy a pardon
https://gizmodo.com/elon-musks-x-is-reportedly-resisting-a-subpoena-in-jeffrey-epstein-related-legal-case-2000476538
Though if trump’s dismantling of the FBI occurs maybe he won’t need to. Either way, drops in the bucket for the most successful emerald mine offspring
Wait until you hear what he did with the jewel money. He rented a huge mansion in college and threw huge parties charging people to enter, how many people he enabled to party and drop out including himself? He's even proud of it he thinks he's so amazing and self made for doing that. This is who this country idolizes. A ketamine addicted, crime family son. Everyone else? Fuck you, swat team raids your college mansion party, charges you for illegally running a night club among whatever other charges. It almost glows in the dark that something was protecting that family from any prosecution.
The real joke of these elite universities is how education has become an entirely tertiary function. Social networking with rich people and padding your resume matter so much more than attending actual classes.
Elon throwing a continuous kegger for a few years probably was what introduced him to all the children of spooks and bureaucrats and investment bankers necessary to make him into the billionaire he is today.
Ok, why dismantling FBI is bad? FSB, GRU, RKN, FBI, NSA - all of them should be dismantled
The FBI is famous for stopping terrorist attacks before they happen and not at all notorious for chasing, harassing, and killing civil rights leaders, anti-war activists, LGBTQ groups, and religious minorities.
And Crocus they also did prevent. Oh, wait.
I'm not saying they're effective, but the FBI is one of the few organizations that can investigate corrupt police forces. How would we address that?
All police forces would answer personally to Trump under the new regime.
Make agency that ONLY investigates corrupt police forces instead of putting backdoors everywhere
Okay, so you do want an FBI, just with a few more restrictions. I didn't get that from your original post.
Democrats: Let's give this man billions in subsidies.
Are you saying there is a law that explicitly states to give Elon Musk billions on subsidies or are you just giving a bad faith argument for the effort of Western government trying to cut dependence from petrostates?
They have specifically given at least one of his companies a lot in subsidies. SpaceX lives off the government teet.
Edit: People in this thread don't seem to realize that specifically over paying for something is itself a subsidy. SpaceX has been overcharging for DoD contracts, missing deadlines, and running cost overages for years now. They've also been given contracts where other competitors weren't even considered.
SpaceX got key govt contracts early on and is the most cost competitive launcher. The comercial space program paid off tremendously for the US.
We defunded the NASA launch program and gave it to a bunch of defense sector flakes who had to reinvent what NASA had already accomplished while still kicking back cash to their investors.
These aren't competitive bids. They're kickbacks that occasionally get us a little space technology along the way.
Because everything NASA ever launched was crazy expensive, albeit they had some very cool projects
Subsidies for EVs are one thing, government contracts to deliver satellites and astronauts to space is another (essentially government just using and paying for the service)
So if you go to the supermarket and buy a carton of milk, you're subsidizing the supermarket?
Yes, especially if you paid to build the store and it would fail without your purchases.
Can you state how "Democrats" specifically did this?
Why does this bot have 45 upvotes?
Because it's actually 46 bots.
Are they all in the same trench coat?
Among other things already mentioned here, he thinks trump can help him take revenge on Norway, which invested in him early on but now does not allow Tesla vehicles to be sold there.
What? I'm pretty sure you can buy Teslas in Norway
You can buy, but you can't get them
You are thinking of Sweden. There's a strike there
A friend of mine bought one late 2023 and got it a few months ago. Has something changed?
It seems strike is in Sweeden, not Norway
Fascism is just capitalism when you try to say no.
So it’s free market economics when it’s not actually a free market? Fascism is the illusion of a free market?
Very close. To me, the "free market" has never and could never exist. Its human nature to tip the scales in your own favour, be it through bribery or coercion.
The idea of a meritocratic market thats free of interference is capitalist-utopianism.
This can't be true if Stalinism and Khmer Rouge are kinds of fascism, which they are generally agreed to be.
Fascism is "might makes right" without checks and balances. With those it would be feudalism, but those don't form overnight. With checks, but without balances it would be absolutism. With balances, but without checks it would be free-for-all. So fascism is what you have after a society has fallen to barbarism, but before it has learned to live in it.
I'm not sure i see the link youre making here. Could you expand on that please?
Capitalism is (financial) might makes right, with the appearance of chacks and balances. All of which have been utterly compromised and perverted by capitalism.
History shows us that fascism is simply capitalism when you try to say no. There was 1900s capitalism. Then, there was a movement trying to say no to the workhouses, debtors prisons and wealth theft. In direct response to this, fascism arose to protect the assets of the wealthy from the people trying to say no to capitalism. You can see it in America where striking workers were gunned down by police, as one example there. In the UK too, where the Royal Hussars cavalry were set on protesting workers. So, where I say that, I mean it in a very literal way.
Most people just don't see it, as very few of us are even able to say no much less actual say it too. That doesn't make it any less true though.
More than one way to come into some situation.
When?
I meant that in case of Nazi Germany, Italy, Spain and such it was what you say (in Spain not so clear though). But Stalinist regime with very similar traits was driven by then new Soviet bureaucracy willing to increase its control over society, grow heavy industries necessary for revolutionary offensive wars their ideology then demanded, and crush political opponents.
Spain was exactly the same and rose from putting down the Marxist and Spanish anarchist movements who were trying to say no to capitalism.
The stalinist regime evolved out of people trying to say no to capitalism.
Musk is pumping up Trump's coffers so that he gets elected and follows through with his promise to ban EV imports from other countries, essentially cementing his monopoly on the EV market that Tesla currently dominates.
Long story short, don't buy a Tesla. They're kinda shitty anyway.
Let's scale those amounts to something more understandable to non-billionaires
Imagine earning $50k per year and buying the president's favor for $45 per month. Elon is buying access to the most powerful person on the planet for the equivalent of a monthly phone bill.
The Question of Fascism and Capitalist Decay
Moron Musk
Elon Cuck
No, fascism is capitalism at its endpoint. It's the Natural Evolution.
Just like a corpse is the natural endpoint of a human being. Or how shit is the natural endpoint of chicken parmigiana?
Nooooo liberalism is very clear that the role of government is to protect human rights!!!!!
Surely a system that depends on an educated voter won't sabotage itself to such an extent that the average voter doesn't even know that!
Musk already made his billions from government subsidies and investments. Now is the time to pull the ladder behind him.
We gotta stop getting hung up on these animals being inconsistent with themselves and each other.
While I see the humor in this, it's not the kind of thing that the right wing would care about. Both of these takes are from people that believe in strong class hierarchy, with those on top owning/controlling most everything. The contrary take on EVs doesn't even clock as dissonant if all you care about is punching down on people not like you, and want big powerful men to do the punching for you. It's not seen as dysfunction, it's toxic masculinity on display where guys are constantly jockying for their spot in the pecking order; that's normal for people like this. So, they really are on the same team in the eyes of their constituents, with Musk having some political power without being a politician per-se.
Same as it ever was
Smedley Butler, aka, "Devil Dog" was first class bad ass, honest and patritoic Marine/citizen.
At first, I was thinking "If Trump is anti-EV and Elon owns a company that makes EV's, why would Elon support Trump?"
then I was like "ohh. Oooooohhhh"
There will be kickbacks
Trump’s statement in the meme isn’t about EV’s it’s about mandates.
Ever felt like you have been dealt a blow of injustice from a corporation? Brace yourself we are on a path to them gaining an even more powerful foothold over our lives.
A power that removes choice and forces the consumption of their conditions to maintain the high quality of life Americans have worked so hard for and have come to expect. A lot is at stake, let’s make the corporations suffer rather than us.
gEnIuSeS
My gosh, imagine the mental gymnastics one has to go through to hold these two beliefs at the same time:
Anyone who can believe these two things at once is either insane, stupid, or just more complex than a looney tunes character.
Someone who holds both beliefs at once presumably expects a future where people buy electric cars because they prefer (and can afford) electric cars. Could you elaborate on why that is an absurd thing to believe or why I'm off the mark here?
I'm not saying I agree with the above notion; personally, I'd prefer a future with fewer cars in general per capita, though I have no idea how likely either future is.
I'd say you're right, not sure what that guy is talking about.
Does "government should internalize costs" count as forcing electric cars on people?
I'm not sure they are the future, maybe trains are better? It's not my place to say, I just don't think they should get to pollute for free.
Musk is against the subsidies because they don’t apply to cars made in China
Wait a minute. We think mandates are good here? I thought Liberal meant free to choose.
isn't part of the point that there isn't a mandate in the first place?
Excessive regulation in such areas as emission requirements could be seen as a defacto mandate.
I never saw Musk as the guy that wanted to make a bunch of money because the regulatory environment forced you to buy his cars. But rather create a competitive product people will like and let that move the needle.
There is no electric vehicle mandate. Trump just made that up.
SpaceX/Starlink is worth much more than Tesla.
Elon is a dipshit but he’s not dumb.
He might not be dumb but he's not smart.
He’s dumb. He just has a lot of money.
He appears dumb to me too, but to others he is a genius. I'm content with just calling him what he is... a narcissist.
A dumb narcissist with a lot of money.
This is just straight up not true. SpaceX is worth 210b and Tesla is at 712b. It's not even close. I think you really need to ask yourself why you're willing to either lie or be so easily manipulated into believing a lie and then circulating it just to try and make Musk look better to Internet strangers. 2 seconds of searching to find out that this is not true but you didn't even think about it. Why is that?
This is a fairly infamous troll account. Everything they post is demonstrably untrue and commonly inflammatory.
It caught a live one
Totally unnecessary. You're comparing a publicly traded company running on memes and a strange cult of personality to private valuation.
Now that China and other domestic competitors have ramped up EV production Tesla's dominance of the niche is going to fall, especially considering the flop that was the Cybertruck and the brand damage Elon has committed.
We are already seeing protectionist measures being enacted for the EV sector.
In short, SpaceX and Starlink have a market to dominate (whether we want it to or not, it seems) while Tesla, a grossly overvalued company, is only going to see more competition and deepened irrelevancy.
The ROI on electric vehicles dwarfs the SpaceX program. Whether Tesla flounders or not, the car market is more profitable (and therefore more valuable) both by the marginal return on units and the industry market cap.
Starlink might keep an edge over Chinese and Indian programs (doubtful, since India can send a probe to Mars for $75M). But the global satellite market was $4.23B last year. The global car market was $578B.
Orders of magnitude different.
That's true, however Tesla's relevance in that market has really dwindled:
Tesla gross profit for the quarter ending March 31, 2024 was $3.696B, a 18.07% decline year-over-year. Tesla gross profit for the twelve months ending March 31, 2024 was $16.845B, a 15.37% decline year-over-year. Tesla annual gross profit for 2023 was $17.66B, a 15.31% decline from 2022.
The thing is SpaceX and Starlink have weathered the Elon Musk storm. Starlink was predicted to make $6.6B in revs of, as you said, a market that is currently much smaller. Sure, it's not profit and firing things into space isn't cheap (nor desirable and should be legislated against). However, they're filling the niche and as EV manufacture ramps up, and with Tesla's image tainted, I do think Musk (and those around him) will be looking a bit more towards the steady government money.
Tesla is worth about 5x more than SpaceX and Starlink
I'd argue Tesla is overvalued and starting to face though competition on the EV front. SpaceX doesn't have that problem.
Not that tough. No one in the US is making EV sedans under $60k. There's Tesla and the Hyundai Ionic 6 and...
(The Chevy Bolt is discontinued last I checked.)
SpaceX and Starlink are not publically traded so you can't really compare their value.
https://www.reuters.com/markets/deals/spacex-mulling-tender-offer-200-bln-valuation-bloomberg-news-reports-2024-05-23/
If you own two businesses and are putting one of them in jeopardy for no good reason, that's still quite dumb.
I don't know if it is drugs, or some neural damage caused by covid, but his recent actions didn't bring him any profits only loses. Tesla is getting less and less sales despite sales of EVs going up.
I think it's the drugs. He used to be at least somewhat sensible. In recent years he's just been acting totally bonkers. But having unchecked power will do that to you too, of course.
Well, drugs is obvious, but covid is also known to cause cognitive issues: https://theconversation.com/long-covid-puzzle-pieces-are-falling-into-place-the-picture-is-unsettling-233759
I mean there were some signs earlier (of course those who know him will say he always was an asshole, but at least he was better at masking it) it was 2020 when he went full bonkers.
Your guess is as good as mine.
Would it help at all if he could shift the blame onto government policy?
I don’t pay much attention to things I can’t afford, but I remember reading a short conspiracy theory that Musk would absolutely love it if someone were to turn the market against EVs/Tesla, because he needs/wants Tesla to fail by excuse of “government” and not because he’s running into the ground. Exhibit A: AI Self Driving Exhibit C: Cybertruck.
Looks better on his resume that way? Gotta preserve that image to preserve that income.
In that case he miscalculated, because the Tesla is failing at the benefit of the competition.
Tesla did help to cross the chasm for EV, but instead of maintaining lead in the area it is right now on the path to irrevelance and largely thanks to Musk.
As for the prices, I don't know what country you live in, but in the US EVs now cost about the same as ICE.
Also for cyber truck, yeah that's a total failure. I mean I see few of them in my area, but it feels like people bought it more to show that can spend that much, but it feels like they have some regret. Right now I see more and more people covering them with wraps too make them look a little bit nicer. I expect that they will quickly disappear.
you made three statements and two of them were wrong
He can be both