Elon Musk brands Britain a 'tyrannical police state' and boosts far-right activist
Summary
Elon Musk labeled Britain a “tyrannical police state” on X, criticized Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s leadership, and questioned the imprisonment of far-right activist Tommy Robinson.
Musk’s comments coincide with his role as a key adviser to Trump, raising concerns in the U.K. about its relationship with the incoming administration.
Musk also criticized Starmer’s policies, including increased farm inheritance taxes, and boosted far-right content on X.
This follows similar clashes with other U.S. allies, including Germany and Australia, over their domestic policies.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/elon-musk-britain-police-state-starmer-election-tommy-robinson-rcna181593Open linkView original on lemmy.world
157 replies
He's a Russian asset that holds U.S. military contracts. yay
Just wait until he uses DOGE to gut NASA and gets more contracts for SpaceX.
It's likely going to be a bit of both.
It would be extremely convenient for Muskrat if NASA no longer had the engineering budget to design their own rockets while simultaneously having a higher budget for private contractors.
It would be extremely easy to sell the idea to people who don't look past the raw numbers, too. Frame it as though NASA is spending $400 million on projects that have already been done by the private sector and propose half of it gets reallocated to contracting and the other half gets cut to lower expenses. Musk sycophants will praise him for being a genius, MAGA morons will congratulate him on being "efficient" and fixing the economy, and he'll have his nice little oligarchy just like he wanted.
NASA does a lot. He wants all their funding.
The only thing Elon wants that NASA does is Mars.
That department doesn’t even exist tho. Yet at least
He's not a Russian asset, he simply feels that if the whole world is run by tyrants like him and Putin, then he would somehow he could do whatever he wanted, because it would just be as simple as cutting a deal/buying the privilege (same with the Trump mentality). Musk is the embodiment of why becoming a billionaire needs to be outlawed.
Russia has been using Starlink satellites since 2022
"then he would somehow he could do whatever he wanted"
https://youtu.be/G7RgN9ijwE4
How did you manage to write that and not realise how much you fucked it up?
This is news to me, what's he linked to with Russia?
https://www.wsj.com/world/russia/musk-putin-secret-conversations-37e1c187
https://apnews.com/article/musk-putin-x-trump-tesla-election-russia-9cecb7cb0f23ccce49336771280ae179
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy0l3wl76gzo
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/oct/25/elon-musk-has-been-in-regular-contact-with-putin-for-two-years-say-reports
Thank you
Starlink?
No, no. Skynet
White, rich guy from apartheid South Africa accuses country of tyranny after it locks up a person white supremacists look up to.
Hmm. Hmmmm.
Elon is a threat to humanity.
He’s trying to build starships. He’s a threat to the galaxy.
He has already started littering space with scrapped vehicles.
Next star trek series, they gonna find the Tesla floating out there.
“Captain, we are being hailed by T’ger.”
“On screen.”
“Elon and Don at McDonalds. Arms wide.”
“Arm photon torpedoes.”
“Can you make it go?”
Elon has spent $5 billion in taxpayers money and he hasn't even gotten an empty Starship into orbit yet. NASA can land a working rover on Mars for $1billion, and SpaceX can barely manage to recapture a smoking husk of a booster on "the chopsticks".
Believe me the galaxy is safe. Elon just wants those taxpayers dollars to keep his grift going.
Didn’t say he was succeeding… lol.
There are a thousand better takes on Elon being a nazi piece of shit than trying to trash the most advanced rocket company in the world with weak arguments.
NASA always uses third party contractors for launch vehicles, and spacex is the best rocket company. Nobody is even close to second place now that Boeing is in the business of producing death traps and national security risks.
You call Elon a terrible piece of shit, but that thankfully has little to do with Shotwells excellent leadership at spacex.
I read that the, to be allowed, 25 starts of the starship rocket will blast the equivalent GHGs of 975000 airliner flights or about the yearly output of 280000 homes, into earths atmosphere. So at first SpaceX is a threat to us.I downvoted myself. The claim was that one start and reentry of the Starship would emit 97000 tons of GHGs into earths atmosphere.
Another redditor fact-checked it and it seems to be only about 3300 tons per flight so it's 30 times less.
100 starts of the Spaceship would amount to 0.3% of the total emissions of all airplanes in a year.
I usually fact check posts with numbers in it and I feel bad for letting my guards down this time and spreading misinformation. Won't happen again.
accusation, confession
We should ban this guy's propaganda site.
All the people taking this lightly, wildly underestimate the effect the richest man in the world has on public discourse. This guy is taking heads of state to task, threatening democracy.
I hope he trips up and gets X banned.. but we need to be way more radical in protecting our democracy.
He and Peter Thiel who hates democracy as per his wikipedia.
He is doing Russian dirty work
It’s really annoying how this guy never complains about what actual autocracies are doing; never a peep complaining about the times they ask for things to be removed from Twitter. Just hand wringing about needing to follow the law to operate in those places. Hypocrite
Welcome to politics, there's all sorts going on that we know nothing about that will influence who says what about whom, when and why. Hypocrisy is irrelevant to these people. He's just influencing.
A dishonest man will always rule a kingdom of men bound by honesty
No and this is a stupid idea that just exists to justify fascism. We have many books about abuse and arguing in good faith and philosophy for this reason.
Are you dumb or do you just see fascists everywhere? It's pretty obvious that not having having handicaps like morality or legality gives you an advantage against those who are abide by them, just look at the world.
It's not a justification it's an observation
Well, this is back from Plato's Republic days, sorry I thought we all were up to date on thousands of years old references. The argument is that democracy always fails to bad faith actors, and democracy always fails. Arguments against democracy are fascist at their core. Democracy itself can be defended from bad faith actors of course, so it's a simplistic, stupid statement made by someone who is advocating for one thing only: anti-democracy, or fascism.
How? Please elaborate don't just say of course
Oh, you need me to look up what arguing in good faith is, all the way back to Socrates? You want me to explain the history of our modern court system and how it is entirely based on Western philosophical reasoning which are based on Arabic, Indian, and Chinese philosophical reasonings via the Silk Road? That this idea that democracy will always have a dictator has been confronted by people for thousands of years so they can live in a government with both freedom and safety, and thus modern philosophical ideas about democracy spring from that.
Things like what 'sophistry' is. Or do you just want me to post a fallacy chart? Or maybe you just need to read book recommendations like "Stop Caretaking the Borderline or Narcissist."
We give each other information in a way that is democratic- individually consensual. Each person must then be taught skills to learn bad faith advances. However, here in the US, we let people be taken advantage of by marketing and capitalism and we neglected this in schools. This is why we aren't doing well and why Russian propaganda worked so well - it relies on heuristics that most people recognize once they get a philosophical education in fallacies.
If democracies always failed, then there would literally never be a stable democracy. That there are, indicates that the simplistic idea they will always fail to bad faith actors is incorrect.
I bet the Romans thought their empire and system was very stable, everything is stable if you choose the right timeframe. Our democracies may seem stable, for now...
Also history is not a good indicator because mass media and the internet changed the playing field in ways that are not comparable to any other period in history.
That is so depressing
Are you kidding? America is easily the least honest place in the entire world. In a country of lying, scheming conmen grifters the most confident grifter is king.
I'm so tired of this guy.
I wish he'd just OD on ketamine already.
He's got such a hate boner for Kier Starmer that I'm kind of intrigued. Starmer is the most boring, beaurocratic politician you can find. I can't understand what's triggered this latest Musk mania.
He's a prosecutor who apparently can't be bought.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/feb/13/tax-authorities-should-prosecute-evaders-keir-starmer
That's far more dangerous to a billionaire than a firebrand.
If Starner only delivers a non-corrupt legal system it'll be an incredible win for the Country. But I do think he needs 10 years in office so he should focus on actually winning the next election.
Yes, truth is terrifying to a liar. Justice is terrifying to a fraud.
Saying he can't be bought when he had to explain a metric fuck-ton of gifts he received from donors, from Arsenal season tickets to an insane amount on glasses, and multiple tickets to Taylor Swift, indicates a man that can very easily be bought.
In theory, a Sir that is known for being a chief prosecutor should be the hardest person to buy...but that's the joy of politics I guess.
IMO Kier is a bit of a bellend, but a vast improvement on the shower of cunts in the Tory party. What I would love to see him implement is a true UK constitution to ensure that any wrongdoing in office results in criminal proceedings. Those in politics should be held to the highest standard, and if you're caught taking bribes, selling access to friends, or abusing lower workers while in office you should be banned from holding office AND see jail time.
It remains to be seen what he's actually done to benefit anyone who gave him anything.
And he stopped accepting them once he entered the office. We found out because he told us about it all and the mistake of accepting some gifts a bit too late.
With the only arguable benefits being publicity for the brand it's not nothing but it really is daft the perspective tricks that have been played with that particular molehill. It's the press that actually gave the gifters the benefits, not any actions by Starner himself.
Being given something isn't proof of being bought. Acting for the person who gave you something is.
I predict that as the COVID era corruption comes to light his previous job will result in him prosecuting and recovering quite a lot of public money. Sadly I don't think he will get a result of jail time for anyone. The laws just aren't in place for that and he can't get them made retrospectively.
A UK constitution would be very interesting. But I'd just settle for some actual laws specifically against corruption rather than relying on MPs following conventions and being honourable.
The shocking thing is that hundreds of millions of pounds worth of corruption through the "fast lane" wasn't illegal to do. We'll only be able to recoup from the companies who actually didn't deliver their contracts.
A ketamine overdose couldn't happen sooner to this mother fucker.
Is that even possible? It would probably take an entire gram to kill him.
It's very hard to OD on, it's hard to find definitive numbers but some list the LD50 at 60mg/kg which means it would be over 4 grams for most people.
Edit: taking this moment to take issue with the phrasing most newspapers used for Matthew Perry's ketamine "overdose" in which they blamed his death on the acute effects of the drug only to go on to say that he died from drowning after losing consciousness. If the drowning killed him it was not, by definition, the acute effects of the drug, but thanks for saying so and ruining the reputation of one the most effective treatments for depression we've ever seen and just an all around very impressive substance.
You misunderstand, we're just writing that in on the autopsy report.
I seriously doubt he would die from an overdose. Musk probably has aides around him at all times who will help him if he even remotely seemed like he ODed on anything.
Idk maybe he'll OD like MJ
MJ died because his doctor needed to take a bathroom break and his condition went critical in that moment. If his doctor has a bucket to piss in he would have survived.
Elon musks death would create a great trickle down effect as his assets were carved up by various corporations and inheritors. It would be a new golden age.
Right now its all being hoarded in texas in a garage where Musk sleeps and pisses on a pile of deeds and gold like a little pink pig dragon.
So if Kier Starmer had the balls to do the right thing he'd take care of this issue old school.
Could just asset forfeiture him without the death. Asset forfeiture anyone who helps him, too, including giving him water. Let him wander around like a homeless person. Let him drink out of puddles and kill rats for food. Let him enjoy the world like he wants, with no one in it to help him. He wants us all to be dead, let us be dead to him.
People like you are disgusting.
"People like you" being what? Say it, coward.
Murderers?
Sickos?
People like you will never be more than an insect to people like Elon Musk.
Lol, put that police state to use and get that X bullshit out of your countries so you don't have to deal with his lame blackmail attempts anymore. This is far more blatant and insidious than TikTok ever was. Let him boost away in his own little bubble of delusional Americans and Russian bots.
If I didn’t already think that Musk is a fucking shithead, him stanning for Tommy fucking Robinson would have sealed it.
Tommy Fucking Robinson (or Stephen Yaxley-Fucking-Lennon to give him his actual name) is the worst. A racist thug through and through, who, by being banged up, is in the right place.
Picture someone who'd hide behind his bigger mates if he was threatened and you'd be closer to the mark.
I hate that this piece of shit is so young...
I'm going to have to wait a lonnnnnng time to piss on his grave :(
I would say hopefully his diet will kill him but then we have the likes of trump
Could somebody just grind this man into a fine paste already?
Got any extra fiberglass submarines? ;)
Just give him some amphetamine and put an idea go his head that genius would be able dive to the Titanic with a plastic barrel full of stones to collect all that gold and shit.
Fiberglass submarine is too much work and resources for that little shit.
We could just send him to Mars. No one says that his Mars rocket has to be able to make a return trip.
I mean, I'm pretty sure he's said that the first people on Mars will probably die there.
torgo's executive powder?
Now that’s the news is wanna see in the morning
Hate to say it but my experiences with British police is that they are all tyrants who will grasp as straws to screw you over. That said Elon is someone I would very much enjoy to punch in the face.
Yes, that's police everywhere.
ACAB after all.
Nah. Police in Germany and all neighboring countries is completely different.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/4/1/we-jews-are-just-arrested-palestinians-are-beaten-german-protesters
I didn't read the article, but aljazeera is a fake news factory and on the same level as RT in terms of believability so I won't even bother reading it.
Hahaha Arabic name scary?
No, but I generally don't read stuff that is funded and backed by antisemitic organisations.
Hello from a neighboring country. Never had a cop try to escalate a situation. Not every interaction was my view of a good conversation, but during all of them i felt safe.
Not really.
Yes really, and if you think don't think so, you've never been to one of these countries
I’ll just leave this here: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Oury_Jalloh
That is next to all the racial profiling and systematic violence against pro-Palestinian protestors or climate activists etc.
Judging the entire police force of a country by a case from 2005 is kinda insane ngl. I'm not saying every police member is an angel, but the overwhelming majority of german police is completely normal and trustworthy.
Bullshit. There is no such thing. You know what there is tho? A fuckton of anti semitic people that tend to get violent at demonstrations.
Username checks out.
But what they’ve been doing lately is different and it’s something people like you have approved of for the States, which thankfully didn’t happen.
The left has called for mass censorship at their discretion. Hillary said it, Biden said it. You sound very leftist with your aggressive stance on violence and censorship towards anyone who disagrees with you.
"towards anyone who disagrees with you. "
And there's the lie.
You shithead conservatives act like you aren't the scum of the earth worth hating.
This isnt about "anyone disagreeing"
This about you being very specific pieces of shit.
It seems that fascism being elected into the White House has made the shit leak out more everywhere, including Lemmy. I suspect my block list will be busier than ever in the coming years.
Literally tiny Hiters complaining they don't get to brag about genociding the world
What?
The right is actively banning books everywhere they can get away with it.
We are fully in doublespeak times
Nope it's just my honest reaction to both the UK police and Elon musk. I've been raided by the UK police based on someone's else's "joke" when I wasnt there.
I think they forced me to go to about 6 different stations for 8 or so interviews and a mental health evaluation for something I knew absolutely nothing about (someone else joked I might shoot up my workplace when I was on 3 weeks into a damn holiday and some newstart panicked and called the Belfast mayor or something) ) and they repeatedly wouldn't even tell me what it was even about.
They (the police) just fished for absolutely anything they could dream up I assume to suck up to the mayor.
I Mean they were demanding thing like non existent Facebook accounts, asking me why I need a broken laser pointer which was a cheap £1 Keyring gimmick even when new, had a tiny pocket knife in my bedroom, why did I vape did that mean I was a drug addict etc
Cost me about 6 months wages to eventually go hire a barrister when it became obvious they would do just about anything to get me on anything and I guess therefore justify their nonsense raid, only then did I even get even an idea of what was going on.
As for Elon I've thought he was an asshole since he sued top gear and lost in court, he's done nothing of note to me since but make me want to punch him harder. .
I'm also N Irish not American and couldn't give the slightest damn about politics there.
Congrats you talked my worst experience ever out of me and I'm not sure why even.
Bro. Your issue is with police. Not with leftists.
I've no issue like that I think I distrust right, left and the police because all of them Tryed to screw me.
Also can I please state again I'm not American and please stop trying to shoe nail me into your election shit. I was born and raised In Belfast Northern Ireland I've never been to America in my life and don't intend to visit.
Never said anything about America. Maybe you've confused me for another comment?
Wow that really does make the UK sound like a police state. If you don't mind me asking, why did you have to hire a barrister?
I was in the position I felt I had no choice they kept demanding things like non existent Facebook accounts, they wouldn't tell me what I was accused off even it was just constant interviews at places harder and harder for me to get to. I was starting to go mad because I didn't even understand why they had raided me in the first place.
It cost me a lot more than I could afford to hire a barrister but I had the strong feeling I'd be jailed without even knowing why if I didn't.
But yeah the whole thing seemed to stem from one guys joke at somewhere I wasn't.
Sorry, I mean, instead of a solicitor?
Truthfully they arrested my dad at the same time as trying to get me which made me feel guilty as hell despite the fact I didn't know what was going on.
I'm not actually sure why a "barrister" my dad hired him first and then probably because of my dad I let him stand for me also..
I only regretted it when I saw the bill, he did keep me out of all the nonsense since he was hired though but yeah Bill made me poor for a long TIME, Same time he might be the only one who made the police behave.
I'm not surprised. A barrister is, traditionally, who you would hire to represent you, specifically within a higher court, when it sounds like all you needed to do was chat to the duty solicitor for free.
What a mix up. It sounds like your dad really screwed you over there. You must've been very cross when you found out
I think this maniac wishes for immortality, and since the closest he can do is make his name stand out in the history books, he used his “dumbest kid on planet Vulcan” logical prowess to deduce that the best way to accomplish that is to become a mustache twirling villain.
Maybe the genie misheard him saying he wished to be immortal and heard that he wished to be immoral.
Please do not insult Vulcans like that.
Kim Jong-Musk beating the drum, undermining democracy wherever he can
Elon Twitler.
Helen Mosque
Well, he's 50% right about that, for the wrong reasons
Even an evil idiot can be accidentally right.
Very apt that these two things were so close to each other.
https://www.theregister.com/2024/11/25/uk_police_lfr_tender/
And the US isn't?
Ok.
Someone just bitchslap that cunt, please.
Musk here is using the Tucker Carlson technique of "just asking questions". An answer is easily found. "Robinson" (not his real name) is in jail for 18 months because he committed crimes, admitted to them in court, and was found guilty of them in a court of law. Hardly tyranny. https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/oct/28/tommy-robinson-admits-contempt-of-court-over-false-claims-about-refugee
Wait, someone guilty of a crime can get jailed for the crime?
That certainly explains why people like Musk or Trump don't get it, since that does not apply to them.
He's also been to prison twice for violent crime including assaulting a police officer.
Pot kettle black. Also a monstrous gobshite. He was bad enough just as an annoying business owner, now we have to put up with so much more.
call Britain tyrannical police state, defend far right.
we are going to see this guy's self entitled, completely off the mark political comments for the next four years. enjoy people.
For the record, I dont think he is using some heinous misinformation tactics. His grasp of certain concepts is just on par with a first graders'.
Musk is a whiny little bitch. Also a con man.
Clown wants to stay relevant, so tries to turn everything around him into a circus. Dipshit.
can we start collectively ignoring whatever Musk says? I am individually starting to, making one last exception with this comment, but only collectively we can really make a difference in making the world (or at least Lemmy) a quieter, Elon-less place. If he does something newsworthy for good (puts a person on Mars) or for bad (I don't know where to start here....) then by all means let's celebrate or sulk but when he talks or Xits let his voice disperse as quickly as a fart in the wind.
Unfortunately we basically voted him into office.
It's the "Trump problem" now. Now he has the power to act on these insane opinions and threats, so ultimately they are newsworthy even if I largely agree with you.
I see what you mean and I agree with you too. He's no longer a private citizen "just voicing his opinion" or "just asking questions". When you are in power, words have consequences.
The issue is that both Musk and Trump were already professional trolls and liars. Now they actually weaponized trolling to create anger and fear, which directly feed votes and power into the side they have chosen to represent. How do you fight that? Do you still try NOT to feed the troll, when the troll is leading the most powerful nation on Earth?
I do absolutely agree.
It's like "don't feed the trolls," the most important internet wisdom ever, has been long forgotten and is tearing down society.
I don't know how to fix it. We should have regulated social media algorithms years ago, but now it's way too late, and people's information hygiene is not getting better. Any kind of news outlet is basically compelled to cover it for financial reasons less they fade into obscurity, and algorithms love it and aren't going to change.
Seeing the kind of tyrannical laws that were enacted in that country in the last couple of years, I'm very much in agreement.
Musk can still go piss off.
Laws that were enacted by the previous Tory government who were in power for 12 years.
Starmer/Labour have only been in government for a few months so for them to have done what Musk is suggesting in such a short time, is quite the achievement.
I would be glad if this pushes the Brits to realize they really are part of Europe, if they like it or not
Nothing to see here folks, just another projection of a facsist tyrant (wannabe).
He had me on the first half
I thought this said far right activist TONY Robinson and almost had a heart attack, lmao. But he’s still a socialist 👍
Did he think that was a compliment?
Somebody needs to tell this full doofus that most British police officers don't even carry guns lol
He must be mad! How could this place be a tyrannical police state?
What about this says police state?
There's literally a drunk person lying in the street and no-one gives a shit.
He is going straight back to the bottle too.
It doesn't, that's my point.
Gotcha, think it's kinda coming off the other way.
As a brit, I can say this is pretty accurate.
We do like a tipple at the weekend
I don't even know where to begin with this picture, so many questions lol.
And it was a Tuesday too! It's like if Arizona State was a country.
It was a Thursday.
My understanding from the comments on this picture is it was on a day that ended with the word day.
Haha, it's famously new year's eve 2015 in Manchester.
He's right though.
I've never lived in a police state, but I've read enough about them to know the difference between a state with a corrupt and heavy-handed police force (i.e. almost every country) and East Germany under the Stasi.
Incidentally, if you think Britain now is a tyrannical police state, what exactly do you think it would be like if the Tommy Robinsons of the world got their way?
I mean he isn't wrong.
Elon Musk is an authoritarian masquerading as someone who values free thought, inquiry, and action. What he means when he says "freedom" is for the ultra-wealthy to have "freedom" from accountability to an "authoritarian" government or the "whims of the unwashed masses" and do as they please with impunity.
The British Government is an authoritarian police state which punishes thought-crimes against their contemporary monarchist/corporatist zeitgeist with impunity.
Both things can be true, and I argue they are.
Succinct. I like it.
I dont understand. So Musk is criticizing what he wants, right?
Hypocrisy is rampant among those who are rarely/never held accountable. My assumption is either that he's incapable of comprehending it, or he doesn't care about it.
He's very wrong on many many things lmao
Yes. And in this instance, he's right.
Edit: do the down voters really not realize that the UK is a tyrannical police State?
It can't be, Elon said it was!