"They basically want to kill me": GOP efforts to turn Musk into a MAGA martyr are backfiring
Summary
Republicans’ efforts to portray Elon Musk as a MAGA martyr are failing, as his victim narrative struggles to resonate with conservative audiences.
Musk’s controversial statements and perceived elitism, including his complaints of being targeted by Democrats, have alienated even right-wing supporters.
Protests and vandalism against Tesla have damaged the brand, and Musk’s ties to Trump have hurt the Trump’s approval ratings, especially on economic issues.
Attempts to rally sympathy for Musk, including his emotional Fox News appearance, have largely backfired.
https://www.salon.com/2025/03/20/they-basically-wanna-me-efforts-to-turn-musk-into-a-maga-martyr-are-backfiring/Open linkView original on lemmy.world841
Comments155
This is the narrative Musk and Republicans want.
The protests and vandalism aren't hurting his brand.
They're another consequence of him openly being a fucking Nazi, which is what's hurting his brand.
It's not that complicated, but a shit ton of people keep missing the point
“I can excuse some nazism, but vandalism is where I draw the line!”
…you can excuse nazism?
Won't someone think of the stock market?!
-Neoliberals
Protests and vandalism are the effects of a shitty brand, not the cause. Musk himself is the cause.
Also "controversial statements and perceived elitism" is doing some heavy lifting...
Hope he never has another moment of peace.
by doubling his intake of ketamine binges, and downing expensive bottles of dom perrignon.
I don't want you dead, Elon. I want you to be penniless and without anyone willing to loan you money anymore.
Nah, they're right. Dead people can't suffer.
Can’t we have both?
I want Squirrel Girl to mob him with 1000s of squirrels, dragging him from wherever he is to the top of the Golden Gate Bridge, then dangle him by whatever nuts he’s got on him.
Then I’ll be happy.
Personally, I would prefer the squirrels to treat him like roadkill. They can start with his precious nuts and work their way up.
Even Abu Gharib would struggle to do that. The scale of influence billionaires have is insane.
I don't care if he's dead or not. I just never want to have to hear that stupid Twitter guy say another word. I'm at the point where a single sentence from him makes me cringe enough to throw my phone across the room. Dead or irrelevant makes no difference to me. Just wish he was gone. Go to Mars already idiot.
Speak for yourself.
I don't care what happens to him as long as I no longer have to hear about him.
You'll be heading about him for a long time. I mean Hitler is still taught about today as far as I know.
Yeah if he's dead, how will we revel in his failures?
I remember about twenty years or so ago there was a tiny plaque in there parking lot the Soviets built over the fürerbunker. It gave me great calmness to pee there, against the sign
Now it's a bus stop. So current and future generations are deprived of this simple connection with their anti-fascist ancestors.
I want him to blast off on a self funded one way trip to Mars with his closest friends. Then televise him and friends trying to create a Mars society. It would be better than any reality show produced yet.
What odds are they giving for "shitty rocket accidentally blows up on launch"?
Gleefully
I don't want him dead. I want him poor enough to need a gofundme when his drug abuse takes its toll.
-Clarence Darrow
Always thought that was Mark Twain, but snipes does give Darrow the credit - https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/mark-twain-obituary-pleasure/
Always trust Wesley Snipes. Always.
So help crash his tesla stock so that the bank collects on his loan stock collateral, which will force him to to pay tax, too.
As many times as you want, but make sure its an odd number.
DOGE wants to kill me, by taking away my insulin. I have good reason to want Musk and Trump to be trapped in a burning cyber truck.
That sounds like self-defense to preserve your life.
Would it be more fun televized like George Carling suggested? Naked upsidedown crucifixion? Or catapulted onto a brick wall?
Drawn and quartered, via Tesla vehicles. It is a quiz show where every time Musk fails to answer, one of the vehicles move several feet. These questions, can be about how many people lost their jobs and lives to Musk, and what rules DOGE broke in order to ruin them. Upon 10 questions failed, all the vehicles run free, and Musk becomes a wishbone.
There might be a bear animatronic as the host to this event.
I vote catapult.
Nah. Let the drama queen go out like a drama queen. Make him be the test dummy on the next Starship test flight. We could use more entries on the "Inventors Killed by Their Own Inventions" Wikipedia page.
Hahaha
I recall George didn't go for that because you would need a lot of prisoners. But I have to agree. We have enough nazis for a few seasons on Netflix.....
Okay, for our viewers watching at home, Kollin Johnson, a guy who erased 235 records from the ABC historical collection on Chinese BBQ of the ming dynasty just because he didn't like the names.....place your bets folks! How many teeth, which bucket!....a that's a nice splat Bob! ....ouch! Bob! With our slow mo splat-amera we can clearly see 5 teeth together on a chunk! Right into the blue bucket! And a piece of ear and hair! Folks you don't see this every day!
Giant Tesla coil
You could make the mush puddle twitch with a Tesla coil.....the imaginary is getting to be too much for me. Maybe we just line them up and kick them in the balls once per evil deed? ....56732...56733..56734...
"Wahhhh! People I've demonized and repeatedly talk down to don't like me! Just because I'm destroying any positive programs the government has and taking your future safety nets away doesn't mean we can't still be friends!"
The people Musk told that empathy was bad don't have any empathy for Musk?
I forgot about that. It’s poetic.
All Americans worthy of the name want to kill Nazis.
Hold my beer and hand me some ammo
What about a rusty spoon?
The feeling of rust on my salad fingers is almost orgasmic
Basically?
No, motherfucker. Literally.
And every article I see posted about Elons lame sorry ass further secures the aggressive positions I have taken against TSLA in the stock market.
Suffer, you petulant wealth goblin.
I don't want to kill Musk, but I'm not going to shed any tears about anything bad that happens to him or any other racist, fascist piece of shit.
Don't kill him. Just tax him like they would with a normal working person. That would throw him into a world of sufferung.
Let's compromise: Let him pay taxes first, and then treat him as the traitor he is.
Seize all his assets and put them into funds for universal health care, social security, WIC, etc. Then not to be cruel, provide him with food and shelter like you would any living creature; however to get to the food each day, he has to walk down a street that is lined with people who can jeer, boo, spit and laugh at him (but fenced off so not allowed to do any violence), and daily footage is streamed online for viewing by those unable to attend.
Ah. Execution by suicide. Absolutely lovely. 🥰
If only we used civil asset forfeiture on this traitor.
crash his tesla stock, and he will pay tax on them. Make elon the freeloader of tax payer subsidies pay his taxes.
A traitor to whom? South Africa? He seems to be doing a fine job for his country. More room on the global stage for them with Murca out of the picture.
I don't even think he has a green card.
It isn't just him. The whole oligarchy have understand that the guillotine is being prepared and that they are next.
Then maybe they will pretend to not be assholes, and thus save themselves.
Put him to death for treason and tax his estate at 100% and absorb Space X into NASA.
Clarence Darrow wrote: "All men have an emotion to kill; when they strongly dislike some one they involuntarily wish he was dead. I have never killed any one, but I have read some obituary notices with great satisfaction."
If empathy’s a weakness then Karma is a bitch
Empathy, like tolerance, should really be considered a social contract. If he doesn't have empathy for the less fortunate than him, I have a really hard time having empathy for him.
I wish for him to be reborn as bee, so that when in anger he stings a person, he must remove his stinger himself in a desperate plea to survive or tear his innards out in the ultimate karma that would humble his soul.
Bees are pretty much the angels of the insect world... Harming no-one and nothing, and almost single-handedly holding up the ecosystem of a quarter of the planet's life forms.
He's got a long way to go to reach level bee.
Just every day some little misfortune to balance out karma like wet sleeves after washing hands, occasionally stepping into dog crap, marmalade toast falling on the floor upside down, a few paper cuts, stepping onto lego barefoot, mobile phone falling into toilet bowl and so on.
Whoa whoa whoa, wishing death upon someone is one thing, but wanting them to step on a lego barefoot? You're a monster.
but
Yeah, I don't want to do it, but it would be convenient if he did
What a whining fucking maggot. Elon and that whole cohort of cowardly cunts are destroying education, Social Security, international relations, food safety, financial security, and any kind of safety net for the tens of millions of people who will fall through the cracks and die because of their greed. Yeah, no fucking shit people want you dead. It's not out of spite, or jealousy, or political differences. It's self preservation.
If he were killed, his killer would be more popular than Luigi.
A man should have goals.
Women, too. Never forget: The female of the species is often deadlier than the male.
People cheer at the news that Tesla dealerships are burning. That isn't because they hate Tesla, it's because Musk is an insufferable piece of shit. He solidified his legacy of trash when he went alt-right. He's now the villain and always will be
And the fucker revels being a villain. CPAC appearance on stage with a chainsaw, telling Bob Iger to go fuck himself, Nazi salutes, the list goes on... His brain is obviously mush, but I kinda wonder how he thought this was going to play out for his companies any other way than it has.
"DARK GOTHIC MAGA"
He thought he was going to be second in command in Trump's cult, and every MAGAt would be buying Teslas and using Starlink for Internet. He thinks he's a Hero and he thinks everyone will support whatever he does just because he's the one doing it.
He didn't read the fine print before he aligned himself with Trump and now he's paying the price & crying about it which is having the effect of making him look weak & stupid, when he thought it would make him a martyr.
This is what I don't understand: did felon truly believe that average magas (so not fascists tech bros and nepo babies) are going to give up gas cars and buy EVs instead?
How are they going to lord it over cyclists if they can't even spew out black emissions as they speed by?
God that looked as dumb as a door knob, wouldn't even fit for WWE show
I own a Tesla and I cheer at the news. While I don't particularly want someone to burn mine before it sells, I wouldn't begrudge whoever did it.
Just make sure you've got insurance, and they'll be doing you a favor.
My thoughts exactly!
Get rid of it sooner rather than later, friend. It'll only depreciate more. That or body swap it with something more innocuous like a camry
I kinda want to swap a classic car onto a Tesla chassis, while removing anything with Tesla code. No idea if it's even possible.
I think there's kits you can buy, but they can get pretty pricy. Though if you're restoring a classic car, that's already a pricy endeavor
Paint it in an LGBTQ+ rainbow flag. Even if it's with rattle cans from Home Depot.
He is such a ridiculous asswipe that it seems like he’s doing it on purpose to help distract from other billionaires falling in line or random horrible shit the administration is doing.
I doubt it’s an act, and I suspect he’s really just that much of an asswipe, but damn.
He's one of the most prominent disconnected individuals out there. It's almost certainly not an act, he's just an idiot. One of the most powerful and influential idiots that has ever existed, unfortunately...
He and Trump are very similar. Both managed to make a bunch of other people's money tied to their personal brand and both had a whole lot of interests trying to help build them up while simultaneously running interference to keep them from making actual decisions about businesses because those folks realized what a moron that he was, until it gets out of hand and they can't control him anymore. It's a perfect storm to just make the most insufferable people, idiots who have been told their whole lives by everyone how great and smart they were by an 'in crowd'.
Empathy for me, but not for thee!
I don't want Elon dead, I want him to go bankrupt, fail at creating some NRx corporate dictatorship so hard that he brings about a socialist utopia, and then end up getting the drug and mental health treatment he so badly needs for free, eventually issuing an apology for becoming such an asshole and proceeding to live out the rest of his days giving Ted talks around the theme of how being the richest person on earth was the most miserable time of his life.
This is a timeline I would vote for.
She’d a tear for the billionaire as he dismantles our social safety net to give his cronies a tax break.
There isn't much of a safety net to dismantle, but he'll find a way.
A core principal of a martyr is being widely liked. No one gives a shit about this dude. Even the people who he surrounds himself with don't give a flying fuck about the dude. Musk himself makes every interaction with him transactional. Add in his default behavior of being an 11 year old edgelord wrapped in a 50 something whale body with hair plugs that's awkward as fuck to be around, and yeah it's not hard to see why nobody likes this fucking billionaire with attachment issues.
Dude needs to ditch the ketamine and perhaps get actual therapy. And actually having a better diet and exercise regimen wouldn't hurt either.
I'd settle for lead poisoning
(From the tap... double)
Musk: Acts like a Nazi
Society: "A good Nazi is a dead Nazi."
Musk: "Y U DO THIS"
You are pretty much describing the premise behind Max Berry's book - Jennifer Government.
Something tells me the ones who think they’d be in charge would be quickly disappeared in theses “self regulating” “cities”.
Also, who do they think is going to move there? Do they believe liberals will gladly join their psycho future vision? The maga people are already against cities in general. They’ll never move to one….. so who do these people think will live/work/support their cities???
Their plan only works if the masses are desperate enough to move to their territory. That's why their plan starts with dismantling the current economy and institutions. Then they can say "come live and work in Tesland^TM^ where there are jobs and opportunities" but where you have to use Teslabucks^TM^ to buy everything.
I could be bought with a walkable downtown, commitment to the highest public education standards, affordable and accessible medical care, affordable housing, net zero buildings, xeriscaping, high speed rail, internet fiber everywhere, extensive parks and nature areas, diverse people and cultural events, shops and restaurants, and an effective technology supported town hall government ….. and a good brewpub.
The tech bros are supporting all that, right? Right?
To be fair liberals probably would join with how useless they are.
Chuck will lead the way
Imagine saying "They basically want me dead." and then wearing your child as a human shield. Father of the year.
Tbf, I do want to see him dead.
In Scotland we have a word for people like Elon, cunt
i mean, what did he expect if he threatens to slash social security? any attempt to slash social security is a declaration of war to the civil class; and if you're declaring war, you better be ready to die.
how can we respect their lifes if they don't respect our lifes?
slashing social security is murder, you have the right to self-defense.
Wow, you have to be a special kind of shitty to actually hurt Trump's image, rather than the other way around.
Truly the Ticketmaster of people.
Elon Musk and Trump are both traitors to Americs and deserve the maximum sentence for treason.
"GO FUCK YOURSELF." - Elon Musk
"why no one like me 😢"
-Elon Musk, 1 year later
Musk, if you cared about your fragile reputation, you should never have entered politics in the first place. We would've just been back to hating you because you're the richest and the symbol of capitalism.
But we hate you because not only are you that, but you happily stomp over things you don't care to understand why it is important to have them in the first place that so many Americans rely on. You are Trump's bitch, you got here because he rewarded you for supporting him, like he has with all of his corrupt buddies.
Get the fuck out of politics, dissolve your stupid tongue-in-cheek government branch and fuck off.
Seriously! If I were the richest man in the world, I'd just fuck off quietly to my secret billionaire volcano, where I'd get fucked up on wine plundered from a sunken Spanish treasure galleon, and drugs you've never even heard of, for as long as I want, because literally nothing can affect you when you're that rich! Why would you invite so much mockery??
Because true respect is something money can’t buy.
They say money can buy you whatever you want, but really it can only buy you items and appearances. But rich people spend so much time just throwing money at various desires and issues that they tend to confuse appearances with substance. Note Musk buying ‘skill’ at video games, and the push for AI—because it allows them to pretend to have skill at something they don’t.
So they endlessly chase appearances, and are confused when all they end up holding is empty air. An unsatisfying feeling, to say the least.
When you have everything else, and you’re still not happy, and throwing money at the issue is your only skill, you keep trying that, no matter how often it doesn’t work.
he lost his mind when vivian came out trans, and GRIME started dating chelsea manning. and nobody would back him on trying to get ouf the twitter purchase. he now compensates with ketamine and cocaine.
They say things like this because their base wants to kill people they dislike. Most people don't want to kill people they dislike, they want them to win three Guinness World Records for longest lasting, least operable, and largest hemorrhoids.
Why can't people just BE NICE to the Billionaire Illegal Immigrant Taking ALL our Jobs?
Yes, I'm suprised at all the hate considering he's white.
And what will the Republicans do if it is discovered that Tesla was manipulating and committing fraud in its accounts?
Lol... Oh you're serious?
Nothing? At least, so long as he's bankrolling his pet they will look the other way.
The bizarre is just being all over the place with stuff he doesn't care about, while pandering to a bunch of interests that don't make that much sense as a whole (Musk, Project 2025, Putin, Netanyahu, traditional GOP, other random folks).
When that happens, there’s not going to be enough ketamine ….
its a fear based response, studies have shown republican brains in scans shown to have a higher than normal or enlarged amydala.
I mean, I don't want to kill Musk, but I would certainly toast his obituary. The world would objectively be a better place without him on it.
Oligarchs deserve what's coming. The Oligarchs are trying to convince the people they don't have rights. At first the people will peacefully demand the restoration of the constitutional order. When the oligarchs refuse, the people will fight back, taking the fight to the doorstep of the oligarchs. If fighting starts, it will be too late for the oligarchs - the people are well armed.
Musk a martyr? FFS, these people are so dumb.
The only people who "care" about Musky are the ones who dumped their life savings into Tesla stock.
Everyone with that blue checkmark on Twitter and their username ending in a crypto domain can go too
Elon Musk is a real victim, instead of having "more money than anyone should ever be able to amass or dream of spending in one lifetime", now he only has "more money than anyone should ever be able to amass or dream of spending in one lifetime".
I'll celebrate with a drink if somebody does.
I realized this morning that for how much Luigi is praised there haven't been attempts to follow his example.
I don't know why that felt relevant on this post and I'm definitely not advocating anything, just an observation
Just because you didn't hear about something doesn't mean it's not happening.
https://www.fox9.com/news/saif-chip-terhune-insurance-ceo-bullets-oregon
I wouldn't be surprised if there's been other incidents which were kept away from the news.
Most people capable of murder do not care about their fellow humans; and those of us who could often lack means or have to protect others closer to home. They cannot just go away without harming others who need them.
Once you get past all those filters it’s a very tiny percentage of people who have motive, means and opportunity. Most of those get unlucky.
Just about everyone is capable of killing given the right circumstances.
An certain Austrian duke comes to mind...here's hoping that Elon gets to play his role in the remake.
I hope his story skips to the ending. Preferably live streamed to twitter.
That's some pretty difficult tech to come by that he allegedly used. Here's what I've worked out so far.
3d printed silencer and mech. Steel tube. Of the shelf cartridges altered to be subsonic exiting the barrel.
Hardly anybody is capable of such things, which is why it should be totally acceptable and not remotely a crime to share the information he used.
At this point they might as well go back to trying to make a martyr out of the United Healthcare guy who's name I remember about as well as Elon Musk remembers what compassion is.
It's a pretty risky game he's playing, being the public face of his business while also being an unelected president.
I think honestly it’s not just the conflict of interest threat that warrants someone in public office divesting themselves. We’re seeing that it’s better for the companies too - keeps them insulated from the impact of unpopular decisions.
It's why he brings squishy children to hide behind
I know he has like a million kids, but what is he going to do when they are all too big to give piggy back rides all day?
Easy. He'll just keep having more kids.
Nothing enough Flex Tape can't fix.
And how many lives do you think he’s destroyed as he takes a chainsaw to their careers?
These fucking people just.don't.get.IT.
Their problem is not that they don't get it, it's that they can't sell it. We have serious problems to solve, and we need serious people to solve them. And whatever your particular problem is, I promise you, Elon Musk is not the least bit interested in solving it. He is interested in two things, and two things only: making you afraid of it, and telling you who's to blame for it. That, ladies and gentlemen, is how you win elections. You gather a group of middle age, middle class, middle income voters who remember with longing an easier time, and you talk to them about family, and American values and character, and you heil Hitler.
Ahhh...diddums lose a few billion dollars in notional worth? Are those bad bullies boycotting little Muskie's terrible cars?
Ahhh... That's so saaad...
I kinda want him to live in gitmo for the rest of his life.
Even a broken clock is right twice a day.
I don’t know about want…. But if were to happen…. I wouldn’t lose sleep.
If he were killed they would all give fake sadness and fake tears but in private they would all be 'FINALLY'. The internet will be up in arms with celebration, and the simps will eventually forget they even knew the guy.
Why would any person want to kill Muskrat? I can't even think of 10,000 reasons. I certainly don't think the world would be a better place if he was feeding worms in a shallow grave.
If they are at all like the rest of the country, he'll get a pass to keep on trucking/fuckin/suckin
If he would drop his doge bullshit the hate would fade almost overnight even with the Nazi salute shit
Honestly, I’m hoping he just speed runs the McAfee plan. Drop down a k-hole into a paranoid delusion and then do the world a favor at the end