7 ms·

I'm curious where people see Musk in terms of his politics. I see him as center/right-center (U.S) with the occasional right troll post. The part that I don't

by _JoRo 4y ago

I'm curious where people see Musk in terms of his politics. I see him as center/right-center (U.S) with the occasional right troll post. The part that I don't like about him taking over Twitter is this: When he initially took over I was under the impression that he wanted to promote a free-speech platform that is primarily designed for thoughtful dialogue between people. However, I'm not sure the platform will trend towards this when he has so many troll posts (given his influence on the platform). I think that given its current trajectory the platform in a few months will consist of primarily right-leaning individuals, and far-left individuals who feel it is their duty to constantly debate the right.

ggm 4y ago
I used to believe his brand of libertarianism was an attempt at "neutral right" but the anti-union thing really strongly tilts right. He has since declared publicly he backs a GOP outcome. Given some of whats going on in the GOP that makes it very very hard to put him soft-right because a declaration of preference like that demands questions: what does he think about J6 and what does he think about vote suppression. His commercial engagements in Europe and Asia (china) do not actually define him politically one way or another. Nor does the starlink/Ukraine thing although I value that immensely as a buffer against destruction of telecommuniations utility functions in Ukraine. Several respectable US political long-term trends analysis suggest the GOP cannot be used as a "pole" in left-right center discussions unless you accept it has moved significantly rightward on many fundamental matters of civil rights. Views which previously would have been considered untenable have become normalised, and the overton window has shifted. It used to be the overlap in right DNC and left GOP was strong. It's no longer the case. I am of course Partisan in this. I don't believe the shift has been a "both sides" thing. But others might disagree. TL;DR what makes you right leaning now, puts you very firmly right in any 10+ year analysis of what "right" side is. I should also be clear I am neither a US voter nor US citizen or resident so my views may count for significantly less no matter what.
- _JoRo 4y ago
  My gut feeling (as a U.S resident) is that there has been a shift on both sides, but the overall country has moved more towards the left (so the shift on the right has maybe looked more extreme). I also think the overall media has become less trustworthy/more biased in their reporting so if you follow most western msm (which I believe is primarily left leaning) then even some right-center people can begin to look like strictly right (as I believe Elon is being made out to be). My impression of Elon is that he just doesn't really like the left's 'holier than thou' political correctness (I don't think this meshes well with his corporate personality).
  - ggm 4y ago
    I agree he really doesn't like the largely left leaning media. So we're aligned on that. But his fundamental opposition to unions is different. I don't see the US news as pro-union, its not about the press. Its really down to his own core views. I found south parks 'smelling their own farts' thing about Cali. prius drivers pretty funny, but that said, I'd rather there were Californians driving EV than not. Its kind of a dual-edged sword. So he hates the PC side of things but he's selling the drugs which feeds them (so to speak) -a rather strange state of affairs. The burning Coal mob are going to have a cow over the Tesla big rig. I expect more than a few to have truck-nuts, and confederate flags and gun-racks on them. I'll come back to the 'shift both sides' thing. I cant prove it, so its just opinion. But my gut feel is there has been some leftward tilt in the media overall, fox excluded, if we limit ourselves to news media ex-print, and we exclude the moonies investment, and maybe Bezos.. yea. Its there. But its like 10:1 the rightward/leftward shifts. So its polarized, its not a symmetric movement. The middle being assumed (which btw is a stretch because its divisive if there even IS a middle) then the press moved a bit left and the GOP and the Randean IT dotcom billionaires (Theil..) moved a very very long way right. Sure, a biassed comment. But it is what I think. Both D and R do gerrymandered stupid tricks on electoral zones. I don't think they do it equally either. I don't think as many D governors want to replace the electoral college movement with faithless voters they appoint. I could go on, but my underlying point is that there is a core of what the constitution is and means, and there are the things which undermine it, and "both sides" assumes equally both sides: I just don't think its true. "defund the police" is a very stupid rallying cry. Sure. its a reaction to "blue flag" rightward behaviour in the cops but its alienating the middle ground which leftists need to secure as voters to win. Likewise the independent portland thing. It was fun. Its not helpful to securing national votes to run the country. Actions have consequences and if you believe in burn it down or destroy the joint, left-right is both burning and destroyed at that point. So a lot of comment here assumes maintenance of some perceived status quo politically around voting and state/federal boundaries and the role of taxation. Historically the D were dirty as. Tammany hall, the carpetbaggers, people forget that was often the D side of things. the R side is not the party of Lincoln right now.

by _JoRo 4y ago

ggm 4y ago

I used to believe his brand of libertarianism was an attempt at "neutral right" but the anti-union thing really strongly tilts right. He has since declared publicly he backs a GOP outcome. Given some of whats going on in the GOP that makes it very very hard to put him soft-right because a declaration of preference like that demands questions: what does he think about J6 and what does he think about vote suppression. His commercial engagements in Europe and Asia (china) do not actually define him politically one way or another. Nor does the starlink/Ukraine thing although I value that immensely as a buffer against destruction of telecommuniations utility functions in Ukraine. Several respectable US political long-term trends analysis suggest the GOP cannot be used as a "pole" in left-right center discussions unless you accept it has moved significantly rightward on many fundamental matters of civil rights. Views which previously would have been considered untenable have become normalised, and the overton window has shifted. It used to be the overlap in right DNC and left GOP was strong. It's no longer the case. I am of course Partisan in this. I don't believe the shift has been a "both sides" thing. But others might disagree. TL;DR what makes you right leaning now, puts you very firmly right in any 10+ year analysis of what "right" side is. I should also be clear I am neither a US voter nor US citizen or resident so my views may count for significantly less no matter what.

_JoRo 4y ago
My gut feeling (as a U.S resident) is that there has been a shift on both sides, but the overall country has moved more towards the left (so the shift on the right has maybe looked more extreme). I also think the overall media has become less trustworthy/more biased in their reporting so if you follow most western msm (which I believe is primarily left leaning) then even some right-center people can begin to look like strictly right (as I believe Elon is being made out to be). My impression of Elon is that he just doesn't really like the left's 'holier than thou' political correctness (I don't think this meshes well with his corporate personality).
- ggm 4y ago
  I agree he really doesn't like the largely left leaning media. So we're aligned on that. But his fundamental opposition to unions is different. I don't see the US news as pro-union, its not about the press. Its really down to his own core views. I found south parks 'smelling their own farts' thing about Cali. prius drivers pretty funny, but that said, I'd rather there were Californians driving EV than not. Its kind of a dual-edged sword. So he hates the PC side of things but he's selling the drugs which feeds them (so to speak) -a rather strange state of affairs. The burning Coal mob are going to have a cow over the Tesla big rig. I expect more than a few to have truck-nuts, and confederate flags and gun-racks on them. I'll come back to the 'shift both sides' thing. I cant prove it, so its just opinion. But my gut feel is there has been some leftward tilt in the media overall, fox excluded, if we limit ourselves to news media ex-print, and we exclude the moonies investment, and maybe Bezos.. yea. Its there. But its like 10:1 the rightward/leftward shifts. So its polarized, its not a symmetric movement. The middle being assumed (which btw is a stretch because its divisive if there even IS a middle) then the press moved a bit left and the GOP and the Randean IT dotcom billionaires (Theil..) moved a very very long way right. Sure, a biassed comment. But it is what I think. Both D and R do gerrymandered stupid tricks on electoral zones. I don't think they do it equally either. I don't think as many D governors want to replace the electoral college movement with faithless voters they appoint. I could go on, but my underlying point is that there is a core of what the constitution is and means, and there are the things which undermine it, and "both sides" assumes equally both sides: I just don't think its true. "defund the police" is a very stupid rallying cry. Sure. its a reaction to "blue flag" rightward behaviour in the cops but its alienating the middle ground which leftists need to secure as voters to win. Likewise the independent portland thing. It was fun. Its not helpful to securing national votes to run the country. Actions have consequences and if you believe in burn it down or destroy the joint, left-right is both burning and destroyed at that point. So a lot of comment here assumes maintenance of some perceived status quo politically around voting and state/federal boundaries and the role of taxation. Historically the D were dirty as. Tammany hall, the carpetbaggers, people forget that was often the D side of things. the R side is not the party of Lincoln right now.