Musk may be aware that oligarchs don’t have immunity from the whims of dictators. But perhaps he really is arrogant enough to believe that he can control the dictator. (Granted, Trump is famously easy to manipulate.)
Musk may also believe that if a National Crisis of gigantic-enough proportions is manufactured, he will be able to be declared Dictator for Life himself. After Donald is conveniently murdered by the alleged perpetrators of the National Crisis, of course.
Musk is a guy who clearly never (or seldom) encounters anyone who disagrees with him to his face. He may genuinely think that Americans adore him and will gladly see the Constitutional rule about being native-born overturned, just to secure his indispensable services as Man-in-Charge.
Some who know him, know whether this is what he’s thinking. Perhaps in time they will reveal it.
But something accounts for that jumping-up-and-down at Trump’s rally—something beyond the obvious “Musk is weird.” I suspect Musk may actually believe that he’s about to become the most powerful man in the world, or at least become that within a few months, after engineering Trump’s demise and the attendant Crisis that will cause all to demand ‘we need Musk!!!1!!!’
That’s central to the plot of The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende. A conservative senator supports a fascist coup. Only for the fascists to destroy his life, in brief. “When will they ever learn?”
In the late 20s Germany the ruling class thought Hitler and his cronies would be handy for ridding the country of socialists and Communists and then they’d just throw them in prison again, like they had in 1923. Some years later the Communists were predicting, “After the Nazis, us.” Both sides were disappointed.
Those who do not know history are doomed to repeat it.
Absolutely my thoughts. The only reason he would be willing to accept a job working for Trump is if he thought he could wind up running the place. Recall that he started his takeover of Twitter by lobbying for a spot on the board of directors.
Both - isn’t it a common trick, to persuade the mark that they’re so clever (not difficult with Musk) that they’re the inside man? That is, until they find their wallet’s gone.
Exactly right, @PatrickLondon . I think that Musk is being played for the mark here: he thinks he’s an inside man, or getting inside information, which is how any big con game works. See The Sting—Musk is the Doyle Lonnegan to Trump’s Henry Gondorff.
If Musk thinks he will be rewarded by Trump, if Trump is elected; then I think he will find that all Trump offered was an empty promise, a place on stage at Trump pre-election rallies, and a pot to put his money in.
The problems from the viewpoint of any would-be puppetmaster are first, he’s too easy to manipulate; even if you convince him to do something, the next guy to talk to him might convince him to do the opposite. Second, he’s also known for returning to form, so no matter what you convince him of he’ll likely go back to his previous behavior pretty quick (you see this a lot in his public appearances, where he noticeably bounces back and forth between how he’s been coached to act and his default behavior). And third, he’s stupid; whatever you convince him to do, he’ll likely do badly.
So I was speaking with someone I used to be close with, and we were catching up. Just knowing this guy, I’m sure he’s a Trump supporter. Following his second divorce, he’s taken to, um, more transactional relationships with women.
He was explaining this as being necessary, because “they” are genetically engineering men to be losers and women are taking over. He started explaining how, as an example, if women only reproduced with tall men, men would get taller. So by only seeking beta males as mates, women are making all men betas. The call ended poorly, as I just kinda lost my mind.
By the way, this guy has an MBA from a top 10 B-School.
I was down in DC visiting a friend on Sunday, and he has a mix of conservative and liberal friends, and he said one of the more moderate ones was unsure about Kamala because “women get emotional and can’t lead”.
Some of these people, I swear, they just want the 1950s back.
My boss brought up politics yesterday at work. He really enjoys our conversations and I mostly do too, but the things he said yesterday were just crazy.
He doesn’t believe that trump has ever lied about anything and he believes that President Biden lies all the time.
He told me that Kamala never answers a question and all you get from her is word salad as opposed to trump who is always clear with his answers to all questions asked. I think my eyes almost googled out of my head when he said that to me.
He refused to believe that trump said “They’re eating the cats and dogs” and when I showed him the clip on his computer, which he told me to do, he then said trump was probably just joking, while in the next breath telling me that he believe the Haitians probably are eating the cats and dogs because that’s their culture.
My boss is a Christian so I tried shifting to the nasty things that trump says and that the Bible says to feed the hungry and etc. etc. Nothing will break his devotion to trump, which he denies he feels.
The only time he seemed to cringe a little is when I asked him if he would allow his son to call people names like trump does.
Musk wants trump to put his seal of approval on electric cars, which trump has been willing to do. But the hatred of EVs seems baked in to the MAGA mindset, for some weird reason.
Yes, Elon is not interested in joining the Trump Cult. He might pretend that he’s part of it as a tactic, but he doesn’t really want to bask in the glow of Trump’s insanity. (He’s got his own!)
Well, he’s somewhat accurate about sexual selection. Whatever genes contribute to the traits women find desirable to mate with will lead the next generation to express those traits more.
Where he’s on shakey ground is assuming women are choosing to mate with beta males, and what traits are those beta traits that women are seeking that are making males more beta, and then justify how those traits are undesirable from the man’s predictive.
There’s also the assumption all women who wish to reproduce are seeking those traits, and that many women aren’t seeking to reproduce, just emulate the acts that contribute to that result. And that those non-reproducers want the same traits as reproducers.
What it sounds like he’s saying is, “I’m an asshole, and women don’t like dating/ having sex with assholes, so I’m forced to pay for it.” With a side of, “Women not dating assholes is bad for the species.”
I submit that the words may not be the same, but the meaning is the same, just with the value judgement inverted.
Let’s stick with examples of what crazy Trump supporters are saying and doing, and not debate the relative merits or deficiencies of their assertions in this thread. You can always spin off a new thread to discuss it further if you wish.
Beyond that I also think that Musk is a true believer in certain parts of the MAGA misinformation.
While I don’t think that he believes that Trump really won the election, or that the Harris presidency will be the end of Democracy, he probably does believe that the immigrant invasion in polluting our blood, that the left is illegally censoring the right, that the woke mind virus is the greatest threat to humanity, and that only by putting billionaire technocrats like him in charge can it be saved.
