# Musk predicts civil war in the UK? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Tags:** elon-musk\ **Created:** [August 7, 2024, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musk-predicts-civil-war-in-the-uk/1005381 "2024-08-07T17:14:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2024, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musk-predicts-civil-war-in-the-uk/1005381/21 "2024-08-07T19:48:25Z")
If we are, its going to be a very short one. For all that the current unrest is horrible, the people perpetrating it are not numerous or particularly organised or competent or even intelligent. If they are one side in a war,its the losing one. ---
**Author:** ![Thing.Fish](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thing.fish/32/9168_2.png) [@Thing.Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thing.Fish)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2024, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musk-predicts-civil-war-in-the-uk/1005381/22 "2024-08-07T20:04:36Z")
The WSJ article Miller and Stranger linked alleges three specific incidents between 2019 and 2021 when he allegedly used non-addictive psychedelic drugs. Big whoop. There are many good reasons to call him a terrible person, but this isn’t one. The board members expressing concern about his erratic behavior appear to just be _assuming_ it’s due to substance use; perhaps Musk is correct when he claims to have self-diagnosed bipolar disorder. Mania and substance intoxication can appear very similar, and I assume none of the board members who expressed concern are mental health professionals. Or he could just be a raging narcissistic asshole, who knows? Overall, I’m in agreement with the actual drug policy expert quoted in the last sentence of the article: > “Don’t make up excuses for people behaving badly, and please don’t further stigmatize drugs and the majority of non-terrible people who use them,” Marino said. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2024, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musk-predicts-civil-war-in-the-uk/1005381/23 "2024-08-07T20:12:08Z")
> [@Al128](#): > > - Twitter “thrives” on such situations - so there is vested interest in stirring the pot That pretty much says it. The more he fans whatever flames exist, the greater the Twitter activity he hopes to generate, with the enhanced audience providing a greater appeal to whatever advertisers he hasn’t already alienated through insults and threats (Twitter just announced another lawsuit in which an advertisers’ group is targeted). He also supports the aims of the far right wing in the U.K. and U.S., though it’s less obvious why he thinks encouraging the looting of sausage rolls and sneakers will achieve those aims. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2024, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musk-predicts-civil-war-in-the-uk/1005381/24 "2024-08-07T20:14:50Z")
As Dirty Harry didn’t quite say: > Nuthin’ wrong with lootin’ … As long as the right (i.e. wrong) people get blamed for it. So the Far Rightists trash a high street then demand an increased police presence to put down those bad brown people who wrecked our fair town. The playbook is as predictable as it is short. ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2024, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musk-predicts-civil-war-in-the-uk/1005381/25 "2024-08-07T20:16:46Z")
I’m guessing he thinks he will make more money from Twitter and advertising with political and social division. ---
**Author:** ![Chisquirrel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6bbea6/32.png) [@Chisquirrel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chisquirrel)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2024, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musk-predicts-civil-war-in-the-uk/1005381/26 "2024-08-07T20:42:00Z")
The guy that’s suing advertisers that have left Twitter because of the increased sowing of political and social division thinks increasing division will bring in more advertisers? ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2024, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musk-predicts-civil-war-in-the-uk/1005381/27 "2024-08-07T20:52:37Z")
> [@Thing.Fish](#): > > The board members expressing concern about his erratic behavior appear to just be _assuming_ it’s due to substance use; perhaps Musk is correct when he claims to have self-diagnosed bipolar disorder. Mania and substance intoxication can appear very similar, and I assume none of the board members who expressed concern are mental health professionals. Or he could just be a raging narcissistic asshole, who knows? Whether Musk’s erratic behavior is due to his (self-admitted and even proudly advertised) drug use, or due to his purported “self-diagnosed bipolar disorder” (and whatever credence you give to amateur psychological self-assessment) and the drug use is just self-medicating behavior, the executives, board members, and major investors in the companies that he ‘leads’ have legitimate reason to be concerned about his public behavior and associated drug use. “Junkie” is admittedly pejorative term to use to describe excessive or addictive use of recreational drugs with associated capricious behavior, but then given how much Musk slings unwarranted insults at others with wild abandon, I don’t have much sympathy for the gormless fuckstick. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2024, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musk-predicts-civil-war-in-the-uk/1005381/28 "2024-08-07T20:59:21Z")
Musk is just a Putin mouthpiece. Vlad tells the NRA GOP meatBots that the sky is falling, then they pass it on to Elon, who Chicken Littles all over social media stoking the [social panic.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_panic) Countries who have just completed a _ **landslide** _ election do not fall into civil war (unless the CIA dislikes the result.) ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2024, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musk-predicts-civil-war-in-the-uk/1005381/29 "2024-08-07T21:07:30Z")
> [@TruCelt](#): > > Countries who have just completed a _ **landslide** _ election do not fall into civil war (unless the CIA dislikes the result.) You’re behind the times. Elected governments these days are overthrown on the say-so of the WEF, Bill Gates and the TVA.\* \*They’ve flown under the radar for so long, nobody ever suspects the Tennessee Valley Authority. ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2024, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musk-predicts-civil-war-in-the-uk/1005381/30 "2024-08-07T21:09:55Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > \*They’ve flown under the radar for so long, nobody ever suspects the Tennessee Valley Authority. ROFL!!! ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2024, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musk-predicts-civil-war-in-the-uk/1005381/31 "2024-08-07T21:19:50Z")
The way things are here in the UK, X could quite possibly be banned. ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2024, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musk-predicts-civil-war-in-the-uk/1005381/32 "2024-08-07T21:32:24Z")
> [@TruCelt](#): > > Musk is just a Putin mouthpiece. > [@TruCelt](#): > > Countries who have just completed a _ **landslide** _ election do not fall into civil war (unless the CIA dislikes the result.) Ironically enough, the idea that the CIA is behind every revolution is precisely what Putin believes; he’s exceedingly paranoid about so-called “color revolutions” and the possibility that such a CIA backed coup could topple him. > **[Russia and the “Color Revolution”](https://www.csis.org/analysis/russia-and-color-revolution)** > > The British strategist, Liddell Hart, stressed the need to understand rival views of grand strategy and military developments, or "the other side of the hill.” A range of Russian and Belorussian military and civil experts presented a very different... ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2024, 12:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musk-predicts-civil-war-in-the-uk/1005381/33 "2024-08-08T12:11:28Z")
Deleted redundant ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2024, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musk-predicts-civil-war-in-the-uk/1005381/34 "2024-08-08T13:13:54Z")
Just to note that despite the best (worst) efforts of Musk and the UK far-right, the small groups of right-wing thugs are vastly outnumbered by the enormous crowds of counterprotesters who have turned out. If there is to be a “civil war”, it will indeed be a very short one. And not in the way Musk would apparently prefer. > **[Thousands of anti-racism protesters take to streets across England to counter...](https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/article/2024/aug/07/thousands-of-anti-racism-protesters-take-to-streets-to-counter-far-right-rallies)** > > Demonstrators form human shields in towns and cities, after 6,000 police drafted in to tackle disorder ---
**Author:** ![xtenkfarpl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/c2a13f/32.png) [@xtenkfarpl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xtenkfarpl)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2024, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musk-predicts-civil-war-in-the-uk/1005381/35 "2024-08-08T14:26:34Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > For all that the current unrest is horrible, the people perpetrating it are not numerous or particularly organised or competent or even intelligent. Agreed. There does not seem to be the kind of opposed views with widespread popular support on each side that exists, as far as I can see, in the US. Also there is no real polarising figure like Trump. Nigel Farage, perhaps, but he is fairly marginal, I think. As for Musk, he seems to have developed the syndrome (I’m sure there’s an official name for it in psychology?) where a person who has had considerable success in one field starts to think they’re the sharpest tool in the box and thus qualified to make authoritative statements about completely unrelated subjects. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2024, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musk-predicts-civil-war-in-the-uk/1005381/36 "2024-08-08T14:30:07Z")
> [@xtenkfarpl](#): > > As for Musk, he seems to have developed the syndrome (I’m sure there’s an official name for it in psychology?) where a person who has had considerable success in one field starts to think they’re the sharpest tool in the box and thus qualified to make authoritative statements about completely unrelated subjects. Dunning-Kruger, I think, or something related. In Musk’s case, he’s doing it wholesale. ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Antibob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2024, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musk-predicts-civil-war-in-the-uk/1005381/37 "2024-08-08T14:31:40Z")
Yeah, basically Dunning-Kruger. Plus an unhealthy dose of narcissism. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2024, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musk-predicts-civil-war-in-the-uk/1005381/38 "2024-08-08T14:32:22Z")
Outside of the field of Psychology (or maybe also there), I believe the term is ‘high on the smell of one’s own farts’ ---
**Author:** ![xtenkfarpl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/c2a13f/32.png) [@xtenkfarpl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xtenkfarpl)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2024, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musk-predicts-civil-war-in-the-uk/1005381/39 "2024-08-08T14:36:45Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > Dunning-Kruger, I think, or something related. I don’t think it’s quite Dunning-Kruger? If I recall correctly, that is a negative correlation between actual ability and a person’s opinion of their ability? In Musk’s case, you have to give him credit for SpaceX. But that doesn’t make him a sociology expert… I’m pretty sure there’s a different syndrome name; it’s a common enough phenomenon. Eminent professors of physics spouting nonsense about economics, that sort of thing? ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Antibob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2024, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musk-predicts-civil-war-in-the-uk/1005381/40 "2024-08-08T14:41:39Z")
Yeah, that’s Dunning-Kruger. The negative correlation only exists once you get past a certain level of expertise. There’s also a level where people who might have a little bit of knowledge are overconfident in their ability in a field. So you have this range of people who might test in the 85th percentile but would estimate themselves at the 95th percentile but also people in the 99th percentile who’d put themselves at 90th. Musk is more the former than the latter in nearly every field of human endeavor. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musk-predicts-civil-war-in-the-uk/1005381.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musk-predicts-civil-war-in-the-uk/1005381.md?page=3)