Tina Smith (D-MN) is leaving the senate at the end of her term, so has nothing to lose. Referencing Musk’s requiring employees to justify their exisence, Sen. Smith, who is normally outspoken has nothing to lose. To quote what she said on X:
“This is the ultimate dick boss move from Musk - except he isn’t even the boss, he’s just a dick”
She followed this up with:
“I bet a lot of people have had an experience like this with a bad boss - there’s an email in your inbox on Saturday night saying, ‘Prove to me your worthiness by Monday or else.’ I’m on the side of the workers, not the billionaire asshole bosses.”
He pulled this sort of thing repeatedly at SpaceX until Gwynne Shotwell told him to knock it off because he was driving away good, experienced performers. His antics at Tesla were even worse, allegedly telling employees that they were useless and could be replaced by his dancing robots at any time.
Despite his fawning sycophants and adoring fans, the evidence is pretty clear that Elon doesn’t know how to manage people, run a business with any degree of efficiency (just ask actual founders Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning who clashed with him holding up the development of the Tesla Roadster to integrate electric door handles and multiple other features that were not needed and added cost, complexity, and schedule to getting the vehicle to market), and his incoherent and often error-filled parroting of technical details about propulsion, automotive, solar, and neuroscience technologies clearly demonstrates that he isn’t a ‘tech genius’, either. Musk’s singular talent is being full of hype-enhanced bullshit that he sells to investors and excites fanboys while being an absolute clueless asshole to actually work for.
People with nothing to lose don’t impress me much by speaking out. In fact it seems to me kind of a dick move. “Look at me, I’m speaking truth to power, as I prepare to walk into the sunset with my government pension intact. Are you paying attention, liberal news channels? Any openings coming up?”
I guess that seems harsh. I mean, it’s better than nothing. It doesn’t make me want to stand up and cheer though.
Well, there’s certainly that sort of element to it. It’s like McConnell suddenly growing a spine and voting against some Trump appointees. Nobody was fooled by that and knew he would be announcing retirement soon. After 40 years of being a spineless asshole, he suddenly grows some morals. However, it’s one thing to vote against a nominee and another to call Trump’s buddy a dick and an asshole.
I feel what you’re saying. It’s not heroic to “stand up” to the bully as you’re walking out the door. It’s virtue signaling, with a healthy dose of self interest.
But we’re past the point where we can afford to be picky about how our allies resist fascists. I feel like we need to cheer every flutter of resistance, in order to make it easier for others to resist as well. Stony silence from allies when someone with nothing at stake sticks their head up a little is simply showing those with something at stake that there’s nothing to gain from the risk.
Nothing to gain from the risk? I would hope that folks would speak up for the principle of the thing, not for the praise they might get.
One might also say that an over-enthusiastic response undercuts the value of more risky protests.
On reading my post again, I should acknowledge that I have no idea what that senator’s motives or thought processes were. My suggestion was just one possible interpretation.
Welll, really in these days just 'cause you won’t be in office doesn’t necessarily mean there’s no risk. trump and musk have very fragile egos and a lot of power to seek petty vengeance.
Yes, that is the hope. But how many politicians and others with something to lose are actually speaking up right now? It’s not none, but doesn’t feel like a lot to me.
Trump (and on behalf of Musk) is among the most vengeful human beings on the planet, perhaps only outdone by his hero, Putin. It’s risky for anyone to speak out under any circumstances. I commend and applaud all who do so.
Despot 101: Intimidate, and if that doesn’t work, retaliate.
This is not an unreasonable opinion, but we need every voice we can get right now, and we certainly do need people modeling the behavior that it’s at least possible to call Musk a dipshit if you feel like it.
Only because America is still a more open society than Russia, though Trump is doing his best to change that. The fact that he hasn’t directly killed anyone yet is not a measure of any virtue – Trump lacks even the vaguest concept of morality, and is surrounded by criminal sycophants.
Not likely. He is nearly 74 years old, financially well off, and happy with his life now. Why would he want to get back into the DC snakepit?
Especially when we have many up-and-coming qualified young possibilities here in Minnesota.
I strongly disagree with this sentiment, at least based on my understanding of how “virtue signaling” is generally used, i.e. “the act or practice of conspicuously displaying one’s awareness of and attentiveness to political issues, matters of social and racial justice, etc., especially instead of taking effective action” (from Merriam Webster).