# Senator Tina Smith calls Musk "a dick" **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 24, 2025, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/senator-tina-smith-calls-musk-a-dick/1014739 "2025-02-24T17:41:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **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:** [February 25, 2025, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/senator-tina-smith-calls-musk-a-dick/1014739/21 "2025-02-25T16:48:34Z")
It is harsh. If you were in that situation and you weren’t leaving (so you did have everything to lose), how would you feel about being the one to speak out? Would you be prepared to sacrifice yourself? ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2025, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/senator-tina-smith-calls-musk-a-dick/1014739/22 "2025-02-25T19:55:31Z")
But that’s the critical difference, isn’t it? If this senator, or anyone else speaking out, had some skin in the game, I would be jumping on the praise bandwagon with both feet. If I were a US senator, I like to think that yes, I would speak out, loud and often, and I wouldn’t consider it a sacrifice, I would consider it my job. But that’s easy for me to say. That’s why I’m only casting this as my reaction, not as some universal truth. ---
**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:** [February 25, 2025, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/senator-tina-smith-calls-musk-a-dick/1014739/23 "2025-02-25T20:00:47Z")
> [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > I wouldn’t consider it a sacrifice You might, if there was a knock on the door in the middle of the night, is what I meant. I don’t think we’re very far off from inconvenient people disappearing or meeting with implausible accidents. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2025, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/senator-tina-smith-calls-musk-a-dick/1014739/24 "2025-02-25T20:01:04Z")
> [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > But that’s the critical difference, isn’t it? If this senator, or anyone else speaking out, had some skin in the game, I would be jumping on the praise bandwagon with both feet. Yup. But these ass clowns have about the best benefit package of anybody anywhere, and access to insider stock information, and will protect that at all costs. ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2025, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/senator-tina-smith-calls-musk-a-dick/1014739/25 "2025-02-25T20:11:52Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > You might, if there was a knock on the door in the middle of the night, is what I meant. Are you saying that this senator faces the real possibility of something like this happening, with no repercussions to the perpetrators and sponsors of the act? So that she does have skin in the game? If I thought that was true, I would be more enthusiastic in my praise. The whole point of my original post in this thread was the supposition that she faces no consequences. You’re really chasing the goalposts down the field. ---
**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:** [February 25, 2025, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/senator-tina-smith-calls-musk-a-dick/1014739/26 "2025-02-25T20:22:50Z")
> [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > Are you saying that this senator faces the real possibility of something like this happening, with no repercussions to the perpetrators and sponsors of the act? I have already answered this question in the post you replied to. I don’t think we are very far off from inconvenient people being disposed of. I’m not joking. And I think it does make a difference whether she would be staying in post (and therefore the statement insulting Musk might have been the first of many and might present an ongoing nuisance), or leaving post (in which case it might be easier to brush off). I don’t think she has _nothing at all to lose_ in either case, but the risks are different. > [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > You’re really chasing the goalposts down the field. I don’t think so, but OK. ---
**Author:** ![JoePockets](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8dc957/32.png) [@JoePockets](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoePockets)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2025, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/senator-tina-smith-calls-musk-a-dick/1014739/27 "2025-02-25T20:44:17Z")
Sadly in Washington it’s career and party over country! One course word is a career ending moment! When told jump “ How high &:How far “ ---
**Author:** ![DavidNRockies](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidnrockies/32/6279_2.png) [@DavidNRockies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidNRockies)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2025, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/senator-tina-smith-calls-musk-a-dick/1014739/28 "2025-02-25T22:44:13Z")
Many of us have an acute awareness that – among the ranks of Trump’s supporters – there are any number of David DePapes (the guy who attacked Nancy Pelosi’s husband), armed with any number of weapons, ready to do totally gratuitous mayhem at a moment’s notice. All they need are marching orders from a totally unhinged demagogue that they were stupid enough to follow in the first place. _Stochastic terrorism: the public demonization of a person or group resulting in the incitement of a violent act, which is statistically probable but whose specifics cannot be predicted._ **TL;DR** : Of all the things that I simply wouldn’t bet _against_ these days, violence against a brash detractor is high among them. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2025, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/senator-tina-smith-calls-musk-a-dick/1014739/29 "2025-02-25T22:52:34Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > 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.” > > [Article here](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/minnesota-senator-calls-elon-musk-a-dick_n_67bb513ce4b081ef58f9dc28). > > More people should be willing to speak truth to power. Especially the ones _with_ something to lose. ---
**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:** [February 26, 2025, 11:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/senator-tina-smith-calls-musk-a-dick/1014739/30 "2025-02-26T11:27:11Z")
Yep. Anyone still alive is someone with ‘something to lose’. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2025, 11:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/senator-tina-smith-calls-musk-a-dick/1014739/31 "2025-02-26T11:51:53Z")
I haven’t forgotten Giacomo Matteotti. > **[Giacomo Matteotti](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giacomo_Matteotti)** > > Giacomo Matteotti (.mw-parser-output .IPA-label-small{font-size:85%}.mw-parser-output .references .IPA-label-small,.mw-parser-output .infobox .IPA-label-small,.mw-parser-output .navbox .IPA-label-small{font-size:100%}Italian pronunciation: \[ˈdʒaːkomo matteˈɔtti\]; 22 May 1885 – 10 June 1924) was an Italian socialist politician and secretary of the Unitary Socialist Party (PSU). He was elected deputy of the Chamber of Deputies three times, in 1919, 1921 and in 1924. On 30 May 1924, he openly spo... ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2025, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/senator-tina-smith-calls-musk-a-dick/1014739/32 "2025-02-26T15:35:03Z")
The point of your post escapes me. Did I say this had never happened, nor could ever happen here? I did not. ---
**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:** [February 27, 2025, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/senator-tina-smith-calls-musk-a-dick/1014739/33 "2025-02-27T13:22:26Z")
I think we’re just disagreeing on the scope of ‘nothing to lose’. If you’re leaving your job, you no longer stand to be fired from that job, but unless you are a suicidal hermit, you have something to lose. ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2025, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/senator-tina-smith-calls-musk-a-dick/1014739/34 "2025-02-27T18:16:18Z")
I think you also need to consider the likelihood of the various outcomes to assess the actual risk involved. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2025, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/senator-tina-smith-calls-musk-a-dick/1014739/35 "2025-02-27T18:32:07Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > It’s like McConnell suddenly growing a spine and voting against some Trump appointees. McConnell nixed most of Trump’s appointees, during his first term, before Trump every even announced them. The few that Trump went ahead with, McConnell sat on and never moved forward with to vote on. Congress performs most of its “no” votes in private, behind the scenes, in a person to person conversation. Once things have come to the floor, who votes yes and no is purely performance art as part of the behind the scenes bargaining and the story that the congressmen want to tell their electorate (true or not). ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2025, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/senator-tina-smith-calls-musk-a-dick/1014739/36 "2025-02-27T19:58:09Z")
So far, everything has been barreling full tilt in the direction of Matteotti, and unless something causes it to swerve course, it’s only a matter of time before it gets there. ---
**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:** [February 27, 2025, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/senator-tina-smith-calls-musk-a-dick/1014739/37 "2025-02-27T20:40:32Z")
Well, I think that’s the point - not that I am failing to weigh the likelihood (I do know how risk assessment works), but that my estimate of likelihood is apparently different from yours. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/senator-tina-smith-calls-musk-a-dick/1014739.md?page=1)