• @Allonzee@lemmy.world
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    124 months ago

    It isn’t a joke, sadly.

    Elon is about to be POTUS, but hey you’ll be there too Donnie. Every President needs a first lad.

  • Queen HawlSera
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    4 months ago

    Joke? What joke? President Musk is proof that the American Dream is well and alive if a South African who isn’t even legally a US American Citizen can buy himself a country as long as he works hard spending the money earned from his father’s child-slave powered emerald mine… Well there’s hope for the rest of us*

    • = Provided we become sociopaths with large resources
    • Encrypt-Keeper
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      24 months ago

      I agree with your sentiment but to my knowledge Musk is a naturalized US citizen

      • Queen HawlSera
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        94 months ago

        He got his visa under false pretenses and stayed after it was no longer valid, people have been deported for less

    • @boonhet@lemm.ee
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      264 months ago

      as long as he works hard spending the money earned from his father’s child-slave powered emerald mine…

      I hate this misconception. Barely any of it is emerald money. His wealth is all based off defrauding his customers, investors and the US government, lying about everything, and doing tons of illegal stuff like pump n dumps.

        • @boonhet@lemm.ee
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          14 months ago

          No you don’t, you can always borrow money, or dupe investors. The WeWork dude had his girlfriend (now wife) pay for their dates because he was so broke. Fast, confident talking is more important than money. If you’ve already got money, you don’t need to work to get more money.

          • Lightor
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            24 months ago

            Money opens doors. You can be the best speaker in the world but without money you’re a nobody that they won’t make time for.

      • Queen HawlSera
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        4 months ago

        Yes, but without the Emerald Mines he wouldn’t have enough money to be in a position where he could tell lies on that scale. Stealing is a lot easier when you already have a ton of cash.

        No one’s going to listen to a crazed drunken hobo when he tries to sell you a timeshare, but if a guy tripping balls on cocaine wearing a nice suit with a proper haircut promises you the literal god damn moon… Well that’s a different story now isn’t it?

        It’s not the lie itself, it’s the image you have while telling the lie.

        If you see a man’s face and name on a billboard, then see that same man telling you he can spin hay into gold, you believe him. Because how could he have that fancy billboard if he couldn’t?

        Also Pump and dumps aren’t illegal anymore

        • @boonhet@lemm.ee
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          44 months ago

          You don’t need to be a millionaire to have a nice suit, proper haircut, and cocaine. And yes, those things combined with a load of confidence and the ability to spin bullshit, will sell almost anything to a lot of people.

          • @funkless_eck@sh.itjust.works
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            134 months ago

            but in Musks specific case, it was family money that allowed him to tool around America with no job and getting into boardrooms with C level big bank owners as a teenager. If I had put on a suit and done the same thing I’d be politely asked if I had an appointment and then asked to leave.

  • @formergijoe@lemmy.world
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    724 months ago

    What joke? He bought the presidency, and Thiel bought Vance for the vice presidency. It’s the Musk/Theil ticket featuring the old guy who signs bills, and the guy who will replace old guy when old guy does.

  • @mm_maybe@sh.itjust.works
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    -34 months ago

    The problem with this is that Trump acting on his own, or in pure MAGA mode, is even worse than him acting under Musk’s influence. I mean I absolutely hate Musk and the bad name he’s given EV’s, but his influence on Trump is literally my only glimmer of hope that the American vehicle fleet will electrify enough–and quickly enough–to stave off the very worst version of climate catastrophe. Sadly Musk either doesn’t seem to give a shit about his own company, or is too busy making the cynical play that in a subsidy-free market Tesla wins due to sheer scale, as long as tariffs keep out cheap import EVs… it wouldn’t be the first time he had screwed the EV market at large in order to be the top dog in a smaller luxury niche.

    But again, with immigration, Musk and Vivek are the only dissenting voices in a sea of xenophobia, even though, again, I hate the cynical anti-labor motivations behind their advocacy for H1B visas. Still, the alternative is Stephen Miller and full-on white supremacy with no exceptions for smart hard-working brown people.

    It absolutely sucks that our glimmer of hope is that the billionaires who used to sound more liberal will feel some weird compulsion to act consistent with their past statements, and it’s a very slim chance that this will happen anyways. But given the state of affairs, it’s what we’ve got.

    • @orcrist@lemm.ee
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      24 months ago

      Have you been smoking, and can you share it with the rest of us?

      Quite obviously, the Republicans have a coalition and the more fighting that happens within the coalition means the less legislation they can pass. That doesn’t mean life will get better, but it might mean that life gets worse more slowly.

      Also, I’m confused. Which of the people you mentioned do you think are not racist or xenophobic? The people who want to get rid of all immigration because foreigners are evil criminals? The people who want to keep immigration because it’s a way for them to abuse their foreign laborers, who thinks that the Americans are too lazy or too stupid? It sounds like you think the former group is so bad that we should respect the latter group, and I really need whatever you’re smoking.

        • @Alenalda@lemmy.world
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          34 months ago

          While not the biggest contribute to climate change and pollution it’s still important for an individual to take as little from the environment and respect it leaving it cleaner then you found it. Turning out the lights and not using plastic straws is like an environmental shopping cart test.

          • @frayedpickles@lemmy.cafe
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            04 months ago

            You had me until you compared it to a job someone is paid to do. Nobody is paid to turn off my lights or spit liquid into my mouth.

            • @Alenalda@lemmy.world
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              24 months ago

              I think you replied to the wrong comment, if you need some kind of payment to do the right thing for your environment idk what to tell you.

              • @frayedpickles@lemmy.cafe
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                4 months ago

                You compared it to shopping cart collection, and I am from the United States, where people are paid at most grocery and big box stores to do that. Nobody is paid to spit liquid into my mouth, which makes shopping cart collection different from a straw.

          • @the_crotch@sh.itjust.works
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            24 months ago

            Of course. It doesn’t hurt anything and makes good financial sense too. I’m just sick of being told it’s the way to stop.climate change by entities that produce exponentially more carbon emissions than I do.

      • @locahosr443@lemmy.world
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        34 months ago

        Yeah reads like someone is sitting next to him and giving an example of how you’re supposed to run a sock puppet account.

    • @BradleyUffner@lemmy.world
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      54 months ago

      If you think having electric vehicles or not during Trump’s 4 years is what saving our climate depends on, you need to educate yourself, because that’s utterly ridiculous.

    • @jj4211@lemmy.world
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      14 months ago

      it wouldn’t be the first time he had screwed the EV market at large in order to be the top dog in a smaller luxury niche

      Ultimately, you talked yourself out of your first point, and this is apt, at best Tesla might get a few federal vehicle purchases to go electric rather than ICE, but a trivial volume. Musk doesn’t seem to be pushing anything that would broadly elevate the EV industry, and the likely problems for EVs he seems to think would net benefit Tesla anyway

      But again, with immigration, Musk and Vivek are the only dissenting voices in a sea of xenophobia,

      Hardly counts, the recipients of H1B aren’t the ones that were ever likely to get the inhuman treatment that Stephen Miller would see dished out. They want an indentured servant class, and H1B is closest to that.

  • @ThaMunsta@sh.itjust.works
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    534 months ago

    With Facebook not fact-checking I really see this as an opportunity to galvanize the President Musk fact on as many posts as possible. Complaining about it only makes first lady Trump sound like a woke fake news puppet.

      • @Knoxvomica@lemmy.ca
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        44 months ago

        Look at this way, you’re taking back the insults that they use and throwing back against them in a way that’s effective because they are who they are. My interpretation are these insults are not actually meant to be an insult to women, just Trump.

      • @Mongostein@lemmy.ca
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        4 months ago

        It’s not meant to insult women. It’s meant to insult Trump.

        We know he’s a misogynist and we’re not going to change his mind. Look at it as a personally crafted insult I guess.

        But first puppet is pretty good too.

      • Krzd
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        24 months ago

        I prefer ‘second servant trump’