Elon Musk Buys Twitter

[Corvus]

The actual Atlantic article is very good read, but, yeah, at no point does it say Trump is Hitler. Just that he praised Hitler for doing some good things, wants loyalty like Hitler had and so on.

[Edge-]

The actual Atlantic article is very good read, but, yeah, at no point does it say Trump is Hitler. Just that he praised Hitler for doing some good things, wants loyalty like Hitler had and so on.

Of course it doesn't matter that it doesn't say that. Leon, either a monumental idiot or an intentional liar, reposted obvious lies intentionally. It's always been to spread the lie as quickly as possible, intentionally, in bad faith. That's how we ended up with so many Republicans talking about furries in schools and thinking that the litter classes had was for the furries and not for things like active shooting situations where you've got blood/shit/piss/puke/other bodily fluids around a room that you need to remain in and need something to be able to like, soak some of that shit up and do something about the odor.

You could even see it here starting with Donald's first run - many of the conservatives at the time became far more comfortable with not just the usual bullshit but just baldface, outright, fact-checkable lies that they'd frequently double down on, knowing full well they'd be called on it. The strategy hasn't changed because, depressingly, it still fucking works.

[PosPosPos]

The actual Atlantic article is very good read, but, yeah, at no point does it say Trump is Hitler. Just that he praised Hitler for doing some good things, wants loyalty like Hitler had and so on.

And even if they did, what would be wrong or non-factual with that statement?

[Edge-]

What's been very funny recently is seeing all the bad-faith conservatives online suddenly clutch pearls over "jumping around like a dipshit" because "ACtuaLEe LeoN HAs aUtiSM yOU are sO INTOleRAnT!" which is funny for two reasons -

1. Almost every one of them is deep in shit-talking conservative circles and, if you dig, has a long history of ableist bullshit making their sudden deep concern about abelism as apparently dishonest as conservatives generally are.

2. You can be on the spectrum and still be a dipshit.

It's not surprising, but it's continually amazing to me how dishonesty appears to continually frame the foundation of so many, seemingly the majority, of modern conservatism and the interactions with conservatives online. Not just differences of opinion, but outright, intentional dishonesty and bad-faith participation.

[s_bushido]

2. You can be on the spectrum and still be a dipshit.

I have to assume plenty of people actually try harder to not be dipshits when they know they're either on the spectrum, or at least that they have those tendencies.

[Edge-]

https://sfstandard.com/2024/10/24/te...lo-alto-creek/

A stream of bright green chemicals leaked from Tesla’s Palo Alto campus and flowed into a storm drain and creek, prompting a hazardous cleanup response.

The fluorescent fluid was seen flowing along a road near Tesla’s headquarters and dumping into a storm drain that connects to the Matadero Creek on Oct. 17, Palo Alto officials said in a statement.

The substance was identified as sodium hydroxide, an additive used in cooling systems; the liquid does not pose a risk to life or health, officials said in a statement on Thursday.

A fire department report said the fluid was used to cool the Tesla artificial intelligence supercomputer.

Tesla doesn’t have a permit to store this type of chemical, officials said, and the electric car company could be fined.

Yeah, this is the guy who people want to run "government efficiency" and cut costs. He'll cut costs by casually and flagrantly ignoring laws and rulkes.

The cleanup continued this week as officials found evidence of the spill in additional spots along the creek, including residential areas on Park Boulevard, Lambert Avenue and Ash Street. The work will extend into next week.

While officials say there’s no immediate health risk, testing is still underway to identify the material, the city manager’s office said.

The spill was first reported by Palo Alto Online and the Palo Alto Daily Post.

A report by the state’s Department of Emergency Services said the spill happened shortly after 4:40 p.m. on Oct. 17 and was caused by “human error.”

Palo Alto resident Mike Hedblom filmed the chemicals oozing down the street and reported the spill to the city, Hedblom’s wife Nancy Crop spoke to The Standard and wondered why Tesla did not immediately report the incident.

“To me, the heart of it is: Why did it take my husband on a walk to report it?” Crop said.

She said parents who had kids playing in the creek that day were freaked out until they realized their children had been upstream from the spill and were unaffected.

“The regulatory agencies, the City of Palo Alto and the fire department are meeting with the business to ensure proper cleanup,” Santa Clara Valley Water District spokesperson Matt Keller told The Standard in an email.

Tesla and the company it hired to clean up the spill, Clean Harbors, did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday.

At least it's not a threat, but they're lucky on that, in addition only likely getting a small fine for having chemicals they're not permitted to store/use.

[Corvus]

I have to assume plenty of people actually try harder to not be dipshits when they know they're either on the spectrum, or at least that they have those tendencies.

From personal experience from over 20 years working in education, the kids on the spectrum, once they are old enough to understand what is going on, are far better behaved than those who aren't.

[Draco-Onis]

https://sfstandard.com/2024/10/24/te...lo-alto-creek/



Yeah, this is the guy who people want to run "government efficiency" and cut costs. He'll cut costs by casually and flagrantly ignoring laws and rulkes.



At least it's not a threat, but they're lucky on that, in addition only likely getting a small fine for having chemicals they're not permitted to store/use.

Tesla released their quarterly report showing higher margins and profits from last year, they are cutting corners big time. It would not surprised me if Tesla factories are practically death traps, no wonder he hates unions so much.

[Edge-]

When misinformation spreads in 2024, it often has Elon Musk’s fingerprints on it.

PolitiFact analyzed more than 450 X posts Musk made from Sept. 30 to Oct. 14, including reposts, quote replies and some standard replies to various X users.

That period spanned disaster response in parts of the Southeast U.S. hit hard by hurricanes Helene and Milton, the Oct. 1 vice presidential debate in New York and former President Donald Trump’s return to Butler, Pennsylvania — where Trump was nearly assassinated three months earlier.

In two years owning the platform formerly called Twitter, Musk has overseen a policy overhaul that dramatically loosened safeguards to prevent misinformation’s spread. Our analysis shows his own posts embody this shift — in the two weeks we analyzed, Musk promoted misleading or inaccurate content most days to a massive audience.

He berated the Federal Emergency Management Agency for its response to Hurricane Helene’s destruction in North Carolina, repeatedly sharing false claims about federal workers blocking aid. He amplified the false narrative that the Biden-Harris administration took money from FEMA’s disaster relief and spent it on immigrants.

Musk — who was born in South Africa in 1971 and became a U.S. citizen in 2002 — continued his long-standing election year pattern of sharing falsehoods about immigrants and the immigration process, including baselessly claiming that immigrants have or will vote in U.S. elections.

He also promoted false claims about voting, including disparaging and mischaracterizing a new California law related to voter IDs.

Emerson Brooking, a senior fellow and director of strategy at the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab, said Musk doesn’t control what people believe, but "does meaningfully control" the content millions of people see each day.

"This agenda-setting is his real power," Brooking said.

Musk’s reach is vast. He has more than 202 million X followers, who regularly view and interact with his posts.

The misinformation-containing posts we analyzed over these two weeks received nearly 679 million views, more than 5.3 million likes and over 1.6 million reposts.

As he spread erroneous claims, Musk promoted his companies and lauded their events and technologies — all while repeatedly encouraging people to vote for Trump.

Musk endorsed Trump after a gunman tried to kill the former president July 13 in Butler, Pennsylvania. Since then, Musk has donated millions of dollars to a pro-Trump political action committee, spoken at a Trump rally and hosted pro-Trump town halls. In September, Trump said that if he is elected, he wants Musk to oversee a commission that would audit the federal government’s finances and performance.

Musk deepened his involvement with the Trump campaign in the 2024 election’s final weeks, sharing claims that aim to hurt Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign and the federal government and help Trump — even if those claims are inaccurate or unsubstantiated, said Mike Rothschild, a journalist, author and conspiracy theory expert.

Musk’s extensive audience and global reputation serve to legitimize the falsehoods he promotes, experts said.

Neither Musk, his lawyer, X, SpaceX or Starlink responded to PolitiFact’s inquiries for this story. Starlink, a satellite communications company, has figured in some of the false narratives about hurricane relief.

https://www.politifact.com/article/2...x=1729731992-1

Leon Musk - Conspiracy Theorist in Chief, Secretary of Misinformation and Disinformation (spreading it, not preventing it), and general awful human being who's so awful even his own children want nothing to fucking do with him. Not that he has any involvement in their lives after donating his DNA, to begin with.

[Paranoid Android]

It's late so just giving you link

https://x.com/rebeccaballhaus/status...tP1Mm249A&s=19

Basically elmo had regular contact with Putin since 2022.

How are we giving this person government contracts?

I'm telling you Dems have to stop playing nice and kissing the ass of every billionaire. Immediately cancel every government dollar as threat to national security.

[ringpriest]

It's late so just giving you link

https://x.com/rebeccaballhaus/status...tP1Mm249A&s=19

Basically elmo had regular contact with Putin since 2022.

How are we giving this person government contracts?

I'm telling you Dems have to stop playing nice and kissing the ass of every billionaire. Immediately cancel every government dollar as threat to national security.

His ownership of SpaceX is unquestionably a national security threat to the United States of America at this point. I've no idea what the lawful means of addressing that is in the US. (According to the United States' Supreme Court, Biden could just have him shot and nationalize the whole company and say he did it under the President's constitutional powers and authority. But in the real world and not delusional Republicanland, that's probably not going to fly.) He's likely already running afoul of some laws or regulations over ownership of companies that get defense contracts, and its just not being enforced. A fair option would be to tell him that either he gives up controlling interest permanently (he can keep a financial interest, if he wants) or the company never gets another cent of federal money. And remind him of current US export control laws.

[Evil Midnight Bomber]

Does Elom have insider knowledge that ad spending on X, is worthless?

Well, even before Elon purchased, and subsequently cratered Twitter, Facebook and Instagram had more active users.

Grandma just wants to look at photos of her grandbabies and share racist memes.

[s_bushido]

its just not being enforced

I feel like this is the theme of the past decade. All these rich/powerful assholes doing literally whatever they want, and the government does nothing. Either because Republicans have control and are actively engaged in it themselves, or Democrats have control and are too chickenshit to actually wield their power.

[Cthulhu 2020]

Roberty Downey Jr called Elon Musk a "Recovering white American male" and wishes he'd "control his behavior"

Bunch of MAGAts are big mad that Elon was called him a recovering white american male when that just means Downey is calling him a drug addict, which is very probably true.

[Dontrike]

It's late so just giving you link

https://x.com/rebeccaballhaus/status...tP1Mm249A&s=19

Basically elmo had regular contact with Putin since 2022.

How are we giving this person government contracts?

I'm telling you Dems have to stop playing nice and kissing the ass of every billionaire. Immediately cancel every government dollar as threat to national security.

What?! The man that turned off Ukraine's Starlink so he could help Russia is talking with Putin?!!!!

[Cthulhu 2020]

It's late so just giving you link

https://x.com/rebeccaballhaus/status...tP1Mm249A&s=19

Basically elmo had regular contact with Putin since 2022.

How are we giving this person government contracts?

I'm telling you Dems have to stop playing nice and kissing the ass of every billionaire. Immediately cancel every government dollar as threat to national security.

I mean, that's probably why he so quickly and so firmly supported Trump. There are lots of investigations already underway or lawsuits coming down the pipe for Musk and his companies, he's just good about not complaining about them openly like Trump, but he's involved in a lot of legal trouble, him and his companies.

I'd say Dems should do it, make a spectacle of it, but the big problem is that all conservatives and many moderates/centrists see conservative crime as just normal, and all legal action taken against them in purely political in nature because the conservative machine has so effectively painted a picture of themselves as victims. They saw that they couldn't make fun of minorities with slurs and went "Oh yeah you think you're a victim? Let me show you how good we are at being professional victims!" and now every moderate blockhead believes Dems are overstepping by pursuing legal recourse against... crimes.

[Muzjhath]

I feel like this is the theme of the past decade. All these rich/powerful assholes doing literally whatever they want, and the government does nothing. Either because Republicans have control and are actively engaged in it themselves, or Democrats have control and are too chickenshit to actually wield their power.

Past decade? Try since at least Nixon was pardoned

[s_bushido]

Past decade? Try since at least Nixon was pardoned

You say that...but if Watergate happened today, literally nothing would come of it. There'd be nothing to pardon in the first place.

[Muzjhath]

You say that...but if Watergate happened today, literally nothing would come of it. There'd be nothing to pardon in the first place.

Yeah, it's like that today because of that pardon.
Yes, before if you had connections etc you didn't get nailed unless you absolutely stepped in it. (See Epstein).

But Watergate then went and said "it's alright to officially sweep it under the rug for the correct people".

[s_bushido]

Yeah, it's like that today because of that pardon.

Oh, I see what you're saying.