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by clouddrover 1291 days ago
> Musk doesn't have a huge amount to offer on that topic, so I'm not here to support or adulate him, but I do care about words like "authoritarianism" being used with a reasonable level of accuracy, and I always hate seeing people being portrayed negatively on largely false grounds.

Then you must hate Musk. He is, after all, always willing to portray people negatively on largely false grounds. According to Musk, cave divers are pedophiles, Apple hates free speech, California is fascist, and so on and so forth.

Authoritarians have a loose association with the truth. The truth is just too inconvenient.

> He didn't argue for Ukraine to just submit; he said there should be an externally supervised referendum so the people in the contested regions can self-determine which country they're in.

Of course he did. There can't be an externally supervised referendum. They have been invaded. They are at war. Putin doesn't recognize Ukraine as a country or Ukrainians as a people. Russia doesn't do democracy. It hasn't for a long time.

> In both cases of Russia/Ukraine and China/Taiwan, he sees that the worst case scenario is utterly catastrophic (all-out global nuclear exchanges), and wants to find ways to resolve these disputes before it gets anywhere near that.

The solution in both cases is simple: Russia gets out of Ukraine and China stays out of Taiwan.

Russia and China are authoritarian regimes. They both share the attitude that big countries tell little countries what to do. Musk's advocacy of appeasement and submission to their belligerence is apology bordering on the quisling.

> You've presented no evidence for this,

Now you're just being naive. Space X is Elon and Elon is Space X. There is no in between: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/17/business/spacex-workers-e...

Musk offered up the idea of a moderation council at Twitter which sounds like a good idea: https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1586059953311137792

But the reality is Musk will make moderation decisions and the council has no real power: https://www.complex.com/life/elon-musk-final-decision-twitte...

He doesn't believe in free speech, except his own speech.

> Clearly, the governments/bodies mandating lockdowns and vaccinations were authoritarian.

No, public health measures are not authoritarian. That is farcical.

1 comments

Heh, this reply is pretty-well entirely ad-hom and just-so story. Never mind!
I never did mind. The facts of the matter are the facts of the matter. It's not an "ad hominem attack" or a "just-so story" just because you don't like what's true.

Musk is what he is.

You've presented zero facts that demonstrate Musk's authoritarianism. You've given your opinions on what positions others should have on highly complex, consequential topics like nuclear armed countries in prolonged conflict over deeply-entrenched grievances with long and complex histories. Fine, you're welcome to have opinions about those and any other issues. There's still no evidence there for Musk's authoritarianism, and you don't win arguments by dogmatically redefining words and insisting your opinions are facts. That would be, dare I say, authoritarian?
> you don't win arguments by dogmatically redefining words and insisting your opinions are facts. That would be, dare I say, authoritarian?

Musk likes to redefine words. Elon falsely claims he is a founder of Tesla: https://www.tesla.com/elon-musk

But in fact Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning were the founders of Tesla: https://www.cnbc.com/2021/02/06/tesla-founders-martin-eberha...

In true authoritarian fashion, Musk doesn't let facts get in the way. Here is a sycophantic interview in which Musk pathetically attempts to redefine the word "founder": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHmSrK238vI&t=2358s

So, by your own standard, we've found yet another example of Musk's authoritarianism.

> Musk likes to redefine words. Elon falsely claims he is a founder of Tesla: https://www.tesla.com/elon-musk

By legal settlement he is the founder of Tesla, a term that is not as fixed as people believe. Early employees often haggle for founder status in startups. He joined the company as chairman from the instant of formation and contributed heavily to operations of the company, for example acting as designer of the Roadster. Read up on the early history of Tesla. He didn't just "buy the company" as I have heard claimed numerous times on the internet.

There's no value in defending authoritarians. They simply cannot control their nature and they will make a fool of you, as Musk is making a fool of you now.

I estimate it will take you a further 10 years to understand this. By then enough time will have passed for you to be able to reminisce about Musk's "good old days". But what you won't have understood is that there were no good old days. He was always like that.