[reverius42]

The richer Elon Musk gets, the more he (appears) to use that wealth to skew politics towards anti-"eco" policies. By giving Trump an unprecedented $250 million during the 2024 election, he may have even been the deciding factor in funding some of the advertising that led people to decide to vote Trump, or to stay home instead of vote for Harris.

And needless to say, Trump's policies on the environment ("drill baby drill") don't exactly align with the hippie stereotype of electric car buyers ("no more oil").

[ZeroGravitas]

He was literally and directly funding targeted advertising that told people in Muslim areas that Harris supported Israel and in Jewish dominated areas that she supported Hamas.

He was working with Stephen Miller, one of the crazier members of Trump's team (no easy achievement), on this.

[themgt]

fwiw microtargeting ads is extremely common, all presidential campaigns for the past 20 years at least have been doing this. If you're not cynical about ~everyone in politics you're probably drinking too much microtargeted kool-aid (your favorite flavor!):

A CNN investigation found that Vice President Kamala Harris is running contradictory ads about the war in Israel, depending on where you live.

If you live in Michigan, a state with a dense Muslim-American population, you will see ads about how she supports the relief efforts in Gaza, where she says she "will not be silent."

The Michigan ad states: "What has happened in Gaza in the past nine months in devastating, we cannot allow ourselves to become numb to the suffering," Harris is quoted in the ad.

If you drive East to Pennsylvania and flip on a television, you'll see the vice president at a different podium in an ad saying: "Let me be clear, I will always stand up for Israel's right to defend itself, and I will always ensure Israel's ability to defend itself."

For the second ad, taken from her DNC speech, the part where she advocates for peace in Gaza was edited out. CNN reports it was taken out so her message could be more strongly accepted by Jewish voters in Pennsylvania.

https://cbsaustin.com/news/beyond-the-podium/cnn-kamalas-con...

[graemep]

> The richer Elon Musk gets, the more he (appears) to use that wealth to skew politics towards anti-"eco" policies

Which is odd as it directly goes against his own interests.

> the hippie stereotype of electric car buyers ("no more oil").

Is that still the stereotype? This might depend on where you are (I am in the UK) but my stereotype of EV buyers is affluent with a tilt to urban.

[viraptor]

> Which is odd as it directly goes against his own interests.

His recent interest is power. He can use that for profit later in many different ways - he's working on firing people who wanted to investigate his idea of using X as a payment network, for example.

[graemep]

That is a reasonable explanation. He is well past the point where people want money for spending power. Any billionaire is after power and status.

[CyberDildonics]

> The richer Elon Musk gets, the more he (appears) to use that wealth to skew politics towards anti-"eco" policies

Which is odd as it directly goes against his own interests.

It goes against his image, not his interests. These are two very different things.