[Quarrelsome]

Elon Musk stirred the pot in the UK during the summer riots of 2024 posting on twitter:

> civil war is inevitable

as the owner of a key media platform in the world that sort of statement is indefensible.

He's also picked a side in Germany by weighing in with as much support as possible for AfD.

Don't pick this as a hill to die on, that man isn't worth it.

[graemep]

I do not know about Germany, but I would characterise Elon's attempts to gain political influence in the UK as failed.

He tried to bribe one party to accept an extremist as a member in return for a huge bribe, and he failed.

He does not seem to have much influence on public opinion.

I do not think its accurate to say he was fighting countries either. He was trying to buy influence. Its not the same thing.

[Quarrelsome]

The man owns twitter ffs. The only way his attempts to gain political influence will ever fail is if the UK government block access to twitter or British people decide to stop using it. Until then he has significant capacity to sway political opinion.

As an example: there is significant power in cultivating the default UK experience of twitter for new accounts, which he's already had significant impact on by culling Twitter's internal moderation team. I've experienced it myself and its a an absolute disaster zone of disinformation and bot accounts trying to stoke internal divisions.

[graemep]

You would think so, but he seems to have had remarkably little impact so far.

[Quarrelsome]

you're focusing too much on him personally instead of the impact of his platform and how he runs it. Twitter has had significant impact on UK politics and will continue to do so, especially in spreading disinformation[0].

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_Leicester_unrest

[graemep]

The platform does spread disinformation, but he does not have much ability to direct it.

Yes, its a different issue from what influence he has personally.

[Quarrelsome]

> he does not have much ability to direct it.

This is like saying Steve Jobs didn't have much ability in making Apple devices so small you could fit them between your buttcheeks.

Compared to anyone else in the entire world: Elon Musk has the most agency in cultivating what people see on twitter because he owns it.

That your statement is so far divorced from reality as is possible, makes me think you are not taking this conversation seriously.

[FirmwareBurner]

>Don't pick this as a hill to die on, that man isn't worth it.

What are you talking about? Are you making up strawmen?

[Quarrelsome]

Im saying he's not worthy of defending. Its clear that he intends to wield his fortune to enact political change.

[FirmwareBurner]

Pointing out the truth doesn't mean you're defending anyone but the truth. Not everything is partisan.

[Quarrelsome]

You're obfuscating the truth. I'm a Brit and clearly more aware than you on how Elon likes to try to interfere with the democratic choices this country has made. In the past day or two, his personal account has been attempting to buoy up Tommy fucking Robinson (for the umpteenth time) who is a violent thug, convicted criminal and renowned Islamophobe. Your "facts" are just sea-lioning misdirection that takes us away from the blatently obvious.

Elon Musk has made his political intentions entirely clear, in writing, on his personal account. Anyone still trying to give him the benefit of the doubt is either being insincere or is a useful idiot.

[FirmwareBurner]

Again, I wasn't defending him.

Also, shouldn't you be more concerned with little girls in the UK needing to carry knives and axes to defend themselves from migrant rape gangs, than with what Elon is saying?

Especially since he's not causing those issues, he's just reading the room and calling it out as it is.

I feel like you're getting worked up for the wrong things.

[Quarrelsome]

> Also, shouldn't you be more concerned with little girls in the UK needing to carry knives and axes to defend themselves from migrant rape gangs

Well thanks for letting me know where you get your information from. I know exactly what your referencing which is a twelve year old feral child and her sister walking around with dangerous weapons, intimidating people and then when anyone stands up to her, they turn the camera on and cry foul. When I was a kid I used to hang out with kids from social, so I've seen it all before. Maybe its new to you, so you fall for it. Perhaps you believe that "clean shirt" is the height of wit?

> Especially since he's not causing those issues, he's just reading the room and calling it out as it is.

Good job in being part of the latest generation to fall for the oldest trick in the book. It's called a hate plank and its a cheap trick used by cheap politicians to manipulate cheap electors. Idk how you stumbled onto here but if it wasn't accidental then you really should know better because you've likely had some level of education, formal or self-taught. CPUs tell us how stupid we are when we give them instructions, have you not learned to distrust your own assumptions yet? How are you convinced that the biggest problems in a given nation are a consequence of the smallest group of people who have been here for the least amount of time?

> I feel like you're getting worked up for the wrong things.

I think getting upset at people playing victim and painting the world as ending in order to obtain political power IS the thing to get worked up about. Personally I love how the slogan MAGA embeds itself in the lie that America isn't great already. Certainly by the size definiton its pretty great and has been for well over a hundred years. GDP per capita is off the fucking charts. Richest country in the world, by a significant margin, greatest stock growth in the world, attracts the most investment, with some of the cheapest goods, some of the best tech and greatest opportunities for its people. But it then convinces itself that *its* the victim. Its absolutely pathetic.

At least feral kids _are_ disadvantaged in the first place which is why they're like that.