The world's richest man is supporting the guy that's gonna appoint him to some "efficiency" position that will let him squash any investigations into his businesses and will cut the amount of taxes he owes.
this post was submitted on 31 Oct 2024
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I personally wouldn't trust Trump to return a favor. Elon outlived his usefulness to Trump the moment the election was over.
Don't be so cynical, he also wants to promote his ideals of misogynism, transphobia and creepy natalism.
That's just the GOP platform.
Maybe this is overly generous, but I kind of feel like Elon genuinely believes he's a special genius who can "save" the world and usher in a nominally benevolent techno-oligarchy with him at the helm. So he supports trump because a) trump will let him do whatever he wants without regulation or enforcement, and b) Harris won't, and she might take a look at his accounting and government contracts.
Also maybe because Ketamine
This saviour complex is a big part of it. That said, all these big "self made" billionares suffer from it. That's why they all refuse to pay taxes but will instead make a charity foundation so they can choose which public interest is best served by "their" money. Like another poster said, Elon's public interest is apartheid, which aligns with Trump.
I think you’re being way too charitable. Billionaires have zero interest in actually making the world a better place. The charitable foundations stuff is a way for them to avoid taxes, exert control over public policy, and to gain positive PR.
This really ticked all the boxes. Except for the box where Putin has asked him how he feels about windows.
Money.
Democrats are pressured by their base (see overwhelming majority of Americans) who wanna see the rich be taxed more and pay a fair share as well as delve into the very clear financial corruption in our government.
Musk, Trump, Bezos, and the other rich fucks like Peter Thiel or Miriam Adelson actively lose if this sort of policy is passed. Trump is literally the rich person candidate
It's money always is.
I made a little table showing the highest marginal tax rate from 1913 to 2022 coded in blue for Democrat presidents and red for Republican:
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The first Democrat run saw a stunning rise of 66% in the highest marginal tax rate due to the insane expense of WWI.
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The first Republican run saw a drop of 48% as the nation moved away from the war economy and into the post-war economy.
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The second Democrat run saw a sharp rise of 38% at the beginning and a further rise of 28% by the end of their run because of the Great Depression and WWII in that order.
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The second Republican run kept the ultra-high (91%!) highest marginal tax rate during the post-war boom with no change.
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The third Democrat run saw the rate fall by 21% over its span.
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The third Republican run kept the rate as-is over its span.
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The fourth Democrat run (single-term) kept the rate as-is over its span.
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The fourth Republican run dropped the rate by 39%
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The fifth Democrat run saw an increase of almost 9% over its span.
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The fifth Republican run saw a drop of almost 5% over its span.
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The sixth Democrat run saw an increase of almost 5% over its span.
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The sixth Republican run saw a drop of almost 3% over its span.
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The final Democrat run (and the last data I have) saw no change.
If we factor out the war years (up to the end of the second Democrat run) we don't see a huge pattern of differences in tax rates, given that those are the highest marginal tax rates and people in that bracket tend to have many ways to evade taxes. (Apartheid Manchild recently complain/bragged that he paid an amount of taxes that turned out to be 3-4% of his income where the vast majority of people pay well over 11% of their incomes, for example.)
So I doubt it's money. It's something else.
Other interesting notes that pop out at me:
- the Great Depression happened in 1929 under Republicans (~3.5 years)
- the recession of 1937 was under Democrats (~1 year)
- the recession of 1949 was under Democrats (~1 year)
- the recession of 1953 was under Republicans (~¾ years)
- the recession of 1958 was under Republicans (~¾ years)
- the recession of 1960 was under Democrats (~¾ years)
- the recession of 1969 was under Republicans (~1 year)
- the recession of 1973 was under Republicans (~1¼ years)
- the recession of 1980 was under Republicans (~½ years)
- the recession of 1981 was under Republicans (~1¼ years)
- the recession of 1990 was under Republicans (~¾ years)
- the recession of 2001 was under Republicans (~¾ years)
- the Great Recession happened in 2007 under Republicans (extending into Democrats) (~1.5 years)
Here I see a distinct pattern that should alarm anybody running a business since lost sales account far more for lost wealth than alterations in the highest marginal tax rate.
I don't think tax rates or recessions really carry the picture. It is useful information but there are things that cost or have value outside of straight money that lend to making money or grant you influence on markets so you can make more money.
Gutting social safety nets, healthcare, etc makes people desperate and gives a more pliable workforce that cannot advocate for themselves they're busy surviving. Bezos and all those neolib imperialists lean on this shit.
Buying a newspaper and shilling it or outright dumpstering it into oblivion doesn't seem like a smart financial benefit but when the news and social media platforms are under your thumb nothing bad is said about you.
Control makes money making easier. They're motivated by gaining more power or not losing what power they have and power directly translates to wealth.
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It’s not money, that’s way too charitable.
It’s because he’s a white supremacist. He wants fascism.
Pretty straight forward.
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He basically lost his marbles after his daughter disowned him and Biden didn't invite him to some electric car event a few months after he was elected. I think his drug use also plays a big part. It's just the typical trajectory of someone who obtained a lot of power and then just shuts out all criticism and just thinks he's the smartest and knows everything best. History is full of examples and it never ends well.
He's been known as a Republican donor for a very long time, even back when he was pretending to be decent.
He was always a major asshole, but he wasn't always completely off his rocker.
Drug use? Like what? Never seen anything about that.
Edit: Oh... Ketamine.
He was openly high when he committed to buy twitter
"Musk said he believes his depression is genetic and added that he doesn’t believe his ketamine use will impact his companies or their government contracts."
Rumors from those around him are that he uses ketamine a lot more than he admits in interviews. My guess is that he's doing a lot of cocaine too.
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Because Vivian Jenna Wilson transitioned.
It really is that simple.
Before that event Apartheid Manchild was a dick, but mostly of the poorly-socialized technonerd variety. Still a dick, but not perceived by most as being a threatening dick.
After that event, where he coined (to my knowledge) the phrase "the woke mind virus", he jumped deep into the MAGA swill.
Before that event he was kinda/sorta hailed as a "real world Tony Stark" but never really particularly accepted. People liked his products (well, let's be honest: product) and otherwise didn't give much of a shit about him.
After he went Full Metal MAGAt he became the object of worship and adoration of fellow MAGAts on Twitter (before he bought it, even), getting the uncritical acceptance he'd always craved and never really got.
And it turns out he wants to feel like he "belongs" more than he wants to sell shit.
- Greed
- Lack of empathy
- Putin will kill him
Don't forget spite. The guy was always an asshole but when people finally started calling him out he got triggered and became a raging asshole. Now he thinks that he found his people but doesn't realize that they hate him too, they just find him useful for the moment.
Best way to enable your grifts while also evading jail time for being a con artist and pedophile.
Shitbirds of a feather, randy.
I suspect Elon is in deep shit. Everything he has been doing with Tesla and Twitter has been blatant stock manipulation. The latest stunt is self driving taxis. I suspect he knows that the SEC have a big case on him that they will pursue if Harris wins.
Elon's supporters are much like Trumps and won't leave him. Many are financially tied to Elon. Elon can do what ever he wants and his supporters will follow. Trumps values and goals align very closely with Elon's. Elon would be much more like Trump if he had charisma.
He's gonna make more money
No he isn't. Do you seriously believe Trump's economic "plan" is going to make anything better? I mean sure, they can exploit the plebes even harder, but if no-one can afford your products, you don't have a viable business.
His major product is SpaceX. His major customer is the government for the launches and contracts he sells, and his major detriment is government regulation of these launches.
Being on the good side of the government benefits both.
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In an interview recently he openly speculated about how long he'd be in prison if Kamala wins. It seems like he has a strong savior complex, and thinks he's the only one that can save humanity by establishing colonies on Mars. He phrases it as preserving "the light of consciousness." Can't reasonably do that from prison. With that perspective, for him, practically all means justify that end.
At more personal level, after one of his kids transitioned he publicly stated it was like that kid had "died." In his own words, he swore to kill the "woke mind virus."
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Why is Elon Musk acting like he’s a nazi?
Occam’s razor says, it’s because he’s a nazi.
Oligarchs benefit from a Trump administration and policies. Also, Trump promised him a cabinet position.
Much of Elon's fortune is from government programs and contracts. Trump already said he would do whatever his donors told him to if they got him elected. So Elon wants to get in to the executive and start messing around, probably gut most regulatory departments, except the ones that make other car companies buy EV credits from him, or ones that he can use to squeeze his competitors a bit, or give his companies advantages.
Elon is a far-right nutjob surrounded by sycophants.
Favors. And a cabinet position.
It’s starting to look like he might just be a real dipshit.
to put it a better way, i would say he went down the right wing rabbit hole for last 4 or 5 years on twitter. but i would also argue that fundamentally he is just a horrible selfish human being, but disguised as that he was autistic or something.
Not money. He doesn't GAF about that compared to his lust for power and also, very importantly, not going to prison for crimes already committed.
Obviously he will award Tesla invite contracts and slash any tax and regulations.
Then again, Trump might just give him Texas.
The valuation of Tesla is insanely overpriced for what it is and I think he knows it. The Tesla hype machine needs to be fed to keep it from crashing and the vast majority of his money is that stock. He needs to gain more power to secure his status. It’s a bit of a house of cards. He won’t ever not be wealthy but his status as the wealthiest is tenuous as soon as people figure out he’s full of shit.
He's a dipshit.
He's eyeing the position in government, something the GOP was calling along the lines of Head of Technological Efficiency or whatever.
Once he's there, he can set some rules for his own companies and companies favourable to him, almost however he likes. He'd have more power if he starts a slapfight against foreign courts like he did in Brazil and lost last time.
It's Department of Government Efficiency and I'm pretty sure he himself coined it because the acronym is DOGE
"Recently" it came out that Elon Musk is a sexual predator. He exposed himself and tried to pay for sex by buying an employee a horse. Then his company paid 250,000 to keep the woman quiet.
Elon Musk has a transgender child and he didn't like it.
There's multiple reasons for him to become a conservative backer. Being known as a sexual predator is a big one. That's a huge flaw in more progressive corners, but something to rally behind as a nazi.
I think after breaking up with Grimes, he became really unstable. Similar to Kanye and how he broke up with Kim Kardashian.
I think he had a stroke or overdose from too many drugs a few years ago and now he's literally brain damaged. Would explain the total personality change he went through.
The thing is, he always was like that. He was just better at hiding it and pandered to liberals. He was trash to his first wife in 2000 and that was reported in 2010. Liberals saw what they wanted to see, until Musk understood he could just be himself and some people would still like him.
https://nypost.com/2022/05/23/elon-musk-told-first-wife-at-their-wedding-im-the-alpha/
He was definitely always a narcissist, but the drugs haven't helped.
Ego. Ok also union busting but largely ego. Around the same time one of his children who happens to be trans from his first wife (who also publicly denounced him) publicly disowned him and his long term on again off again partner left him for a short lived fling with Chelsea Manning, a trans woman famous for going to prison for leaking human rights abuses by the military in the Iraq war. And around that time democrats started getting anti billionaire talking points going very mainstream. And so he began courting the right. He was already addicted to twitter and he found himself deep in the alt right pipeline.
I think he reads too much x-twitter and it’s gotten to him.
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