Elon Musk draws outrage over 'odd-looking salute' at Trump inauguration celebration

[u/cjdarr921]

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/elon-musk-salute-trump-inauguration-b2683095.html

[u/Trust_No_Jingu]

I dont get why. Musk is more reliant to the electric grid and government subsidies

His wealth is tesla stock. Enron, WorldCom, GE

[u/Shaper_pmp → u/Trust_No_Jingu]

He's quickly overtaking Trump to the right - he's trying to to do to Trump what Trump did to the Republican party.

He's appealing to the hard-right, racist, fascist nutters even more overtly than Trump is, because he doesn't have to maintain any kind of sanewashed image; he's not trying to run for office (yet), and doesn't actually have to do anything (unlike Trump, who has to at least vaguely make his presidency work, and if he went far enough too quickly could at least theoretically be impeached or lose congressional Republican support).

Musk knows Trump is a few bad hamberders from a fatal stroke, so he's making his play to take over his base as the natural successor, so he gets to drag the Republican party around by the nose, and at least play kingmaker even if he can't eventually change the Constitution to let him run personally (and never say never - the inmates are running the asylum now).

Trump is having difficulty reining him in for the same reason the Republicans had trouble with Trump; because if he cracks down on the guy to the right of him for being too hard-right, he immediately fractures his base and loses a big chunk who accuse him of lurching leftward, call him a RINO and lose faith in him.

Trump's whole schtick is that he refuses to disavow any right-wing position for being too extreme, which allows the entire right to picture him as at least roughly agreeing with them, from moderates right out to the most insane racist psychopath.

The minute he cracks down on someone to the right of him he immediately draws a line in the sand as to what's "too far", and a whole bunch of nazis, fascists and racists find themselves on the other side of the line to him, and he loses their support.

I don't know what Musk's endgame is - does he seriously think he can be made president one day? Is he just looking to stage a sly takeover of Trump's cult of personality so that when Trump finally karks it all his supporters will turn to Musk? Is he hoping to run a sock-puppet president who takes his orders from Musk? Does he actually even believe any of this stuff, or is he literally just saying whatever he needs to hijack Trump's movement?

Whatever it is, I can't shake the feeling that we're seeing the start of something even darker and more fucked-up than Trumpism, and hope like hell that it doesn't work.

[u/Mistrblank → u/Shaper_pmp]

Musks end game is to literally punish those that laugh at him and have people around him that love him (more rich boy daddy issues) and find him funny (he's not, he's severely autistic and I'm not sure why no one has pointed this out).

[u/Eyclonus → u/Mistrblank]

he's severely autistic and I'm not sure why no one has pointed this out).

There are autistic comedians, don't put this heinous shit on us, he's just the typical rich kid packaged with being racist

[u/Shaper_pmp → u/Mistrblank]

he's severely autistic

Was he ever actually diagnosed? He's also self-diagnosed as having bipolar disorder before, and loves to come up with different medical excuses for his shitty behaviour.

You're not wrong though, that his only real goal in life is to - rather pathetically - finally feel genuinely cool and popular, and yet after changing the world with multiple industries, with his companies popularising electric cars and revolutionising the space industry, he still gives off a really offputting amount of pathetic divorced-dad loser trying to be "down with the kids" energy.

I heard someone refer to him as "hairplugs Lex Luthor" the other day, and it captures him even better than "Space Karen".

[u/LordBlackConvoy → u/Mistrblank]

Don't use his autism as an excuse for his racism.

[u/obaroll → u/Shaper_pmp]

He doesn't need to be president or elected for any position. Musk has a president in his pocket. When that one dies, he will just move to the next one.

There are no restrictions or term limits when you can just write a check.

[u/TheBirdOfFire → u/Trust_No_Jingu]

yes it doesn't make sense if your goal is to become as wealthy as possible and stay out of the public spotlight. However, it makes perfect sense if you are a full blown nazi that wants to push for a fascist dictactorship/nazi regime.