Thursday, May 19, 2022

Oh, and Elon Musk

So the news broke last week by an exuberant media that Elon Musk's purchase of Twitter might not go through.  Cue rejoicing in the streets.  Cue those on the Left blowing beer out their noses mocking conservatives for getting their hopes up.  It might be nothing, but I can tell the press is hoping it means the deal is void.  I've not heard any updates, so who knows what is going on. 

Here's my thing.  I know little to nothing about Musk.  I remember some years ago I got tired of hearing about him.  For a while it seemed as if every MSM outlet gushed over him.  There were times I couldn't go two days without some 'praise Musk' story.  I recall telling my wife if I see one more story gushing over Telsa I'm going to scream. Beyond that, I notice he says things that riles people on the Left. 

Other than that, no clue.  He could be Lenny the Leftist for all I know.  He might be Batman, more likely the Joker, or something in between.  Those who cling to the Gospel have been burned too many times in recent years after hitching their wagons to the latest potential superstar for conservatism. 

I do think that no matter what he has served his purpose.  The whole hysteria about Musk threatening democracy, the world and the universe if he gets Twitter showed a couple important things.   First, it showed what we all know, that double standards and naked hypocrisy are mother's milk for progressive activism.  The same ones screaming about his takeover were the ones, only a few months earlier, dismissing concerns about social media censorship and message control:  'It's just a social media outlet, get over it.  Find another one if you don't like it.'  Or so they said.  Again, it's wrong when it hurts progressives, it's right when it helps.  

But more importantly, he also showed how far we've descended into a world held by an oligarchy that has gamed the system, is tired of freedom for the little people, and makes sure the rules help only themselves.  We saw this a year ago with the Game Stop debacle.  That was about nothing other than someone outside of the official cabal daring to game the system the way the cabal no doubt does on a daily basis.  The system is only to be gamed by those who control it.  Hence the 2020 election. An election not stolen per se, but gamed. 

The problem with Musk isn't that he is some right wing radical.  It's not that he's some MAGA Trump type.  It's that he is out of the system.  He isn't in the rules and living within the rules of those who now control the rules.  He is a wild card, and that is anathema to the modern establishment.  Gates, Buffet, even Zuckerberg may occasionally run afoul or this or that leftwing dogma, but they nonetheless run within the system.  They pander to the system and exist within it. 

Musk does not.  He seems to go where he will, and most of the time the establishment doesn't seem to care.  But this is important, controlling the message.  Yet Musk wasn't trying to obtain Twitter on their behalf, or by their permission.  Someone outside the system getting hold of a major source of narrative control?  Hence the subsequent days of global outrage, calls for the government to step in, hysterics over the fall of freedom and democracy.  

Now the deal might not happen.  Or the deal could go through.  I dunno.  That's beyond my ability to guess one way or another.  Perhaps it was just Musk playing around.  Maybe he's snickering about all those yokels who thought he was their white knight.  Maybe he gets his kicks laughing at all those people who thought they were in control.  Again, I don't know.  I just know that no matter what, I'm not going to see us any better off if Musk does everything he's suggested he will do - when he's not doing anything else he feels like doing.  I've learned never trust people who are defined by being wild cards.  That falls under the old adage of never underestimating an enemy, but  never overestimating an ally. 

9 comments:

  1. Remember, this is a dude who designed (or had designed for him, if we are to be honest) what was basically a watertight coffin to be used to rescue those kids from a tight, winding cave. This was a terrible idea that could not work, of course, because of the "tight, winding" part, and I don't think the resemblance to a coffin would have been lost on the kids, either. In a sulk because his idea was rejected, he called one of the ACTUAL rescuers a "pedo guy". That's something I will never forget about him. He is not the right man to champion as a hero.

    Yeah, he won the defamation case. It must be nice to be a billionaire.

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    1. I didn't know anything about that, but it goes to show. He just seems like too much of a wild card. I mean, nobody is perfect, and we can't demand perfect or else. But there's not accepting anything but perfection, and there's hitching your wagon to the Joker.

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  2. (New Poster Tom)
    Sometime bad or imperfect men have done the people of God a favor (Cyrus of Persia, Constantine, Charlemagne, Thomas Jefferson). We can at least acknowledge the favor.

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    1. What precisely do you think Musk should be thanked for? SpaceX and Tesla are cool, but ... well, that's about all. As for Twitter, he hasn't even bought it yet, let alone done anything good with it, if that is indeed even possible. Have you thanked "Col. Sanders" for making fast food fried chicken a thing, even though he was a Freemason?

      As for your list, Thomas Jefferson is a very dubious addition, much as Urban Meyer would be.

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    2. I agree. And I'm the last to say we should demand perfect or else. Hardly. We're all imperfect. But I think beyond that it's worth our while not to jump on board with people who could do far more damage than good in the long run.

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    3. (Tom New Poster)
      Eusebius could have listened to you about Constantine, the end of which we see today in the Kirill-Putin "love-fest".

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    4. Let me clarify: Thomas Jefferson was a good writer, a "gentleman scientist", and an obnoxious person. For the last point, it is sufficient to contrast his approval of bloodiness of the French Revolution (he gave minimal acquiescence for America putting in a good word for Lafayette, who was arguably more important in actually ACHIEVING American independence than Jefferson was) with his reaction to the bloodiness of the Haitian Revolution.

      None of that was why he was a dubious addition to the list, though. Cyrus was emperor of pretty much all the civilized world at the time, and allowing the Jews to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the Temple was an important milestone in salvation history. Constantine was sole emperor of the Roman Empire, the first emperor to be baptized, and he is a saint; his saint day is tomorrow (May 22). Charlemagne founded the Holy Roman Empire -- the only real "thousand-year reich" -- and his influence on the development of western Europe is undeniable, and at least some argument could be put forward that he was a saint. "In some parts of the empire popular affection placed him among the saints. For political purposes and to please Frederick Barbarossa he was canonized (1165) by the antipope Paschal III, but this act was never ratified by insertion of his feast in the Roman Breviary or by the Universal Church; his cultus, however, was permitted at Aachen [Acta SS., 28 Jan., 3d ed., II, 490-93, 303-7, 769; his office is in Canisius, 'Antiq. Lect.', III (2)]. "(https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03610c.htm)

      Jefferson's impact on world history does not place him in this list.

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    5. I should clarify that I'm not saying anyone short of Christian perfection should be rejected. My point is specifically with Musk. I don't trust him. He seems far to flighty and far too unpredictable. People like that can become a bigger enemy down the road doing more harm than sometimes your staunchest adversary.

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    6. Yeah, I get that, and I also distrust Musk. There are few if any public figures I really trust, though -- some because of what they have already done, and others because of what people on similar trajectories have done in the past.

      My comment on Jefferson was just that he looks bigger to American eyes than his place in world history merits.

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