Comment by mort96
1 year ago
Guessing the difference is that Brazil is currently controlled by a left-wing government and these censorship demands have a left-leaning bent to them, whereas India and Turkey have right-leaning governments and the censorship orders were to strengthen the right wing?
Musk has been increasingly open about using his ownership of Twitter as simply a tool to champion his own political ideals, and those ideals seem to skew pretty far right.
As for the Indian government, I would argue that it is still largely socialist (high direct and indirect taxes that translate to strong social spending in poorer parts of the society, and rural areas[1]), and is still considerably more to the left than much of the west.
I would concede that on social matters the government does lean conservative, and is not as liberal as one would expect, but in many ways, that is an indictment of current society, and a part of life, that I don't see changing in the near term (25 years or so).
The social fabric of a nation is intrinsic to it's continued stable existence. Mass upheaval in a short duration is dangerous for the continued improvement of welfare of the people. So, it can be argued that preventing mass change demographics is a part of the duties of the government. [2]
[1] See central government schemes like Jal Shakti, LPG subsidy, Urea Subsidy etc
[2] This is a subjective opinion, but imo mass immigration is dangerous, and recent examples in Europe do demonstrate the dangers of sudden changes in demographics. At the same time, diversity is important, and so is immigration by _skilled_ professionals, with the eventual transfer of skills (and technology) to native (for whatever value of native) people.
Really, it’s that Musk likes authoritarians and nationalists and Modi’s government meets that test quite well. After all, Musk has no problem with high government spending if it’s spent on him.
Correct me if I am wrong, but there has been no investment/subsidy/sop given to musk by this government?
Modi and the BJP are avowed, proud ethnic nationalists, seeking to preserve and enforce their version of traditional religion.
Last I checked, being nationalist is not a bad thing?
If your government does not stand up for your country, who else will?
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I assure you, that no Western right-winger likes the Islamist Erdogan.
I wish you were right, but you're not: https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-praises-turkish-presiden..., https://edition.cnn.com/2019/11/13/politics/donald-trump-rec..., etc
Unless you’re gonna claim Donald Trump to be some kind of centrist, I can think of at least one.
Left and right are not the real dimensions here. It's pro-Putin and against Putin. Russia has long made a mockery of ideologies, and indirectly of those who would be easily manipulated to do its bidding under one pretext or another.
Yeah they do. He fits the idea of the authoritarian which they want to further. They may not agree with what he is doing, but they like the way he’s doing it.
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The poster your are responding to said nothing about their own stance, only conjecturing about Musk's stance and the current zeitgeist.
Ad hominem is the second last refuge of the incompetent; or in other words, argue the point not the person.
Erdogan is practically a socialist, government spending and inflation have ballooned under him. Pretty much the opposite of what Elon Musk advocates for.
Spending is not socialism.
Spending also ballooned under Trump and Trump is most definitely not a socialist (aside from socializing losses) (spending increased *before* the pandemic).
It was a bit of an overstatement but second part of the comment stands.
Elon Musk, who's companies take plenty of government spending and incentives? Sounds like a socialist to me.
Government has had a 10x ROI with musk, that’s the purpose of govt investment.
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"take plenty of government spending" is a funny way to say has plenty of contracts with the government to provide services...
And yeah, when incentives are available, why wouldnt he take them? It's the same way people who advocate for higher tax don't choose to donate more money to the government.
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Might indeed not be in his self-interest, but yes. He talked about it in his discussion with Trump on X. Here's an article about it: https://www.nbc24.com/news/nation-world/elon-musk-pitches-co...
Elon has said he’s more of a centrist. So it’s always amusing to see the far left brand him as far right because he opposes their radical ideology.
"Watch what they do, not what they say" is a useful principle, here. There's no reason to take his attempt to self-label as a centrist at face value, but there's mountains of evidence that he seeks to amplify the right.
The previous regime of twitter censored accounts that are to the right, so when that's your idea of a normal, any change that allows all sides to share a platform could be interpreted to "amplify the right".
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"North Korea says it's a democracy. So it's always amusing to see the far left brand it as a dictatorship because it opposes their radical ideology."
he's just a reactionary; he doesn't have any coherent principles beyond self interest and reacting to things
Sure, and the nazis were socialist
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Given that former President Trump is a center-left politician it makes perfect sense.