Comment by kouteiheika
5 months ago
> Because of (2) and his fragile ego (part of the reason he was widely considered a loser in the pre-Musk dominant circles) he went hard to the right.
This is such a weird take. While I don't disagree about Musk's ego, it should be quite obvious that there's something else at play here, considering an unhinged convicted criminal won the popular vote and became a president. I've personally seen multiple people go through the same shift to the right as Musk. Are they all losers? Or maybe, just maybe, some of the more insane policies of the current American left have pushed them there?
Sure, there's definitely a chance that some people reacted to the pendulum swing to the left; highlighted by (among many things?) Obama's election and marriage equality being passed.
But I think that more people were affected by these things:
The continued lack of funds allocated to education resulting in a terrible lack of critical thinking
The constant bombardment of social media
The influence of russia et al on social media
The gaming of recommendation algorithms by the far-right resulting in the pipeline to hatred
The crisis of masculinity where today's men don't feel they fill the same roles as their grandfathers, leading some to fall down the pipeline to hate
The gerrymandering of districts
Election rolls/registers being purged of historically left leaning people
USA supreme court rulings like Citizens United
Congress being so utterly out of touch with average Americans
And congress' age issue
Of course, there's many more points that people could argue about all day, and I don't think we're going to find out any real reasons here on HN. Maybe in 100 years time, if there's anyone left, the historians will be able to find the root issues.
> highlighted by (among many things?) Obama's election and marriage equality being passed
Genuinely I can't imagine two things less to do with more people associating with the right in America than these two. It looks as though the Democrat party has gone further and further to the hard left, and more and more people in the US have felt they have no option but to vote for change over the status quo. Mostly because of economics.
Sorry maybe that wasn’t clear: i think musk swung right because he wanted to be seen as Ironman and instead was mocked for being a loser.
Twitter can be mercilous. Musk wants so badly to be liked, didn’t get it (in part because it was so obvious), and went full Ben Shapiro aggrieved middle schooler.
Why is left always blamed for what hard right and right does? These people were right wing, fascist leaning and moderate right just did not liked when someone said that out loud. Moderate right would always go to their defense, frequently ignoring what those people do and say.
Left complains and comments about Musk, republicans and conservatives turned out to be entirely right. They were called paranoid and unfair.
Perhaps, left reacted to what right does, plans to do and was entirely correct. Perhaps, what happens now is the fault of moderate right and center who fed these people, celebrated these people, voted for these people and defended these people.
> Why is left always blamed for what hard right and right does?
Well, there is one thing the left should definitely be blamed for: alienating their own electorate. It's always "it's not our fault, it's their fault", without a shred of self-reflection. Why did previously left-leaning and left-voting people suddenly switch to vote right? And it's not because they're "hard-right", "fascists", "idiots", "racists" or "nazis" (if they were they wouldn't have voted left in the first place).
Unfortunately from what I've seen instead of taking a step back and reevaluating their approach the left is just doubling down on what they've been doing, sticking fingers in their ears and indiscriminately calling anyone who disagrees with them far right fascists. It's astonishing how far the Overton window has shifted. I just hope people come to their senses, or else we'll end up with another clown in the White House once the current one vacates it in four years.
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"Everyone that thinks differently than me is a loser" is an unhinged take.
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