• nothx [he/him]
      ·
      edit-2
      11 months ago

      Personally I find that memeing on EM, even negatively, is a net positive for him somehow. Whenever I see any of my lib friends trying to dunk on him for mundane shit he does, I get irrationally annoyed by it. I feel like even dunking on him is keeping his name in our heads and keeping him relevant.

      As it pertains to this meme, it's definitely not as lib as most, I even chuckled a bit. I'm just so disenfranchised by the state of things and the fact that all we can do is post irony poisoned memes about people who love the attention. I feel the same way about DT at this point too.

      • quarrk [he/him]
        ·
        11 months ago

        It’s basically how Trump got elected so you’re right. Musk is too dumb to pull it off though because he’s alienated himself from all parts of the political spectrum. Only a niche of crypto NFT bozos like Musk now.

        • nothx [he/him]
          ·
          11 months ago

          I won’t even say that about Musk because of what we saw happen with Trump. Memes, a superiority complex, and a hint of nihilism is how you get to where we are.

          • quarrk [he/him]
            ·
            edit-2
            11 months ago

            It’s a little reductive but I generally agree. Trump got where he did because he expressed really existing unrest and Hillary Clinton did not. Even if Clinton won it wouldn’t have saved the day, because that tension would still exist and intensify.

            Working against individuals is not a useless tactic but it is nothing more or less than triage. It’s a mistake to place so much emphasis on individuals rather than the material conditions of the larger part of society, the working class, who look for a systemic solution to their problems but struggle to find expression for it. The liberals cannot solve the problem because their thesis is that the status quo is perfect, so that is the only basis on which they can oppose someone like Trump ie “he is wrong because the working class is not struggling, actually, now please quiet down.” It’s a losing strategy but they have no other option. Hence the intense focus on Trump the person, not Trump the reactionary expression of contradiction.

            If Trump or Elon or whoever the fuck gets elected… it is a disaster first and foremost for the elements of the ruling class whose privilege would be usurped. It is only secondarily a disaster for the working class to the extent that reactionary policies harm and divide them up along racial, ethnic, religious etc lines.

            The bourgeoisie want to convince the working class that they share a common struggle against Trump when in fact the two struggles have very different characters. It’s how the bourgeoisie overthrew feudal society: they convinced the serfs and peasants and small artisans that the struggle of that society was essentially a common struggle against the aristocracy. Which was true. But the essential struggle of this moment is not proletariat + liberal bourgeoisie versus reactionary bourgeoisie. It is proletariat + class conscious petty bourgeois versus the bourgeoisie.

      • FortifiedAttack [any]
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        edit-2
        11 months ago

        Now that you mention it, Elon is basically just the replacement for Trump on Twitter. Huge public platform, rich, uncivil, rude, stupid, fails upwards and espouses right-wing politics and hypercapitalism.

        And libs obsess about him just the same way they obsessed about Trump. I know a strongly neoliberal gamer forum where they have a thread series on Musk that's been running since he took over Twitter last year, 570 pages in total so far.

        It's basically a Kiwifarms lolcow thread, commenting on every mundane shit he says or does. Just completely obsessed, and prophesizing his imminent downfall every 2 weeks. Remember when Twitter was supposed to collapse in November 2022 when the soccer world cup took place?

        • TankieTanuki [he/him]
          hexagon
          ·
          11 months ago

          As someone who's hated Musk for nearly ten years, I find the recent tide of feckless lib anger kinda validating.

        • Comp4 [she/her]
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          edit-2
          11 months ago

          Are you talking about the forum Resetera by chance ?

      • TankieTanuki [he/him]
        hexagon
        ·
        edit-2
        11 months ago

        Musk was kept as CEO of Tesla (despite making bad decisions) because his brand as a "genius" was seen a net asset. If that reputation is ruined he'll cease to be useful. Trump fed on animosity because lib tears made him popular with chuds. Not saying this meme is praxis or anything, it's just as feckless as you described.

        Edit: Unless Elon pivots to chud politician. Then we're just empowering him. :ohnoes:

        • quarrk [he/him]
          ·
          edit-2
          11 months ago

          My hot take is that a Musk presidency is 80% guaranteed in our lifetime. Unless a revolution happens first which doesn’t look likely lol.