SpaceX chief executive Elon Musk reportedly caused a geopolitical crisis last year, when Ukrainian forces—which have relied heavily on the company’s Starlink satellite communications—were on the verge of striking Russian naval vessels off the coast of Crimea with submersible drones. Concerned that the attack would provoke Russia into using nuclear weapons, Musk unilaterally opted to sever the submarines’ satellite connection, throwing a wrench in the entire assault.

The incident—shared by CNN based on an adapted excerpt from an upcoming book by Walter Isaacson—demonstrates Musk’s increasing unwillingness to lend his satellite network to offensive maneuvers waged by Ukraine. “How am I in this war?” “Starlink was not meant to be involved in wars. It was so people can watch Netflix and chill and get online for school and do good peaceful things, not drone strikes.”

After foiling the attack, Musk reportedly received a desperate text from a Ukrainian deputy prime minister, Mykhailo Fedorov, who asked that Musk reinstate the Starlink connection to the drones. “I just want you—the person who is changing the world through technology—to know this,” Fedorov wrote. But Musk refused to reverse course, telling Fedorov that Ukraine “is now going too far and inviting strategic defeat.”

Apparently he was worried that the assault would provoke nuclear war. Musk showing actual thought for the first time in ever.

  • SorosFootSoldier [he/him, they/them]
    ·
    10 months ago

    Apparently he was worried that the assault would provoke nuclear war. Musk showing actual thought for the first time in ever.

    When an actual fascist in Musk doesn't want nuclear war but your average wine cave warrior liberal does.

      • SorosFootSoldier [he/him, they/them]
        ·
        10 months ago

        https://www.cnbc.com/2019/12/20/pete-buttigiegs-wine-cave-what-to-know-about-the-napa-fundraiser.html

        It's used to mock rich out of touch bourgeois neoliberals like him.

          • Awoo [she/her]
            ·
            edit-2
            10 months ago

            The wine cave in question:

            Show

            Show

            Show

            Always remember who these people are. They hide it, but they don't live like us. Keep it in mind especially when they're hand-wringing about better rights for marginalised people or demanding that feeding or housing the homeless be means tested behind 50 different indecipherable rules to make it harder.

    • usernamesaredifficul [he/him]
      ·
      10 months ago

      Musk isn't a fascist he's a racist idiot so I understand the confusion but there's more to fascism than just that

  • YearOfTheCommieDesktop [they/them]
    ·
    10 months ago

    I mean, I imagine he was wrong about that particular encounter provoking nuclear war, seems like a post-hoc justification from a dipshit that can't make up his mind on how/if to support ukraine's war effort, but god is this being at the whims of a baby-brained billionaire funny

    • footfaults [none/use name]
      ·
      10 months ago

      It's at least the most plausible justification that musk has made for any of his decisions, in decades..

  • GenXen [any, any]
    ·
    10 months ago

    I'm as far from a Musk fan as you can get, but this whole narrative of him causing serious damage to the Ukrainian effort because of Starlink smells like western media establishing a fall guy to point to for when the effort ultimately fails. The US gov has subsidized ALL of his businesses so heavily, if Starlink were really that valuable to the operation, they would have forced his hand one way or the other. I was equally as skeptical when they touted Starlinks value in the very beginning of the dispute.

        • jackmarxist [any]
          ·
          10 months ago

          I'll get all communists I know to vote for Biden if he promises to execute Elon Musk.

    • Zo1db3rg [comrade/them]
      ·
      10 months ago

      Yeah, weren't they hailing it as the saving grace for the efforts at the beginning? Imo they are about to start backtracking hard and admitting defeat and are getting all the scapegoats lines up.

  • UmbraVivi [he/him, she/her]
    ·
    edit-2
    10 months ago

    Very cool that this satellite communications network that can make the difference between life and death of hundreds of people is owned and controlled by a man with the intellectual capabilities of an actual hamster

  • ComRed2 [any]
    ·
    10 months ago

    Musk is a very obvious US government asset. So what's his endgame here, Is it all just a distraction?

    Also, “Starlink was not meant to be involved in wars. It was so people can watch Netflix and chill and get online for school and do good peaceful things, not drone strikes.”

    Then why did he create contracts with the pentagon and the department of defense??

    • Tachanka [comrade/them]
      ·
      10 months ago

      he gets a lot of subsidies from the government, yes. I don't know if he's a government asset so much as the american government is an asset of the bourgeoisie as a class. It's sort of a chicken and egg problem at this point, but I'm inclined to believe the latter rather than the former.

      • ZapataCadabra [he/him]
        ·
        10 months ago

        There are some bourg which hold the leash and some that are on the leash. Musk on the leash but thinks he holds it. His shit wagons and wunder rockets would not exist without government subsidies.

        • Tachanka [comrade/them]
          ·
          10 months ago

          I think the bourgeoisie collectively, as a class, holds the leash of government, and the government, like a good dog, fetches subsidies for them. The state is an instrument for the suppression of one class by another, which is why we should seize the state from the bourgeoisie emilie-shrug

          • ZapataCadabra [he/him]
            ·
            10 months ago

            Oh absolutely, but there are definite distinctions between the bourgeoisie. Generally speaking, the financial capitalists have more control than the industrial capitalists. They always have class solidarity when it comes to suppressing the proletariat, but have different views on the economy at large.

      • iie [they/them, he/him]
        ·
        10 months ago

        I think chicken and egg is apt. Rather than one controlling the other, it's a feedback loop, and ultimately no one is in charge of it. it's just a stable self-sustaining dynamic process

        • Tachanka [comrade/them]
          ·
          10 months ago

          it's a feedback loop, and ultimately no one is in charge of it. it's just a stable self-sustaining dynamic process

          Great way of putting it lenin-pogger

    • SoyViking [he/him]
      ·
      10 months ago

      Even if he's a government asset he can still be an impressionable dumbass.

      • 420blazeit69 [he/him]
        ·
        10 months ago

        Yeah, "asset" in a case like this is usually aligned interests + some overt direction, with occasional disagreement and pushback.

    • RyanGosling [none/use name]
      ·
      10 months ago

      Elon is a deep state failson who pretends he’s fighting against it and is part of the counter culture. It’s just all a circus for him

    • usernamesaredifficul [he/him]
      ·
      10 months ago

      So what's his endgame here, Is it all just a distraction

      he is comically stupid and bad at everything he does. His endgame as far as I can tell is for everyone to say "wow Elon you're so great your dad was wrong you are a genius good boy"

  • star_wraith [he/him]
    ·
    10 months ago

    I’m just a simple communist, but maybe if you don’t want critical infrastructure during wartime to go away on the whims of a billionaire, maybe you shouldn’t entrust said infrastructure to free market capitalism?

  • ProfessorAdonisCnut [he/him]
    ·
    10 months ago

    It is deeply unsettling that a random doofus oligarch can just hugely impact a war like that, someone needs to fix this (change the news so I don't have to hear about it)

  • Shrike502@lemmygrad.ml
    ·
    10 months ago

    So first it was the tricksy russkies using secret technologies such as "minefields", and that was why the offensive was failing. Now it's Musk shutting off his ego project. What's next? Indian curse? Anything to deflect the blame from the filth in Pentagon and white house

    • jackmarxist [any]
      ·
      10 months ago

      Next up is a video of Zelensky saying "Assad must go"

  • CarbonScored [any]
    ·
    edit-2
    10 months ago

    A book written by the fucking ex-CEO of CNN states that a drone went offline last year and it's Elon's fault. There's no evidence, no names, no story, just waffle and assertions. This is just distracting noise based on nothing.

    • ShimmeringKoi [comrade/them]
      ·
      10 months ago

      Oh good, if they're running pieces like this with evidence as flimsy as that, then he's definitely being viewed as a liability and is likely to have something funny happen to him.

      • CarbonScored [any]
        ·
        10 months ago

        Agreed, it has all the marks of a little inter-bourgeois spat.

    • underisk [none/use name]
      ·
      10 months ago

      No whatever he did is because he’s smart and rich and you’re just hating because you’re poor and stupid.

      Don’t waste your time trying to lead the horse to water; it’s happy to drink the sand.