Political Roundtable Part XXXIV

[bsilver]

It's ironic that we live in an age where there is so much information available. But the use of this information has led to our political decline.
Much of the information is one-sided or just completely false. In years past there was the mainstream media, and most of us accepted the information, which was biased towards the status quo, but at least not extreme. Now there is equality of information, or as accurately described by a previous Trump spokesperson, "alternative facts".
It seems that when it comes to politics, and maybe just about anything, most people cannot process too much information, or just refuse to do so. The idea of an informed electorate seems to be an unachievable dream.
The idea of forgiveness has little meaning in the political world. Why ask for forgiveness when you've done nothing wrong? In fact you were right, and can find all the information you need to back you up.

[doclinkin]

It's ironic that we live in an age where there is so much information available. But the use of this information has led to our political decline.
Much of the information is one-sided or just completely false. In years past there was the mainstream media, and most of us accepted the information, which was biased towards the status quo, but at least not extreme. Now there is equality of information, or as accurately described by a previous Trump spokesperson, "alternative facts".
It seems that when it comes to politics, and maybe just about anything, most people cannot process too much information, or just refuse to do so. The idea of an informed electorate seems to be an unachievable dream.
The idea of forgiveness has little meaning in the political world. Why ask for forgiveness when you've done nothing wrong? In fact you were right, and can find all the information you need to back you up.

Helps if you can eliminate education entirely, especially for those who can't afford private schooling.

[pancakes3]

Too much information leading to undereducation may be counterintuitive, or it can be completely intuitive. Too much information, and with news sources continually fragmenting and obscured as to the source makes it very difficult to determine which source to believe.

Illustratively, at 38 second mark

Watch on YouTube

[Kanyewest]

It's ironic that we live in an age where there is so much information available. But the use of this information has led to our political decline.
Much of the information is one-sided or just completely false. In years past there was the mainstream media, and most of us accepted the information, which was biased towards the status quo, but at least not extreme. Now there is equality of information, or as accurately described by a previous Trump spokesperson, "alternative facts".
It seems that when it comes to politics, and maybe just about anything, most people cannot process too much information, or just refuse to do so. The idea of an informed electorate seems to be an unachievable dream.
The idea of forgiveness has little meaning in the political world. Why ask for forgiveness when you've done nothing wrong? In fact you were right, and can find all the information you need to back you up.

The incentives for social media are not aligned for legitimate news. A lie is posted on social media apparently gets 6 times a click. Media is also awarding loud vs being informed.

[Kanyewest]

I wonder if my political bias is steeping in but I don't think Elon Musk is a genius. Then again, I have been hearing weird things about his social skills from a friend who worked with him when he was considered a liberal.

[AFM]

I don’t think anyone considers him a genius. It’s all a facade.
The guy who created DOGE coin sent Elon a python script to run when Elon wanted to get involved in the project. Elon apparently had no idea what a .py file is and couldn’t run it. But he’s a genius engineer/scientist, right…

[Kanyewest]

I don’t think anyone considers him a genius. It’s all a facade.
The guy who created DOGE coin sent Elon a python script to run when Elon wanted to get involved in the project. Elon apparently had no idea what a .py file is and couldn’t run it. But he’s a genius engineer/scientist, right…

Yeah went to a friend's house where the consensus there was he's a genius(although maybe I should have offered more push back) . I then separately called a friend who worked in finance and also echoed that Elon was a genius.

Elon mismanaged Twitter /x so much that he's untrustworthy. Not to mention how badly he's managing Doge.

[pancakes3]

genius is a really specific term. yeah, he's probably of above-average intelligence, but i don't think he was ever anywhere a genius, especially a technical one. not only that, being a genius in one thing doesn't mean you're a genius for everything. and lastly, you've gotta exercise your brain to keep it up.

he was a good-enough coder who was in a sweet spot of the early 2000's to cash in on the internet boom. he was prescient enough to pick a lane in electronic payments and followed that path onto the paypal team, which blew up. then he leveraged that money to buy into Tesla, and then SpaceX, both existing companies with technical founders who actually are geniuses and employed other geniuses.

Elon was good at being a figurehead (overpromising and then taskdriving his subordinates to try to meet his overpromises) but he does not know the technical side in any meaningful way. Coding and engineering are vastly disparate disciplines that require very different training/talents. He really only has subject matter expertise in coding, and even then, it's probably been decades since he coded and much of what he knew back then is obsolete due to lack of exercise.

plus he's on drugs, and on twitter 24/7. we all have the same 24 hrs in the day. even if he were a genius, he simply doesn't have the hours in the day to be doing the things he claims.

it's the same as when people claim Trump's a genius. He was good at being a figurehead and lie about how well he's doing, and good at embodying what white trash thinks a billionaire should look like, but he doesn't know real estate in a meaningful way. He's not running numbers or doing any of the other stuff a real estate investor/developer would be doing. And now, he doesn't even develop real estate. He just licenses his name to a building and collect royalties and not get his actual hands dirty or put up any of his own money.

[Wizardspride]

Read on Twitter

?t=I1lcmnUUoddhaTpJYTb8fg&s=19

Read on Twitter

?t=eRgByaOGtlkhAKaI7kIUBw&s=19

[verbal8]

it's the same as when people claim Trump's a genius. He was good at being a figurehead and lie about how well he's doing, and good at embodying what white trash thinks a billionaire should look like, but he doesn't know real estate in a meaningful way. He's not running numbers or doing any of the other stuff a real estate investor/developer would be doing. And now, he doesn't even develop real estate. He just licenses his name to a building and collect royalties and not get his actual hands dirty or put up any of his own money.

I think there are a lot of similarities with Trump and Musk. They both are experts at promotion and not nearly as smart as they think they are at anything else.

[Zonkerbl]

I've said everywhere on my social media that Trump's idiotic tariff policies will nuke the stock market and push us towards a recession, although since we are a services economy the impact may not be super high right away. I don't know if I said it here but if I did - I told you so!!! Told my moms not reinvest any cash on hand she has right away until we see what happens but she was way ahead of me.

[AFM]

This tard is actually speedrunning a depression

[Zonkerbl]

SLAMMING THIS HAMMER INTO MY OWN HEAD IS NOT MAKING ME FEEL BETTER

I WILL GET A HAMMER THAT IS TWICE AS LARGE

https://www.npr.org/2025/03/11/nx-s1-5324639/trump-canada-tariffs-aluminum-steel

[dobrojim]

I wonder how the demographic spread of wealth of his supporters will affect how they will feel about
him trashing the economy.

I also wonder if the old adage about SocSec being the 3rd rail of politics is still true.
My personal belief is that getting rid of SS is a wet dream of uber wealthy MAGGOTs.

Depending on who you believe, his support has definitely shrunk. But that is
admittedly in the absence of a specified alternative they can propagandize against.

Many dems, especially Bernie, are drawing big ie full capacity crowds of very unhappy people.
Many Maggots are reportedly afraid to hold public events. In Wichita KS the Maggots themselves
held a pro-MAGA rally and it was reportedly overrun with anti-MAGA protesters.

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/trump-puts-u-s-at-risk-with-increasing-reliance-on-musk-and-starlink-234049093674

Can 2026 come soon enough?

Watch on YouTube

[AFM]

What's that word again? Schadenfreude?

https://futurism.com/elon-musk-freaking-out-tesla-craters

[Zonkerbl]

If you look at the one year history of Tesla stock prices you see that they were flat before the election, and then they shot up, peaking around December, and then when Elon got in and started, erm, doing stuff, interestingly the stock went back down to where it was before the election. You win some, you lose some I guess. But Elon is fine - for now. If I were him I'd be worried about spaceX going bankrupt. That company is not delivering on its promises.

[Kanyewest]

Elon could lose over $300 billion and he would be fine. Meanwhile the government is cutting $1 billion to school lunch program for kids.

[AFM]

Elon could lose over $300 billion and he would be fine. Meanwhile the government is cutting $1 billion to school lunch program for kids.

He certainly wouldn't feel fine. He's an egomaniac. He's crashing out all over twitter rn.

Read on Twitter

[payitforward]

I would not be surprised if Musk shorted a bunch of Tesla shares a few weeks ago. I.e., he may be making money on the drop in share price.

[bsilver]

According to Google you can't short your own company if you're an insider.
Investing in Tesla now seems very risky. There's a lot more competition. 2024 sales were down slightly from 2023, but the 3rd and 4th quarters were strong. Hard to see a Democrat buying a Tesla, but maybe they're getting a bump from well off MAGAS.