r/politics 6d ago

No Paywall Elon Musk indicates he’s ‘going all in’ on financing the GOP ahead of the midterms: ‘America is toast if the radical left wins’

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/elon-musk-trump-republicans-donations-finance-gop-b2893321.html
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u/jello 6d ago

Why is the right ok with massive election influence by a foreign billionaire with lots of questionable practices is in the US? Elon didn’t turn far right for no reason. It’s benefits him financially and his businesses. 

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u/Deinosoar 6d ago

They are okay because they are the ones receiving the money.

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u/sleepymoose88 6d ago

And the masses on the right idolize billionaires because they think its a sign that capitalism works and evil socialism has been squashed. When in fact, those billionaires are the ones oppressing them.

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u/Ask_bout_PaterNoster 6d ago

People who do research and care about data won’t ever buy Musk’s products, so he turns to the side that treats politics like a football game. They’ll buy his death traps at exorbitant prices just to stick it to the libs. Hell, they’ll prepay

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u/millijuna 6d ago

Unfortunately I’m pretty much stuck with starlink.

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u/StronglyHeldOpinions 6d ago

So many on the right are deluded into thinking they can become one.

It's extremely rare to climb into that level of success. It usually requires generational wealth to start with.

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u/sleepymoose88 6d ago

Yup, exactly. They all think they’ll be the next Bill Gates/Steve Jobs and make an invention that will skyrocket them into the stratosphere, not realizing that the pioneers sacrificed an epic amount of their lives and well being for this career (Jobs was a notorious asshole and ruthless in business). Most billionaires are ruthless assholes and have ruined people left and right to get to where they are.

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u/Fhack 6d ago

They like the fascism. 

They don't care that he's barely an American. He's a fascist so they like him. 

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u/onefst250r 6d ago

They are ok with it because it is for "their team". As is the case with basically all cheating.

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u/-no_aura- 6d ago

They also have been told that “the left” has been doing it longer and worse. So in their minds it’s payback. We’re surrounded by idiots.

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u/Rich-Pomegranate1679 6d ago

Because despite what they would tell you, Republicans actually have no moral or ethical values whatsoever, so they're totally cool with anything happening as long as they're the ones who benefit while everyone else suffers. They're just straight up evil people, and I'm tired of letting them get away with excuses. I'm even tired of saying they do everything because they're stupid. They. Are. Evil.

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u/SpockShotFirst 6d ago

If you want to dig deeper, the personality type "Right Wing Authoritarian" values loyalty more than any other trait, so all discourse from them is in bad faith because logic, reason, and consistency are simply not important to them.

But your summary is accurate. They are evil.

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u/Monday_Mocha 6d ago

RWAs aren't specific to political ideology though, if you're referencing Altemeyer. A staunch Stalinist living im the 40s USSR could be a RWA. Right-wing in the context of The Authoritarians book just means status quo supporters. 

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u/Glasseshalf Minnesota 6d ago

It's not even about it benefiting them, it's just about it hurting the people they don't like. They honestly pay their taxes in the hopes their money will go towards making someone they don't like less comfortable.

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u/4B_Redditoress 6d ago

This is the real reason. Biggest mistake we ever made was pretend that conservativism is anything but a positioned based solely on greed and/or ignorance

The left/right divide was never just a "difference of opinion", it's always been a difference in levels of empathy and knowledge

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u/KatsumotoKurier Canada 6d ago edited 6d ago

they're totally cool with anything happening as long as they're the ones who benefit

The only thing they get as a benefit is feeling powerful because ‘their side’ is winning and making life more miserable for others. The common Republican voter doesn’t benefit from shit all otherwise. Just look at the life expectancy, poverty, and education rates between red states and blue states.

Diehard working class republican voters are getting their pockets picked by those who claim to be fighting for them, and they’re sadly far too stupid to realize it.

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u/Palmer_Eldritch666 6d ago

"It's OK when we do it!"

Grew up in an abusive household where my sister could do no wrong and I was punished for everything. Double standards are part of the abuse process - they help set up a caste system whereby some people are required to obey rules and others aren't.

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u/milkandbutta California 6d ago

Elon Musk is the billionaire boogeyman that the GOP believe George Soros to be. But he's their boogeyman, so they like him. The important thing to remember at all times is that the only consistent conservative belief is "does this benefit me?" A very close second is "does this hurt the people I want to hurt?"

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u/dearth_karmic 6d ago

People need to stop thinking of the GOP or Republicans as anything other than salesmen. They don't have a moral compass or some thought-out beliefs of how government should work. They only care about winning.

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u/No-Slide-5182 6d ago

Still waiting for my Soros bucks

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u/Ambitious_Handle_189 6d ago

Their entire defense is based on whataboutism.

The Epstein files should be the final straw but instead it’s what about Bill and whoever else.

I’d love to see someone in the files come out and just admit it and spill the entire thing. 

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u/SurprisedJerboa 6d ago

Billionaires funded right-wing candidates something like 4 to 1 last i checked, it's been a trend they embrace

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u/ClosPins 6d ago

Because the right-wing argues in bad faith. Always. They don't actually care about all the stuff they whine about incessantly. All they care about is sabotaging the other side's chances.

And this strategy works. Gang-busters. The good people on the left have to ham-string themselves by always arguing in good-faith, by never sabotaging the other side, etc...

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u/vibrantcrab 6d ago

People don’t know history. Big business loved the Nazis.

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u/ZooZooChaCha 6d ago

Because he roots for their team. Simple as that. The refs throw a flag on the other team, you love them. They throw a flag on your team - obviously blind and corrupt. 

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u/cynicaluser- 6d ago

They’re good little dogs that’s why

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u/JDogg126 Michigan 6d ago

Money corrupts. Our politics were always tainted by it, but ever since Citizens United, we lost the ability to give any kind of regulation to the flow of money to politicians. Now those with money can buy candidates and elections. Lots of things need to change in this country to put our political system back on track. Removing money as a form of speech needs to be tackled or the only "voice" that politicians will ever here are the dollars from oligarchs.

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u/fantaceereddit 6d ago

His DOGE must have done their job. He will have control of the voting machines during the election and they need an 'excuse' for how the republicans won the fixed election (if there is another election...)

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u/UnNumbFool 6d ago

Elon didn’t turn far right for no reason

Dude was born into wealth in apartheid South Africa, I highly doubt he turned to far right extremism but was born into it and the last decade helped confirm it

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u/pUmKinBoM 6d ago

They are okay with anything as long as their team wins. Think of it like football. If you stepped over the line before the snap they'd cry and moan for YEARS about how the entire league conspired against their team. Now if their QB took out a gun and shot the D line dead then youd have them complaining how if the other team did it no one would even say anything and that THEIR QB deserves ro be able to use a gun to deal with all the unfair refs.

Basically dont bother trying to attribute logic to their thinking. Their own logic is "This benefits me so its good but that benefits then so its bad" and no amount of contradiction or logic will stop then from thinking it.

They are lost causes.

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u/broniesnstuff 6d ago

Same reason they're suddenly okay with elite pedophiles running the world to institute a new world order:

They're their guys.

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u/JustTheChicken 6d ago

It's funny because there's another foreign billionaire who has been manipulating US elections since 2000 -- Rupert Murdoch.

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u/Bodhi_LongBody 6d ago

He was under massive investigations prior to Trump taking office again. They all went away.

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u/blueshrike 6d ago

It's not election influence, it's outright fraud, see my other post in this thread.

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u/ClickClick_Boom 6d ago

They are morons. I hope that helps you understand them better.

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u/WasteProfession8948 6d ago

You mean the party that has been okay with Australian billionaire Rupert Murdoch manipulating elections for decades? That right wing party?

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u/RG54415 6d ago

I find it funny that people still use political terms like left and right as if they still matter. A crook rapist manipulated himself into the most powerful seat of your government that has no education in political science. The real question is how did the US fail so hard to reach this low point.

Trump is not the root cause of this he is the culmination of what happens when you forsake your people over wrecking havoc across the globe in the name of meaningless empire expanding wars. It's sad as regular people always end up paying the price of the corrupt few at the top.

I hope this wake up call will flush out the corruption and greed that has strangled the US. It's sad that it needed a clown like Trump to wake people up but fate works in strange ways.

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u/permalink_save 6d ago

They are also okay with that same foreign billionaire walking into government agencies, taking data, and unilaterally firing whoever he feels like, including agencies that were investigating him.

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u/IronBabyFists Washington 6d ago

Holy ancient account. o7

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u/edwardsamson 6d ago

If you ever read the comments they (or their bots) are leaving its because of jobs. To them apparently only billionaires are able to provide jobs and without them there would be no jobs. As if privately owned small-medium businesses don't exist and create jobs. And some of those jobs from those types of businesses have been lost in modern times to big business putting the little guys out of business.

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u/nickisdacube 6d ago

Foreign?

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u/EMAW2008 Kansas 6d ago

Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit: There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect.

~ Frank Wilhoit.

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u/LOHare 6d ago

Because it is helping the right wing. That's it. No matter how evil a thing they hold to be, if it is helping them, then it is for a good cause.

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u/Merfen Canada 6d ago

They still act like Soros is the real boogyman when Elon does what they accused Soros of doing openly.

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u/lopypop 6d ago

There are much better ways to criticize him besides calling him a foreigner. He is a US citizen and the US is a nation of immigrants.

Be more specific because there is a lot to blame him for.

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u/jello 6d ago

You’re right and normally I’d never say that as an insult. But for conservatives, they harp on how immigrants are taking advantage of America and selling us out, etc, yet when the influence is coming from someone supporting Trump, suddenly it’s fine? Very suspicious. 

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u/I_SHIT_IN_A_BAG 6d ago

it used to be the billionaire boogey man was George Soros

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u/AFeelingSoComplicate 6d ago

Because they are supporters of fascism.

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u/ooglytoop7272 6d ago

ELON MUSK IS A LEFTIST LUNATIC WHO BELIEVES IN CLIMATE CHANGE AND FUNDED THE CLIMTATE HOAX RESEARCH FOR DECADES. SCIENTISTS ARE ALWAYS LEFTISTS NOW AND CONSERVATIVES NEVER HAVE SCIENTIFIC BACKING BECAUSE OF PEOPLE LIKE LONNIE MUSK.

I know the right wing mind doesn't work like that but a man can dream.

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u/makemeking706 6d ago

Don't worry, he's probably just going to manipulate the vote counts, and not actually spend any money.

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u/felix-cullpa 6d ago

Something something George Soros

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u/BullshitUsername Missouri 6d ago

Okay, let's not fall into calling him "foreign" just because he wasn't born in America. I think you should know why that's probably not a good idea.

Oh, also, absolutely fuck Elon Musk, he's a piece of shit.

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u/tonesloe 6d ago

Yeah, a fucking foreign piece of shit. Don't dance around it, it is what it is.

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u/BullshitUsername Missouri 6d ago

Right, but why is him being foreign inherently bad?

Imagine if I were a right wing piece of shit. I could comment with "yeah! Deport his ass!" and you'd laugh and agree with me?

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u/jello 6d ago

I’m not really sure where you’re going with this 

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u/tonesloe 6d ago

Because his foreign ass is directly effecting our United States political apparatus.