Alexander III discovered that pogroms were a useful tool to deflect anger away from himself and the establishment and protect the old order. Musk and his friends are doing something subtly different: channelling fear of immigrants into rage against the establishment. Unlike the tsar, Musk doesn’t want to preserve the old order. He’s part of a Silicon Valley movement that wants to replace it.
It is useful to be aware of this. But those who want to preserve our imperfect system, where power and sovereignty rest with democratic nation states, not sovereign individuals, would do well to focus less on incendiary tweets. They should look to the real causes of unrest, the gaping chasm of wealth inequality, and figure out how to fix it.
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Don’t treat any of their arguments in good faith or you will end up with a trump leading your country, too.
Silencing good faith arguments surrounding immigration does cause riots. Riots happen whenever democracy fails. It’s best to allow the debates to happen, but draw the line at obvious racism.
Do you think Musk is making good faith arguments, and if so, what are they?
Don’t really care about musk. I think he’s a grifter. I got told once that the term “genuine concerns” when discussing illegal immigration is a “dogwhistle”. And thus that automatically made me a white supremacist or some nonsense.