this post was submitted on 25 Sep 2024
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The poll shows that public views of Musk are increasingly polarized, with Republican support of the billionaire rising while Democratic support falls.

Elon Musk’s support among Democrats has withered to a new low as he has embraced Republican politics, according to a national NBC News poll

Only 6% of Democrats in the poll, which was conducted Sept. 13-17, said they had positive feelings about Musk, while 79% said they had negative feelings. The numbers were flipped for Republicans, with 62% having positive feelings toward him and 14% negative feelings. Independents were split, 31% to 36%. 

The poll shows that views of Musk are increasingly polarized, reflecting the transformation of his public image in recent years from that of an environmentally aware automaker crusading against fossil fuels to that of a conservative activist aligned with former President Donald Trump.

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[–] [email protected] 46 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (8 children)

Who. Fucking. Cares.

(Not directed at OP, just the idea of the survey in general. Who needed to know this information? Why do they think the public needs to know how popular a random rich guy it's.)

[–] [email protected] 44 points 2 months ago (1 children)

he's not a random rich guy and claiming that is either disingenuous or irresponsible. though i get the frustration, just because he's a demonic troglodyte you wish you never heard about anymore doesn't mean you get to ignore his existence. then they get to do whatever they want.

pushback, scrutiny and ridicule are the only tools we have against massively influential cunts. and because they're massively influential, their popularity matters.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 months ago (1 children)

There's also the fact that if people hate him enough and realise how genuinely stupid the guy is, they'll start wondering if the economic system that allowed him to amass the wealth of a country as millions starve might be doing it wrong.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago

even before that, if enough people hate him, his personal brand would become toxic and his influence would hopefully shrink.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Someone may want to know if you are a Democrat or Republican (for advertising, for gerrymandering, whatever). That person may not be able to ask you a direct question like that though (or may feel that you may lie about the answer to such a question anyway).

As such, they likely carry out occasional surveys asking people who are Democrat or Republicans for their opinions on something else. Once they find something else that can strongly correlate your political affiliation with a specific opinion, they know of a new question they can ask someone. That new question should generally reveal what your political party is most likely and they can then proceed with that "most likely" answer.

So "who cares" is those who cannot directly ask you something. They will ask you something else and use that answer to deduce the information they cannot obtain directly.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago

Makes much more sense. Thank you.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago

As I understand this "question by proxy" can be even more effective because people are less likely to lie about Musk than about their political views

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (4 children)

Considering how politically active he is, he might become a politician (even running for president?). A lot of people will care about this if suddenly Elon musk appears in American ballots.

EDIT: I just remembered that Elon cannot run for USA president. But idk if other political positions are open.

And seeing how trump can break every law, I don't see what would prevent Elon from running for president.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago

Become president/buy a president. Same diff.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

With our current SCOTUS all he has to do is sue then ride it up to SCOTUS and have em declare it unconstitutional to have requirements for office.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

would prevent Elon from running for president.

Not native-born though

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

That's kind of a paradox - we can't stop reporting actions of assholes like him because they do things borderline dangerous to society, but that exact reporting gives them the popularity to do all that

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago
[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago

Money is power. Rich people are more powerful than politics. We should care much more about them than we do now. Musk is dangerous. He's also visible and that's a good thing. The quiet invisible ones are even more dangerous.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago (1 children)

A survey conducted means someone paid for it. I'm having a hard time believing anyone but Elon himself being willing to pay for this survey.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Maybe someone on the board at Tesla demanded it when they gave him the money to prove he wasn't worth investing in. 🤷

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago

Pretty much every media outlet across the world.

The opposing party in the UK is electing leaders, and they've all been asked what they think of him. Like it or not, but in turning one of the biggest multi-billion dollar social media platforms into a small million dollar right-wing platform for crypto bots, he's now got a lot of influence on politics across the world.

What makes it funnier is that he probably doesn't give a fuck about the Tories in the UK, but if Trump loses he'll own a right-wing platform with zero influence on what he cares about.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

It's not for us, it is for him.

He really cares how popular he is, that is why he is buying all these popular businesses to pretend he founded them.