Elon Musk Says There is No Far Right

WolfGate said:

Elon is being intentionally obtuse and intentionally conflating what is happening now with what happened in the past. It's absurd, really.

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iarwain said:

I agree also. Left wingers always tell me the right has moved to the extreme, but I always say they haven't moved at all. Conservatives appreciate the traditional, it's the progressives who are always wanting change.

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• On abolishing social programs:
  “Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history. There is a tiny splinter group, of course, that believes you can do these things. Among them are H. L. Hunt (you possibly know his background), a few other Texas oil millionaires, and an occasional politician or businessman from other areas. Their number is negligible and they are stupid.” Goodreads+1
• On the need for social safeguards:
  In his 1953 State of the Union message, Eisenhower said:
  “There is urgent need for greater effectiveness in our programs, both public and private, offering safeguards against the privations that too often come with unemployment, old age, illness, and accident. The provisions of the old-age and survivors insurance law should promptly be extended to cover millions of citizens who have been left out of the social-security system.” OnTheIssues.org
• On the moral cost of excessive military spending:
  While not directly about social programs, his famous 1953 “Chance for Peace” speech warned:
  “Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.” note-en.lv73.net
  This reflects his broader view that public resources should be balanced between defense and social needs.
• dwight eisenhower quotes on social spending - Bing

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iarwain said:

Here's an article about a recent interview of Elon Musk by Zanny Minton Babboes. Babboes accused him of supporting the far right, but Musk said there is no far right really, they are just normal people. Because what is considered far right now was just considered normal policy 15 years ago. He said if you showed people old speeches by Obama or Hillary and said they were by Trump, people would say how evil Trump was. But no, those were speeches by Obama and Hillary, because that was normal policy 15 years ago. And Musk supports normal people, the people who actually make the country work.

https://thehill.com/policy/technology/5988652-elon-musk-economist-interview/

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iarwain said:

Yeah, yeah, we know you hate Trump, it gets boring after a while. For what it's worth, I wouldn't have picked Trump to be the leader of the Republican party - I didn't vote for him in the primary, but it turned out he was the only one who had the charisma and message to get the votes, and was probably the only one who had the courage to do what needed to be done (which was to quit cowering before the Democrats and push our own agenda).

Also, I don't consider any political candidates on the presidential level to be of high morality or character, so I had to vote on policy. I can't vote for a left wing ideology, because that would be against my own morals. Trump is not strictly conservative, he's a populist, but conservatives as a whole have not moved much at all in decades. Unlike the left, who are moving further and further left each year, at breakneck speed.

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WolfGate said:

Elon is being intentionally obtuse and intentionally conflating what is happening now with what happened in the past. It's absurd, really.

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iarwain said:

Here's an article about a recent interview of Elon Musk by Zanny Minton Babboes. Babboes accused him of supporting the far right, but Musk said there is no far right really, they are just normal people. Because what is considered far right now was just considered normal policy 15 years ago. He said if you showed people old speeches by Obama or Hillary and said they were by Trump, people would say how evil Trump was. But no, those were speeches by Obama and Hillary, because that was normal policy 15 years ago. And Musk supports normal people, the people who actually make the country work.

https://thehill.com/policy/technology/5988652-elon-musk-economist-interview/

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iarwain said:

But even now, Congressional Republicans have done little for us.

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iarwain said:

It's very clear to me that conservatives have not moved to the right much, if at all. As I said before, the whole idea of conservatism is that they resist change, and stick to tradition. I think when leftists talk about Republicans moving to the extreme, they are talking specifically about Trump, and most specifically THEIR version of Trump as an authoritarian fascist racist Nazi type. If you believe that (and I guess they do), then sure, Trump is at the extreme.

There also might be some movement to the right by our representatives, because conservatives have had a problem with getting their elected officials to follow their wishes for many decades. Most elected Republicans have been cowardly and refused to stand up to the Democrats, because the Democrats would threaten to call them names like "racist" or something. Well, no one wants to be called a racist, but the Dems have overused the word so much it basically has no meaning anymore. Democrats at least stick together, but Republicans have been mostly spineless over the years. Trump's greatest value has been his willingness to stand up to the Democrats and the left wing media - he has role modeled having a spine. But even now, Congressional Republicans have done little for us.

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High Fidelity said:

He isn't at all being obtuse.

It's correct what he said that things said by establishment Democrats like Obama, Hilary and Bernie within the past 10-20 years would now be considered 'far-right' positions.

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iarwain said:

It's very clear to me that conservatives have not moved to the right much, if at all. As I said before, the whole idea of conservatism is that they resist change, and stick to tradition. I think when leftists talk about Republicans moving to the extreme, they are talking specifically about Trump, and most specifically THEIR version of Trump as an authoritarian fascist racist Nazi type. If you believe that (and I guess they do), then sure, Trump is at the extreme.

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