Following #Trump’s shameful #Tesla advert on the WH lawn last week, US #Commerce Secy #HowardLutnick used a TV appearance to urge Americans to buy stock in #ElonMusk's company.
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@emory @Nonilex Yes. He's a delusional bumblefuck who bought all these shiny toys other people made, and tried to profit from them. Now he's broken Twitter and Tesla, and SpaceX and his stupid Starlink project that he's using as a weapon against other nations are not going too well. What else will he destroy?
@thepoliticalcat @emory @Nonilex
The starlink-thing has me baffled. Who did he think would trust the thing once it was clear that starlink will be used for blackmail?
Yes, I know the answer is "because he is a fascist oligarch with no actual business sense who cannot predict obvious reactions from others due to his crippling lack of empathy", but somehow it still baffles me.
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@thepoliticalcat @emory @Nonilex
The starlink-thing has me baffled. Who did he think would trust the thing once it was clear that starlink will be used for blackmail?
Yes, I know the answer is "because he is a fascist oligarch with no actual business sense who cannot predict obvious reactions from others due to his crippling lack of empathy", but somehow it still baffles me.
@SuneAuken
It baffles me that, being as rich as he is, he wouldn’t have at least a couple of advisers who would game it out for him. -
@SuneAuken
It baffles me that, being as rich as he is, he wouldn’t have at least a couple of advisers who would game it out for him.@Remittancegirl @SuneAuken @emory @Nonilex Consider his upbringing. A narcissistic, delusional psychopath for a father, an equally narcissistic lunatic for a mother. He trusts no one. He doesn't even believe his girlfriend Grimes is a real person. Of COURSE he ends up using drugs to self-medicate. Bet he abuses alcohol, too.
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@SuneAuken
It baffles me that, being as rich as he is, he wouldn’t have at least a couple of advisers who would game it out for him.@Remittancegirl @thepoliticalcat @emory @Nonilex
Yeah.
"Like an earring of gold or an ornament of fine gold is the rebuke of a wise judge to a listening ear." Proverbs 25,12
I thik the failure is found somewhere around "listening ear". The best advisors in the world cannot advise somone who won't listen.
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@Remittancegirl @SuneAuken @emory @Nonilex Consider his upbringing. A narcissistic, delusional psychopath for a father, an equally narcissistic lunatic for a mother. He trusts no one. He doesn't even believe his girlfriend Grimes is a real person. Of COURSE he ends up using drugs to self-medicate. Bet he abuses alcohol, too.
You know, I have always been passionately and deeply interested in the psychological details of complicated, dodgy people. But recently, I’ve completely lost interest in it. I don’t give a fuck why he is the asshole he is. Much like Trump. I won’t give them the dignity of being interested in why they are the shits they are.
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You know, I have always been passionately and deeply interested in the psychological details of complicated, dodgy people. But recently, I’ve completely lost interest in it. I don’t give a fuck why he is the asshole he is. Much like Trump. I won’t give them the dignity of being interested in why they are the shits they are.
@Remittancegirl @SuneAuken @emory @Nonilex I used to read a great deal on the psychology of fucked-up people. People like Ted Bundy and Jeffrey Dahmer, et al. I really wanted to KNOW how people become evil.
I no longer care. I'm just hurt and furious that they keep hurting other people who have done nothing to deserve it.
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@Remittancegirl @SuneAuken @emory @Nonilex I used to read a great deal on the psychology of fucked-up people. People like Ted Bundy and Jeffrey Dahmer, et al. I really wanted to KNOW how people become evil.
I no longer care. I'm just hurt and furious that they keep hurting other people who have done nothing to deserve it.
The thing is… Ted Bundy or Jeffrey Dahmer are legitimate puzzles.
But Musk and Trump are not puzzles. They are so fucking banal. Arendt was spot on when talking about the banality of evil. These fuckers are so deeply banal.
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The thing is… Ted Bundy or Jeffrey Dahmer are legitimate puzzles.
But Musk and Trump are not puzzles. They are so fucking banal. Arendt was spot on when talking about the banality of evil. These fuckers are so deeply banal.
@Remittancegirl @thepoliticalcat @emory @Nonilex
I think you may have just given me a piece of a puzzle there. What I haven't been able to wrap my head around is how the charade can continue even as Trump's mental decline has moved fairly deep into dementia territory.
One possible thought is that there never was much there to begin with except a complete lack of shame, the hollow soul of a malignant narcissist, and a sense of entitlement so great it boggles the mind.
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@Remittancegirl @SuneAuken @emory @Nonilex I used to read a great deal on the psychology of fucked-up people. People like Ted Bundy and Jeffrey Dahmer, et al. I really wanted to KNOW how people become evil.
I no longer care. I'm just hurt and furious that they keep hurting other people who have done nothing to deserve it.
@thepoliticalcat @Remittancegirl @SuneAuken @emory
A while ago I gifted an Atlantic article examining #Musk’s #ketamine abuse.
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@thepoliticalcat @Remittancegirl @SuneAuken @emory
A while ago I gifted an Atlantic article examining #Musk’s #ketamine abuse.
@Nonilex @thepoliticalcat @SuneAuken @emory
I do think it is a distraction we ‘progressives’ have a real penchant for getting lost in.
We want to know why people are the way they are. But there comes a point where I think it is ethical to deny them the dignity of your curiosity.
They’re just monstrous assholes.
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@Remittancegirl @thepoliticalcat @emory @Nonilex
I think you may have just given me a piece of a puzzle there. What I haven't been able to wrap my head around is how the charade can continue even as Trump's mental decline has moved fairly deep into dementia territory.
One possible thought is that there never was much there to begin with except a complete lack of shame, the hollow soul of a malignant narcissist, and a sense of entitlement so great it boggles the mind.
@SuneAuken @Remittancegirl @emory @Nonilex Precisely. He's always been a vile, shameless narcissistic psychopath. But now, he's rampaging like a spoiled brat. He has nothing to hold him back. He is showing us the effects of dementia on an aging brain with no guardrails. Who is going to put a limit to his madness? He's surrounded by bootlickers and yes-men.
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@Nonilex @thepoliticalcat @SuneAuken @emory
I do think it is a distraction we ‘progressives’ have a real penchant for getting lost in.
We want to know why people are the way they are. But there comes a point where I think it is ethical to deny them the dignity of your curiosity.
They’re just monstrous assholes.
@Remittancegirl @thepoliticalcat @SuneAuken @emory
Agreed. Still, it is probably something more people should know about. The billionaire effectively dictating the government is out of his mind on ketamine most of the time, even when he’s not high on it, the effects of abuse have created paranoia & megalomaniacal delusions.
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@thepoliticalcat @Remittancegirl @SuneAuken @emory
A while ago I gifted an Atlantic article examining #Musk’s #ketamine abuse.
@thepoliticalcat @Remittancegirl @SuneAuken @emory
Just boosted the thread.
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@Remittancegirl @thepoliticalcat @SuneAuken @emory
Agreed. Still, it is probably something more people should know about. The billionaire effectively dictating the government is out of his mind on ketamine most of the time, even when he’s not high on it, the effects of abuse have created paranoia & megalomaniacal delusions.
@Nonilex @Remittancegirl @thepoliticalcat @emory
"it is probably something more people should know about" takes an early lead in the International Understatement of the Year Competition 2025.
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@thepoliticalcat @Remittancegirl @SuneAuken @emory
Just boosted the thread.
@Nonilex Thanks
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@SuneAuken @Remittancegirl @emory @Nonilex Precisely. He's always been a vile, shameless narcissistic psychopath. But now, he's rampaging like a spoiled brat. He has nothing to hold him back. He is showing us the effects of dementia on an aging brain with no guardrails. Who is going to put a limit to his madness? He's surrounded by bootlickers and yes-men.
@thepoliticalcat @SuneAuken @Remittancegirl @emory @Nonilex the more interesting question for me is: if these people are as incompetent and narcisistic as they seem, who is actually running the show? Who's doing the detailed organising required to make their rants a reality?
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@thepoliticalcat @SuneAuken @Remittancegirl @emory @Nonilex the more interesting question for me is: if these people are as incompetent and narcisistic as they seem, who is actually running the show? Who's doing the detailed organising required to make their rants a reality?
Honestly, I think we fantasize some all-powerful, shadowy evil think tank pulling the strings in the background. And ironically, there’s a strange comfort in believing there is any coherent direction.
But I fear this is worse. No one is running the show. The object of the exercise is to destroy the ’show’ completely, through absurd acts.
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Honestly, I think we fantasize some all-powerful, shadowy evil think tank pulling the strings in the background. And ironically, there’s a strange comfort in believing there is any coherent direction.
But I fear this is worse. No one is running the show. The object of the exercise is to destroy the ’show’ completely, through absurd acts.
@Remittancegirl @fishidwardrobe @thepoliticalcat @emory @Nonilex
If you look at that mythical Nazi-playbook, which led well-nigh everyone who played by it to a horrible death in ignomy, and think "yeah, I'll play by that one, it'll be fine for me"; then on some level at least you have to be pretty darn daft.
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@Remittancegirl @fishidwardrobe @thepoliticalcat @emory @Nonilex
If you look at that mythical Nazi-playbook, which led well-nigh everyone who played by it to a horrible death in ignomy, and think "yeah, I'll play by that one, it'll be fine for me"; then on some level at least you have to be pretty darn daft.
@SuneAuken
I don’t think they actually think about it with that much determination.I think two things are happening at the same time:
They are getting a great deal of transgressive libidinal pleasure in doing things that were, until very recently, out of the question and forbidden by custom and socially condemned. Like the Nazi salutes. AND, they are using their power to get away with what they can, for their own benefit.
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@SuneAuken
I don’t think they actually think about it with that much determination.I think two things are happening at the same time:
They are getting a great deal of transgressive libidinal pleasure in doing things that were, until very recently, out of the question and forbidden by custom and socially condemned. Like the Nazi salutes. AND, they are using their power to get away with what they can, for their own benefit.
@SuneAuken
Both Trump and Musk harbor incredibly deep rage at not being accepted as part of the elite, cosmopolitan ‘in crowd’. All their money could not buy them that status. Each in their own way, they are enjoying the ability to take revenge on those who excluded them in a myriad of ways.
