Enough Musk Spam
For those that have had enough of the Elon Musk worship online.
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Did he deserve it? Yes. Would it be democratic? No.
You don't see the problem with that? Democracies have no real protection against something like that because it would go against the basic idea of democracy.
No matter who it is or what the person has done... in a democracy you can't simply suspend democratic rights for that person.
I see your point. But this is something else and has a lot to do with lack of democracy to begin with. Elon Musk is/was above the law which is undemocratic in itself. He was never elected by anyone, yet wielded enormous power over the government and damaged the institutions. All this while not even having US citizenship.
To be clear, I'm not rooting for Trump or Bannon, those are traitors and grifters who sell the country for their own profit. Nobody should be above the law and those people should face consequences for their actions in a democracy. So, if you want to strengthen democracy it might be a good idea to start by fighting against the people who are willfully and deliberately destroying it, instead of defending them. That's my take.
America has not been a real democracy since Trump's first term. Where a lot of people have already been replaced. Biden's efforts, which would have been for the people, were all blocked and with the pandemic there were further restrictions. Perfect pawn sacrifice. Especially as the accusations were already being made while they were being blocked at the same time... So in the second election, when terrorist acts such as January 6th had already been going on for a long time... there was not a single accusation of election manipulation although it was so obviously manipulated and was an absolute farce... Trump wasn't elected legally either... the law, i.e. the courts etc. didn't do their job either otherwise he would have been in jail long before that... Neither of them were elected...
So regarding Musk... democratically would be e.g. life imprisonment in security custody in addition of course a complete expropriation of all property... which would remain in state hands and would be used for the benefit of the people. So not profit-oriented like private companies... ( I know thats dreaming )
Democracies do have plenty of possible protections. It's just that human nature allows for fallacies like of "once elected leader, always true leader" or, the same, "once captured a market honestly, always a deserved monopoly". Also human nature allows for another fallacy, that being able to threaten "bad" people is beneficial for "good" people. It's not. Any mechanism of threatening people with, say, deportation is not a weapon in the hand of some "good" group, it's a weapon in the hand of anyone who captures it, and its real state and ownership is always unclear.
It's very simple theoretically to defend a democracy, make it so that even a person publicly insulting mothers and sisters of all his compatriots would be completely safe (except for being ignored by some of their acquaintances), and that a person committing the worst imaginable crime could be certain they'll live in prison like Anders Brejvik at worst. No ape vengeance.
One good trait of rules is that they, when followed, work with clear limitations and verification, and that they don't require keeping anyone in fear. A means to keep one man in fear are the same as means to keep a land in fear.
Fear is not only the mind killer, it also kills the dignity of those relying on it for their safety.
It's very simple, don't fear and don't try to keep others in fear. When these are fulfilled for you as a thought experiment, you might notice some glaring flaws in the modern societies that you don't see when thinking inside right\left or libertarian\authoritarian or liberal\conservative categories.
A Lebanese doctoral student has no fans, so when ICE comes for her people don't get angry.
But if ICE comes for Musk then his millions of followers will be quite engaged.
So while I absolutely agree with you, I'm quite happy for Musk to be a sacrificial lamb in this case. The fact that he's an asshole makes it easier to accept.
I should have expressed myself differently. My argument was from a democratic point of view. But the USA is definitely no longer a democracy.
My personal opinion: I really wish Trump and Musk the worst and would celebrate if they were both executed. Whether by justice or vigilante justice doesn't matter.
It wouldn't harm the idea of democracy because democracy has to be rebuilt first.
While I can appreciate the cynicism "democracy" is a spectrum, not a boolean. It's certainly less democratic now since they have a dictator in charge. But the system is large and while he has captured a tremendous amount of federal power the states still have quite a bit of autonomy (yes yes, I hear your "for now" rebuke).
All the fired employees (who can't even be rehired because their data has been deleted), January 6..., election manipulation, taking office despite criminal offenses, ICE, replacing all the leadership positions, market manipulation, announcement of war, announcement of war against allies... But you could also ask the people who died as a result of the change.... if they still had the freedom to speak... No, it's no longer a democracy...