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82 sats \ 6 replies \ @kepford 20 Mar \ parent \ on: What do we think about Elon's recent comments on Stalin and Hitler? AskSN

He should have said,

"Stalin, Hitler, and Mao couldn't murder millions of people without their public sector workers."

These were some of the most evil men in history. He's letting them off the hook. That's a huge fail. This is the frustrating thing about Musk. He often is so close to getting something but misses.

34 sats \ 0 replies \ @stack_harder OP 21 Mar

this would have been the better quote, Elon isn't great with words though, he's like an autistic chainsaw

38 sats \ 4 replies \ @Undisciplined 20 Mar

My only objection to that phrasing is that it doesn't also make the point that the government agents are murderers too.

36 sats \ 3 replies \ @kepford 20 Mar

I mean... the way I read it... it does.

The real problem is blindness. Most Americans seem incapable of viewing their government as evil.

449 sats \ 0 replies \ @kepford 21 Mar

I mean, forget evil. That's putting it too mildly. They have a hard time looking at their government with a critical eye at all. They cannot be objective. All that needs to be done is to have a bad guy in the mix. Someone like Putin, Saddam Hussein, or Bin Laden. They turn into fools that suddenly are incapable of rational thought. Any criticism of the actions of their government is defending the enemy. Now, if you can get the Red/Blue thing going you can get them to be critical there but that's also a clown show. Its really quite interesting to observe. It works on the right and the left too. Trump has been able to move the red team on Ukraine but it only shows the mind control. I don't think most people that want to end support for the war in Ukraine actually understand how many decisions were made that led up to where we are today. Decisions that could have been handled differently. Maybe we would still end up where we are. Its impossible to know, but you can't even have the conversation because... its all "Russian propaganda". You know... history. Things foreign policy experts said in the 90s and 2000s. Things they predicted would lead to where we are. I guess they all just work for Putin.

Its quite fascinating to me. Its frankly depressing.

72 sats \ 1 reply \ @Undisciplined 21 Mar

I think it's easy to read without seeing much agency there. They're almost reduced to tools.

It's important to emphasize that the noble civil servants were the ones directly carrying out these millions of murders. That's definitely the point Elon's trying to emphasize: A large group of government employees is how you get the largest scale atrocities we've ever seen.

37 sats \ 0 replies \ @kepford 21 Mar

Indeed. He's not wrong there and REALLY that's the lesson that needs to be learned. In our times we tend to focus on the big bad man, when really the systems of control and destruction are much more dangerous.