The entire point of Musk being so visible is to pin all the unpopular stuff on him.
this post was submitted on 21 Feb 2025
323 points (96.5% liked)
News
25269 readers
4241 users here now
Welcome to the News community!
Rules:
1. Be civil
Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.
2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.
Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.
3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.
Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.
4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.
Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.
5. Only recent news is allowed.
Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.
6. All posts must be news articles.
No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.
7. No duplicate posts.
If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.
8. Misinformation is prohibited.
Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.
9. No link shorteners.
The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.
10. Don't copy entire article in your post body
For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
It gives Democrats an opening - in two years, if there are still elections.
Why would Elmo care about his approval ratings? He’s not an elected official.
The last poll they cared about was in early November 2024.
Approval always matters, even without democracy.
Democracy is just a managed, fairly agreed upon process for a governed people to exercise their will. But a governed people always have the ability to exercise their will. Authoritarian tactics can make that more difficult, but they cannot ever prevent it.
Remember, if there was nothing people could do to stop them, their propaganda would not be necessary. The fact that they are engaged in information control demonstrates that they do very much care about approval - or, at least, acceptance.
Exactly, fascists give zero fucks about public sentiment once they're in power. All they need to do is control the media and polls will align with their goals again. Case in point is the renaming of the Gulf of Mexico
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-02-19/donald-trump-gulf-of-mexico-gulf-of-america
Edit as things are moving very fast.
Here's an even more boldfaced attempt at controlling the media. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/fox-news-newsmax-oppose-trump-ap-ban_n_67b85283e4b05145b9c53cce
The idea that AP is "radical left". LOL.
It’s a knee jerk reaction for many to want polls to still matter. Polls are important of course, but not this year and next year is uncharted territory.
The only thing to do watch now is the comfort zone of the 10,000+ people in the American billionaire families; and that is the only check in power right now
I'd be surprised if there aren't massive changes to gun laws in the next 2 years and a giant restructure of the military in the next 3 so that Trump or one of his cronies can still be in power in 5....
I'm wondering when private gun ownership will be banned. At the rate they're going it might happen within 6 months.
There are basically only two lines that this administration can cross after which it will be, to employ the vernacular, on.
- Cancelling retirees' social security and/or retirement benefits
- Trying to take everyone's guns
The major difference is that one those groups is preeminently equipped to make that process very difficult. I'll bet you can guess which one it is.
The one thing that every paranoid loon agrees on -- left or right -- is that the US government actually attempting to blanket confiscate guns is the 100% unquestionable and unambiguous indicator of everything going absolutely sideways. This is why gun bans have always been incremental; those in politics absolutely know that the end result of trying to do it all at once is only a guarantee that a lot of people get shot.
Watching all the rednecks try to reconcile that it is in fact Trump's gubmint that is comin' to a'take their gunz is going to be quite the spectacle, I'm sure.
The same 2a guys who cheered when Trump said take the guns first? Boomers who found out their precious affordable healthcare was the same as Obama care and still voted Trump twice... (X) Doubt. It's a cult only one way it ends.
The difference is all the gun totin' Trump voters genuinely believed, either via self delusion or with the assistance of right wing media, that Trump wouldn't take their guns. They made up any number of excuses to rationalize what was said in order to maintain support for their man. "He didn't actually mean it." "He was just speaking figuratively." "It was taken out of context." Etc., etc.
That will last only right up until he actually does this. Never mind that it's already too late in that they voted for him. I am predicting that exact moment is when the realization will finally set in. I'm sure many will probably also try to cope by trying to find someone else to blame. That won't change the fact that in the moment, regardless of the rationale, showing up in a uniform and trying to kick in a paranoid nut's door and tell him you're here for his guns is a monumentally stupid idea. The element of surprise will surely work in the feds' favor only until it comes out that the first gun owner has been killed as a result of a mass confiscation incident.
Both sides will ultimately and inevitably decide that "shoot first, ask questions second" will be the only viable strategy. Except it isn't, when both sides are doing it. The only winning move is not to play.
Death Cult gonna Death Cult
All gun control in the past has been to disarm marginalized populations and put ownership behind a paywall and within a national registry. I don't think they'll ban gun ownership for everyone, however I foresee ownership to be much more stringently controlled and for tax stamps to increase. Making it so that the majority of guns are still owned and operated by white middle to upperclass men, or private security and law enforcement that serve the wealthy to protect property and the current power structure as it stands.
Fascism rarely plays well with personal gun ownership. Trump has already floated the idea once, so he's definitely going to try.
Yeah I don't think either of them would care in the slightest about this type of polling.
Entirely predictable.
Trump was mocking the voting public on presidents day with that "Long live the king" quip.
That said, it's just bonkers that 40% of voters feel like things are going in the right direction. Honestly the whole thing is cooked.
That's the point isn't it? To pin polls on Elon.
Wouldn’t it be good news for trump if musk is tanking? Maybe he resigns and trump becomes president
How awesome would it be for him to get arrested and not pardoned because Trump blames him for tanking his poll numbers
trump controls the justice department in the executive, and GOP has firm control over the Judicial branch at the Supreme Court. Musk hasn't made friends of the GOP Washington power brokers. So trump could vindictively railroad musk through whatever remains of the justice system, and there would be no one that would stand and fight for Musk (except maybe Putin).
It might descend into one of those bizzaro world scenarios where "free market" Republicans call for and get the nationalization of SpaceX as a strategic asset (with its tight control of US military launch capabilities and Starlink network). Lefties would be uncomfortably cheering on the GOP for "seizing the means of production" in the form of Musk's companies.
As a lefty, no I wouldn't. If our government is a dictatorship, then this would hardly be an example of seizing the means of production, just a change of hands from one unelected dictator to another.
Still, funny mental image.
Trump love cannon fodder as much as Elon.
It's a good thing Musk wasn't elected.
For now, Trump is going through his honeymoon, although the polls seem to indicate that it is coming to an end.
I hope so…
With what he plans to do to the USPS, Medicare and Medicaid, and social security? It's gonna be nuts. I'm sure he will settle in on around 30%.
Those are the diehard until he comes for the guns.
If Trump destroys Medicare and Medicaid, I think Medicare for All could be put in place.
I am optimistic that this will happen, remember that Trump will be cursed by the second term, which will lead to many controversies. Also, the itch of the 6 years in which the ruling party normally loses seats in Congress.
The last time a president was dumb enough to try wide tariffs, republicans lost 55% of the seats they controlled in Congress. Like, that’s “pass Amendments” levels bad for Trump.
Welcome back 73rd, 74th and 75th United States Congress.
In case it ever happens
The polls mean nothing
47% to 51%.
HeS UnDeRwAtEr
MAGA will blame it on Obama.
Ketamine is a helluva drug
Numbers so low, Musk would loose Presidency