this post was submitted on 10 Mar 2025
1063 points (98.7% liked)

Technology

65819 readers
4909 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.


Our Rules


  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related content.
  3. Be excellent to each other!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
  10. Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.

Approved Bots


founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 48 points 15 hours ago

Look at that taxpayer money protecting all that private property of an oligarchy who is shitting on the working folk.

Cute little regime they got going for themselves

[–] [email protected] 56 points 17 hours ago* (last edited 16 hours ago) (4 children)

Something that isn’t reported enough is that Elon borrowed heavily against his ownership of Tesla to buy Twitter. It is thought that at around $100 a share he will be margin called which will mean that Elon will have to pay the loan back in cash immediately which will bankrupt him completely and enact the rage of his handlers the Saudis and Putin as they are the ones who drummed up support for the deal in the first place by holding a majority of the non-institutional debt.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 hours ago

I want to believe...

[–] cantstopthesignal 10 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

Russia does not give a single fuck about their assets getting burned. It happens all the time. It's part of their playbook to make their assets more and more bold.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 hours ago

They got more than their moneys worth in the form of the US crashing and burning like it is now.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

This sounds really interesting but I lack the necessary economics background to understand it. Instead of having to research for potentially hours, do you mind please dumbing it down a little for me? The parts I don't understand are "borrow against an ownership", "holding non-institutional debt". You don't have to of course

[–] [email protected] 25 points 15 hours ago (2 children)

The same way your mortgage is backed up by your house. If you default on your mortgage, the bank can take your house in foreclosure.

Rather than sell shares to raise the money, Musk has backed his borrowing with Tesla shares. Basically, if he doesn't pay back the loan, the banks get the shares. Unlike houses, shares can change value quite quickly. If the value of the loan exceeds the value of the shares, then the banks start to get VERY nervous. They will call in the loans to get what they can, before things get worse. This could crash the share price further, since they will want to offload the shares as soon as possible.

Musk is extremely rich. However, like most extremely rick people, his money is tied up in shares. If Tesla falls fast enough, he could end up owing more than he has in assets. As soon as his creditors pull the plug, he becomes bankrupt.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 hours ago
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 6 points 15 hours ago (2 children)

I really doubt that somebody will margin call one of the most powerful men in the world who is in control of the president of the United States.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 hours ago

That hinges entirely on whomever holds the loan.

If it was one person, then no way. But it's not just 1 person, it's more than 100.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/these-are-the-investors-who-helped-elon-musk-acquire-twitter-in-2022/ar-AA1pguJS

There are investment groups in that list, and ties to the Saudis and Russians.

The investment groups might be legally required to margin call if the stock price falls too far, but none of them will hold the full loan.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 13 hours ago

Normally I would agree with you but with how hard the current US administration is pushing Tesla sales I think they are legitimately concerned / there is an actual chance this could happen: https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/elon-musk/trump-musk-tesla-white-house-showroom-buys-car-rcna195905

[–] [email protected] 24 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

You don't buy a Tesla? Believe it or not, straight to jail. No trial no nothing.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 hours ago

Jail? Black van, troyka, firing squad.

[–] [email protected] 49 points 23 hours ago (3 children)

I think Musk is a red herring for the Trump administration to divert attention away from Trump. Keep the eye on the ball. If there was no Trump Elon wouldn't have this power.

[–] [email protected] 62 points 21 hours ago (3 children)

I don't agree.

These fascists are all following the political ideology and strategies laid out by Curtis Yarvin under the pseudonym Mencius Moldbug. He's been in the orbit of people like Peter Thiel for 10+ years and has been very influential among the tech oligarch crowd.

His vision centers around creating a tech-oriented monarchy for America. At the top would be the president who would operate more like the Chairman of the Board in a corporate structure. Rather than governing on a day-to-day basis, this President/King would appoint a CEO to oversee the actual management of government. That's the role Musk has taken on.

Trump appoints Musk to do the actual running of the country to accomplish what Trump wants accomplished while letting Trump seem above the fray (at least that's the intention, Trump is too incompetent to actually stay above the fray). Musk isn't a red herring. He's not diverting from anything. He's just the guy doing the job so Trump can go golf all day.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

This is it! I think the problem the are facing is musk thought he was way more popular than he was( started believing his twitter bots)

[–] [email protected] 5 points 17 hours ago

I do agree that he is incredibly detached from reality and probably overestimates his support, but I don't think that's a factor in what he's doing to destroy/fleece the government. I think he overestimated the competency of himself and the kids he's having do all the coding work.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 20 hours ago (2 children)

No corporation has ever been anything other than a dictatorship. They are the least democratic of institutions. Why do people think any differently?

[–] [email protected] 12 points 19 hours ago

Yo that’s the exact line of reasoning I used to get my dad to be more union friendly. I think it’s pretty effective.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 5 points 18 hours ago

The republicans have been obsessed with privatizing the world for ages

[–] [email protected] 12 points 17 hours ago

I think he's an easy target, and whether you think he's culpable or not, he's very visible, and taking him down in every possible way is a good thing.

[–] zarkanian 10 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

Kind of, but not really. It's more like Musk is doing Trump's dirty work for him so that when the shit hits the fan, he gets the blame instead of Trump.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 6 points 17 hours ago

It’s worse than that. Trump is a figure head, Elon is ceo and Peter Theil and his ghouls are board of trustees. Butterfly revolution, Curtis yarvin. State as a company.

load more comments
view more: next ›