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Commentary: How Elon Musk trolls Justin Trudeau

2022-02-19T08:38:59.993Z


It's no use: Elon Musk tweeted a scandal and everyone is upset, something to do with Hitler. How seriously should you take this?


Enlarge image

Look at the cell phone: Elon Musk at a SpaceX press conference

Photo: John Raoux/AP

In case you didn't notice, for example because you are in Brandenburg and Storm Ylenia knocked out the only mobile phone mast in the area or, for Vodafone customers, because you live on the northern outskirts of the city of Hamburg: Elon has once again released a scandalous tweet and many get upset (if they have access to the internet).

The core of the scandalous tweet that many get upset about: "Hitler".

This once again proves the thesis that one only has to wait long enough in internet discussions to finally end up with Hitler.

So the time was probably right.

Although, "discussion" is a bit exaggerated.

In Canada, truckers are currently protesting against corona measures, and according to Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, they are largely encouraged and financed by extremists from the USA.

That's why he passed a kind of emergency law that allows the authorities, among other things, access to financial flows.

There could certainly be a lot of discussion about civil rights or appropriateness.

The scandal!

The excitement!

In his scandalous tweet, Musk shared a long-circulating meme comparing Trudeau to Adolf Hitler.

Then everyone got upset on Twitter, outraged or enthusiastic, depending on the façon.

He later deleted the meme.

Here you are as a commentator.

On the one hand: A CEO!

A head of government of a democratic constitutional state!

And Hitler!

The scandal!

The excitement!

On the other hand: In terms of content, there is not much to say, the Hitler comparison is absurd and insults victims of National Socialism.

And Musk is a troll on Twitter, that's a known fact anyway.

One who feeds on other people's outrage.

Who uses such tweets for his brand essence.

Do you really want to do him a favor?

The content of such tweets is shockingly unimportant as long as everything is really scandalous.

The excitement that follows: wonderful for showing how much Musk is above the debates.

Also this time: things that trigger hatred are better remembered than those that trigger love, he tweeted a little later, asymmetry offers advantages in evolution.

So meta, so ironic.

And formulated in such a way that it doesn't even have to be part of it.

Stringency only limits you.

He plays it out with nice regularity and a colorful range: unfounded allegations of pedophilia, invitations to chat to autocrats like Vladimir Putin, the deliberate influencing of cryptocurrency courses, jokes relevant to the stock market such as taking Tesla shares off the market and attempts to protect the health of his factory workers in the pandemic as a »fascist« measure

to dismiss.

However, the direct comparison with Hitler is a new quality.

Is Musk actually oblivious to history, right-wing, authoritarian, unempathetic, a sleight of hand, or a risk to the safety of his employees?

Unlike other managers of his collar size, he speaks the language of the meme fan base, whose humor deliberately violates social conventions.

Unlike his colleagues, he apparently has no problem addressing the right-wing bubble in the USA, the Trump disciples from the alt-right movement, the QAnon believers - the borders are fluid.

This contributes to the normalization of these image worlds.

But he's so vague that you can't pin him down.

Quite a feat: for some it is brilliantly liberal, for others it is the ideological embellishment of their own impudence - one way or another, not a single Tesla is sold less.

Above all, it makes Musk's operations extremely opaque.

Because he often doesn't take debates that are directly related to his business seriously.

For the legitimate question about the water supply of the Grünheide Tesla factory, he only laughed, Brandenburg does not look like a desert.

So meta, so ironic.

By the way, you can recycle this text: With the next scandalous tweet that Musk knocks out and that upsets everyone.

Source: spiegel

All business articles on 2022-02-19

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