Elon Musk is a nice chap

[vk6zgo]

If you were more familiar with California politics you might not think so. It's a nutty place, full of paradoxes like that. California is easily the most far left state in the US, and yet at the same time there is that immense venture capital and the billionaires you mention. The thing is, there are multiple separate groups of people, not everyone in the state is on the same page.

Sure, but again, a state cannot be far left if it supports and embraces capitalism.  Which California very obviously does - to the great success of many living within.  It is absolutely bonkers to call the state far left, or even to associate this with its politicians (at least the ones in control, like the state's senators -- I'm not talking about some fringe party that has one or two seats here or there in some town council).

It is possible to be pro-capitalist and be centrist or perhaps centre-left on certain things, like gay rights for instance, but to be "far left" is to be "socialist".  That is literally incompatible with capitalism, as capitalism is the ownership of the means of production by private individuals (typically, but not exclusively, the wealthiest), whereas socialism is ownership of said means of production by the workers.  California has very few worker owned co-ops, outside of the odd random grocery store run by hippies.

This is I guess the paradox of American politics.  What you guys consider to be far left is something even European centre-right or right-wing parties support, and nobody outside of the US considers even mildly a left wing policy.

"Far left" isn't "to be socialist".
Baader Meinhof, & the Japanese "Red Army" faction who were around in the 1970s/80s are real examples of "Far left".

[vk6zgo]

That's exactly what the left do: work themselves up into a tower of outrage over dumb stuff because it violates their woke rules. They also loved Elon, until he bought Twitter.

Nup. Weird nerds, particularly libertarian weird nerds, loved Elon. People who consider him to be a lucky and clever fool were and are pretty evenly spread, politically speaking.

"Entrepeneur worship" isn't widespread in Australia---we've seen so many fail, or in some instances to be revealed as crooks.
People call it the "Tall Poppy" syndrome, but I believe it is commonsense caution.

[Zero999]

Calling California, the richest state in the Union and one of immense private venture capital and the home of many billionaires, an "anti capitalist" state... If that's not delusional I don't know what is. 

If you were more familiar with California politics you might not think so. It's a nutty place, full of paradoxes like that. California is easily the most far left state in the US, and yet at the same time there is that immense venture capital and the billionaires you mention. The thing is, there are multiple separate groups of people, not everyone in the state is on the same page.

"Far left" in the USA is "centrist" in everyone else's language.

Have you actually looked into some of the ideologies supported by the far left in the US, such as critical race theory? The idea of separating people into different classes, by race, is not a centrist position by any means.

[james_s]

Have you actually looked into some of the ideologies supported by the far left in the US, such as critical race theory? The idea of separating people into different classes, by race, is not a centrist position by any means.

They are absolutely obsessed with race, and more broadly, identity. The American political left is the epicenter of identity politics and political correctness. The right has its own different set of issues. Neither strikes me as particularly sane.

[james_s]

Your statement implied that others here who've supported him on his acquisition of Twitter love him, which isn't true. In my case it's not that I like Musk that much, but I disliked the old Twitter regime, which would only censor one side, more.

"The enemy of my enemy is my friend"

[james_s]

Sure, but again, a state cannot be far left if it supports and embraces capitalism.  Which California very obviously does - to the great success of many living within.  It is absolutely bonkers to call the state far left, or even to associate this with its politicians (at least the ones in control, like the state's senators -- I'm not talking about some fringe party that has one or two seats here or there in some town council).

It is possible to be pro-capitalist and be centrist or perhaps centre-left on certain things, like gay rights for instance, but to be "far left" is to be "socialist".  That is literally incompatible with capitalism, as capitalism is the ownership of the means of production by private individuals (typically, but not exclusively, the wealthiest), whereas socialism is ownership of said means of production by the workers.  California has very few worker owned co-ops, outside of the odd random grocery store run by hippies.

This is I guess the paradox of American politics.  What you guys consider to be far left is something even European centre-right or right-wing parties support, and nobody outside of the US considers even mildly a left wing policy.

The state is not a monolithic entity though, there are multiple groups with diametrically opposed views. It is ironic that so many people making large salaries working for tech companies call themselves socialists but it is the case none the less. My observation is that successful businesses exist in California despite the political/economic climate, not because of it. To a significant degree the presence of a vast amount of wealth (the haves) results in another grout (the have-nots) advocating for socialism and various forms of wealth redistribution. Back when Silicon Valley formed, the political climate in the state was significantly different. Now the state has placed many obstacles in the way of running a successful business but there is still such a big talent pool that it happens anyway.

[MK14]

[Breaking News] Elon Musk has confirmed, he's stepping down.

Elon Musk to quit as Twitter CEO when replacement found

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-64037261

[Ed.Kloonk]

[Breaking News] Elon Musk has confirmed, he's stepping down.

Elon Musk to quit as Twitter CEO when replacement found

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-64037261

Come back, @jack. All is forgiven.

Oh, wait..

[wraper]

Elon:

I will resign as CEO as soon as I find someone foolish enough to take the job! After that, I will just run the software & servers teams.

[tooki]

Have you actually looked into some of the ideologies supported by the far left in the US, such as critical race theory? The idea of separating people into different classes, by race, is not a centrist position by any means.

They are absolutely obsessed with race, and more broadly, identity. The American political left is the epicenter of identity politics and political correctness. The right has its own different set of issues. Neither strikes me as particularly sane.

Just to be clear, that’s not what the American left is interested in (nor are those descriptions even accurate definitions). What you’ve repeated here are the wildly dishonest claims the right makes about the left. If you actually look at what the left says and does, you find it’s quite different from what the right claims the left says and does.

Do fringes exist who focus on identity politics and PC? Yes. But they’re not in any way representative of the left as a whole.

As for CRT, simply ignore whatever the right has to say about it, because basically everything they believe about CRT is plain and simply untrue, both in its content and its reach. (CRT is a niche academic discipline, and is not taught or used in school at all.)

[tooki]

Elon:

I will resign as CEO as soon as I find someone foolish enough to take the job! After that, I will just run the software & servers teams.

WTF… What does he know about software and servers?!? And why would he even want to be in charge of that?

[wraper]

Elon:

I will resign as CEO as soon as I find someone foolish enough to take the job! After that, I will just run the software & servers teams.

WTF… What does he know about software and servers?!? And why would he even want to be in charge of that?

First of all he was a programmer himself, secondly Spacex and Tesla make their own very complicated software. Also I guess it's more like giving them tasks what to implement.

[wraper]

Musk found out Twitter was scammed for $60 million per year. https://www.benzinga.com/amp/content/30156187

Musk said that there are telecom operators who are not being "super honest" and are "gaming the system" to run two-factor authentication, or 2FA, SMS texts "over and over again." He added they created a zillion bot accounts to run up the tabs.

Musk told the team to cut off telecom operators with fraud above 10%, which "turned out to be 390 telcos" outside North America.

"We are going back to telcos," said Musk, adding that Twitter told operators, "if you stop scamming us, then we'll gladly pay you some amount of the money."
He said, "We'll pay 10% of the fraud, it's fine, but we won't pay 90% fraud."

[tom66]

Scammed for $60 million per year?  Remarkable if true.  We really do need to shake off SMS as a method of 2FA.  It's horribly insecure.

[tooki]

Scammed for $60 million per year?  Remarkable if true.  We really do need to shake off SMS as a method of 2FA.  It's horribly insecure.

How so?

[Buriedcode]

...secondly Spacex and Tesla make their own very complicated software. ..

Of which he had nothing to do with. CEO's do not make engineering decisions, if they do - they shouldn't be CEO.

[MT]

Musk found out Twitter was scammed for $60 million per year. https://www.benzinga.com/amp/content/30156187

Musk said that there are telecom operators who are not being "super honest" and are "gaming the system" to run two-factor authentication, or 2FA, SMS texts "over and over again." He added they created a zillion bot accounts to run up the tabs.

Musk told the team to cut off telecom operators with fraud above 10%, which "turned out to be 390 telcos" outside North America.

"We are going back to telcos," said Musk, adding that Twitter told operators, "if you stop scamming us, then we'll gladly pay you some amount of the money."
He said, "We'll pay 10% of the fraud, it's fine, but we won't pay 90% fraud."

Yet this fly to Mars brain chip'ed dude paid 44billion for a FBI/CIA/DNI entrenched company worth less then 44million!

[tom66]

Scammed for $60 million per year?  Remarkable if true.  We really do need to shake off SMS as a method of 2FA.  It's horribly insecure.

How so?

It's reasonably trivial to intercept SMS messages over 2G, somewhat easy over 3G.  Many phones use these (or fall back to them in case of weak signal).  Attacks have been demonstrated over 4G too, but probably not as significant.

Trusting random telcos to send SMSes out for 2FA also increases the attack vector.   Say you are Eve wanting to get Bob's 2FA code to log in (you can do a refused-reply attack on Bob's bank account log in page), now you attack the 2FA SMS service that Bob's bank uses, and you can obtain that 2FA token... then log in using Bob's session.  Hopefully that 2FA service uses an SSL API, but even if it does, you need to make sure that telco is secure.  And now do this for the hundred or so telcos you might deal with.  If the 2FA was done on the device, using an app, then it could be an SSL protected message sent the whole way, and you don't really care how secure the connection is because it is irrelevant if it is intercepted (more or less)

Also, many people don't hide SMS message notifications on their phone, so 2FA codes appear if the device is locked.  This is more of a user-security issue, but it would be avoidable if a push notification was used.

Edit:  It's also vulnerable to phone-number theft, and having transferred a phone number in the UK, it's remarkably easy to do so.  You just need your name and date of birth; for a UK company director, this is actually mostly public information!  (Or if you use Facebook etc...)  https://securityboulevard.com/2021/12/why-using-sms-authentication-for-2fa-is-not-secure/

[james_s]

Just to be clear, that’s not what the American left is interested in (nor are those descriptions even accurate definitions). What you’ve repeated here are the wildly dishonest claims the right makes about the left. If you actually look at what the left says and does, you find it’s quite different from what the right claims the left says and does.

Do fringes exist who focus on identity politics and PC? Yes. But they’re not in any way representative of the left as a whole.

What I describe is the views quite a few people I personally know hold, and they call themselves part of the left. There are two distinct factions of the left though, there are the old democrats, and then there are the progressive lunatics, the people that have resulted in Seattle's police force reaching critical staff shortages as crime skyrockets. I live here so I have a front row view of it all. These far left nutjobs have become more and more dominant. They are a minority, but they are a very, very loud minority. Both sides have these loud fringes, and both fringes wield an outsized amount of power and influence. I don't like either one. I've had to sit through mandatory training at work with people telling me I'm inherently racist because I'm white and other such nonsense. There is an official company policy that for every position we have to give preference to a "diversity candidate" which is just code for not a white male. It's not some made up hypothetical situation, it has crept into nearly all facets of life. Is this "left"? I don't know, but it's not "right" and it doesn't seem very centrist either.

[SiliconWizard]

Calling California, the richest state in the Union and one of immense private venture capital and the home of many billionaires, an "anti capitalist" state... If that's not delusional I don't know what is. 

If you were more familiar with California politics you might not think so. It's a nutty place, full of paradoxes like that. California is easily the most far left state in the US, and yet at the same time there is that immense venture capital and the billionaires you mention. The thing is, there are multiple separate groups of people, not everyone in the state is on the same page.

"Far left" in the USA is "centrist" in everyone else's language.

Have you actually looked into some of the ideologies supported by the far left in the US, such as critical race theory? The idea of separating people into different classes, by race, is not a centrist position by any means.

Yeah. It's an extremely common misconception though for people living outside of the US to think that the "american left" in general is what others call centrist or even right elsewhere.
Of course there isn't just one "left" in the US, but even so, this is absolutely not true. Maybe it somewhat was for the old democrats, but even democrats haven't been "centrists" for at least a decade or two as far as I can tell, they are clearly leaning towards the typical left ideologies. The race theory itself it not just a lunacy from the "far left" now, many democrats seem to embrace it one way or another.

[Wallace Gasiewicz]

SiliconWizard:

It's nice to know that someone in France is keeping track of the "American Experiment" which was really inspired by European Philosophy at the time.

I am not trying to be funny , I really think it is a good thing.

[tooki]

Yeah. It's an extremely common misconception though for people living outside of the US to think that the "american left" in general is what others call centrist or even right elsewhere.

Huh? It’s not a misconception, and it’s widely recognized by people both outside the US and within it.

Of course there isn't just one "left" in the US, but even so, this is absolutely not true. Maybe it somewhat was for the old democrats, but even democrats haven't been "centrists" for at least a decade or two as far as I can tell, they are clearly leaning towards the typical left ideologies. The race theory itself it not just a lunacy from the "far left" now, many democrats seem to embrace it one way or another.

Which “race theory”? Because the academic subject called Critical Race Theory is not in any way a  part of the Democratic Party platform. (Even though the right continuously lie that it is.)

[TimFox]

SiliconWizard:

It's nice to know that someone in France is keeping track of the "American Experiment" which was really inspired by European Philosophy at the time.

I am not trying to be funny , I really think it is a good thing.

The best early descriptions of the American Experiment are in the writings of Alexis Charles Henri Clérel, comte de Tocqueville (before the American Civil War).

[james_s]

Which “race theory”? Because the academic subject called Critical Race Theory is not in any way a  part of the Democratic Party platform. (Even though the right continuously lie that it is.)

There's more to the left than the democratic party, the party itself is split between two distinct factions, the progressive wing is nearly unrecognizable from the democrats of 50 or even 15 years ago. Being largely uninterested in politics and not a member or follower of any party I didn't pay much attention to the whole critical race theory thing for a long time, but then some state tried to ban teaching it and suddenly there was a big uproar despite people claiming that it isn't being taught and that struck me as odd. I don't know whether it's being taught broadly or not as it's been many years now since I was in public school and I don't have kids, but if it isn't and there are no plans to teach it as many claim, then why does anyone care if teaching it is banned? It should make no difference at all. Let the right wingers ban it if it will appease them, if nobody is teaching or planning to teach it then who cares.

[tooki]

The problem is that CRT is yet another invented bogeyman, another thing the right has invented to get outraged at. (CRT exists, but has nothing to do with what the right has their panties in a twist over). The thing that angers me about the right’s tactics, like with CRT, is the blatant dishonesty. IF CRT actually contained what they claim it does, and if it were actually being taught in schools, I might object to it too. But neither of those things is true, and yet it’s used to vilify liberals wholesale. Like… it’s one thing to debate real issues. But the right doesn’t debate in good faith, they literally call the left “evil” and then invent things to support their position. I won’t abide that behavior.