As Ukrainian submarine drones strapped with explosives approached the Russian fleet, they “lost connectivity and washed ashore harmlessly,” Isaacson writes.
This sounds like treason to me. This needs to be investigated, we can’t have a private citizen fucking the Ukrainians like this.
EDIT: Musk admits to it: https://sh.itjust.works/post/4649482
This is insanity… Is there even any precedence for a private citizen from an uninvolved (not directly, anyway) nation interfering in a war? I’m really not sure that it’s even been possible before… At least, not tothis degree…
If nothing else, I wonder if this admission could open him up to civil lawsuits from Ukraine itself - or individual Ukrainian citizens, if nothing else - as it appears his actions could be shown to be directly responsible for their death/injury?
The tech-genius of the 1920s was literally dining with Nazis during Kristallnacht. Charles Lindbergh, Spirit of St. Louis, airplane genius. First pilot to solo the Atlantic Ocean.
There’s precedent of popular figures in USA culture working with our enemies. Its looked down upon heavily, and there’s also a realpolitik angle (especially with someone as “heroic” as Lindbergh) where some people are kinda-sorta untouchable, due to being too popular with the American people. In either case, Lindbergh talking about (likely) American technology with the literal Nazis as they attacked Poland (well after they’ve taken over Austria, Czechoslavakia and re-militarized the Rhineland) is still worse than what Elon Musk has done here, IMO.
So its not unprecedented, but this is still bad obviously.
So I don’t know. Its definitely not a good look, but Lindbergh himself stayed away from the spotlight as it became more-and-more obvious that the Nazis were the bad guys in that war. Elon Musk is enough of an idiot that he’s doubling down on this, and the far right section of Republicans are anti-Ukraine to boot (top 3 contenders of Republican Party: Trump, DeSantis, and Ramaswamy are all anti-Ukraine). So Elon Musk has a lot more political cover than Lindbergh had.
EDIT: It probably should be noted that German-American Bund (Pro-Nazi political party) of WW2 era probably had the same amount of power as the Far-right Republicans do today, at least if we’re talking 1939 Kristallnacht days. So maybe Lindbergh had about the same cover as Musk did. Either way, this “problem” existed back then as much as it did today.
Wait bruh WTF. Nazis were that popular?
Anti-immigrant, Antisemitism, pro-European (German) political groups were reasonably popular in the 1920s and 1930s.
Fringe? Yes. But so are the far-right “Jews will not Replace Us” marchers today.
Upon the onset of Republican Spain, the USA’s official stance was to remain neutral and isolated despite the rise of Nationalist (aka: pro-Nazi) Spain in the Spanish Civil War of 1930s. It is against this backdrop that the German-Nazis were rising as a powerhouse (fighting in Spain, gaining valuable wartime experience), and spreading fascism across Europe.
While the German-American Bund never reached “mainstream”, the more “neutral” Christian Front welcomed the German-American Bund and joined forces as a pro-German political group.
In any case, the Madison Square Garden pro-Nazi Rally (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1939_Nazi_rally_at_Madison_Square_Garden) had over 20,000 pro-Nazis join, which is far more than the modern “Unite the Right” rally achieved. And remember, there were far fewer people living in the USA back then than today (population growth is crazy)
This shit has been going on for fucking decades. Just don’t underestimate the threat or undercurrent of antisemitism in our society.
Brother, this is a nation built on shipping slaves from African wars and toppling governments for Banana plantations. It is far from unprecedented for private citizens to do this shit. It’s frankly expected.