Vice President Vance on Friday chided European leaders for their criticism of Elon Musk wading into their elections, comparing Musk’s actions to Swedish activist Greta Thunberg urging American leaders to take action on climate change.

“I believe that dismissing people, dismissing their concerns, or worse yet, shutting down media, shutting down elections or shutting people out of the political process protects nothing. In fact, it is the most surefire way to destroy democracy,” Vance said.

“And speaking up and expressing opinions isn’t election interference, even when people express views outside your own country, and even when those people are very influential,” he continued. “And trust me, I say this with all humor: If American democracy can survive 10 years of Greta Thunberg’s scolding, you guys can survive a few months of Elon Musk.”

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    English
    17
    edit-2
    7 hours ago

    Funny how we don’t see much of her anymore. Does it has anything to do with the fact that she publicly made the link between Capitalism, colonialism and the climate crisis ?
    I guess we’ll never know !

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    English
    268 hours ago

    Europe didn’t have to survive with Thunberg, she wasn’t in the government and had no decision making authority.

  • @iAvicenna
    link
    English
    5213 hours ago

    ahh yes Greta famously known to spend a fraction of a billion to influence elections.

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    English
    15
    edit-2
    11 hours ago

    Bad headline: I already hoped they’d deport Musk to Europe, so we could have physical access… :(

    Getting back real, Vance:

    • came without a credible peace plan

    • read moralistic bullcrap about how it’s good to have your elections bought and manipulated (in the Romanian case where the court told to hold new elections - thousands of TikTok influencers and an unknown quantity of other actors working for a candidate who declared zero campaign expense).

    • proposed to Zelensky that Ukraine give up 50% of its natural resources for US support (Zelensky politely refused)

  • Stern
    link
    English
    5415 hours ago

    Greta Thunberg, famously in charge of… ?

  • @MuskyMelon
    link
    English
    7320 hours ago

    Hilarious that a teenage girl once terrified the upper echelons of right-wing politicians.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      10
      edit-2
      15 hours ago

      Yeah, how do you compare a 16yo (or however old she is now) girl with no political office to the president of the United States?

      I guess we can hope Trump ends up being as ineffective as she’s unfortunately been (I also noticed she’s been invisible in the mainstream media as soon as she started talking about Palestine. Same with Malala.).

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    English
    2418 hours ago

    Knowing how the right has characterized Greta, comparing them like this is a huge insult against Musk from Couch Fucker Vance

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    English
    1591 day ago

    How is that even close to the same thing? Greta pleaded with the people to think about their children’s future (and actively partakes in protests and demonstrations all over), while Elon is only looking to enrich himself.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      611 hours ago

      Greta snubbed Trump, Elon didn’t, so it’s obvious why Vance considers the one as evil, the other as a saint.

    • @iAvicenna
      link
      English
      4
      edit-2
      13 hours ago

      I mean even the moral aspect of their ideologies aside, one literally just expressed opinions as a form of debate whereas the other is spending hundreds of millions to sway elections.

    • AFK BRB Chocolate
      link
      English
      731 day ago

      It’s not the same at all, but it sounds clever, so the base will suck it up and repeat it.

      • @WhatAmLemmy
        link
        English
        331 day ago

        It doesn’t sound clever unless you grew up eating paint chips

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      3823 hours ago

      Okay but putting all morals, ethics, character, and opinions aside, looking at it completely objectively… its still completely different because we never put her in government offices and allowed her to make decisions for the entire country

      • @NocturnalMorning
        link
        English
        923 hours ago

        Yeah, but have you considered it from this angle? Elon Musk is a white straight extremely wealthy dude. Those are some strong qualifications right there.

    • @meeeeetch
      link
      English
      301 day ago

      She also asked that people do things that she specially could not do due to having no authority to enact policy, whereas Musk is interacting directly with levers of power (whether he has any legitimate/legal authority to do so).

  • ᕙ(⇀‸↼‶)ᕗ
    link
    fedilink
    English
    313 hours ago

    oh? ooooh? elon will fall in just a few months. man thats great news. i thank the jd mabeline model for this info.

  • umean2me
    link
    fedilink
    English
    3322 hours ago

    “I believe that dismissing people, dismissing their concerns, or worse yet, shutting down media, shutting down elections or shutting people out of the political process protects nothing. In fact, it is the most surefire way to destroy democracy,” Vance said.

    The jokes write themselves these days.

  • @oakey66
    link
    English
    601 day ago

    One person with no power vs one person with all the power.

    • Flying Squid
      link
      English
      514 hours ago

      I wouldn’t say she has no power. She has the power to constantly upset these assholes.

      Not even close to the same, but I’m glad she has that power.

    • @SLVRDRGNOP
      link
      English
      201 day ago

      This is a key difference.

  • @SarcasticMan
    link
    English
    491 day ago

    “If I can say dumb ass shit don’t worry I will say some even dumber ass shit.” - Assistant to Vice President Trump J.D. Vance.