Summary

Elon Musk sparked controversy after criticizing U.K. officials on social media, accusing Safeguarding Minister Jess Phillips of being a “rape genocide apologist” and calling for Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s removal over child grooming gang prosecutions.

Musk also suggested “liberating” Britain in a poll.

Starmer defended his record as former director of public prosecutions, condemning Musk for spreading misinformation and fueling far-right threats.

U.K. Health Minister Wes Streeting labeled Musk’s comments a “disgraceful smear.”

    • FiveTimbers@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      14
      ·
      1 day ago

      I mean, there is more than 1 Mario brother. Nothing is stopping someone picking up the second controller and joining the game.

    • Podunk@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      34
      ·
      2 days ago

      He sounds like hes trying to demo what he wants to happen in other places. Normalise the conversation, break the standards. If its part of the dialogue now, it isnt that far fetched if it happens in the future. “We can do it too” “they did it first”

      Its not subtle. Its a game plan. Its disgusting, but that is exactly whats happening. Same as when he said that the king of england should dissolve parliament. That wont happen, but saying it out loud unfortunately gives it merit. If its part of the conversation, its going to have opinions. Opinions that used to be only said in shadows, can now be said in public. And then they can be pointed to as justification.

    • wurzelgummidge@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      15
      ·
      2 days ago

      He sounds like a twat who knows full well that whatever bullshit he spouts the toady, rage farming, media will be all over it like flies on shit.

      • loutr@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        1 day ago

        Oh he knows, he’s been doing it for a long time. Only this time he’s bought the US government, and spends most of his time with the president-elect, so these tweets have consequences in the real world too. He’s also perfectly aware of this, as is his buddy Putin.

    • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      edit-2
      1 day ago

      He’s a troll. Just a troll with hundreds of billions of dollars who’s somehow still a troll.

      I wish everyone would stop feeding him.

  • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    5
    ·
    1 day ago

    Any bets on how long until he tops this with a new, even more outrageous comment? It’s going to be right around as long as it takes for the media cycle to move on. Maybe he wants to nuke London now.

  • WoodScientist@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    34
    ·
    2 days ago

    No. No. Ok. I have a brilliant plan. Forget conquering Britain militarily. We will simply revoke The Declaration of Independence. The Act passed through Congress doing this will be called The Declaration of Dependence.

    We’re now all just in the UK, and we Demand proportional representation in Parliament.

  • sp3ctr4l@lemmy.zip
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    71
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    edit-2
    2 days ago

    Ok, so the anti-war Trump administration has now threatened to invade Mexico, suggested annexing Canada, purchasing (or possibly invading) Greenland, and now ‘liberating’ the UK… all before even actually starting its term.

    I am so very glad that reality is basically now a 16 year old ‘libertarian’ playing the US in some kind of Millenium Dawn derived mod.

    • dan1101@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      1 day ago

      Yeah is his game to scare countries with his rhetoric and then give them some deal that seemed crazy before but now seems more reasonable? Basically use the power of the USA as a bargaining tool.

      Or does he now think he is Putin/Hitler?

      Either way I certainly hope Congress and the military will not participate.

      • sp3ctr4l@lemmy.zip
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        edit-2
        1 day ago

        When it comes to foreign relations, yes he absolutely says completely insane shit with and then this sets the bar for where negotiations start, and then get talked down to something less insane.

        But also sometimes he just does completely insane shit, with no negotiations or after getting fed up with them very quickly.

        Does he think he’s Putin/Hitler?

        Yes.

        He is a fascist, a racist, nativist demagogue, has a massive cult of personality, lies so often, so brazenly and with such confidence that it is basically incomprehensible and unprecedented when compared to the history of American politics.

        He is a convicted felon, he attempted a coup, failed, got away with it because he won this most recent election, and because the Supreme Court, which he largely appointed, granted the office of President functional criminal immunity to anything they do while in office.

        He will begin his new administration by getting his overt sycophants installed in as many positions in all government agencies as possible, whilst purging anyone who will not sign an oath of loyalty to him, personally, or simply destroying those agencies he doesn’t like.

        Many, many times he has threatened to jail his political opponents, his public critics, to revoke broadcasting rights for news organizations that are critical of him.

        He has endorsed domestic terrorist groups, he has incinted violence against marginalized communities, he has enriched his personal wealth and the wealth of his family members directly via functions of the state…

        Yeah. He’s a corrupt, brutish fascist.

        Basically America is currently going through the rough equivalent of the Enabling Act stage of the fall of the Weimar Republic.

        The Congress and Senate will absolutely go along with almost everything he proposes, his party revolves around him, and it has majority control over both.

        Will the Military participate?

        IMO, basically yes. Trump will just keep firing and purging people until they follow his orders.

        We can pretty much only hope that he is not actually serious about these proposals.

      • Buffalox@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        21
        ·
        2 days ago

        I admit I suspected something like this already when Musk was one of the last to leave the Trump’s chief business advisory council, during Trump’s first presidency.

        I suspected many of the things about Musk that are now out in the open. Musk is a malignant narcissist like Trump.

      • entropicdrift@lemmy.sdf.org
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        14
        ·
        2 days ago

        Is it really that crazy? 2 sexual predators of the utmost privilege with an incessant need for power at all costs ganging up in order to screw over the rest of us for power and profit?

        • ddh@lemmy.sdf.org
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          6
          ·
          2 days ago

          This town’s only big enough for one of them. Fascists with giant egos can’t stick together in the long run.

          • WoodScientist@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            6
            ·
            2 days ago

            Here age is a big factor. If Musk is planning to try and seize real political power, he doesn’t have to ever challenge Trump. Implicit in their Devil’s bargain is the understanding that, in almost any universe, Musk is going to outlive Trump by a very long time. Elon need never challenge Trump directly, as he can simply let the reaper do that work for him. If Elon is MAGA’s heir apparent, then he can take over the movement after Trump is term limited, incapacitated, or dies.

            And don’t rule out the idea of Musk vying to serve as president himself. As he was not born in the US, he cannot be elected president. But in theory he could become Acting President, which in terms of powers is indistinguishable from being President. He would run two lackeys for President and Vice President. Musk would be appointed Speaker of the House. Then, once elected and sworn in, the two lackeys would immediately resign. This would immediately make Musk Acting President. The two lackeys would run their whole campaign openly announcing this as their intended action; they’re not deceiving anyone.

            And, as weird as it sounds, according to a strict literalist interpretation of the Constitution, the requirements of being President only apply to being elected President, not appointed by succession as the Acting President. In theory, anyone can be Acting President. If Trump goes for a third term, it would be through this mechanism. And that same loophole would allow Elon to hold the powers of the presidency. MAGA is all about finding weird legal loopholes to seize power at any cost. With a compliant Supreme Court in your pocket? Certainly achievable. The very bargain could be something like “Trump remains president until he dies, after which Elon takes the reins.”

            • Danquebec@sh.itjust.works
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              1
              arrow-down
              1
              ·
              edit-2
              2 days ago

              Wow! That all makes sense!

              Did you take those ideas from somewhere else, or did you come up with them yourself?

      • NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        2 days ago

        You’re very optimistic if you think these two are the top shitheads in the world. You have people like Assad, Putin, or the whole American military-industrial complex sharing this planet with us; the top shitheads of the world list is way too competitive for these two.

    • warm@kbin.earth
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      11
      ·
      2 days ago

      We need to restart the titan sub program, I feel like it has great potential. I mean, who doesn’t want to visit the Titanic?

  • MyOpinion@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    35
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    2 days ago

    Maybe South Africa can liberate us from this piece of human shit.

  • Cruxifux@feddit.nl
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    28
    arrow-down
    3
    ·
    2 days ago

    Hey America, NOBODY WANTS TO BE LIKE YOU

    WE DO NOT WANT YOU TO “LIBERATE” US

    WE DO NOT WANT YOU TO MASS EXODUS AND MOVE HERE

    LEAVE THE REST OF THE WORLD THE FUCK ALONE

      • Cruxifux@feddit.nl
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        7
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        2 days ago

        Well you’ve allowed your country to liken leftism to weakness, and expecting the rest of the world to deal with it. This one is on American leftists just as much as it is on your insane right wing group.

        • Soggy@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          7
          ·
          2 days ago

          Well I was born well after McCarthyism destroyed all semblance of good-faith discussion of leftist politics, and the current world order is not just America’s fault. Rupert Murdoch has been one of the most influential figures in that regard, his propaganda apparatus has pushed the entire Anglosphere right.

          • Cruxifux@feddit.nl
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            1 day ago

            Yeah, I’ll give you that. Dude did and continues to do so much damage, and organized propaganda is nothing to sneeze at.

  • octopus_ink@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    17
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    2 days ago

    You know, Musk is going to piss off the wrong powerful person at some point. Putin may be the window thrower, but he’s not the only state actor willing to get blood on his hands.

    • ALQ@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      13
      ·
      2 days ago

      I sometimes wonder how it must feel to go through your daily life knowing that there’s a large percentage of the entire planet’s population that either actively wants you dead or, if not, would celebrate (or at least not care) if you died.

      It can’t be a good feeling. I appreciate that. I hope it feels absolutely terrible.

    • shalafi@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      10
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      2 days ago

      Not inauguration on the 20th. Congress certified the electoral votes today, that’s all.

    • WoodScientist@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      2 days ago

      Specifically, the program would have to have a name that only a tech bro could love. So it will be called Universal Basic Ketamine (UBK.)