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Breitbart, other conservative outlets escalate anti-SpaceX campaign

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Re: Breitbart, other conservative outlets escalate anti-SpaceX campaign

#111

Post by InTheArena »

orblivion wrote: post #100
InTheArena wrote: post #83

Ron Paul and Rand Paul identify as libertarians and are as close to libertarian as the (R) party gets. Ron Paul has the added benefit of having wacky neo-nazi roots that he disavowed during the Clinton era. They loathe any sort of government investment. McCain is the only real conservative mentioned here. The alt-right has their true god (Bannon) and their lesser god (Trump). Trump loathes conservatives, and conserva…

The "god" of the alt-right is Richard Spencer. Granted the definition of alt-right has shifted around, but by the current prevailing standard among those who adopt the label and used to do so, I think it is strictly an ethnonationalist movement. Unless you're going to cite rumors about Bannon, I'd say Breitbart doesn't quite qualify. Again, forgetting anything Bannon once said about it being the platform of the alt-r…

Honestly, I can see that being the perception, but frankly, I put a lot more people into the alt-right category. In this case, Richard Spencer is the alt-right of the alt-right. The vast majority of Trump voters have or had no clue who he was. Spencer gains from Trump, and encourages everything he can to move to the right, and is gains the most from notoriety that the media gives him in connection to Trump.

Re: Breitbart, other conservative outlets escalate anti-SpaceX campaign

#112

Post by mustacheemperor »

danjoc wrote: post #76

Suppose Elon is a bad guy. What's to stop him from dragging a big space rock into orbit and holding the planet hostage in X years? Government will build in redundant checks and balances at extra expense. Corporations, not so much.

Yeah, the neoconservatives are definitely opposed to SpaceX because it rides against their love of government redundancy and oversight. I mean, what happens when Elon starts loading these rockets up with chemtrails, right?

Re: Breitbart, other conservative outlets escalate anti-SpaceX campaign

#113

Post by kortex »

marksellers wrote: post #90
mannykannot wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As you recognize the simplistic nature of labels, you should not be surprised when a group goes against type. I think the key to understanding the so-called neo-consrvatism is that it is not 'for' anything; rather, it is against a long list of things, and virulently so. They are conservative in that conservatives have generally defined themselves by opposition to whatever has been changing in the societies of their g…

And yet what I struggle most with is identifying who, if anyone, benefits from this. Who, if anyone, controls this. Or is it all just chaotic feedback?

My money is on chaos. You take all these powerful and/or power-hungry people, who all want their way, but they are also influenced by other movers and shakers to want certain outcomes, and soon it's one giant spaghetti strange attractor.

Re: Breitbart, other conservative outlets escalate anti-SpaceX campaign

#114

Post by sgift »

pault wrote: post #84
eli_gottlieb wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bloody hell, I swear we're living in the pulpiest political-thriller novel I've ever fucking heard of.

I don't want to go too far off topic, but every time I turn on the news lately I feel like I'm stuck in a dystopian cyberpunk thriller. Funny how we never got the flying cars and jetpacks from our 20th century utopian sci-fi, but the Phillip K Dicks and William Gibsons seem to be right on the money.

Cyberpunk promised us high tech and low life. Good job, we got at least one of these.

Re: Breitbart, other conservative outlets escalate anti-SpaceX campaign

#115

Post by mikeash »

PeachPlum wrote: post #109
mikeash wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I imagine it's because Elon Musk leans liberal (or at least non-Republican), and in particular is a highly visible crusader for action to combat climate change. The American right wing has decided that denying climate change is a core value, and trying to get people to take action against it is a mortal sin. SpaceX is not directly involved in that, but Tesla is, and I doubt places like Breitbart are interested in car…

Climate change is not denied. The human contribution and the potential consequences are considered still unproven hyperbole. The cost/benefit of doing something else is an ongoing discussion.

Climate change is denied. Human causation is denied. The damaging consequences are denied. The net benefit of mitigation is denied. All of these positions can be found from mainstream right wingers in the US.

Re: Breitbart, other conservative outlets escalate anti-SpaceX campaign

#116

Post by singletonbingle »

hawkice wrote: post #99
singletonbingle wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about Raytheon, Lockheed Martin and the other major members of the military industrial complex? Many companies get nearly all of their revenue from government contracts. In any case, they’re getting money in exchange for services or goods rendered to the government. SpaceX can at least claim to have provided a very valuable service, for a very good price. Compare with programs like the F-35, among many other cri…

So, I think it's pretty common to object to monopolies and crony capitalism with defense contractors too. The what-about-ism seems out of place when you're talking about something _people already constantly complain about_.

If every military contractor was as good as SpaceX there would be no problem. It’s not crony capitalism or a monopoly just because the government is your primary customer.

The military contractors (“defense contractor” is doublespeak like DoD) are actually bribing generals and congressmen while SpaceX competes on technology and price. They’re bringing the price down on space launches which is a major strategic goal of the US military. They’ve got some cool shit to put up there but a lot of it is not yet economically feasible even with their budgets.

Re: Breitbart, other conservative outlets escalate anti-SpaceX campaign

#117

Post by williamle8300 »

maxxxxx wrote: post #72

How can anybody keep reading Breitbart or other partisan sites? Are people so addicted to outrage that they want keep reading stuff that's obviously wrong if you take the time to check things for only a few minutes?

Breitbart is a bastion for free-thinking much like HackerNews. While you may criticize their opinions, it's at least sane reporting... instead of cheerleading and narrative controlling like CNN and NBC.

Re: Breitbart, other conservative outlets escalate anti-SpaceX campaign

#118

Post by williamle8300 »

laretluval wrote: post #62

Not a single link to Breitbart in a piece about Breitbart. Are they so afraid of the site that they feel they can't link to it? The result is I can't evaluate what they're talking about. What Breitbart articles do they have in mind? I found a bunch of neutral articles about SpaceX there, and this negative op-ed: http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2017/09/18/elon-musk... Is that what they're talking about?

This seems like slam piece with the intent to discredit Breitbart and dogfood it to the HackerNews/tech community. There's probably something going to drop really soon relating to Clinton Foundation, the "dossier", or UraniumOne that Breitbart will cover.

Re: Breitbart, other conservative outlets escalate anti-SpaceX campaign

#119

Post by jbattle »

mikeash wrote: post #30
marksellers wrote: post #2

This new flavor of conservatism is so strange in light of how bound to free market ideals most flavors of conservatism are. In general, I really quite dislike Conservative/Liberal labels as political stances are not two-dimensional, but rather multidimensional. Parties are loose alliances of disparate groups. And somehow there's this rising contingent of neocons, who also happen to dislike SpaceX. Does anyone underst…

I imagine it's because Elon Musk leans liberal (or at least non-Republican), and in particular is a highly visible crusader for action to combat climate change. The American right wing has decided that denying climate change is a core value, and trying to get people to take action against it is a mortal sin. SpaceX is not directly involved in that, but Tesla is, and I doubt places like Breitbart are interested in car…

This theory should be easy to prove or disprove. Just look for other corporations that make money from government contracts or benefit from government policies and see if Breitbart is consistently going after all of them.

Re: Breitbart, other conservative outlets escalate anti-SpaceX campaign

#120

Post by maxxxxx »

williamle8300 wrote: post #117
maxxxxx wrote: post #72

How can anybody keep reading Breitbart or other partisan sites? Are people so addicted to outrage that they want keep reading stuff that's obviously wrong if you take the time to check things for only a few minutes?

Breitbart is a bastion for free-thinking much like HackerNews. While you may criticize their opinions, it's at least sane reporting... instead of cheerleading and narrative controlling like CNN and NBC.

Are you kidding?
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