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Comment by birdyrooster | Hacker News Reader

To require non-essential workers to go back to work right now is far more fascist than to require people to stay in place to protect their health, but Elon sees it the other way. He wants people to weigh whether their lives and their loved ones lives are worth being able to afford living in a society that won't give them a bailout because of scabs like Elon, only focusing on stopping the economic bleeding while humans are hurting in more profound ways.

We don't live in some utopic society where Elon gets a special authority to do whatever floats his enormous personal debt. Compromise is required. That means selling some TSLA shares to pay that debt so that you don't become a scum-sucking demon.

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You're responding to something he never said. He explicitly said any employees who don't feel safe coming to work don't need to.

Elon is a hypocrite on this very point. Any reasonable person would feel uncomfortable going to work. Elon goes to work proving himself unreasonable on the topic and then asks his subordinates to "choose for themselves".

People can read between the lines. It is an appeal for loyalty and I bet you he will reward those who respond and retaliate against those who do not.

Who's requiring anyone to go back to work? Nobody is forced to work at Tesla. Anyone who wants to continue not working is free to do so. Right now, nobody who wants to work at that particular plant is free to do so.

Actually, if you refuse to go back to work because of safety reasons in PA or IN, your employer will snitch on you, and you will not get unemployment benefits.

That's not the case in CA or at Tesla:

"First, I’d like to be super clear that if you feel the slightest bit ill or even uncomfortable, please don’t feel obligated to come to work. I will personally be at work, but that is just me. Totally OK if you want to stay home for any reason."

https://electrek.co/2020/03/17/elon-musk-tesla-coronavirus-p...

Next you're gonna claim OSHA is fascist, because they prohibit people from deciding for themselves which place is safe enough to work.

Libertarian nonsense doesn't even work in everyday life, let alone a pandemic.

> To require non-essential workers to go back to work right now is far more fascist than to require people to stay in place to protect their health.

How is that more facist?

I am reading the definition of Fascism:

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a political philosophy, movement, or regime (such as that of the Fascisti) that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition

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I don't want to weigh in what side of the coin I oppose, but your statement isn't making much sense to me, perhaps you can expand.

Case 1: Gov requiring citizens to stay home

Case 2: Gov r̶e̶q̶u̶i̶r̶i̶n̶g allowing citizens to go to work

Both cases are exercise of authority.

Edit: Case 1 is clearly fascist, and Case 2 is not.

Case 2 is "Gov allowing citizens to go to work"

Should be clear which case is fascist.

Good point. So Case 1 is more fascist, opposite of what the OP is claiming.

His argument is essentially that the lack of authoritarian control is less authoritarian than no authoritarian control. I'm not sure how someone holds such an opinion when its falsehood is self-evident.

My argument is that Elon has sufficient power that he wields against the interests of his employees that he himself is fascist. He is trying to override the policy of democratically elected leadership of Alameda County.

> My argument is that Elon has sufficient power that he wields against the interests of his employees that he himself is fascist.

Elon wants to open his factory. He cannot force anyone to work. He lacks legal authority to do so. If he opens his factory, then his employees may either return to work, or not. This is a choice that they will have to make. Nobody is compelled to do anything in this situation. This is called freedom of association.

And again, Elon merely wants to open his factory. But the government won't let him. So he tweeted his intent to move his company. This is called freedom of speech.

No matter how much it rustles your jimmies, neither freedom of association nor freedom of speech is fascism. Elon is not compelling anyone to do anything. He hasn't advocated compelling anyone to do anything. This is not fascism, not by any stretch of the imagination.

Perhaps you don’t read his Twitter but he has been advocating people there to do a lot. One of those things is to go back to work and open the country immediately.

He would fit in on Fox and Friends with dumbass opinions like this.

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