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Comment by the_shivers | Hacker News Reader

What's the difference between far right extremist and center-right person?

One example: tweeting/retweeting debunked conspiracy theories, some of which Musk is forced to delete later due to external criticism and/or personal embarrassment.

In 2021, would have you counted “Wuhan lab leak” as a debunked conspiracy theory?

I would say that Musk deleting his own tweets is evidence that his conspiracy theories have been debunked.

Elon Musk's tweets on COVID-19 are that it's a conspiracy in general and will disappear in April 2020.

Which is absolutely a right wing conspiracy theory and fully debunked.

I'm not sure how extreme you realize Mr. Musk has been with his tweets. We aren't at Wuhan Lab theory here, Musk has tweeted much much worse.

I'd say there is a teensy-weensy difference between "it can't be ruled out yet, but there is no evidence" and "it's definitely the only explanation, so let's screw with any slightly chinese looking person".

Why would this be a signal of right vs left? If I tweet any conspiracy theory, that makes me far-right? Are all lemurians or flat earthers far right?

> Why would this be a signal of right vs left?

That wasn't the question. The question was, "What's the difference between far right extremist and center-right person?"

I made a specific statement of fact about the public actions of an individual. I'm not interested in, nor do I think there's anything to be gained by, a broader conversation about the boundaries of right ideologies in this context.

If this is a sincere attempt to seek knowledge I recommend wikipedia!

FWIW though, people who self identify as members of far right groups like literally neo nazis consider musk an ally. And I do trust their judgement on this one very specific thing.

You wrote an opinion, then refused to clarify when asked.

Yes.

> FWIW though, people who self identify as members of far right groups like literally neo nazis consider musk an ally. And I do trust their judgement on this one very specific thing.

I don’t like this line of reasoning as literal neo nazis also like Coca Cola, and democracy, and Barbara Streisand and many other common things. More information is needed and I think unilateral preferences toward Musk or anything else needs more clarification as to why before they are useful.

Stating that some jerks like someone isn’t really that interesting as it’s such a squishy statement. “Some people who are Nazis consider X an ally” (even though X has made no statements about or even explicitly denounced Nazis).

This seems like a way to throw shade at people without giving a real reason.

You've got an illustrative example and I think it points to something important about the moral rot that results from considering political positions as being at all related to consumer choices.

Individual neo nazis may enjoy the product coca cola, a preference completely orthogonal to their politics. They mostly actually don't like the actions of the coca cola company, they've "gone woke" eg have black and queer people in the ads. That individual neo nazi may decide not to buy coke then, a consumer choice informed by but downstream from their politics, and mediated by their preferences.

I hope you can see the useful difference between these distinct but related interactions. Neo nazis or anyone else for that matter may or may not like elon musk, or use products of companies he runs. And that may be partially informed by their views of his public actions. But by and large neo nazis and other far right extremists do see his actions as aiding their cause, regardless of how they feel about him as a person.

And those actions and their results are what I was talking about, not "liking" or endorsing or engaging with as a consumer choice.

Nowadays, nothing.

Hell, I've heard people refer to Bernie Sanders as too far right for them.

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