Math is hard for at least three liberals

[_Analytics]

I'm barely aware that the alt-right and/or man-o-sphere exist(s), and I'm sure I wouldn't know about it at all if it weren't for reading this forum. (Maroon Five and everybody associated with their 2017 "Red Pill Blues" album didn't either, apparently.)

I don't really care who uses the term, and I have a zillion things I care about more than Elon Musk. I did google "red pill." The first entry was a dictionary definition that said, "used to refer to a process by which a person's perspective is dramatically transformed, introducing them to a new and typically disturbing understanding of the true nature of a particular situation." The second is the wikipedia article I cited.

[_EAllusion]

[quote]I'm a little confused about your point regarding Musk's use of the red pill and the manosphere and a socialist emoji. He's clearly not anti-woman because he keeps getting involved with them despite some pretty insane relationships and resultant settlements.[/quote]

Uh, what? You think that people with misogynist views can't have relationships with women? That's all kinds of wrong. People with misogynist views still have relationships with women.

Red pilling evolved specifically from a supposed realization that it's a women's world based on a sort of pseudo-sociology developed from the pick up artist trend of the aughts in man-o-sphere online discussion. As the alt-right developed from a cross-pollination between man-o-sphere ideas in gamergate, white supremacists, and other assorted bigoted movements, it ended up taking on a looser association to waking up to "politically incorrect" alt-right "truths" about how the world works including all sorts of crazy conspiracy theories. So red pilling can also mean helping people "discover" what Smokey believes rather than its more narrow man-o-sphere sense. It now more loosely points in the general direction of the alt-right. That's approximately what it means, though there is some bleeding between that and conservative politics in general under Trump because Trump is an alt-right hero.

Musk has a Twitter account that his highly conversant in nerdy online discourse. There's zero chance, none, that he doesn't know what red pilling ordinarily means in this context. Either that's not what he means and he doesn't care that's how it would be (and was!) taken, or he's sincere.

[quote]He's clearly not a socialist because, well, there he is...[/quote]

I refer you to Grimes comments on socialism :). Maybe he's a socialist, but, like, not in an economic sense.

[_Doctor CamNC4Me]

I guess what I’m trying to get at is...what was the point of the tweet? What was he hoping to achieve from it?

- Doc

[_DoubtingThomas]

Uh, what? You think that people with misogynist views can't have relationships with women?

For you everything is misogynist. You think scientific theories and dating coaches are sexists. Misogyny in many cases is highly subjective. I am no misogynist, I stated many times that women in general are better humans.

Cause he might find the contrast amusing. So clever. Or it might be the fact that he sort of hangs out in vicinity of the Sanders/alt-light nexus (see our very own DT)

I was planning to vote for Andrew Yang before he dropped out. I am not die-hard fan of Bernie Sanders and I was skeptical of some of his positions.

seems to miss the point to discuss something he wanted to discuss.

So what else can we talk about? I won't waste my time talking with conservative idiots.

[_DoubtingThomas]

DT also edited his post that changed the content of what I was responding to

I watched the video a very long time ago, I had some false memory.

[_EAllusion]

[quote="Doctor CamNC4Me" post_id=1224972 time=1589919345 user_id=3779]
I guess what I’m trying to get at is...what was the point of the tweet? What was he hoping to achieve from it?

- Doc
[/quote]

Oh, I have no idea. Musk has been in a semi-melt down for a bit now, and there's a possibility he doesn't know. His Twitter responses are now an orgy of alt-rightists celebrating with memes.

Yesterday he posted "cancel cancel culture." Since cancel culture is a pejorative, it almost by definition sucks. It's like saying, "Don't panic." And while things that get routinely described as "cancel culture" is a mixed bag of things I disagree with and don't, you can't help but notice that the alt-right is obsessed with "cancel culture' because they hate the idea of social shunning for expressing bigoted views they like. So that just fanned the flames of the alt-right types responding in glee.

Whatever Musk is doing, the lack of "No, you got it all wrong guys..." takes some options off the table.