Musk is a parasite on the American taxpayer: His greatest talents are in manipulating government investment, not engineering & tech. If the man on street —and the unemployed, Trump-voting factory worker of the popular imagination— are counting on Musk to move our economy forward, we're doomed anyway.

Buy the things you wanna buy: Skip the rest.

Whether you approve of Musk or not, these boycotts of companies -- if successful -- will hurt the little people the most.

I think people don't consider that.

I believe this picture defines Progressives pretty much damn well:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BMHzJj8CAAAIiLL.png

You wanna make some omelettes you gotta break some eggs. And as long as other people are making the sacrifice, that's just fine.

The priestly class rarely is called upon to sacrifice.

And whom is the priestly class? not you.

Maybe the next barista who quits at the Starbucks I used to go to won't be replaced partly because of me. But it looks like the espresso stand at the other end of the parking lot is going to need more help.

I personally love that every aspect of life is getting politicized. Why just the other day I was watching the superbowl and suddenly the Patriots had become a proxy for Trump and the Falcons were the opposition party, I mean team. I used to to be able to use sports as way to get away from politics but thank god those days are disappearing. Now I'm doubly blessed that shopping doesn't just involve price comparisons but now I have to do view point comparisons as well because so and so exec might have given so and so politician 100 dollars twenty years ago.

My favorite part of this ever politicized reality is white people getting back in the identity politics game. That worked out swell in Europe in the 30 and 40's. Hopefully we can completely balkanize the USA in a couple of years. Unity!

Whether Trump is the right guy to run the US or not, he is the guy in office. His job is to run the country.

And serving on an advisory council does not indicate agreement with or endorsement of his policies. It does offer Musk an opportunity, however limited, to steer Trump in what Musk feels is the right direction.

And Musk, having made millions (before he became a "parasite on the American taxpayer") is the sort of person to whom Trump is likely to listen.

Boycotting Tesla products because Musk agrees to advise Trump is nothing more than virtue signaling, ironic since owning a Tesla was once virtue signaling. How do these folks keep up with what is and is not a virtue when it changes overnight?

Hopefully we can completely balkanize the USA in a couple of years. ~ Shtetl G at February 7, 2017 10:36 AM

"E unum pluribus" - to paraphrase Al Gore.

> these boycotts of companies --
> if successful -- will hurt the
> little people the most.

1. The marketplace is not a social program. People buy and sell to get their own needs met. Interference has many names... Communism, fascism, and on and on.

2. There's never ANY enterprise for which one could not offer that same point. Yes: Little people always get hurt first, which is how you know they're little.

We ought not sustain huge evils to protect little people.

think about the little guy?

Nope, many don't think of that. They think their "principles" matter more.

Reminds me of that jerk who videoed himself driving through a Chick-Fil-A berating the hourly-wage worker about what a horrible company she worked for.

Unlike him, she was a class act and remained composed the whole time he was losing his head (and I hear he later lost his job).

I understand what you're saying, but Hollywood has become so radically liberal, talking down their noses at us and even supporting the unrest against Trump, that I'm going to continue my mostly-boycott of them.

Also, how do you respond when the head of a business says he or she does not even want your patronage because of your politics? Pepsico CEO Indra Nooyi (sp?) went on a rant against Trump after it was clear that he won the election. If I remember correctly, she stated that she did not want the business of Trump voters. So I decided to oblige her.

Later on, I heard that she was serving on Trump Economic Council, so at least she's working with him, even though they have their differences. So, I have no problem with buying Pepsi products once again.

Are we sure we want Elon Musk advising any president? As Crid points out, most of his business success post-PayPal has been due in large part to taking advantage of tax laws and government subsidies.

I like many of his ideas and hope that having a private space company and hyper loop company will divest us of the idea that the only way major civic projects get done is through the government. Although, it's a bit disingenuous of him to say they're being accomplished without government when without government funding most of his latest enterprises wouldn't exist.

His battery factory got massive financial assistance from the Nevada state government. His car company, on the other hand, is battling an entrenched government interest group, the automobile dealership networks. Solar City, Tesla, HyperLoop, and SpaceX have all taken considerable advantage of government subsidies.

As far as liberals boycotting Musk's companies, he's a liberal's wet dream. His companies are building solar energy networks, electric cars, and bullet trains - all things liberals want to spend massive amounts of taxpayer money building.