Elon Musk Demolishes Snarky Superior Editor of The Economist

The extremist didn't like being told that she's the actual extremist.

Elon Musk sat down with The Economist's editor-in-chief, Zanny Minton Beddoes, and boy, did she get more than what she was asking for. If she thought she could lob a bunch of accusations against him, and he'd just take it sitting down.

He didn't.

Instead, Beddoes got schooled, and the internet is still talking about it.

The interview covered plenty of ground, but two exchanges stood out as the moments Musk completely dismantled Beddoes' entire premise.

The first came when she tried to paint Musk as a supporter of Europe's "far right."

"You support not just the populist right, but the far right, in fact, very fringe parties in some countries," Beddoes said.

Musk wasn't having it.

"No, I support the normal people -- what do you call the far right, falsely," Musk said.

Beddoes pressed on, asking if Musk really believed those parties represented normal people. Musk's response exposed exactly how the media manufactures its labels.

"Yes, literally, you could go back 10 or 15 years, and these policies were completely normal," Musk said. "One of the tricks that I think is funny is to take a speech from Obama and Hillary, and then go to someone who's sort of on the sort of what I call the lunatic left, and say, 'What do you think of the speech by Trump?' They're like, 'Oh wow, he's the worst person ever.' 'Actually, that was a speech by Obama,' or 'Actually, that was a speech by Hillary.' Literally."

Beddoes tried to pivot, insisting she wasn't talking about the Democrat Party's leftward lurch but about specific figures like Rupert Lowe. Musk shut that down, too, laying out exactly what "far right" actually means to people like Beddoes.

"It's actually just normal people. And here are the principles -- tell me which of these sound terrible: That we should have secure borders? That we should have safe cities? That we should have sensible spending?" Musk asked. "Which of those three are far right fringe? I would like to just admonish you and the media for the absurd characterization of the far right. It is false and misleading and nonsense."

Phil Trubey @PTrubey

...

And then came the oh-so-typical, increasingly tiresome part of most long journalist interviews: the interviewer constructs a straw-man version of Elon and argues against it. Elon carefully explained that he isn't a raging far-right extremist, racist Nazi who kills puppies ... and the journalist still didn't believe it. It is so effing tiresome.

The lack of self-awareness on the part of journalists is off the charts. She complained about Elon's supposed misperception of how dangerous London is, while remaining oblivious to the role she plays in creating the giant misperception of Elon as a person in her own writing.

Elon defended his political views, saying he is for secure borders, locking up criminals, and balanced government spending, something even she had to admit didn't sound crazy.

And... that's about it for an 85-minute interview. I couldn't help but think that the next long-form interview Elon does should be conducted by an AI.

Is he right that if you go back 10, 15 years, you hear Democrat establishment politicians claiming (dishonestly) that they believe in border enforcement?

Well yes he is right:

It's not the right that became "far right." We stayed pretty much where we were. It's the left who became far left.

Here she berates him about his prediction that England is on a glide-path to civil war. See, Elon Musk hasn't been there in a couple of years, ergo his understanding of the rich and vibrant culture of the UK is way out of date.

On the other hand, she sees things perfectly, and the UK is doing just great!

When this greasy twat told him that millions of people hated him, he told her that millions of people hate her, too.

But she doesn't care about them. They don't count. They're Unpeople.

posted by Disinformation Expert Ace at 01:20 PM

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