Thread by @PnictogenHorses

I'm sure that both Chara and myself have said, from time to time, that #conservatives have no real principles.

that's not entirely true, although the true principles of such evil men as @MattWalshBlog or @realchrisrufo aren't the principles they *say* they have.

~Mona

by "principle", I mean (roughly) any sort of fixed rule or guideline for behavior and decision-making that's held fast, even during times of crisis.

@realchrisrufo, @elonmusk, &c. are, quite visibly and obviously, people who espouse principles they don't actually follow.

~Mona

"free speech", for example, is meaningless from @elonmusk. it might as well be a slogan to past on bumperstickers, a catchy "viral" #marketing phrase glib in the mouths of @mtaibbi et alii, helpful for selling the gospel of #ElonMusk to outsiders. in reality he's a tyrant.

~Mona

it's fairly clear that *in practice*, whatever protestations to the contrary we get from @elonmusk, @mtaibbi, @bariweiss, and the rest of the #ElonMusk camp, this awful man does not in fact respect the principles of free speech or of liberty. he believes in absolute power.

~Mona

as someone with a firm belief in power and his "innate" or "genetic" or "intrinsic" right to wield that power as he sees fit, Mr. @elonmusk behaves in a chaotic, *arbitrary* fashion. he says things that he probably believes he'll stick to—then he says something different.

~Mona

and I'm sure that Mr. @elonmusk (not to mention his admirers among @mtaibbi, @Timcast, &c.) believes, fully and totally, that all these contradictory and whimsical decisions are equally "principled"—equally solid and trustworthy declarations of intent from the Great Man™.

~Mona

but to be arbitrary and chaotic is not to be *random*.

this is an distinction that seems to escape the "rational" or "scientific" ignoramus apt to tag along in the @elonmusk gravy train—@EricRWeinstein, say, or @michaelshermer.

"chaotic" and "random" aren't the same.

~Mona

@elonmusk is an erratic, *chaotic* person: he's grown up insulated by money (or at least massive amounts of borrowing) and extreme social privilege. he's in an elitist bubble and he gets to bounce around with a degree of license not available to many human beings on Earth.

~Mona

that makes him only *partly* unpredictable, however. @elonmusk and his #ElonMusk clown show still follow some rules, some guidelines—some *principles*, although they're not likely to be principles that anyone talks about TOO openly (e.g. all the rampaging antisemitism.)

~Mona

what #ElonMusk's principles might be is the job of journalists and historians and other professional persons to work out by sifting the public records of Mr. @elonmusk's destructive career on Earth. we must *infer* what they are, because he won't tell us *openly*.

~Mona

#capitalism has wrecked Western #journalism.

ageing boys such as @mtaibbi, @jbarro, and @MattZeitlin (and right-wing aspirants like @Timcast and @mtracey) form the class of "independent" columnists—fun-loving folks, void of ethics, drifting into orbits round the powerful.

~Mona

@mtaibbi and the rest of these people, who maintain an elaborate pretence of "independent" or "heterodox" watchfulness over the power of mainstream press organs like @MSNBC and @CNN, have a habit of allying themselves with political or corporate celebrities upon a whim.

~Mona

there's a lot of reasons why people like @mtaibbi end up in bed with catastrophic celebrities like @elonmusk, but the important thing is what this does to their actual "journalism": because they freely act as press agents to the powerful, they don't do any true reporting.

~Mona

if @elonmusk farts, @mtaibbi and a whole host of other "independent" press liaisons scurry around transcribing the fart into reams of "analysis"—one liter of #ElonMusk's flatulence can surely be transformed into thousands of editorials on Musk's unequalled inventiveness.

~Mona

the last thing @mtaibbi or any of these other "independent" and "moderate" and "centrist" champions of Western #journalism will *ever* do is question whether @elonmusk ought to be taken at his word. they accept he's a "genius", and copy that "genius" into print. job done.

~Mona

as a result it's been rather tough to piece together what @elonmusk *really* wants for humanity and the world, even though most reasonable and perceptive people have a pretty good idea already of what #ElonMusk wants—largely because all #capitalism wants the same thing.

~Mona

@elonmusk is both unique and nobody special—that is one of the fundamental paradoxes. you can be a unique individual, with traits not quite like any other person's on Earth, and yet...still act in a *standard way*. #ElonMusk isn't *very* different from (say) @BillGates.

~Mona

the details differ, but most of the really important principles (like the simple principle of dying with the biggest hoard of wealth, i.e. the principle of *avarice*) are _the same_ among @elonmusk, @JeffBezos, @jack, @pmarca, @BillGates, @melindagates, and all elitists.

~Mona

they've learned their ideas from the same limited source‚ for #capitalism has built a society with few principles and very few permissible dreams.

what those principles and dreams remains for us—all of us—to examine and study. we have been ruled by these awful people...

~Mona

...it's high time that we all figure out what *rules them*.

~Mona Drafter of Pnictogen

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