Posted on 12/15/2022 4:29:08 AM PST by MtnClimber
The hatred of the accomplished Musk and the worship of the hollow man Bankman-Fried are sad commentaries on how liberalism has descended into progressivism and ultimately into Stalinism.
Before the midterm November elections, Sam Bankman-Fried was a left-wing billionaire heartthrob.
He properly grew up on the Stanford campus, where his parents were well-known left-wing activist law professors. He went to a tony prep school and on to MIT.
Bankman-Fried mocked society’s bourgeois capitalist conventions by dressing and looking like a slob in cut-offs and T-shirts.
Indeed, he bested the nose-ring, Charles Manson-esque appearance of former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey. He outdid the all-black, Steve Jobs copy-cat get-up of another fallen leftist icon, the now-convicted felon Elizabeth Holmes of Theranos infamy.
The Left canonized Bankman-Fried for the hundreds of millions of dollars he created out of thin air and channeled to left-wing congressional and state candidates, Joe Biden, and a host of “progressive” causes under the cool slogan “effective altruism.”
For decades hence—or so Bankman-Fried promised—his cryptocurrency company FTX would churn out billions. Its politically correct gifting won exemptions from the Federal Trade Commission, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and Democratic-controlled congressional oversight committees.
The loud-talking, left-wing slob promised billions of dollars more in gifts to come. He was knighted as the successor to the kindred financial market manipulator and progressive “philanthropist” George Soros.
SBF may have been a sloppy, immature fool, but he was no dummy.
He had learned early on that loud leftist talk, big promises of philanthropy, and huge cash infusions to the media and leftist candidates—all under the veneer of “effective altruism”— ensured de facto immunity for his Ponzi schemes from both bad press and government investigation.
Then, suddenly, the midterms were over. Powerful financial interests were screaming their millions had vanished at the hands of SBF.
(Excerpt) Read more at amgreatness.com ...
Given a choice, the left will instinctively choose evil.
VDH ping
Which is why anyone not believing the left would tamper with elections to remain in power has an anal cranial inversion.
... The now albatross Bankman-Fried was loud and everywhere, then suddenly not—and won’t be again.
... In contrast, consider how the Left now despises Elon Musk as much as it once worshiped Sam Bankman-Fried.
Musk once mixed vaguely liberal politics with a David-versus-Goliath self-confidence, as he took on Big Auto and Big Space—and won.
But then he turned to Twitter and Big Tech. Or, rather, Musk realized Silicon Valley was no longer the irreverent embryo of boy geniuses he remembers from his youth, which outsmarted and preempted the global technology establishment.
Instead, it had become a dreary, constipated place of hard-core, uncompromising leftists in need of a shake-up.
... Musk’s crime was far worse.
First, was the sin of betrayal. A month ago, all those Teslas on the streets of Palo Alto, Austin, and Cambridge were virtue-signaling proof of green moral superiority. Then suddenly, these still wonderful cars are seen as fuel for the prince of darkness.
Really, really wish I could wordsmith as well as VDH does!
FR Index of his articles: Victor Davis Hanson on FR
Town Hall: Victor Davis Hanson on Town Hall
American Greatness: Victor Davis Hanson on American Greatness
His website: Victor Davis Hanson
Please let me know if you want on or off this new VDH ping list.
As a reminder, Professor Hanson has asked that we do not post the full article of his writings. Thank you for following the link to finish his article.
Ping! Out to the Victor Davis Hanson list
... The now albatross Bankman-Fried was loud and everywhere, then suddenly not—and won’t be again.
... In contrast, consider how the Left now despises Elon Musk as much as it once worshiped Sam Bankman-Fried.
Musk once mixed vaguely liberal politics with a David-versus-Goliath self-confidence, as he took on Big Auto and Big Space—and won.
But then he turned to Twitter and Big Tech. Or, rather, Musk realized Silicon Valley was no longer the irreverent embryo of boy geniuses he remembers from his youth, which outsmarted and preempted the global technology establishment.
Instead, it had become a dreary, constipated place of hard-core, uncompromising leftists in need of a shake-up.
... Musk’s crime was far worse.
First, was the sin of betrayal. A month ago, all those Teslas on the streets of Palo Alto, Austin, and Cambridge were virtue-signaling proof of green moral superiority. Then suddenly, these still wonderful cars are seen as fuel for the prince of darkness.
Really, really wish I could wordsmith as well as VDH does!
FR Index of his articles: Victor Davis Hanson on FR
Town Hall: Victor Davis Hanson on Town Hall
American Greatness: Victor Davis Hanson on American Greatness
His website: Victor Davis Hanson
Please let me know if you want on or off this new VDH ping list.
As a reminder, Professor Hanson has asked that we do not post the full article of his writings. Thank you for following the link to finish his article.
Great article , love VDH. I rarely disagree with him but ....
“No doubt he regrets the billions he paid for the overpriced, money-losing company.”
I honestly think he thinks this is the greatest money hes ever spent. He views this as good vs evil and the last chance to save this country from the cancer that is wokeness.
> “anal cranial inversion”
Likey.
I spit a portion of my Bewley’s Irish Breakfast tea through my nose when I read this sentence in the article!
“No doubt he frets that Tesla may lose sales once yuppies and greens trade in their Tesla amulets as if they were now some godforsaken gas-guzzling SUVs.”
You know, it’s no wonder psychiatry and psychotropic drugs are so prevalent in society today with the left in this country suffering from advanced forms of cognitive dissonance and moral relativism.
There’s a cure, but the cure scares the left more than their crippled emotional existence.
BKMK.
Heh, heh. Love it.
Actually liberals loved Musk (look at those millions of battery cars they purchased) until they didn’t love him.
That’s his problem right now. His customers are unhappy.
It’s a race between Musk’s cost cutting and loss of advertisers.
He’s obviously demonstrated that Tweater can run fine with a fraction of the original staff.
I think advertisers will inevitably return. Its a valuable space for them despite their phony pearl clutching. Not to mention i see alot of ads still from high profile companies. Rumors of Twitters demise have been vastly overrated.
This column is about SBF and Musk. It could have added President Trump also, as another billionaire darling of the left, until he wasn’t. Before 2015, President Trump was lauded as an international success. He gave generously to left wing people and causes, and chalked it up to the price of doing business. The massive Federal Leviathan took massively from both, and they refused to let it stop their dreams. President Trump’s dreams were here on Earth. Musk dreamed on Earth, above Earth, and on out into the cosmos. As soon as they both stepped off the leftist plantation, they became Public Enemy Number One. The Leftist Leviathan joined with famous Stalinist Hilary Clinton to dream up outrageous fictions, and the dutiful Leftist Drive-By Media fell right in line. For Musk, mankind’s journey to the stars has been slowed by the same Leviathan. The insanely bloated NASA had been pouring billions into the next Space Launch System (SLS), but had not ‘launched’ anything to do with SLS in decades. While the NASA SLS billions became tens of billions without a single launch, Musk single-handedly reformed and revolutionized how we leave Earth and reach for the stars. Long ago NASA abandoned reusability. It was / is very easy when spending other people’s money. Musk, on the other hand, used his own money, and pushed to refurbish and reuse as much as possible. The AMAZING image of two rockets returning to Cape Canaveral, and landing practically simultaneously is a video for all time. Like the Space Shuttle launches, rockets returning to Earth under power, to be used again and again, has become a monthly occurrence. I still marvel at it, but I know future generations will become used to this. In some ways I am glad, since it will mean our reach for the stars is progressing nicely. Until then, the Federal Leviathan will continue to hamper Musk’s efforts. They did not want his massive Starship initial launch to take place before NASA’s initial SLS launch, and piled on more and more requirements. I can envision a day when Musk is forced to take his business offshore. I hope not, but I would not be surprised. In the meantime, Musk will continue to drive down the cost of each launch as rockets are returning, being refurbished, and launched again and again. One first stage rocket has launched and returned FOURTEEN times. I believe the only reason it stopped at fourteen was that the Smithsonian wanted to display it.
We used to celebrate innovative and creative billionaires as Captains of Industry. Billionaires like SBF were lauded, until the money laundering replaced the lauding.
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