Vance: If US survived Greta Thunberg, Europe ‘can survive a few months of Elon Musk’ (thehill.com)
from SLVRDRGN@lemmy.world to world@lemmy.world on 14 Feb 2025 20:23
https://lemmy.world/post/25575327

Vice President Vance on Friday chided European leaders for their criticism of Elon Musk wading into their elections, comparing Musk’s actions to Swedish activist Greta Thunberg urging American leaders to take action on climate change.

“I believe that dismissing people, dismissing their concerns, or worse yet, shutting down media, shutting down elections or shutting people out of the political process protects nothing. In fact, it is the most surefire way to destroy democracy,” Vance said.

“And speaking up and expressing opinions isn’t election interference, even when people express views outside your own country, and even when those people are very influential,” he continued. “And trust me, I say this with all humor: If American democracy can survive 10 years of Greta Thunberg’s scolding, you guys can survive a few months of Elon Musk.”

#world

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SarcasticMan@lemmy.world on 14 Feb 2025 20:29 next collapse

“If I can say dumb ass shit don’t worry I will say some even dumber ass shit.” - Assistant to Vice President Trump J.D. Vance.

DharkStare@lemmy.world on 14 Feb 2025 20:45 collapse

I need you to rephrase all news to make it not so depressing.

madame_gaymes@programming.dev on 14 Feb 2025 22:16 collapse
lka1988@sh.itjust.works on 14 Feb 2025 20:37 next collapse

How is that even close to the same thing? Greta pleaded with the people to think about their children’s future (and actively partakes in protests and demonstrations all over), while Elon is only looking to enrich himself.

AFKBRBChocolate@lemmy.world on 14 Feb 2025 20:49 next collapse

It’s not the same at all, but it sounds clever, so the base will suck it up and repeat it.

WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.world on 14 Feb 2025 21:38 collapse

It doesn’t sound clever unless you grew up eating paint chips

LadyMeow@lemmy.blahaj.zone on 14 Feb 2025 21:46 collapse

Conveniently, the paint chip eaters are running the show right now!

sensiblepuffin@lemmy.funami.tech on 15 Feb 2025 23:54 collapse

Even worse. The paint chip eaters voted their manufacturers into office.

meeeeetch@lemmy.world on 14 Feb 2025 21:01 next collapse

She also asked that people do things that she specially could not do due to having no authority to enact policy, whereas Musk is interacting directly with levers of power (whether he has any legitimate/legal authority to do so).

Reverendender@sh.itjust.works on 14 Feb 2025 21:14 next collapse

He definitely needs more riches, for that thing he can’t yet afford.

DrDeadCrash@programming.dev on 14 Feb 2025 21:38 collapse

It’s a sickness, they can’t stop themselves.

xmunk@sh.itjust.works on 14 Feb 2025 21:39 next collapse

False equivalency is a celebrated fascist pastime.

QuantumSparkles@sh.itjust.works on 14 Feb 2025 22:28 next collapse

Okay but putting all morals, ethics, character, and opinions aside, looking at it completely objectively… its still completely different because we never put her in government offices and allowed her to make decisions for the entire country

NocturnalMorning@lemmy.world on 14 Feb 2025 23:08 collapse

Yeah, but have you considered it from this angle? Elon Musk is a white straight extremely wealthy dude. Those are some strong qualifications right there.

lka1988@sh.itjust.works on 15 Feb 2025 07:16 collapse

IDK, sounds like DEI to me

NocturnalMorning@lemmy.world on 15 Feb 2025 18:27 collapse

No, you see, white rich straight men are oppressed and need the extra boost.

jonne@infosec.pub on 15 Feb 2025 06:35 next collapse

Elon is also thinking about the children, in particular how they should all be white.

iAvicenna@lemmy.world on 15 Feb 2025 08:51 next collapse

I mean even the moral aspect of their ideologies aside, one literally just expressed opinions as a form of debate whereas the other is spending hundreds of millions to sway elections.

barsoap@lemm.ee on 15 Feb 2025 11:24 collapse

Greta snubbed Trump, Elon didn’t, so it’s obvious why Vance considers the one as evil, the other as a saint.

Naich@lemmings.world on 14 Feb 2025 20:50 next collapse

It’s Vance’s turn to say the stupid shit today then.

FlyingSquid@lemmy.world on 15 Feb 2025 11:54 collapse

To you and to me, it’s stupid. To the people he wants to influence, it’s red meat.

oakey66@lemmy.world on 14 Feb 2025 20:59 next collapse

One person with no power vs one person with all the power.

SLVRDRGN@lemmy.world on 14 Feb 2025 21:01 next collapse

This is a key difference.

FlyingSquid@lemmy.world on 15 Feb 2025 07:36 collapse

I wouldn’t say she has no power. She has the power to constantly upset these assholes.

Not even close to the same, but I’m glad she has that power.

gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works on 14 Feb 2025 21:02 next collapse

What the fuck does that statement even mean

BenLeMan@lemmy.world on 15 Feb 2025 03:15 collapse

He’s probably run out of couches to fuck so he’s getting bored.

FellowEnt@sh.itjust.works on 14 Feb 2025 21:03 next collapse

Totally normal comparing Thunberg to Musk, they’re so similar in so many ways

Tramort@programming.dev on 14 Feb 2025 21:05 next collapse

How fragile are these men? My God.

Suoko@feddit.it on 14 Feb 2025 21:22 next collapse

Greta urged the US, China promptly replied. Who’s the main world manufacturer? Task accomplished. Just wait

Tattorack@lemmy.world on 14 Feb 2025 21:35 next collapse

Yes, because a foreign climate activist trying to appeal to politician for a cleaner future is the same as an apartheid billionaire funding and endorsing a fascist party to get them elected.

motor_spirit@lemmy.world on 14 Feb 2025 21:43 next collapse

not a single articulate moment from these clowns ever

datendefekt@feddit.org on 14 Feb 2025 21:46 next collapse

I’m sure Europe would survive a few months of Musk, but I’m not so sure about America.

gimmelemmy@lemmy.world on 14 Feb 2025 22:17 next collapse

This guy

avidamoeba@lemmy.ca on 14 Feb 2025 22:31 next collapse

<img alt="" src="https://lemmy.ca/pictrs/image/eac19ddf-b439-4e18-bfe7-6b20a524dd1b.jpeg">

HikingVet@lemmy.ca on 14 Feb 2025 22:36 next collapse
krimson@lemmy.world on 15 Feb 2025 00:15 collapse

🤣

NocturnalMorning@lemmy.world on 14 Feb 2025 23:11 next collapse

Man, a president Vance would really suck. He’s coherent…crazy, but he can maintain a thought long enough to finish a sentence.

P00ptart@lemmy.world on 15 Feb 2025 00:28 next collapse

Yeah but that’s why trump does so well. Their followers can’t follow a thought process through an entire sentence. That’s why JD wouldn’t resonate with them.

filister@lemmy.world on 15 Feb 2025 02:34 next collapse

Yes, that’s the scariest part, because all this behaviour is getting normalised. And this guy sure has chances to win an election and he seems to be much smarter compared to Trump.

The future looks grim.

notsoshaihulud@lemmy.world on 15 Feb 2025 03:33 next collapse

No surprise there. Couches are known to need long courting.

FlyingSquid@lemmy.world on 15 Feb 2025 07:37 collapse

As Jello Biafra once said: “I’d rather have a dumb Nazi than a smart Nazi.”

umean2me@discuss.online on 14 Feb 2025 23:41 next collapse

“I believe that dismissing people, dismissing their concerns, or worse yet, shutting down media, shutting down elections or shutting people out of the political process protects nothing. In fact, it is the most surefire way to destroy democracy,” Vance said.

The jokes write themselves these days.

MuskyMelon@lemmy.world on 15 Feb 2025 01:54 next collapse

Hilarious that a teenage girl once terrified the upper echelons of right-wing politicians.

jonne@infosec.pub on 15 Feb 2025 06:34 next collapse

Yeah, how do you compare a 16yo (or however old she is now) girl with no political office to the president of the United States?

I guess we can hope Trump ends up being as ineffective as she’s unfortunately been (I also noticed she’s been invisible in the mainstream media as soon as she started talking about Palestine. Same with Malala.).

FlyingSquid@lemmy.world on 15 Feb 2025 07:34 collapse

Still does.

Clent@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 15 Feb 2025 03:59 next collapse

Knowing how the right has characterized Greta, comparing them like this is a huge insult against Musk from Couch Fucker Vance

Stern@lemmy.world on 15 Feb 2025 06:55 next collapse

Greta Thunberg, famously in charge of… ?

FlyingSquid@lemmy.world on 15 Feb 2025 07:34 collapse

…pissing off climate deniers.

hungryphrog@lemmy.blahaj.zone on 15 Feb 2025 12:06 collapse

while being a young neurodivergent woman

FlyingSquid@lemmy.world on 15 Feb 2025 12:44 collapse

Right. Honestly, I’m so impressed with her being able to get inside these assholes’ heads since she was 16.

commander@lemmings.world on 15 Feb 2025 21:25 collapse

She has bigger balls than most of them.

iAvicenna@lemmy.world on 15 Feb 2025 08:49 next collapse

ahh yes Greta famously known to spend a fraction of a billion to influence elections.

yournamehere@lemm.ee on 15 Feb 2025 09:02 next collapse

oh? ooooh? elon will fall in just a few months. man thats great news. i thank the jd mabeline model for this info.

perestroika@lemm.ee on 15 Feb 2025 11:05 next collapse

Bad headline: I already hoped they’d deport Musk to Europe, so we could have physical access… :(

Getting back real, Vance:

  • came without a credible peace plan

  • read moralistic bullcrap about how it’s good to have your elections bought and manipulated (in the Romanian case where the court told to hold new elections - thousands of TikTok influencers and an unknown quantity of other actors working for a candidate who declared zero campaign expense).

  • proposed to Zelensky that Ukraine give up 50% of its natural resources for US support (Zelensky politely refused)

[deleted] on 15 Feb 2025 13:34 next collapse
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dan1101@lemm.ee on 15 Feb 2025 13:54 next collapse

Europe didn’t have to survive with Thunberg, she wasn’t in the government and had no decision making authority.

Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works on 15 Feb 2025 14:50 collapse

Which is a shame…

BestBouclettes@jlai.lu on 15 Feb 2025 15:03 next collapse

Funny how we don’t see much of her anymore. Does it has anything to do with the fact that she publicly made the link between Capitalism, colonialism and the climate crisis ?
I guess we’ll never know !

SwordInStone@lemmy.world on 15 Feb 2025 18:59 next collapse

fr*nch punctuation 🤮

BestBouclettes@jlai.lu on 15 Feb 2025 19:03 collapse

I : have ? No ; Idea << what you >> mean !

lime@feddit.nu on 15 Feb 2025 15:49 collapse

she got arrested again for being pro-palestinian.

RangerJosey@lemmy.ml on 15 Feb 2025 19:41 collapse

Continuing to be based as hell.

commander@lemmings.world on 15 Feb 2025 21:24 next collapse

Bullshitting is a profession.

These are professional bullshitters.

meowmeowbeanz@sh.itjust.works on 15 Feb 2025 21:56 next collapse

The Hill’s piece on Musk and Vance’s Euro-tour reads like a corporate carnival masquerading as diplomacy. Tech oligarchs playing statesmen while defense contracts and AI patents get shuffled under the table. Ukraine’s “security” is just a euphemism for profit margins, and energy “innovation” means privatizing public infrastructure until it’s another subscription service.

Musk’s private sector savior complex hits different when you realize it’s just a hedge against taxes. Vance whining about EU regulations? Classic regulatory capture—can’t let pesky consumer protections interfere with monopolizing the digital commons. Algorithmic colonialism wrapped in venture capital buzzwords. But sure, let’s pretend this is about “progress” and not entrenching power where accountability algorithms can’t reach.

pineapplelover@lemm.ee on 16 Feb 2025 00:23 next collapse

Question, what has Greta Thunberg done? Afaik, she’s only protested and post on social media.

Iheartcheese@lemmy.world on 16 Feb 2025 02:14 collapse

She’s a woman who speaks without being spoken to

zaidka@lemmy.ca on 16 Feb 2025 08:27 next collapse

How dare she!

pineapplelover@lemm.ee on 19 Feb 2025 07:10 collapse

The audacity

buzz86us@lemmy.world on 16 Feb 2025 07:05 next collapse

This is a brain dead comparison, Musk’s influence is highly destructive to democracy, while Greta’s influence is only advocating for a global shift to protect the future of the planet.

torrentialgrain@lemm.ee on 16 Feb 2025 08:53 next collapse

It’s also braindead because on the one hand you have the richest man in the world backed by the most powerful man in the world. And on the other you have pretty much a very popular influencer.

Pilferjinx@lemmy.world on 16 Feb 2025 08:54 collapse

He’s mustering anger from his brain dead base. His words aren’t meant for the rest of us. He needs to distract the Maga crowd from the damage Elon is actually doing.

PanArab@lemm.ee on 16 Feb 2025 08:40 next collapse

They play the victim card so hard.

llamatron@lemmy.world on 16 Feb 2025 08:52 next collapse

If I was American I’d be so embarrassed

kreskin@lemmy.world on 16 Feb 2025 08:53 collapse

Interesting how he said elon musk and not donald trump.