The Elon Swing Voter
I’m getting on a plane back to America tonight, been away for over 3 months. It sort of fills me with dread and anxiety. I remember going to the Apple store before I was leaving, the uhhhhhhh from the sales people was awful. 0 pride. Nobody cares. So different from the sales people at the Hong Kong Apple store. America has had its social fabric torn to shreds.
I’ll be back for a month, and I will see if it’s how I remember it, but I’m really not bullish. Wokism is really just Protestantism evolved, it’s not an aberration. I don’t think still fundamentally religious US society will fair very well with AI when it becomes clear just how unspecial people are.
Sidenote, I’m in 7th place on Advent of Code thanks to AI, and it is progressing so fast. A capability that was unknown to the world a few years ago. This is the only real issue that matters. It will change society more than you can possibly believe.
I’m predicting Chinese religion, a “combination of Buddhism and Taoism with a Confucian worldview” will fair much better with AI. You can already see this in surveys of AI acceptance.
In 2016 it was clear Trump became a kingmaker for the Republican party. While he couldn’t guarantee an election win, he could hand victory to the Democrats if he went against whoever the Republicans nominated. All three Republican nominees since have been Trump.
Elon represents a similar force, but it’s easy to imagine him supporting the Democrats next election if things don’t go well this cycle. It’s possible Elon now actually has the complete power to choose the winner.
I know I’m an Elon swing voter. While there’s things I don’t agree with him on, it’s hard to imagine the clowns in the political establishment offering something remotely compelling against him. If the Democrats want a chance next election cycle, they pick someone like Mark Cuban and get Elon’s support. I predict they won’t. Anti-Elon will not be a tenable political position, and this is a good thing. Godspeed to those who try.
Even if I stay in the country, I’m leaving California. They need to turn around and get pro Musk people in government, or the mass exodus will continue. Also looking into moving my companies out of Delaware. Dead end.
Now, within a everyone is pro Elon (pro-growth) political framework, there are still choices. Isolationism, tariffs, abortion, infrastructure spending, social safety net, etc… Once we are in that framework, politics can return, and there’s hope for America from a political standpoint. But if being anti-growth remains in the Overton window, there’s little hope. Does anyone think there’s hope for Europe?
Culturally, there’s a far deeper problem. The soul isn’t real, and this will be a very hard pill for many westerners to swallow. There’s already so little social fabric and this will only make it worse.
In rich Western society people’s expectations exceed their abilities. AI will pummel this even harder. All the clowns who worked jobs that were detrimental to society for fake money. The money is the map, not the territory! If you pervert a map you don’t change the territory, you are just lost.
We’ll see how it is being back, but I’m leaning towards leaving and applying for residency here. Btw, how does the US still tax nonresidents? Will be nice when the empire decays to the point it can no longer do that, the influence of the US on the payment rails of the world needs to go.