Name: 埃隆-馬斯克是對民主的威脅 (Elon Musk Is A Threat To Democracy)
Uploaded: 2024-10-29T13:53:17.000Z
Duration: 22 min 4 s

The bromance between Donald Trump and Elon Musk has frankly reached alarming proportions.

坦率地說，唐納德-特朗普和埃隆-馬斯克之間的情誼已經達到了令人震驚的程度。

At first it was funny, cute, haha, but now I'm not friggin laughing. And as the election approaches, the stakes are getting higher than ever. Now Elon is making headlines for the eye-watering amount of money he's throwing at the Trump campaign, for the questionable egality of his scheme to hand out random $1 million gifts to voters in swing states, and for the dark money organizations he's funding and their shady disinformation campaigns.

起初我覺得很有趣、很可愛，哈哈，但現在我笑不出來了。隨著大選的臨近，賭注也越來越大。現在，埃隆正在成為頭條新聞，因為他向特朗普競選團隊投入了令人瞠目的鉅額資金，因為他向搖擺州選民隨機派發 100 萬美元禮物的計劃存在道德問題，還因為他資助的黑錢組織及其不光彩的造謠活動。

關係子句

Elon Musk is a threat to American democracy. And given the fact that his fellow tech billionaire and former business partner Peter Thiel has proclaimed that freedom and democracy are incompatible, that might be entirely the point. Today we're talking Elon Musk's strange political turn from Biden supporter to dark MAGA Trump enthusiast, the vast amounts of power and money he stands to gain in a second Trump presidency, and why he poses an existential threat to this country. And he's not even from here. In a world where the media landscape is increasingly divided, staying informed has become more challenging. The rise of social media, the 24-hour news cycle, and an explosion of alternative news outlets have contributed to echo chambers where people primarily engage with perspectives that align with their beliefs. For example, on Ground News

埃隆-馬斯克是美國民主的威脅。鑑於他的科技億萬富翁、前商業夥伴彼得-蒂爾（Peter Thiel）曾宣稱自由與民主是不相容的，這可能正是問題的關鍵所在。今天我們要討論的是埃隆-馬斯克從拜登支持者到暗黑 MAGA 特朗普狂熱者的奇怪政治轉變，他在特朗普第二次當選總統後將獲得的巨大權力和金錢，以及他為什麼會對這個國家構成生存威脅。而他甚至不是本地人。在一個媒體格局日益分化的世界裡，保持資訊暢通變得更具挑戰性。社交媒體的崛起、24 小時新聞週期以及另類新聞媒體的爆炸式增長助長了 "回聲室 "的形成，在這種情況下

I found this story about Elon Musk. Elon Musk promises to award $1 million each day to a signer of his petition. In the 181 articles Ground News gathered covering this topic, the left emphasizes the legality concerns surrounding Musk's campaign, while the right underscores Musk's aspirations, portraying his plan as an extraordinary use of wealth to influence voters, while underplaying legal implications. This is a great example of how different the media reports on stories, depending on their bias. You can see left-leaning The Daily Beast used the headline, expert rips Elon Musk's clearly illegal $1 million lottery to sign his MAGA PAX petition, while far-right publication WLT Report uses the headline, yes it's real, here's how to win $1 million each day from Elon Musk. Very different takes, with the left clearly emphasizing the illegality of this scheme, and this far-right publication using a clickbaity headline to make the scheme seem appealing, exciting, and positive. This is where Ground News comes in, and why I've been using them for over a year. Today's partner Ground News is a great tool for understanding the news. They offer helpful context you need when faced with starkly different headlines about the same story. Here you can see the overall bias distribution of the news sources covering this story, with 46% of news sources right-leaning, and only 21% left-leaning, indicating that this isn't being reported on much by the left. If you scroll down, you can see the overall factuality rating of the sources, with only 31% of sources scoring high factuality ratings, meaning a lot of dubious news sources are picking up this story and running with it. You can also see more information about who owns which source, with 30% of these sources owned by media conglomerates, and another 23% owned by wealthy private individuals. All of these tools can be really helpful to provide more context to your own echo chamber. You and your social media bubble may have had one reaction, but it's important to understand the larger picture and what people outside your bubble are saying, and I'm able to get all of this context and information thanks to Ground News.

我發現了這個關於埃隆-馬斯克的故事。埃隆-馬斯克承諾每天向其請願書的簽名者獎勵 100 萬美元。在 Ground News 收集到的 181 篇有關這一話題的文章中，左派強調了馬斯克競選活動的合法性問題，而右派則強調了馬斯克的抱負，將他的計劃描繪成利用財富影響選民的非凡之舉，同時淡化了法律方面的影響。這是一個很好的例子，說明了媒體報道的不同，取決於他們的偏見。你可以看到左傾的《野獸日報》（The Daily Beast）使用了這樣的標題："專家抨擊埃隆-馬斯克的100萬美元彩票顯然是非法的，請在他的MAG

My favorite Ground News feature at the moment is their Blind Spot feed. With a bird's eye view of issues that tend to get more attention from the left or right than others, I can easily step out of my echo chamber and understand how partisan narratives shape reality and votes. I'm always really impressed with Ground News, and I genuinely think they're a great resource for identifying biases in the media. So scan my QR code, click the link in the description, or go to ground.news.legia to get 40% off the same vantage plan I use to stay informed, which comes to about $5 a month.

目前，我最喜歡的 "地面新聞 "功能是他們的 "盲點 "推送。通過鳥瞰往往比其他問題更受左翼或右翼關注的問題，我可以輕鬆走出我的迴音室，瞭解黨派敘事是如何塑造現實和選票的。Ground News 一直給我留下深刻印象，我真心認為他們是識別媒體偏見的絕佳資源。掃描我的二維碼，點擊描述中的鏈接，或訪問 ground.news.legia，即可享受與我用來保持資訊暢通的 vantage 計劃相同的四折優惠，每月約 5 美元。

Get unlimited access to all Ground News has to offer while helping an independent team keep the media transparent. Thanks, Ground News. Okay, just to set the scene for you, a reminder that Elon Musk leaned center Democrat for years. He voted for Obama and regularly supported Democrats up until very recently. He was concerned about the owners of Twitter being overtly political. Then in 2022, he announced he'd vote for Ron DeSantis if he ran for president in 2024. Elon's rightward turn seemed to have started around that time, due in part because he's a big giant baby who became radicalized when he didn't get his way. Biden vowed to be the most labor-friendly president in history. Really inconvenient for a man who hates unions and loves to run his companies with zero regard for their workers. He's also pointed to criticism from AOC and Elizabeth Warren as central to his decision to abandon the Democratic Party. Basically, because Democrats didn't bend to his will and praise him at every turn, he started trolling them and found that there were a lot of billionaires and dummies on the internet who would praise him for it. From there, he snowballed into promoting right-wing conspiracy theories, disowning his trans daughter, railing against the woke mind virus, and now throwing millions and millions of dollars behind Donald Trump.

無限制訪問 Ground News 提供的所有內容，同時幫助獨立團隊保持媒體的透明度。謝謝，《地面新聞》。好了，先給大家提個醒，埃隆-馬斯克多年來一直是民主黨的中堅力量。他投票支持奧巴馬，並經常支持民主黨人，直到最近。他擔心推特的所有者會有明顯的政治傾向。然後在 2022 年，他宣佈如果羅恩-德桑蒂斯（Ron DeSantis）在 2024 年競選總統，他將投票支持他。埃隆的右傾似乎就是從那個時候開始的，部分原因是他是個大巨嬰，一不順心就變得激進。拜登發誓要成為歷史上對勞工最友好的總統。這對於一個憎恨工會

So there are a few headlines animating today's story. There was, of course, the infamous Trump rally where Elon Kubrick stared down the nation, but only after jumping around like on Sims when you're giving them different personality traits. Despite having previously shown support for Trump and pledged huge sums of money to help his campaign, this was the first time Elon took the stage at a rally and gave what can loosely be described as a speech. Since then, I think the media has taken greater notice, and so reports are starting to come out of the shady s**t that he's been doing. And it just gets shadier. So let's take each headline in turn. It was recently revealed through quarterly filings that Elon has given seven million dollars to his own super PAC,

今天的新聞有幾條頭條新聞。當然，在臭名昭著的特朗普集會上，埃隆-庫布里克（Elon Kubrick）盯著全國人民，但這只是在你賦予他們不同的個性特徵時像《模擬人生》（Sims）一樣跳來跳去之後。儘管埃隆此前曾表示支持特朗普，並承諾提供鉅額資金幫助其競選，但這是他第一次在集會上登臺發表演講。從那時起，我認為媒體開始注意到他，並開始報道他所做的不光彩的事情。而且越描越黑。讓我們依次來看看每一條頭條新聞。最近的季度文件顯示，埃隆給自己的超級政治行動委員會捐了七百萬美元、

America PAC, which has grown in recent months into a key player in Trump's campaign.

America PAC，近幾個月來已發展成為特朗普競選活動中的一個重要角色。

And Elon has been heavily involved in the operations of his super PAC. Super PACs only exist thanks largely to the Citizens United Supreme Court decision that ruled money is speech and people therefore shouldn't be denied their free speech right to spend gobs of money on political campaigns. Super PACs circumvent traditional donation restrictions that bar individuals from giving more than $3,300 to any politician. So you and I have that upper limit, but anyone with extra cash to burn interested in influencing American politics can create a super

埃隆一直積極參與其超級政治行動委員會的運作。超級政治行動委員會的存在主要歸功於最高法院對 "公民聯合 "案的判決，該判決裁定金錢也是言論，是以人們不應被剝奪在政治活動中花費大量金錢的言論自由權。超級政治行動委員會規避了傳統的捐款限制，即個人不得向任何政治家捐款超過3300美元。是以，你我都有這個上限，但任何有閒錢燒、有興趣影響美國政治的人都可以創建一個超級政治行動委員會。

PAC. Super PACs traditionally have been barred from coordinating directly with the politicians they support. Instead, they tend to spend their money on political ads. However, thanks to a

PAC.超級政治行動委員會歷來被禁止與他們支持的政治家直接協調。相反，它們往往把錢花在政治廣告上。然而，由於

March ruling by the FEC, campaigns can now share information and data on efforts to promote voter turnout with outside groups. So now super PACs can coordinate directly with candidates and their campaigns, at least on their voter turnout efforts. Because of this, the Trump campaign, strapped for cash, both because they've been out-fundraised by Harris and because they're funding Trump's millions in legal fees, have outsourced their door-knocking and ground game efforts to outside groups like Elon's America PAC. And instead of spending any money on television ads, America PAC has spent over $100 million on canvassing and direct mail, both in support of

根據聯邦選舉委員會3月份的裁決，競選活動現在可以與外部團體共享有關促進選民投票率的資訊和數據。是以，現在超級政治行動委員會可以直接與候選人及其競選團隊協調，至少在選民投票率方面。正因為如此，資金緊張的特朗普競選團隊，既因為他們的資金被哈里斯超過，也因為他們要為特朗普提供數百萬美元的律師費，將他們的敲門和地面活動外包給了外部團體，如埃隆的美國政治行動委員會。美國政治行動委員會沒有在電視廣告上花一分錢，而是在拉票和直接郵寄上花費了超過1億美元，這兩項活動都是為了支持特朗普。

Trump, but also in support of Republican candidates in some House and Senate races.

特朗普，但也在一些眾議院和參議院競選中支持共和黨候選人。

The problem that many experienced campaign organizers have pointed out is that outsourcing arguably the number one way Trump could win this election, turnout of low-propensity Trump-leaning voters, to super PACs run by and organized by inexperienced billionaires who want to play God with US elections, may not be a great strategy. Candidate campaigns tend to be better equipped with knowledge and experience to effectively use their resources in ways that will actually impact the election. Elon Musk buys companies and posts tweets from the Twitter. What the does he know about getting out the vote? That requires empathy and a sense of how ordinary people feel and what motivates them. Scientific studies have found that ultra-wealthy people fundamentally lack basic empathy skills, and reports indicate that Elon has brought his same erratic management style that he's used at Twitter, including insurmountable demands and sudden firings, to the campaign trail. He's even reportedly relocated to Pennsylvania to head the America PAC's office there. Yes, oftentimes if you throw money at a problem you can eventually find a solution, but the Harris campaign just surpassed a billion dollars and has actual campaign experience, so,

許多經驗豐富的競選組織者都指出了一個問題，那就是把特朗普可能贏得大選的頭號法寶--特朗普傾向的低傾向選民的投票率--外包給由那些想在美國大選中扮演上帝的缺乏經驗的億萬富翁營運和組織的超級政治行動委員會，可能並不是一個好策略。候選人競選團隊往往擁有更豐富的知識和經驗，能夠有效地利用資源，對選舉產生實際影響。埃隆-馬斯克（Elon Musk）收購公司，在推特上發佈推文。他對拉選票瞭解多少？這就需要換位思考，瞭解普通人的感受和動機。科學研究發現，超級富豪從根本上缺乏基本的同理心技能。有報道稱，埃隆把他在推特上使

I don't know, seems like a losing strategy. Seems like Elon Musk is a big loser. There's also his latest scheme, conducted through his America PAC, to randomly give voters in swing states one million dollars. He created a petition seeking to guarantee freedom of speech and the right to bear arms.

我不知道，這似乎是一個失敗的策略。埃隆-馬斯克似乎是個大輸家。還有他最近的一個計劃，通過他的美國政治行動委員會（America PAC），向搖擺州的選民隨機發放一百萬美元。他創建了一份請願書，尋求保障言論自由和攜帶武器的權利。

Only registered voters in key swing states, that's Pennsylvania, Georgia, Nevada, Arizona, Michigan,

只有關鍵搖擺州的登記選民，即賓夕法尼亞州、佐治亞州、內華達州、亞利桑那州和密歇根州、

Wisconsin, and North Carolina, can sign the petition, enter to win the one million dollars, and claim an additional one hundred dollar reward. The offer expires today, October 21st, and he awarded the first one million dollar check at a recent event in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Not to mention the fact that his one million dollar giveaway stunt is illegal. Not only is Elon breaking the law, but anyone who accepts his checks is breaking the law too. 52 U.S.C. Section 10307C states, whoever knowingly or willfully pays or offers to pay or accepts payment, either for registration to vote or for voting, shall be fined not more than ten thousand dollars, or imprisoned not more than five years, or both. Technically, Musk is paying them to sign a petition, but the rules clearly state the only people that can win are registered voters in key swing states, which indicates that this is a very thinly veiled attempt to pay people to register to vote, which is expressly illegal and could come with prison time. The DOJ election crimes manual indicates that a bribe cannot be used to induce voting activities, including bribing with money or a lottery system.

威斯康星州和北卡羅來納州的居民可以在請願書上簽名，參與贏取一百萬美元的活動，並額外獲得一百美元的獎勵。該活動將於今天（10 月 21 日）到期，他最近在賓夕法尼亞州哈里斯堡的一次活動中頒發了第一張一百萬美元支票。更不用說他的一百萬美元贈品噱頭是非法的。不僅埃隆在違法，任何接受他支票的人也在違法。美國法典》第 52 編第 10307C 條規定，任何人在知情或故意的情況下，為投票登記或投票支付或提議支付或接受付款，將被處以不超過 1 萬美元的罰款，或不超過 5 年的監禁，或兩者並罰。從技術上講，馬斯克是付錢讓

There are some lawyers online saying, well, it's arguable because technically he's paying them to sign a petition not to register to vote. But this is the legal shit that really grinds my gears.

網上有一些律師說，這是有爭議的，因為從技術上講，他是在付錢給他們，讓他們在不登記投票的請願書上簽字。但這些法律上的屁話讓我很不爽。

He's clearly using it as enticement to get voters in swing states to register to vote.

很明顯，他是想以此為誘餌，讓搖擺州的選民登記投票。

If they want the million bucks, they have to register. The veil is thin at best and saying it's arguable just to be a contrarian online lawyer gives legitimacy to what is clearly a scheme that is against the law. And this is indicative of a larger issue with Elon Musk and with all billionaires. The law simply doesn't apply to them. Even if the DOJ were to file an injunction to make him stop and then prosecute him, the likelihood of him facing actual jail time is slim to none because he would post bail ahead of trial, he could take a plea deal to avoid it, and he doesn't have any serious priors that would indicate putting him in prison for five years is the correct option. Though perhaps deportation would be better since he's an immigrant committing a crime. Just a thought. But in reality, he'd likely face a fine. A fine of not more than $10,000. Even with the lawyer's fees in this scenario, the penalty doesn't even amount to a slap on the wrist. It's not even a blip on his radar. This is why billionaires shouldn't exist, period. It allows them to take full advantage of our two-tiered justice system and buy their way out of anything. So on top of the clinical lack of empathy they possess, they also don't have to ever legally answer for their actions in any serious way so long as they make a tiny minutiae of effort to create plausible deniability or some sort of pretense to point to for why they're doing what they're doing. Then the legal system is like, oh crap, he got away with it again.

如果他們想要那一百萬美元，就必須註冊。這層面紗充其量不過是薄薄的一層，說它可以爭辯，不過是為了做一個逆來順受的網絡律師，這顯然是給一個違法的計劃披上了合法的外衣。這說明埃隆-馬斯克和所有億萬富翁都存在一個更大的問題。法律根本不適用於他們。即使司法部申請禁令讓他停手，然後對他提起訴訟，他實際面臨牢獄之災的可能性也微乎其微，因為他會在審判前交納保釋金，他可以通過認罪協議來避免牢獄之災，而且他也沒有任何嚴重的前科，這表明把他關進監獄五年才是正確的選擇。不過也許驅逐出境會更好，因為他是一個正在犯罪的移民。只是想想

He's too smart for us. And then there's a new article from Open Secrets, a super important organization you should absolutely have on your radar for understanding how money impacts our politics. They investigated his ties to a pro-Trump dark money network that has been creating fake pro-Harris propaganda meant to undermine her messages, creating a fake liberal answer to

他對我們來說太聰明瞭。然後是一篇來自 "公開的祕密"（Open Secrets）的新文章，這是一個超級重要的組織，你絕對應該把它放在你的雷達上，以瞭解金錢是如何影響我們的政治的。他們調查了他與一個支持特朗普的黑錢網絡的關係，該網絡一直在製造支持哈里斯的虛假宣傳，旨在破壞她的資訊，製造一個假的自由派答案，以

Project 2025 called Progress 2028, and claiming her policies include expanding Medicaid to undocumented immigrants and getting rid of borders. These ads are created by a dark money group called

2025計劃 "名為 "進步2028"，並聲稱她的政策包括將醫療補助擴大到無證移民和消除邊界。這些廣告由一個名為

Building America's Future. Thanks to unconscionable loopholes in our campaign finance laws, 501c4 groups, aka dark money groups, don't have to disclose their donors. They're meant to be a social welfare organization that doesn't spend most of their money on political purposes, but many of these organizations come close to the line or just completely cross it.

建設美國的未來。由於我們的競選財務法存在不合情理的漏洞，501c4 團體（又稱黑錢團體）不必披露其捐贈人。它們本應是一個社會福利組織，不會將大部分資金用於政治目的，但許多此類組織都接近或完全越過了這一底線。

Many also claim to be fighting for a cause like banning abortion, for example, and then strategically place ads about abortion in districts where there are elections where abortion is a contested issue. But this is really a network primed for mob-like movement of money because Building America's Future also helps fund other PACs like Future Coalition PAC,

許多人還聲稱要為禁止墮胎等事業而戰，然後在有墮胎爭議的選區戰略性地投放有關墮胎的廣告。但這其實是一個為暴民式的資金流動而準備的網絡，因為 "建設美國的未來 "還幫助資助其他政治行動委員會，如 "未來聯盟政治行動委員會"（Future Coalition PAC）、

Duty to America PAC, Stand for Us PAC, and Citizens for Sanity, another dark money group that

Duty to America PAC、Stand for Us PAC 和 Citizens for Sanity（另一個黑錢組織，該組織

Elon Musk has donated millions to over the years that operates out of the headquarters of the

埃隆-馬斯克多年來捐贈了數百萬美元，用於在 "馬斯克之屋 "總部營運。

Conservative Partnership Institute. That institute is led by Heritage Foundation president Jim DeMint with former Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows serving as senior advisor. The web is purposely tangled because that's how you launder money and obscure your aims, make it too complicated to follow. And these are just the things we know about. Thanks to our absolutely bad campaign finance laws in the U.S., Elon could be throwing millions more at getting Trump elected and there's no way we could know about it. And that's perfectly legal. As are the misleading ads produced by Elon backed dark money group Building America's Future. Generally, the First Amendment protects against government intervention of speech except for very specific circumstances, and political speech is highly protected. Truth and advertising rules only apply to businesses untruthfully advertising products or services they're trying to sell, and they don't apply to political ads. Defamation claims brought by public officials have a notoriously high bar and I don't think these would qualify. Voter suppression is illegal, but it requires that the actor deceived qualified voters to prevent them from voting generally, not to prevent them from voting for a specific candidate. States are starting to pass laws barring the use of deceptive AI generated content in political ads, but that doesn't apply here either. Again, for Elon and the other billionaires both here and abroad using their money to influence us and how we vote in this election, campaign finance laws and the FEC provide enough loopholes and weak enforcement that they can get away with pretty much anything scot-free. And outside the realm of directly tampering with our elections through funding dark money networks and door knocking for Trump, Elon also has the benefit of owning one of the largest social media companies in the world and sending daily propaganda to his 200 million followers. Lately, this has included tweets wondering why no one has tried to unalive Kamala

保守黨夥伴關係研究所。該研究所由傳統基金會主席吉姆-德明特（Jim DeMint）上司，特朗普前幕僚長馬克-梅多斯（Mark Meadows）擔任高級顧問。這張網被故意糾結在一起，因為這就是你洗錢和掩蓋你的目的的方式，讓它變得太複雜而難以追蹤。而這些僅僅是我們所知道的。多虧了美國糟糕透頂的競選財務法，埃隆可能為特朗普當選再投入數百萬美元，而我們卻無從知曉。而這是完全合法的。埃隆支持的黑錢組織 "建設美國的未來"（Building America's Future）製作的誤導性廣告也是如此。一般來說，第一修

Harris yet and pushing false claims about immigration and voter fraud. He took those conspiracy theories on the road, pushing the debunked Dominion voting conspiracy theory at his first solo Pennsylvania rally in support of Donald Trump just this week. Say the Dominion voting machines, it is weird that the, you know, I think they're used in Philadelphia and in Maricopa

哈里斯（Harris），還推崇有關移民和選民欺詐的虛假說法。他把這些陰謀論帶到了路上，就在本週，他在賓夕法尼亞州的首次單獨集會上推動被揭穿的Dominion投票陰謀論，支持唐納德-特朗普（Donald Trump）。他說："Dominion投票機很奇怪，我認為費城和馬里科帕都使用了這種投票機。

County, um, but not in a lot of other places. And that seemed like a heck of a coincidence.

縣，嗯，但不是在很多其他地方。這似乎是一個巧合。

And Elon Musk's ramblings reveal, I think one reason why these two men have grown such a bromance in recent months. They speak the same language and that language is literal nonsense, nonsense, which neither of them has ever had to answer for because they were both born millionaires and handed every opportunity in life. Elon Musk didn't create businesses. He bought them. He didn't come up with anything other than millions of dollars in inherited wealth. The man is not a genius. And yet just like Trump, because we have a illness in this country where we see wealth and assume intelligence and we see success and assume hard work, we've given these men over the years, this God-like status. People still call Musk a genius, even while criticizing his actions.

我認為，埃隆-馬斯克的喋喋不休揭示了近幾個月來這兩個人關係變得如此親密的一個原因。他們說的是同一種語言，而這種語言就是字面意義上的胡說八道，胡說八道，他們都不需要為此負責，因為他們都是天生的百萬富翁，生活中的機會無處不在。埃隆-馬斯克沒有創造企業。他買下了它們。他除了繼承了數百萬美元的財富之外，什麼都沒有。他不是天才。然而，就像特朗普一樣，因為我們這個國家有一種病，我們看到財富就認為他聰明，我們看到成功就認為他勤奮，多年來，我們給了這些人上帝般的地位。即使在責備馬斯克的行為時，人們仍然稱他為天才。

We need to kill that narrative. Musk is not that smart. You're not very pretty and you're not very bright. A cursory glance at his ex feed indicates as much. His tenuous grasp on first amendment law is another indicator. Also, anytime he opens his mouth, this is a man who has never been told he can't do whatever he wants, has never had to face consequences. And because of all this, he knows how to speak in a tone that is authoritative and sounds smart while saying words that are complete nonsense. And I think seeing these men for what they are prep school boys who always get their way throw tantrums when they don't lack any empathy or emotional intelligence and have skated through life on the backs of their family fortune while doing everything in their power to infect our politics with ideology that protects that fortune no matter what, never having to form personalities or any significant intelligence because they can buy their way into any room they want, it helps to deflate the pedestal we've put them on, but also the fear we feel when faced with the power of their billions of dollars. On the one hand, it is terrifying that these man-baby idiots wield so much power because of their wealth. On the other hand, they're too stupid to form the vast conspiracies we often give them credit for. Yes, they obfuscate their political activities behind complex dark money networks and plausible deniability, but one of the reasons they're so complex is because they have the resources to just make a bunch of shell organizations and stack them on top of each other.

我們必須扼殺這種說法。馬斯克沒那麼聰明你不漂亮，也不聰明。粗略看一眼他的前妻就能看出這一點。他對第一修正案法律的理解也很薄弱。此外，無論他何時開口，他都是一個從未被告知不能為所欲為、從未承擔過後果的人。正因為如此，他知道如何用權威的口吻說話，聽起來很聰明，但說出來的話卻完全是胡說八道。我認為，看到這些人的真實面目，他們就是那些總是得寸進尺的預科生，在缺乏同理心或情商的情況下亂髮脾氣，他們靠著家族財富溜達一生，同時竭盡所能地用意識形態來感染我們的政治，無論如何都要保護他們的財富，他們從來不需要形成個性或任何

It's like giving a baby a pile of blocks with letters on them and letting them throw them across the room and create indecipherable words out of the letters. That doesn't mean they're a genius, it means they were handed the blocks and allowed to throw them and they fell where they may and you were left to pick up the pieces. The only thing they're good at is using their money to create chaos and maybe five percent of the time it gets them where they're trying to go, which is enough to appear like you're a genius when you have 240 billion dollars worth of blocks to throw around.

這就好比給一個嬰兒一堆寫著字母的積木，讓他們把積木扔到房間的另一頭，然後用這些字母創造出難以辨認的單詞。這並不意味著他們是天才，而是說他們得到了積木，並被允許扔積木，積木掉到了可能掉到的地方，而你只能收拾殘局。他們唯一擅長的就是用他們的錢來製造混亂，也許有百分之五的時間能讓他們達到目的，當你有價值 2400 億美元的積木扔來扔去時，這足以讓你看起來像個天才。

So no, these men are not geniuses. No, they do not deserve their billions. But much like toddlers throwing blocks, they require guardrails because their chaos can hurt the people around them, which is why regulations are necessary to block them from doing their self-serving bidding, or really from ever existing in the first place but we haven't gotten there yet, and from getting their grubby baby hands on the reins of government. And without greater regulation, and in the case of a future Trump presidency, we're staring down the barrel of a future where billionaires are empowered to drive us all straight off a cliff and Elon will be the first pied piper in line guiding us to our death. Meanwhile, he's got a bunker and a rocket to his new colony for billionaires on Mars.

所以，不，這些人不是天才。不，他們不配擁有數十億財富。但是，就像蹣跚學步的孩子扔積木一樣，他們需要護欄，因為他們的混亂會傷害到周圍的人，這就是為什麼需要監管來阻止他們為自己謀利，或者說阻止他們從一開始就存在，但我們還沒到那一步，阻止他們用稚嫩的小手去控制政府的韁繩。如果不加強監管，如果未來特朗普當選總統，我們就會面臨這樣一個未來：億萬富翁們有權將我們全部推下懸崖，而埃隆將是第一個引導我們走向死亡的笛手。與此同時，他在火星上為億萬富翁們準備了碉堡和火箭。

Because behind all of Elon's fanfare and claims of caring about freedom and the first amendment is the knowledge that if Trump wins this election, Elon will acquire more power than he's ever even dreamed of. Trump has promised that if he wins, he will create a presidential government efficiency task force tasked with identifying government waste and trimming the fat, and he's pledged to put Elon Musk at the helm of that effort. In that role, Elon would have the power to exact revenge on all the administrative agencies that have plagued his efforts for maximum profits with zero accountability. His companies have been targets of at least 20 different investigations and actions by government agencies over the safety of Tesla cars, environmental damage caused by his rockets, OSHA violations, and more. In a world where Elon Musk becomes czar of government efficiency, the Labor Department and National Labor Relations Board get gutted. No more labor protections. The

因為在埃隆大張旗鼓、聲稱關心自由和第一修正案的背後，他知道如果特朗普贏得這次選舉，埃隆將獲得他做夢都想不到的更大權力。特朗普已經承諾，如果他獲勝，他將成立一個總統政府效率特別工作組，負責查明政府的浪費現象並削減脂肪，他還承諾讓埃隆-馬斯克來上司這項工作。在這一職位上，埃隆將有權對所有行政機構進行報復，因為這些機構一直困擾著他在零問責的情況下獲取最大利潤的努力。他的公司已經成為政府機構至少 20 項不同調查和行動的目標，這些調查和行動涉及特斯拉汽車的安全性、他的火箭對環境造成的破壞、違反職業安全和健康管理局

Environmental Protection Agency? Obliterated. Consumer protections, environmental protections, securities and fraud protections? Gone. Not only would the role give the world's richest man the power to do away with government regulations, the wet dream of every conservative millionaire and billionaire, it would also give that power to a man who is already a huge beneficiary of government contracts. Yes, while Elon rails against regulations and taxes, he is also the recipient of huge government contracts through his businesses. Contracts which wouldn't exist but for our taxes.

環境保護局？蕩然無存。消費者保護、環境保護、證券和欺詐保護？消失了。這個角色不僅將賦予世界首富廢除政府法規的權力（這是每個保守派百萬富翁和億萬富翁的夢想），而且還將把權力賦予一個已經是政府合同巨大受益者的人。是的，在埃隆抨擊監管和稅收的同時，他也通過自己的企業獲得了鉅額政府合同。如果沒有我們的稅收，這些合同就不會存在。

The bulk of those government contracts are through SpaceX, which has received at least 15.4 billion taxpayer dollars in the form of government contracts. SpaceX's role in NASA is so huge at this point that it effectively dictates NASA's rocket launch schedule. The Department of Defense relies on Elon to get most of its satellites into orbit. Last year alone, his companies were promised $3 billion across 17 federal agencies, and that's with a Democrat in office. If Trump wins,

這些政府合同的大部分是通過 SpaceX 公司簽訂的，該公司以政府合同的形式獲得了納稅人至少 154 億美元的資金。目前，SpaceX 在美國國家航空航天局（NASA）中的作用是如此巨大，以至於它實際上決定了 NASA 的火箭發射時間表。美國國防部依靠埃隆將大部分衛星送入軌道。僅去年一年，他的公司就獲得了 17 個聯邦機構 30 億美元的承諾，而這還是在民主黨執政的情況下。如果特朗普獲勝

Elon will have a direct line to the White House and the ability to recommend the gutting or bolstering of whatever government spending he wants, despite conflicts of interest that span billions of dollars and dozens of regulatory agencies. And this also means that any regulator who doesn't want to be on the chopping block will need to ingratiate themselves to both Trump but also to Elon Musk. We can see it in Elon's newly cozy relationship with Republican Federal

儘管存在數十億美元和數十個監管機構的利益衝突，但埃隆將有一條直通白宮的管道，並有能力建議削減或增加任何他想要的政府開支。這也意味著，任何不想被砍掉的監管機構都需要討好特朗普和埃隆-馬斯克。我們可以從埃隆與共和黨聯邦官員新近的親密關係中看出這一點。

Communications Commissioner Brendan Carr. Brendan Carr has been rumored to be up for FCC chair under a second Trump presidency, giving him more power but also more to lose if he gets on the wrong side of Trump's efficiency czar Elon Musk. Carr has in the past said the FCC has treated Musk unfairly and has attacked Democratic FCC commissioners for denying Starlink money. Carr is going to bat for

通信專員布蘭登-卡爾（Brendan Carr）。據傳，布蘭登-卡爾（Brendan Carr）將在特朗普第二任總統任期內競選聯邦通信委員會主席，這將賦予他更大的權力，但如果他與特朗普的效率沙皇埃隆-馬斯克（Elon Musk）交惡，也會有更大的損失。卡爾過去曾說 FCC 對馬斯克不公平，並攻擊民主黨 FCC 委員拒絕為 Starlink 提供資金。卡爾將為

Musk. He also wrote a chapter of the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025. He's a Republican regulator who hates regulations, but he wants the government to play a bigger role in fostering the expansion of Starlink. And so he knows by brown nosing his way all the way up Elon's poll and promising that huge amounts of government money will go into Elon's pocket, he'll gain some power in a future Trump presidency. Imagine selling your soul to become chair of the FCC. Yikes. So now not only would the law not apply to Elon, he'll have the power to do away with whatever pesky law or regulation he wants, and to toy with people's professional aspirations to demand loyalty and government handouts. This is unprecedented and dangerous. It's especially dangerous given that remember, Elon is a big dummy, a dum-dum. Never forget. Not to mention the fact that Musk is connected to even shadier billionaires like Peter Thiel, who I made an episode about a couple months ago and who has directly funded JD Vance's entire career, who not only doesn't believe that freedom and democracy are compatible, he wants freedom, not democracy, but also genuinely thinks that competition is bad for capitalism. Like when Peter Thiel hears Make America Great Again, he's not thinking, ah, yes, the 1950s. He's thinking, ah, yes, 1890. He lusts after gilded age robber barons. And in a Trump-Vance administration, those are whose interests would come first and foremost. The ultimate end cap to late stage capitalism and the birth of true plutocracy in this country. And this is why I don't have patience for people, especially in swing states, who aren't voting or who are voting third party in protest. Sometimes you have to do the thing that avoids the most damage, not the thing that brings you the most joy. The damage of a second Trump presidency cannot be overstated. We need to get Kamala Harris elected next month.

馬斯克。他還撰寫了傳統基金會《2025計劃》的一個章節。他是一名共和黨監管者，憎恨監管，但他希望政府在促進 "星鏈 "擴張方面發揮更大作用。是以，他知道，只要他能在埃隆的民調中一路領先，並承諾政府的鉅額資金將進入埃隆的口袋，他就能在未來的特朗普總統任期內獲得一些權力。想象一下，為了成為聯邦通信委員會主席而出賣自己的靈魂。呀。是以，現在不僅法律不適用於埃隆，他還將有權廢除任何他想要的討厭的法律或法規，並玩弄人們的職業抱負，要求人們效忠和政府施捨。這是史無前例的，也是危險的。尤其危險的是，請記住，埃隆是一個大

And then we need to work to get money out of politics. Money is not speech. Billionaires should be taxed out of existence. You can be a good leftist and also vote for Kamala Harris because your work as an activist should not start and stop on election day. And with Trump as president, we don't stand a fucking chance. So go vote. And check out my episode from last week about why you shouldn't throw your vote away on Jill Stein. If you want to add free uncensored access to these videos, check out my Patreon. Go to patreon.com slash legionmiller. And a special shout out to my multi-platinum supporters, Tay Latranger-Lucas, Joshua Cole, Thomas Johnson,

然後，我們需要努力讓金錢退出政治。金錢不是言論。億萬富翁應該被徵稅。你可以成為一名優秀的左派，也可以投票給卡馬拉-哈里斯，因為你作為一名活動家的工作不應該在選舉日開始或停止。有特朗普當總統，我們他媽一點機會都沒有。所以，去投票吧。請查看我上週的節目，瞭解為什麼你不應該把選票投給吉爾-斯坦因（Jill Stein）。如果你想免費觀看這些視頻，請訪問我的 Patreon。請訪問 patreon.com slash legionmiller。特別向我的多白金支持者 Tay Latranger-Lucas、Jos

Anthony Giles, and Brett Piantek. Your generosity makes this channel what it is. So thank you.

Anthony Giles 和 Brett Piantek。是你們的慷慨解囊成就了這個頻道。謝謝你們

 Thanks so much for watching. Have a good day. Buh-bye!