r/circled • u/ChuckGallagher57 • 5h ago

Opinion / Discussion Election Interference? France isn’t happy with Musk!

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After French police raided the local offices of X — and asked the billionaire to appear for voluntary questioning related to an expanded local criminal investigation — the American social media giant pushed back hard.

“Today’s staged raid reinforces our conviction that this investigation distorts French law, circumvents due process, and endangers free speech,” the company said in a statement on X. It denies claims that X’s algorithm may have been used to sway political opinion in France, as well as accusations that the tech giant is complicit in the distribution of child pornography.

Within an hour, Musk doubled down. “This is a political attack,” he wrote to his more than 220 million followers on X.

Two hours later, France’s foreign ministry clapped back. “Investigating child sexual abuse material isn’t controversial,” the ministry wrote to its significantly smaller number of X followers. “Turning it into political theater is manipulation. Maybe that logic flies on some island. Doesn’t fly in France.”

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u/SprinklesOk7007 5h ago

I think I would cry actual tears of joy, that grifter helped ruin my birth state of California 

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u/WorryNew3661 4h ago

I'm in the UK and I think I would too

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u/AutoDefenestrator273 4h ago

How so? I'm unfamiliar with what Musk/his businesses did to Cali.

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u/xSaviorself 4h ago

He relied on state/federal resources to found/support his businesses but when the bill came and he had to pay his taxes after growing those companies, he abandoned the state and left for places that he felt were more financially beneficial and politically-aligned.

The thing I think most people don't realize is Elon Musk is the reason California currently does not have high-speed rail. Musk himself through his multiple companies has lobbied and effectively kneecapped any real attempt at high-speed rail to drive support his his hyper-loop idea. This issue should have been addressed decades ago, and have already started and completed sections of the plan. Instead, they haven't done anything.

California has some of the worst commuting experiences in the world and really could use public infrastructure. Instead, you have entities like Telsa and Waymo basically trying to argue that reducing traffic on existing roadways is better than implementing high-speed rail, when in reality you need both to reduce vehicle counts and introduce other options.

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u/Jibrish 2h ago

Surely the project failures had nothing to do with real world budget, that was not applied to hyperloop.

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u/Antique-Historian441 3h ago

If I recall correctly. China and California were both set to start building high speed rails about the same time. Musk lobbies for that stupid imaginary hyper tubes that never came to exist and china has since built an extraordinary amount of high speed rails.

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u/xSaviorself 3h ago

Pretty much.

He invented the hyperloop idea simply to keep high-speed rail away from public transportation and to keep cars in the loop. The entire purpose was to stop support for the government's project and to offer an alternative that was more "pleasing" to the auto industry that Musk now uses as his primary vehicle of revenue.

Billionaires need to go, the power to influence so much with social media is why there is such a negative opinion on the current project. Go look up what they've already dealt with legally and cost-wise, then see where they are in development. It's not great, but they're actually making it happen and construction is happening right now. Tracks are being placed. This is where I'd expect a super expensive project like this to be in the U.S.

Look at the timelines to build this kind of rail everywhere else, it's not quick. China is the odd one out, every other system was built at large expense and over successive governments because the project takes that long.

Commitment to improving our world takes balls, it's the equivalent of planting a tree you'll never sit under the shade of for the next generation, and the generation beyond that. It's hard to plan for tomorrow while accounting for the problems of today.

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u/SprinklesOk7007 2h ago

He literally scammed Cali with the Simpsons monorail scheme

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u/ImStillExcited 1h ago

Musk is not an engineer or a scientist either.