The poll shows that public views of Musk are increasingly polarized, with Republican support of the billionaire rising while Democratic support falls.

Elon Musk’s support among Democrats has withered to a new low as he has embraced Republican politics, according to a national NBC News poll.

Only 6% of Democrats in the poll, which was conducted Sept. 13-17, said they had positive feelings about Musk, while 79% said they had negative feelings. The numbers were flipped for Republicans, with 62% having positive feelings toward him and 14% negative feelings. Independents were split, 31% to 36%.

The poll shows that views of Musk are increasingly polarized, reflecting the transformation of his public image in recent years from that of an environmentally aware automaker crusading against fossil fuels to that of a conservative activist aligned with former President Donald Trump.

  • linearchaos@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    Is that the 6% that are buying Tesla’s? Seriously though it’s not like the right are buying his electric cars

  • Kalysta@lemm.ee
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    1 month ago

    Why are we doing popularity polls on billionares? Unless he’s running for office the default for all normal Americans should just be eat the rich.

  • e$tGyr#J2pqM8v@feddit.nl
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    1 month ago

    I can only see ‘being a billionaire’ as ‘stealing from the population at large’. So you’re saying the biggest thief of society is still popular among 6% of democrats.

      • ByteOnBikes@slrpnk.net
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        1 month ago

        Haha I think I met one!

        Dude was a eco-friendly pro-Kamala pro-weed driving a Tesla.

        When I made a joke about buying a Tesla before Elon went crazy, he kinda sheepishly shrugged and then excitedly talked about all the new things Tesla is coming out with.

        • ShepherdPie@midwest.social
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          1 month ago

          Being excited about technological progress at Tesla or SpaceX doesn’t mean you’re a fan or supporter of Musk. These companies are full of thousands of engineers doing this work while the absentee CEO is spending his time shitposting and driving Twitter into the ground.

            • Zement@feddit.nl
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              1 month ago

              True. If the engineers and market experts would have had a say in this, they would have made a Micro-Van.

              6 Seats, 3.5x1.8 meters, 300km range, flat pack floor folding seats in the back… AND ALLOWED IN EUROPE FOR NOT BEING A PEDESTRIAN KILLING MACHINE.

                • Zement@feddit.nl
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                  1 month ago

                  Yeah but maybe smaller. Real innovation needs courage. A K-Car sized Utilitarian Tesla could have lead the way, but they literally fucked up badly.

                  Where is the Roadster 2 btw?

              • lightnsfw@reddthat.com
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                1 month ago

                I’d love someone to make a small (at least by today’s standards) electric pickup similar to a 90s ranger or S10. If there was a cargo van I’d certainly consider it though.

                • clif@lemmy.world
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                  1 month ago

                  Remember when small trucks were small? I remember. My 2008 Tacoma (which used to be a small truck) seems about the same size as a 90s model Silverado.

                  I remember the late 90s Tacomas and S10s. I want them back.

                  But, I do think we hit critical mass because newer ones seem to be shrinking again… I think.

            • ShepherdPie@midwest.social
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              1 month ago

              I 100% agree with that and think they need to kick him to the curb. What influence and publicity he could generate for the companies 10 years ago is now long gone and has now transformed into a giant liability.

              • Furbag@lemmy.world
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                1 month ago

                I’m honestly shocked that the board hasn’t gotten rid of him yet. he’s just a massive source of problems for them. My suspicion is that he is so good at creating controversy that they can time their watches to it, so to speak, and buy/sell their positions in the company while Elon takes all the heat from the SEC for insider trading, not the crooked board members who know he’s a total whacko but acknowledge the reality that he has a lot of gullible techbros with too much money on their hands hanging on his every word and they will rush to buy Tesla stock or Dogecoin or whatever if Elon says he’s making market moves when he’s actually running his classic pump-and-dump schemes.

                • ShepherdPie@midwest.social
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                  1 month ago

                  There’s gotta be some truth to this as I was astounded that they approved that $50+ billion payout that he recently received after threatening to quit. In recent years, Tesla has really floundered and is rapidly losing marketshare with each passing day mostly due to Musk’s actions. In what world does that deserve a singular payout valued higher than most corporations earn in an entire year?

          • WalnutLum@lemmy.ml
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            1 month ago

            It’s important to take Tesla and SpaceX at face value and not to extrapolate future success based on what they’ve accomplished.

        • SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world
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          1 month ago

          Full Self Driving super soon except you still need to intervene regularly and also robotaxis will never work so it’s pointless anyway!

          • v_krishna@lemmy.ml
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            1 month ago

            Waymo is already operating fully autonomous self driving taxis in SF. Price point is about the same as uber/lyft, a bit cheaper since no yip. And they are all hella nice Jaguars. The difference is Waymo uses lidar and radar to make it work (and also did intensive mapping of city streets). Still needs a lot of work to scale (they do dumb things, but so do human drivers, and are limited to the city so I can’t take one to or from my home in Berkeley yet) but they fully exist and are a viable option today.

            • RinseDrizzle@midwest.social
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              1 month ago

              Man, after years as a valet ages ago I’m so anti Jaguar. Every single time one came through, it had problems. Owners constantly griped about it being in and out the shop a bunch. Nice at a glance, but plenty of the “luxury” brands are apparently made with fucking plastic and band aids.

            • webadict@lemmy.world
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              1 month ago

              Waymo sucks. They get stuck a lot, tend to cost as much or more than Uber and Lyft, and you basically hope they don’t get stuck trying to navigate around situations because you basically wait until remote assistance fixes it. Also, if you live anywhere near where they park the things, you want Waymo to die in a fire because they honk. ALL. NIGHT. LONG.

                • Furbag@lemmy.world
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                  1 month ago

                  They get confused and think they are sitting in traffic that isn’t moving, so they occasionally let out a honk. Multiply it by dozens of vehicles and it’s just a cacophony of honking cars with nobody in them.

            • Zron@lemmy.world
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              1 month ago

              The worst part is we could definitely have a mars base with today’s technology.

              It’s just not economically or scientifically necessary to set up. Robots can do 99% of what a human can on mars, scientifically speaking, and if they break we can just build another one. If someone dies on mars, it’s gonna global news for weeks.

              And mars doesn’t exactly have a huge open pit of platinum or something we want to mine, so there’s no economic incentive to set up a colony.

              Musk just wants to sell the sci-fi vaporware fantasy to shareholders because SpaceX has one viable product and he’s desperate for no one to notice that.

              • Logi@lemmy.world
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                1 month ago

                SpaceX has one viable product

                Two. I can’t even figure out whether you’re ignoring Starlink or their space launch business. But yeah, the Elonville on Mars obsession makes about as much sense as the Cybertruck.

              • dgmib@lemmy.world
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                1 month ago

                Which is good because mars will be about the only inhabitable planet in the solar system if Trump has another term.

      • ShepherdPie@midwest.social
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        1 month ago

        That number seems way too low with how far over to the right the party has become in recent years. There’s almost zero progressive representation.

    • frezik@midwest.social
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      1 month ago

      You almost always have a few percent of nonsensical responses in a poll. People who hate sandwiches but love peanut butter and jelly stuck between two pieces of bread. It’s so consistent that the lack of it is an indication the poll was rigged or badly done.

  • hddsx@lemmy.ca
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    1 month ago

    Why is musk’s(and Swift’s) popularity newsworthy? Unless they are trying to run for office, who cares?

    • blackbelt352@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      Because they have lots of money and influence among the 18-35 demographic. Would I prefer if news corps didn’t cover their every move and thought? Yeah I would, but unfortunately news featuring Musk and Swift gets clicks which drives advertising.

    • ByteOnBikes@slrpnk.net
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      1 month ago

      Musk has continued to interfere with politics over and over again. From donations, to censorship, to being a weird fucking creep to female politicians.

      Swift was dragged in there because Donald Trump shared fake AI images of her supporting Donald. To fix the blowback, Swift said, “Ew you old filthy pedo, I’m not doing that”. (Don’t quote me)

      Its newsworthy because it’s news.

      • hddsx@lemmy.ca
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        1 month ago

        So Musk is a creepy dickhead. That’s not news. It’s been apparent for quite a while now

    • Wrench@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      Musk bought one of the biggest social media platforms expressly to manipulate news, which in turn manipulates politics and markets.

      He’s basically like a narcissistic Rupert Murdock who wants to make his manipulation all centered around how cool he is.

      That’s news.

      Taylor Swift is just filler content. It’s taking the place of worlds largest cookie stories. But the reason it gains traction is that she has taken on a bit of a counter persona to the Right’s habitual sexism. She’s an influential woman. The Right can’t stand that shit.

      • hddsx@lemmy.ca
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        1 month ago

        It was news when he bought the platform. It was news when advertisers boycotted his platform. It was news when it first became a far right cesspool. It’s news when X finally capitulated to the Brazilian government.

        His approval rating doesn’t matter and isn’t news. His continual support of far right figures isn’t news unless he is supporting someone new.

        Do we report about Steve Ballmer or Tim Cook’s approval ratings? No. Because it doesn’t matter. It’s not news. Stop giving Musk attention he doesn’t deserve. We shouldn’t be talking about him. He craves the spotlight. Don’t give it to hin

  • WolfdadCigarette@threads.net@sh.itjust.works
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    1 month ago

    Something to avoid- standing near a parked Tesla with sentry mode enabled drains its battery significantly as it tracks you. Locating a camera and displaying a paper sign, one light enough to blow in the wind that reads “musk sucks”, would accomplish the same thing, and should also be avoided.

    • cubism_pitta@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      While funny… I think you underestimate how big the battery in a Tesla is and also how little power the computer would pull.

      THAT said… I wonder if there is a drive somewhere that could be filled doing that?

      • From what I understand, it wastes an extra ~2%/hr. A tragic sum, if done repeatedly throughout the week. I think it overwrights old data as the drive fills. I can’t see utility in that, aside from mischievously scrubbing old footage.

        • NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world
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          1 month ago

          It’s nowhere near 2% an hour. It’s like ~300w/h to keep it all running, and they said they were going to reduce that further by 40% in the near future, so ~180w/h

          300w/h on a 62kw/h (model 3 standard range) battery is 0.48% an hour. You’d lose 3.82% for an 8h workday, and soon to be 2.29%

          And the % would decrease as the battery is larger like a long range vehicle.

          I’m not saying this is ideal, but 2%/h is just flat out wrong, and almost a whole order of magnitude after the update.

  • garretble@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    “I, a genius, will alienate the group who want EVs to curry favor with the group who will never buy EVs. Genius, I say.”

        • NJSpradlin@lemmy.world
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          1 month ago

          The ROI is the destruction of a social media platform that enabled global protest and solidarity movements toward equality and equity of the lower and middle classes against our global elite; anti hijab movements, women’s equal rights in Muslim countries, black lives matters in western countries, the revolution in France over the retirement age, to name a few.

          Edit: and let’s not forget the impact this has had on growing conservative movements, increased foreign interference in US politics, and the weakening of western democracy.

    • tabarnaski@sh.itjust.works
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      1 month ago

      He’s just seeing what Trump and the GOP are planning for the US and hopes he’ll be one of the oligarchs at the top in the end.

  • TacticsConsort@yiffit.net
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    1 month ago

    Christ, he’s ACTUALLY managed to hit the Lizardman Constant with the dems.

    Now hit it with the Repubs too. Come on Trump. You wanna turn on your ally. You wanna turn on your ally and throw him to your cult soooooo badly. It’ll be really funny I promise

    • ShaggySnacks@lemmy.myserv.one
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      1 month ago

      Trump is easy to manipulate. Go on Truth Social, astroturf the shit out of the idea that Musk is going to backstab Trump. Sit back and enjoy the show.

    • Notyou@sopuli.xyz
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      1 month ago

      Many many people are saying it. Trump would have won if Musky Leon actually was a man of his word and ran those Trump ads on X. He promised $45 million of ads during the RNC, but Leon ended up just charging $45 million for the first ad.