I think you’re correct that this is how Americans define “good businessman”. But there’s some missing cognition when they then decide that he should run things.
“A ‘good dream’ is when you’re in a dream and enjoy yourself. Freddy Kruger has many good dreams. Therefore, I hope Freddy is in my dream.”
Yeah, no argument here. Though I think that’s been a societal norm in America for a very long time, and in many western/capitalist countries. People have value based on wealth, not on historic/potential benefit to the broader public.
I always think back to the time Gene Simmons from KISS had his reality show, like back in the 90s or something ancient like that. One of his asides, he basically says he wants to amass money, and he wants his kids to amass money, cause money is what demonstrates how much value you’ve added to the world. That sort of thinking, I reckon, is baked into Americans. So Trump, Elon and Thiel and them have billions/trillions of dollars, they’ve ‘clearly’ been the most positive forces in American life in recent decades, and are inherently ‘good’ business men. Regardless of how they made that money, or whether anything was delivered. It’s flawed, but as noted, that sentiment’s been around for decades.
So Elon allegedly became an American citizen in 2002. He immigrated, sure, and seemingly spent 10 years as an illegal, but he’s as American as any other immigrant that America’s taken in – you can’t realistically say he isn’t, unless you want to expand the anti-immigrant rhetoric coming out of the current administration. Peter Thiel’s been an American since he was 1 year old, and was naturalised I guess. So similar story on that front.
Point there being that if you want to make a case that they aren’t Americans, you’d need to accept the current administration’s take that immigrants aren’t Americans. Which seems un-American historically (I mean, statue of liberty quotes and all…).
However at the same time, Americans, in the eyes of the current administration, are white protestant sorts. Like how they’re kicking out “immigrants”, but generally haven’t been deporting the absurd number of Canadians who immigrated south, because the Canadian immigrants are generally white protestant sorts (even if non practicing, the same sort of work ethic). To accept the current administration’s take on immigrants, you need to be a white nationalist, like Jack Posobiec and the Trump administration that lauds him.
And to reject the current administrations take on immigrants, you’d need to accept that Musk and Thiel are American.
I think you’re correct that this is how Americans define “good businessman”. But there’s some missing cognition when they then decide that he should run things.
“A ‘good dream’ is when you’re in a dream and enjoy yourself. Freddy Kruger has many good dreams. Therefore, I hope Freddy is in my dream.”
Yeah, no argument here. Though I think that’s been a societal norm in America for a very long time, and in many western/capitalist countries. People have value based on wealth, not on historic/potential benefit to the broader public.
I always think back to the time Gene Simmons from KISS had his reality show, like back in the 90s or something ancient like that. One of his asides, he basically says he wants to amass money, and he wants his kids to amass money, cause money is what demonstrates how much value you’ve added to the world. That sort of thinking, I reckon, is baked into Americans. So Trump, Elon and Thiel and them have billions/trillions of dollars, they’ve ‘clearly’ been the most positive forces in American life in recent decades, and are inherently ‘good’ business men. Regardless of how they made that money, or whether anything was delivered. It’s flawed, but as noted, that sentiment’s been around for decades.
Elon and Peter are not Americans. Like not in any way culturally or physically are they American.
Elon is a fucking illegal on top of it.
So Elon allegedly became an American citizen in 2002. He immigrated, sure, and seemingly spent 10 years as an illegal, but he’s as American as any other immigrant that America’s taken in – you can’t realistically say he isn’t, unless you want to expand the anti-immigrant rhetoric coming out of the current administration. Peter Thiel’s been an American since he was 1 year old, and was naturalised I guess. So similar story on that front.
Point there being that if you want to make a case that they aren’t Americans, you’d need to accept the current administration’s take that immigrants aren’t Americans. Which seems un-American historically (I mean, statue of liberty quotes and all…).
However at the same time, Americans, in the eyes of the current administration, are white protestant sorts. Like how they’re kicking out “immigrants”, but generally haven’t been deporting the absurd number of Canadians who immigrated south, because the Canadian immigrants are generally white protestant sorts (even if non practicing, the same sort of work ethic). To accept the current administration’s take on immigrants, you need to be a white nationalist, like Jack Posobiec and the Trump administration that lauds him.
And to reject the current administrations take on immigrants, you’d need to accept that Musk and Thiel are American.