October 17, 2024

Elon Musk presents a montage of himself in pro-Trump mode to the tune of "YMCA."

I note that "YMCA" is an appeal to young men — the words "young man" are repeated over and over.

One minute into the montage, we hear Musk: "President Trump must win to preserve the Constitution. He must win to preserve democracy in America. This is a must win situation. Must win.... Fight. Fight. Fight. Blood coming down the face. Now, America is the home of the brave. And there's no truer test than courage under fire. So who do you want representing America? Yeah. Absolutely."

When it ends we see that it's an ad from the Trump campaign, but I watched the whole thing seeing it as coming directly from Musk. Musk passed it along on X. As such, it is Musk's own speech. 

I'm an old woman, but I can still easily see that this is a strong appeal to young men... especially after the achievement-packed week Musk has had with the rocket, the robots, the robovan. And: "Helene’s aftermath opens new chance — and controversy — for Musk’s Starlink/Elon Musk’s company got regulators’ green light to test out a groundbreaking satellite-based cell service as part of hurricane relief efforts" (WaPo)(free-access link).

60 comments:

rehajm said...

The only controversy is the propaganda media doesn’t like Musk so any positive story about conservative supporters must be tainted with controversy…

Limited blogger said...

Amazing how much Musk accomplishes with the deep state set against him. Imagine if he was unleashed to do all the things he is capable of?

Ann Althouse said...

"Imagine if he was unleashed to do all the things he is capable of?"

He's colluding with Trump to work from the inside, to unleash others from burdensome overregulation.

Marcus Bressler said...

"Fight. Fight. Fight. Blood coming down the face. Now, America is the home of the brave." THIS made me teary-eyed and proud. I get the same reaction when I hear "and the home of the brave" in the National Anthem.

michaele said...

Kind of amazing to reflect on the "journey" that the song YMCA has had over the years. Now it's a political fight anthem and it seems to perfectly fit with Musk's unbridled enthusiasm for what a Trump win can mean for this country.

Tank said...

It's Trump, Vance, Musk, Kennedy and Gabbard OR Harris, Walz and the Cheneys. Hmmmmm......

Dixcus said...

Of the Deep State and Musk, which one do you suppose has the best rocket-targeting capability? Is there anti-rocket technology at the NSA?

Elon Musk is probably the absolute WORST person they could pick a fight with. He has the technology to actually defeat the United States militarily.

rhhardin said...

Jordan Peterson on the corresponding appeal to 18-34 yo women on TicTok by the Chinese and Iranians, to go into care mode in politics where they have no children to exercise the inclination on. I see a psychological translation of my structure vs feelings division of men and women.

Dixcus said...

Kamala better get on Drag Queen Story Hour quick or Elon Musk might steal the gay vote for Trump along with the black men.

rehajm said...

Collusion is a word for cooperation over something secret or dishonest or illegal. Care to enlighten us about how Musk's support for Trump is nefarious compared to supporters on the Democrats side?

gspencer said...

"YMCA" = Recruiting anthem for the Limp-Wrist Lobby.

Eva Marie said...

Musk and Trump never raise their voices. They never shout to make a point. Refreshing.

AMDG said...

Elon Musk is quite possibly the most consequential figure of our time.

Gerda Sprinchorn said...

I can still easily see that this is a strong appeal to young men

It makes you realize how contemptuously young men are portrayed today.

Aggie said...

'Cooperating' I think is a better word - they are both out-in-the-open 'operators', not conspirators.

Aggie said...

Yes, there is an appeal to young men in the lyrics of YMCA, but it's a young person's song after all. I could see young women, who are motivated toward achievement, also gravitating.

BUMBLE BEE said...

Pisses the dems off that he's a True American Hero. An African American Hero
and he's Republican.

BUMBLE BEE said...

Speaking of American Heroes there's this...

https://www.theblaze.com/news/veterans-put-special-ops-experience-to-work-helping-hurricane-hit-north-carolinians

Airborne leads the way.

mikee said...

The YMCS song is one of very few gay anthems adopted by the heterosexual part of the culture. A reverse Donna Summer, if you will.

planetgeo said...

"Unleashed" is the key word in this election. And not just businesses unleashed from burdensome overregulation. Ordinary citizens also want to be unleashed to speak freely, and free from punishment for stating the wrong political beliefs or compelled to use required pronouns.

And which party is desperately trying to keep the leashes on, and ever pulling those leashes tighter?

RideSpaceMountain said...

The only song I know of that mentions the YWCA is Half A Person by The Smiths , and it's really about him just looking for a job so he can touch the girls.

Howard said...

Appealing to the latent homosexual leanings of overcompensating Trump chucks

Curious George said...

Appealing to Trump man who are secure enough in their manhood to sing a fun catchy song. Of course, you wouldn't know about that pajama boy.

Quaestor said...

WaPoo writes, "The company has come under criticism in recent days after users discovered that the 'free' Starlink broadband service advertised for hurricane survivors only lasted a month and required them to spend several hundred dollars purchasing a terminal."

Free within scare quotes. Very classy, Mr. Murray. My access to this article was a "gift". Notice the scare quotes around gift. I was obliged to provide a live email address to redeem the gift. A live address is fungible data with a dollar value, in other words payment for a gift. The real payment comes later when WaPoo sells my address to the god knows whom. Perhaps gift is used in its Germanic definition.

Now to the controversy, which is based on WaPoo's deliberate falsehood. Hurricane victims may use Starlink without charge until January. Installation fees are permanently waived. The reporters know this, but lied away. No Constanza Contingency applies.

Quaestor said...

Homophobic Howie will be voting for Kamala with one hand while the DNC Thought Police put the manacles on the other.

Aggie said...

I always liked that: 'free gift'. It's uniquely American slang. Kind of like having a 'dead corpse'.

Original Mike said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Peachy said...

That.

Original Mike said...

Does WaPoo expect them to be free forever? The rockets and satellites and terminals cost real money, not fake printing-press government money.

Kakistocracy said...

So it’s a bit ironic that the GOP effort to cultivate votes in swing states using an Elon Musk PAC app is running into problems due to substandard, slow broadband access in those same states.

The Guardian notes that the Trump campaign and the Elon Musk-backed America PAC use a management app called 'Campaign Sidekick' to confirm that door to door canvassers are actually reaching “low information” voters in swing states. But the app keeps crashing because it requires bandwidth that a lot of these local areas simply don’t have:

/“The Campaign Sidekick app effectively forces canvassers who have less than 40mbps of internet – sufficient to stream 4K video – to use “offline walkbooks” which have no geo-tracking feature and do not always upload after a route is completed, the people said.

As a result, the Trump campaign and America Pac then have little way to know whether canvassers are actually knocking on doors or whether they are cheating – for instance, by “speed-running” routes where they literally throw campaign materials at doors as they drive past.”/
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/oct/14/trump-ground-game-smartphone-app

Pardon my impoliteness towards Trump and Company but 🤣🤣

Maybe karma does exist after all.

I mean, there are two self owns just in the app alone. Their app is so terrible it needs more bandwidth than a streaming service and it is so shitty they couldn’t figure out how to make a reliable alternative to needing that bandwidth.

IMO: Campaign sidekick helps coordinate canvassing operations both in person and electronic. I can see a world where intelligent use of a data driven, real time assessment results in better resource management.

From the description, they are not engaged in that use. It appears the 'we must track everything you do at work crowd' have decided micromanaging volunteers is the best way to use this software, which is a waste of resources in any industry.

Ann Althouse said...

"Collusion is a word for cooperation over something secret or dishonest or illegal. Care to enlighten us about how Musk's support for Trump is nefarious compared to supporters on the Democrats side?"

It's just humor

Original Mike said...

Community Context: Rich was recently outed as a bald-faced liar.
https://www.blogger.com/comment/fullpage/post/6329595/7007542573519861800

Kakistocracy said...

Man arrested for threatening FEMA workers speaks out
https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2024/10/16/fema-threats-arrested-hurrricane-helene/

This is a direct result of Trump's lies about FEMA not helping out in western NC. Nice job, Trump Yeah, you’ll bring the country together.

Sebastian said...

"the achievement-packed week" Is there anyone who comes close? Achievement + clear-eyed opposition to Dems: no wonder they hate him.

Original Mike said...

Behind paywall. But I'll give you the benefit of the doubt (Lord knows why). You did not know this when you made up your "facts". That's called a lie.

Peachy said...

The corrupt left demand ALL who are not sufficiently loyal to the corrupt democratic left - be punished.

The Black Mayor of NYC is a prime example.

Peachy said...

Corrupt Democratics in DC don't give a crap about anyone suffering. Myorkas stated clearly that FEMA was out of money. Jean Pierre stated clearly - FEMA funding was used for Illegals - all over the nation.

Stephen said...

"He's colluding with Trump to work from the inside, to unleash others from burdensome overregulation." I've been reading this blog too long. I knew that the post was intended to state a possible truth but not take it too seriously through the use of "colluding" and "unleash."

mccullough said...

lol.

mccullough said...

lol.

Stephen said...

It's a good bet that the Republican version of the "politics of joy" has a longer shelf life than the Democratic one.

Kakistocracy said...

@OG Mike — gift link

https://wapo.st/3zY5h6n

Original Mike said...

I'm not giving them my email address.
I conceded it probably says what you say it says. I doubt you'd try and paper over your lie with another lie.

Michael K said...

Howard just loves Walz's dancing.

Michael K said...

I see the liar is back.

Craig Howard said...

Ah, just imagine being unburdened by regulations that have been.

Lazarus said...

Good for Elon. There's a video of Tim Walz's entrances and exits with Abba's "Dancing Queen" on the soundtrack. Internet posters are attributing it to the Trump campaign. I hope not. It's funny, but tasteless and a little ugly.

Joe Smith said...

Trump and Musk and Vance are the strong horses. Decidedly not low-T.

rehajm said...

Ha. Ha. Good one Seinfeld…

One Fine Day said...

"Ordinary citizens also want to be unleashed to speak freely, and free from punishment for stating the wrong political beliefs or compelled to use required pronouns."

SOME ordinary citizens want that. Many, many others (maybe even a majority) want other ordinary citizens to be chained and unable to speak freely or state wrong political or religious beliefs, and want everyone compelled to use the language of which they approve - including pronouns.

Iman said...

When you’re right - which isn’t often - you’re right.

Iman said...

Naw, he’ll be diddlin’ with the other.

Original Mike said...

"I note that "YMCA" is an appeal to young men — the words "young man" are repeated over and over."

One (and perhaps the only) thing I've learned from this election is the words to "YMCA".

john mosby said...

If the Surviving Village People had any financial acumen, they’d re-record the song as “M.A.G.A.”

Young man
Got no politic’l pow’r?
I said young man
Losing respect by the hour?
I said young man
There’s an answer for you
You can live like people used to….

You know we’re going to M A G A
Donald Trump’s gonna M A G A
He’ll do everything for young men to come back
And you can get everyhing you laaaack….

Just off the top of my head. something like that.
Maybe Trump can just buy the rights. Or claim the parody exception and dare people to sue him. Maybe the People can be persuaded to do it for the inauguration.

JSM

hombre said...

Above all, at great expense, Musk has given us a window to real news, not corporate media bullshit.

Yancey Ward said...

I think there is a single member of the group still working but the group itself is still active touring, albeit with new members.

The Vault Dweller said...

I'm an old woman, but I can still easily see that this is a strong appeal to young men
Oh my dear old woman, your ability to empathize with young men is valuable and needed in leaders in politics, industry, and academia.

Original Mike said...

That's great, John.

Michael said...

This was done (well) in 2016. See: https://genius.com/The-american-people-maga-ymca-parody-lyrics.

Josephbleau said...

Trump Stronk! Like Booooool!