the leopards are eating each other’s faces and I am thrilled

[solarbird]

I am very much enjoying watching the leopards of the Leopards Eating People’s Faces Party eating each other’s faces. There is simply not enough popcorn in the entire world for this and I am thrilled.

If you’ve managed to miss this so far, it’s incredibly delightful. Here’s a good thread. Here’s a another one, basically a summary. But in short form, all of the worst people in the world are going at each others’ throats, with Laura Loomer figuring out, “Hey wait, you’re racist like we are but not racist enough and you don’t want all the immigrants out! You think people from India count as some kind of white!” and then Vivek going off about American culture producing sad mediocrities, which Loomer and Bannon and a bunch of their friends took real personally. Anyway, it’s broken out into a general Old MAGA vs. New Tech MAGAnates war, and that’s hilarious.

I was expecting a purge, of course, because you’ve got to have a purge when you have a new authoritarian, a new dictator. That’s because the first thing you have to do as new dictator is demonstrate to everyone who helped you get into power that your power doesn’t depend upon them. Instead, their power – and in general, their literal lives – depends upon you.

But this isn’t being instigated by the orange authoritarian fuckface. This is being instigated by his weird latecomer sidekick, the sidecar accessory who spent $44 billion on turning a popular social network into a fascist propaganda fountain and was supposed to go hang out with Third Banana Vivek and wank about budget cuts, kind of like a rocket-obsessed Jack Kemp.

What set this off in particular is the H1B visa programme, which – surprise! – Musk and Ramaswamy want to keep, and which core MAGA doesn’t like any more than they like any other immigrants who aren’t mail-order brides from Europe.

But that’s not important right now.

What’s important is that Elon has absolutely been throwing his whole weight around, escalating this at every single opportunity. He’s taken gold stars away from a whole fleet of original MAGA, and temporarily banned Loomer herself. He also disabled all of her subscriptions – thus de-monetising her on X – which is hilarious. She got real spicy in response, and that quote’s only one of many.

So now Elon’s big mad, so he’s declared war on original MAGA, calling them “contemptable fools,” and saying they have to be pulled out of the party, “root and stem.”

Got news, hon.

They are the party.

You get rid of them, and there is no Republican party.

But leaving even all that aside…

…where the hell is Trump?

Whose side is he on here, anyway? Either? Both? Is he trying to figure out which of these two groups are the SA and need to be stabbed to death in the night? Is he doing anything to try to calm this down?

Loomer in particular has started signing on to the whole “President Musk” thing and she does not like it, which may be the only time she and I would ever agree on anything. Her side’s already saying that the movement has been co-opted by “big tech” – meaning Elon and friends – and that free speech is just another big lie.

And, of course, Musk has decided to purge them all.

So. Which side’s gonna be this iteration’s Trotsky? Will they be using an ice axe, as per tradition? I hope so. It seems fitting.

And once again…

…where the hell is Trump?

Posted via Solarbird{y|z|yz}, Collected.

Comments

[conuly]

Is it time to eat the rich yet?

[solarbird]

Sure, if you like gout.

[conuly]

Hm. Maybe we should compost the rich and then use them to grow potatoes.

[solarbird]

boil 'em mash 'em boil 'em mash 'em boil 'em mash 'em

[conuly]

Fry them?

[solarbird]

Stick 'em in a stew!

[conuly]

Potatoes are really a perfect food. The nutrition of your average Eurasian peasant really improved after they got potatoes in the Colombian Exchange. They really got the better end of the deal there!

[dewline]

Not interested in having gout in my diet, thanks. As food sources go, these creeps will be Unfit for Purpose.

[melchar]

Might be some good bacon in them though...

[rialian]

===Not convinced this is not theatre.

===Elon is setting himself up to be the person the left will support ("At least he is not a bigot"(tm)) The lesser evil, and appealing to the "intelligence" sort...which the MAGA are most certainly not.

===It is going to backfire...just not convinced this is not at least partially window dressing.

[rialian]

===Especially after his public support of German fascists.

[rialian]

===(Part of it I think is he wants to be seen as not a bigot, even after that. He absolutely IS a bigot, and a fascist.....but he wants the "urbane, not an idiot" look.)

[solarbird]

He follows specifically-pro-apartheid white nationalists. I don't know what he thinks people are going to think.

[rialian]

===He likely thinks that people do not actually understand what that means. (He does think everyone else is less intelligent than himself.)

[conuly]

Which is funny, because he's not that smart.

[solarbird]

the word you're looking for is "sad" xD

[conuly]

I think you mean SAD!!!!

[melchar]

IMO he doesn't care what other people think. Elon wants to manipulate them into believing whatever he tells them to believe.

[jessie_c]

How do we encourage them to keep it up?

[solarbird]

"President Musk today said..." should help.

[enotsola]

Trump decided to speak up on Elon's side since you posted this, while confusing H-1B and H-2B visas. MAGA response seems to be immediately that the DOGE crew are manipulating Trump and he doesn't really mean it, because denial is all MAGA has at this point.

There really isn't enough popcorn.

[conuly]

Wait, how is "he's so dumb he's easily manipulated" a selling point?

[solarbird]

I know :D

[conuly]

Although I don't know why I'm surprised, that's basically the same argument as the Officially Most Inane Holocaust Denial Argument, and those people are neither very smart nor very creative.

[solarbird]

Ooooooh somebody woke him up!

This is a situation that requires subtlety and deftness, so should explode real good. :D

[talkswithwind]

I see this as the tension between the purist nativeists vs the people who believe money allows exceptions. Immigration is fine, so long as their world is locked down and you're exploiting them to make buckets of money. Whether it's the entire SaaS industry's acceptance of H1-B as a fact of business, or the south east poultry business's acceptance of iffy immigration to keep poultry processing cheap. This was always going to be one of the fracture lines in the right-wing coalition, but H1-B got it to the surface first.

[dewline]

While you're grabbing the popcorn, I'll grab the potato chips!

[numb3r_5ev3n]

I'm tempted to be like "this is a bloodbath," then I remember that these are all billionaires and republicans, and they'll be fine. This is just an internet slapfight. They'll go back to hurting those of us who will not be fine soon enough.

[tornir]

[solarbird]

that'll do ^_^

[vostoklake]

The question is not who is Trotsky: the question is, will Loomer be Ernst Röhm, or will Musk be Franz von Papen?

[solarbird]

I thought about going with the Röhm analogy and honestly I'm not sure why I didn't. Maybe it was just the opportunity to use the words "ice axe," which you don't get to do very often.

[jessie_c]

You get rid of them, and there is no Republican party.
Oh, Pleeeeeease! Throw us into that briar patch!