Imagine having an entire worldview that boils down to which of two buttons you push and whether someone else pushed the same one. Elon musk has a rich tapestry of reasons he's a shitbag, that's not even near the top of the list.
Elon musk is a fascist and does not deserve the benefit of the doubt.
He has also literally killed more people in Africa via his illegal self-enriching actions at DOGE than he has provided internet service to. So you can take this stupid hero worship and shove it where the sun don’t shine.
It had turned into a state department front that was getting people killed by interfering in domestic politics. Even Mexico’s President, who is one of Trump’s strongest critics, agreed with that move: https://www.newsweek.com/trump-musk-unexpected-ally-push-shu...
“During a press conference on Tuesday, Sheinbaum voiced support for shutting down USAID, criticizing the agency's role in funding organizations she described as working against Mexican interests.
‘It's involved in so many things that, honestly, it's better if they just shut it down. If there's going to be aid, it should come through other transparent channels—that's the real issue,’ Sheinbaum said.”
Like I said, the world is a lot more complicated than you learned about in elementary school. Your teacher taught you foreign aid workers selflessly help starving kids in poor countries. But interfering in domestic politics gets kids killed. My dad worked on USAID’s maternal health and vaccine programs in Bangladesh. But if it contributed in any way to the destabilization of Bangladesh in 2024, then it will have killed far more children in the long run than it saved. The math is brutal: in a poor country like Bangladesh, GDP growth directly drives down child mortality. Anything that sets back economic growth even a few years translates to hundreds of thousands of dead children.
You can make all the excuses you want, it doesn’t change the truth. He illegally cut food aid and directly killed vulnerable people around the world.
It is that simple.
> My dad worked on USAID’s maternal health and vaccine programs in Bangladesh.
Your dad seems like a much better person than you, spending his time helping people while you spend your time here carrying water for a fascist. Maybe you should try being like him, instead of whatever it is you are doing here.
> My dad is sad that USAID got shuttered, but his hatred is directed to Antony Blinken and Samantha Powers for how they politicized the agency and interfered with other countries’ domestic politics.
That's idiotic, his anger should be directed at the people who took a chainsaw to the agency.
> So maybe sit the fuck down and educate yourself
Take your own goddamn advice, you're talking about things you don't even understand and defending actions that have killed thousands just because you want to defend a billionaire against any and all criticism. It's sycophantic and beyond pathetic. So basically exactly in line with your behavior here.
Edit:
You might even have a point if any of the criticisms about USAID being a soft form of imperialism had been why it was shut down, but it was shut down by drooling idiots angry about "muh tax dollars" going to "dirty foreigners". Every justification you offer is posthoc - just whatever comes to mind to try and defend indefensible actions. You're a liar and continue prove it every time you post something contradictory like this.
I will say having the world ISP run by a man with his ... proclivities is less than optimal.