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PaperclipPerfector  8mo ago (text post)   29154 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of October 14, 2024

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https://oversight.house.gov/release/comer-probes-fcc-decision-to-revoke-starlink-funds/

“In 2020, the FCC awarded SpaceX’s Starlink $885.5 million through RDOF. Starlink ‘is the world’s first and largest satellite constellation using a low Earth orbit to deliver a broadband internet capable of supporting streaming, online gaming, video calls’ and more. On August 10, 2022, the FCC rejected Starlink’s long-form application to receive funding through RDOF on the basis that the FCC ‘cannot afford to subsidize ventures that are not delivering the promised speeds or are not likely to meet program requirements,’” Chairman Comer wrote.

“In December 2023, the Commission reaffirmed its decision to deny the award to Starlink. More specifically, the FCC again ‘determined that Starlink failed to demonstrate that it could deliver the promised service.’ Notably, however, FCC Commissioners Brendan Carr and Nathan Simington have spoken against the Commission’s decision […] Commissioner Carr has argued that the FCC is now among a ‘growing list of administrative agencies that are taking action against Elon Musk’s businesses.’ The FCC must ground its decision-making in law and not politics,” Chairman Comer continued.

Not sure if I have much to add, I didn't see anyone talk about this, but may have missed it.

I understand that a lot of people have it out for Musk, but this seems blatantly partisan and all culture war. Is there a not-culture war aspect to this? $885 million seems like small potatoes compared to all the other numbers that have been floated around lately. I have a hard time strong-manning the decision to not release the funds. It seems like another pebble in the bucket of reasons why Musk, for the sake of his ambitions and livelihood has to support Trump. People can get mad about it, but what else is the dude supposed to do with the power of the Dems fully against him?

People can get mad about it, but what else is the dude supposed to do with the power of the Dems fully against him?

He could have bent the knee and done what they wanted, such as continue to censor Twitter on their behalf.

And in fact musk will probably get what he wants back if he goes progressive enough.

HAH! I think that as well. Give the guy 5 years and he'll be a progressive sweetheart again... if it's convenient, of course. The ire directed at him has always seemed superficial to me.

If it happened to Lord Vader Dick Cheney, it can happen to anyone.

But never underestimate how much the Left actually hates success. I don't know how Musk can be a progressive now without fundamentally changing who he is.

Bill gates is objectively extremely successful.

I would argue that Gates became too successful to criticize. It's not even the Gates Foundation offsetting his capitalism--he just won so hard at making money that he effectively achieved social escape velocity.

If you're a leftist, what's the point of trying to take Gates down a peg? He won ages ago (in Internet reckoning, anyways), made all his money, and fucked off before politics got really heated. Windows is still fairly dominant in the PC space, Microsoft's war against the government and other OSes ended long ago, and Gates is now free to do whatever he wants.

Musk is also in that category, though? Like I don’t think ‘amount of success’ is a massively relevant difference.

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