I did say it’s my view. I find it funny people get so worked up if anything isn’t 100% in line with their views.
I do not agree with Putin carrying out the war. But I also as I’ve mentioned have a lot of insight from the perspective of the people involved because I do business with them. Do you?
I’ll give you an example of what I mean. Have you ever read articles about Taiwan-China by western media? There’s a lot of things said, for example the DPP is often painted as a party that supports independence but it’s not that simple. And of course CCP propaganda will be rather unfavorable of Taiwans position.
All I’m saying is. If you listen and talk to the people from the areas that are most impacted, you get more of the nuances of the war.
I got former colleagues in Kiev who I keep in contact with. And my views are that they are like most people are… All of them hate Putin for attacking them, but some of them don’t like Zelenskyy as they think he could do more to get western support, protect the civilians, force Putin to retreat…. Different opinions…
Sounds quite similar to Israel, where people are angry at Hamas but also demonstrate against their own government for being incompetent. Same as some Americans who love USA but hate Biden or Trump
Especially when a war has been ongoing for so long, people’s mind changes as the initial adrenaline wears off while war fatigue sets in
Exactly, it’s a lot to unpack when you talk to people there about it. There’s a lot of complexity in their history most of us don’t understand.
You get to listen to so many more views when you speak to polish, Czech, Ukrainian, Russians, etc. It might surprise people to hear different views outside of the typical western vs kremlin narrative
Western media covers many different views though, I frequently keep track of Western Europe media and there are all kind of info there.
From past wars, like WWII as an example, if we read the history books it sounds like everybody in each country had 100% synchronized view on the war. But in reality many different opinions existed then too. If we few here on Forumosa can’t agree on anything, how could a country like England with many millions of people fully agree…
Once I sounded out my dad’s Slovakian housekeeper on it. She echoed those kind of sentiments and was quite pro Putin actually. An anecdote from an ordinary working class woman. Funny she was hesitant to go there at first, I had to give her the go ahead Things are like that now.
Of course you are going to meet some shitty people like that who take advantage of their country’s misfortune. You are not going to meet the millions fighting for their country’s existence though if you don’t visit Ukraine.
I think many of these points are irrelevant as this thread is about Musk and Taiwan more than anything. Clearly from his statements and his interactions with autocrats he is no friend of Taiwan and potentially even a danger. He may have received direct threats from the Russians and Chinese and be partially under their control.
The latest question I have is WHY is he speaking to Putin ? This is NOT normal behaviour. In fact it’s extremely abnormal and unusual for a CEO of Western companies to be doing that.
The Taiwan government has recognized this early on and plans to build out it’s own satellite network to help provide internet in the event of a war.
This guy Musk is the biggest hypocrite ever speaking with forked tongue about free speech.
and then advocating against it for people from other countries when it goes against his interests.
Russia doesn’t plug in to many supply chains but metal is something they absolutely export a huge amount of. I would imagine many of his companies would look to continue to secure that supply chain.
Look, no one likes the idea of conceding anything to China. But I would also imagine most businesses would prefer some sort of agreement that somehow prevents an all out war. Most cars now use thousands of chips. A war would put most businesses into a situation where they have to completely halt production.
Most of the businesses in Taiwan have to navigate this nonsense and often concede stupid decisions like saying it’s Taiwan China or something.
I understand he’s going to be more scrutinized because he controls some game changing companies like Starlink. But in reality I don’t see his thought processes on these subjects to really be an outlier of any other businesses that have had to navigate around geopolitical issues.
I personally thought manufacturing in China was a huge mistake. But it’s not a mistake he’s alone in making and have made. I’m not big on EVs anyways.
Yes. They also used SpaceX before and again this year as part of that project. Taiwan does want to develop its own satellite launching capabilities but it’s still some years away from reality.
There were quite a few Ukrainians when I was in China. Students, musicians, teachers, models, working in restaurants, even standing around in supermarkets advertising products and handing out samples. Most of them I talked to hated China and wanted to go back home but couldn’t because of the troubles. “Putin doe lu!” (Fuck Putin!) was the first and so far only phrase in Ukrainian I learned.
Yes it is extremely abnormal. Big and small US companies have massive compliance issues with discussing things secretly with sanctioned regimes leaders . There’s all kinds of laws prohibiting sharing of information with sanctioned regimes (not only trading). That’s just the companies and shareholders but what about the government when you are taking defence contracts too!
This is an interesting point, as Musk clearly thinks that all those rules do not apply to him. He was offering money to would-be voters in the US when that is in fact against the law. He seems to think that he’s entitled to do whatever he wants.
Well he probably is being investigated by various agencies because he is the owner of a defence contractor .
He controls the companies he operates so he still has a ‘job’, lower down folks would likely get fired just from the reputational damage for a company especially defence contractors.
I don’t work in the defense industry and I’m a middle manager and I undergo routine compliance training regarding sanctioned regimes, there are all kinds of laws you can break inadvertently if you work for an international company.
Things are like that now.