Musk has posted about an impending civil war on his social media platform X at least eight times in the past 10 months. Some warn it’s dangerous rhetoric.

Tech billionaire Elon Musk has repeatedly prophesied a future civil war related to immigration.

Musk has posted about the subject on his social media platform X at least eight times in the past 10 months, according to a review of his posts by NBC News. And his posts usually include a specific prediction: He thinks that Europe in particular is headed toward a “civil war” due to the arrival of refugees from other continents.

Musk’s interest in the subject of a civil war poked into public view earlier this month when he weighed in on anti-immigration street riots happening across Great Britain. “Civil war is inevitable,” he wrote on X.

Musk’s rhetoric is unheard-of for a corporate executive speaking in public, but the prediction of a civil war has become a frequent talking point among some far-right activists who view a civil war in Europe or the U.S. as not only unavoidable but also as something to be welcomed.

“What you’re seeing in these calls for civil war is a white supremacist clarion call. It is a dog whistle,” said Jon Lewis, a research fellow at George Washington University’s Program on Extremism.

  • GoofSchmoofer@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    120
    ·
    3 months ago

    I have a feeling that too many people are seeing a civil war through the lens of Hollywood - where you get to follow the hero and his/her ragtag group. They get into trouble, get hurt and knocked down but in the end they prevail and save the day/country. While there maybe blood and violence it’s never really too bad.

    What I think people don’t understand or want to think about is how fucking miserable a full blown civil war would be for most everyone. Sure the mega-rich will be able to wall off the worst of it, but the 99% are going to feel it and it would suck.

    So to all those people that are wishing for a civil war - fuck off. You will not be the Hollywood hero you think you will be, more than likely you will be one of 1,000’s of corpses littering the ground.

      • suction@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        3 months ago

        You know the 99% percent will soon look for another 1% soon after they win, right? It’s America, without Rich guys to look up to you don’t have a culture or purpose.

    • Hexbatch@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      22
      ·
      3 months ago

      The super rich make bank on civil wars. A good and proper war in any developed country would make hundreds of new billionaires and thousands of new millionaires: the hugest wealth transfer in history for that unlucky country.

      Meanwhile most of the patriots, true believers, on all sides, who fight, would be dead or maimed or locked up. With most others stuck in poverty , illness and bad leadership whoever won.

      Its good business for Musk and company to give a little push now and then

    • ramble81@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      13
      ·
      3 months ago

      You did a good job of enumerating my thoughts. I think that they think that war will be enable them to act out their power fantasy and line up how you’re saying.

    • _bcron@midwest.social
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      11
      ·
      3 months ago

      The only people wishing for civil war are too short-sighted to understand how horribly it would go for them. Ports, airports, water treatment plants, data centers, power stations etc etc etc predominantly located in urban areas. Good luck to the AR-15 loving whackjobs when they’re instantly landlocked and deprived of foreign trade and means to communicate. They turn on the TV and the only broadcasts they’d see are “this can end now and it all starts with you”

    • Thrashy@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      7
      ·
      edit-2
      3 months ago

      I’ve found myself taking a paradoxically accelerationist stance about it, for this exact reason. At the moment, those on the right agitating for violence are a minority, and those that are actually prepared to act consist primarily of a few thousand militia LARPers and an even smaller number of actually-capable fighters. These groups are gradually accruing malcontents while the right wing’s filter bubble casts their ideas as acceptable, but the sooner those chuds decide to go loud, the more lopsided and emphatic the beatdown will be – provided that the armed forces are under the command of non-authoritarian President. Afterwards the public condemnation of insurrectionists will effectively choke off recruiting. Conflict feels almost inevitable at this point and giving the violent authoritarian fringe more time to plan and recruit only makes that conflict deadlier.

    • rhombus@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      3 months ago

      Probably millions of dead. The American Civil War only lasted four years and the death toll is somewhere between 650,000 and 1.5 million. A modern war would either be extremely quick or a long running insurgency that ends up with potentially millions dead.