KevinC
3918
Wow, yeah. It’s almost like context matters!
Shiva isn’t an unknown forum spammer with questionable motives, he’s a member of the community with a known history here. So obviously his posts, words, or actions are going to be seen in a different context than some forum driveby.
EDIT: That being said, I do agree with your general complaint, although maybe not specifically about a short joke/quip like that. There’s been a lot of times a tweet shows up in a thread with no context. I have no idea who it is, I’m not even entirely sure what they are talking about especially if it’s in the middle of a twitter “conversation”. Taking the time to kind of explain what is being shared or why it is being shared would be appreciated by me. Not that any of you fine folk need to care about that. :)
Ex: “Regarding <insert_topic_or_argument>, I think this person makes a good argument and articulates my position pretty well”.
Alstein
3919
hoping Jeff Jackson doesn’t suffer the same fate here At least Jackson’s wife is badass and won’t let him pull a Cal Cunningham.
There’s a lot of similarity between Kander and Jackson, though Jackson seems to have a gift of keeping the left happy without being all that left.
I do remember Kander, and wondered what happened to him.
I think that random tweet above must be in reference to this one by Musk, which was mostly a shitpost with limited context. It was posted in reply to the notion of unrealized gains being taxed as income, first on the wealthy and eventually on everyone.
That whole debate has raged once here and I doubt there is much new to debate. Some people like the idea, others find it unrealistic or unfair (or both).
I’ll just leave by saying I doubt it will ever happen, and so its a bit of wasted breathe for both proponents and opponents to get worked up over.
Much like eating your neighbor. People are divided on the question.
I think we agree on whether that tax is a good or bad idea, but your post is also what I’d consider a shit post.
It just doesn’t really add much; we know what The Musk thinks, and that he always tweets crap in pure self-interest.
LoL I didn’t notice that initially, good eye.
ShivaX
3926
Not aiming this at you, but when I do that people still hand wave it as not being relevant most of the time. I can post something from a member of Congress and people will not know who it is and also say that it doesn’t matter anyway, usually after saying anyone less than a member of Congress is irrelevant.
Literally everyone is a “rando” to someone. I’m not sure why it’s on me to give people an entire background and biography of relevant people in politics, all the context behind everything and then… have them tell me it didn’t fucking matter anyway and I wasted my time as the debate inevitably shifts to whether the person is “relevant enough”.
Because here is the kicker. I did those things and then realized it didn’t matter that I’d done it. So I spend like 5 minutes on a post and no one cares or they decide it didn’t meet some internal threshold of relevance anyway. So now I see something and I post it. If someone doesn’t know the context, they can figure it out.
But also:
It was literally just an Elon Musk joke. Like… how much context is really needed? Elon Musk said something stupid and someone responded in a funny way. That’s it. You don’t even need context. Unless you need context that Elon Musk said something stupid and kind of elitist, in which case I feel like you’re just not familiar with Musk.
I usually try to give context, but the joke had the entire context within it. It opens with Elon Musk said a thing, Regular People respond. That’s a self-contained joke. I could give the background of Elon Musk, the entirety of how our tax system works, Kander and his history of his life and what happened, but… it’s just a fucking joke.
And again, not aiming this at you, but the number of times I get thread copped these days is off the chart. I’ve realized that I can’t please everyone and it’s a waste of my time to even try. If someone doesn’t know who Jason Kander is, that’s on them. They have Google or they can just ignore the post as far as I’m concerned. Because it’s just exhausting doing it over and over again and refighting the same fight every few days and then being dismissed by someone who often just couldn’t be bothered to click a Tweet.
Love you guys, but it’s exhausting and the result of doing it is exactly the same as not doing it almost every single time.
Also it was a joke.
Surely, not every post needs to be a wall of text, like Trigger, myself, or Sharpe often post.
A stupid tweet from a public figure should qualify.
I have no idea who Jason Kander is, but I got the joke and appreciated it.
The issue is, as LockerK noted, whether it is a joke based on something Musk actually said, a misquote, or even a complete fiction, as is often the case on Twitter.
Purely as a joke, it’s a really lame one if Musk didn’t say that.
Timex
3930
It’s based on stuff Musk actually said. He said something along the lines of exactly what Kander said in his joke… “They’re talking about taxing us rich guys now, but pretty soon they’re going to tax the rest of you!”
We all already pay taxes at a much higher effective rate than Musk.
His post was specifically in reference to taxing unrealized capital gains. I think it’s a legitimate concern for anyone with a brokerage account.
Oh, the slippery slope argument.
Yeah, that seems very unlikely.
Yes, I agree the entire tax is unlikely.
No, it seems unlikely that the Bill will impact anyone in any part of my life. They could make it impact people that 400,000 or so a year, and it still won’t impact anyone in a meaningful way, except to make life better for the majority of Americans as we do something to narrow the huge wealth gap in the tiniest of ways.
No, since any such proposal always has an effective floor in the millions or tens of millions, it isn’t really a concern for most people with a brokerage account. And those same people are already paying a tax on the unrealized gains in their house. That’s what makes it funny!
CraigM
3936
Aka, the literal only form of real wealth that all, except a tiny minority, of Americans have.
And think of those who don’t own, but rent! They are effectively paying a wealth tax on an appreciating asset someone else owns, in the form of higher rents!
Timex
3937
For the sake of correctness, I think it’s worth recognizing that a majority of American (56% according to gallup in 2021) report owning stocks now.
Not really material, as you can have some floor to where you would tax unrealized gains maybe, but the idea that “only rich people own stock” isn’t really true any more. Indeed, I suspect that the ownership is likely higher than 56%, with some people owning stocks indirectly without really understanding it.
