from Hacker News

Why does Elon Musk love this socialist sci-fi series?

by GeoAtreides on 5/22/25, 3:35 PM with 24 comments

• by spacedcowboy on 5/22/25, 4:35 PM

  Just because these are truly awful people doesn't mean they can't like out-of-this-world-amazing science fiction.

• by incomingpain on 5/22/25, 4:09 PM

  >Elon Musk had already turned Twitter into a right-wing echo chamber since purchasing it in 2022,

  Is it though? I talk with liberals and NDP frequently. I really wish I didnt see people like harry sisson or krassenseins which i dont care about. Not my country, but they are popular so the algo gives them to me.

  Not much of a right wing echo chamber if they are forcing left wing foreign people on others.

  >Jeff Bezos has revamped the Washington Post’s editorial section to build support for “personal liberties and free markets.”

  I hadnt heard that happened. I very much approve.

  >It was a massive show of power that revealed how possible it is for these wealthy men to remake our culture in their own image,

  Having your newspaper make the case for personal liberty and free markets is remaking your culture?

• by billy99k on 5/22/25, 3:49 PM

  "Elon Musk had already turned Twitter into a right-wing echo chamber since purchasing it in 2022"

  I disagree. I look at this frequently and Twitter has right and left wing posts pretty equally. Many people think it's a 'right-wing echo chamber' because non-left leaning posts were censored for many years.

  Bluesky is an authoritarian nightmare that only allows left-leaning posts and pre-bans people for their content on other platforms, before they even post. It's really telling, since this the founder is the same person that ran Twitter before Elon.

• by rsynnott on 5/22/25, 7:38 PM

  It's particularly bizarre because one of Banks' nastier villains, Joiler Veppers, is basically the worst stereotypes of a tech billionaire (probably _not_ specifically Musk, given the timing) turned up to 11.

• by ThrowawayR2 on 5/22/25, 4:06 PM

  If Banks says that the Culture is "hippy communists" it must be so but I'm not sure I ever got that impression though. Physical objects and simulated experiences are simply too cheap to meter in that post-scarcity world such that there's no benefit to be gained from excess possession. It's like saying breathable air is communist.

  I suspect the broligarchs are more attracted to the concept of all-powerful and all-knowing Minds magnanimously dispensing goods and services to the species under their benevolent(?) management. Minds have the means of production, not the people.

• by GeoAtreides on 5/22/25, 4:54 PM

  As the one who submitted the post, I disagree with the title change, as "elon musk" and "socialist" are discussion poison

  my original title: Why do the broligarchs love The Culture series?

  would have been more conductive to interesting discussions