Source: The Blaze
On Thursday, May 26, Tesla chief executive Elon Musk took to Twitter to poll his followers about who they distrusted more. Subsequently, he dared Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to poll the same to her followers on the social media platform on who they trust less: billionaires or politicians?
Offering the poll to his followers, Musk asked ‘Who do you trust less? Real question,’ giving the only two options as ‘politicians’ and ‘billionaires.’ Soon after this, the billionaire CEO then directly tweeted at Rep Ocasio Cortez to post the same poll on her page with her followers. “@aoc I dare you to run the same poll with your followers.” However, Ocasio Cortez is yet to respond to this challenge from the Tesla CEO.
Evidently, Musk’s poll got way over 970,000 votes that too in under two hours following the debut of the poll. Moreover, many said that they trusted politicians less than they trusted billionaires. However, one user on the platform indicated that Musk’s poll had an ‘echo chamber’ effect. This meant that Musk’s followers would state that they had less trust in politicians. Additionally, the New York rep’s followers would be clearly more skeptical of billionaires at the same time.
Musk’s tweet from May 26, 2022:
Who do you trust less? Real question.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 26, 2022
“I’d guess that the result would be the opposite given the mindset of those likely to be following her social media account,” the user commented, tagging Musk and Ocasio-Cortez
Clearly, the billionaire has attracted significant amount of criticism from certain progressives after revealing his plans for Twitter. Mainly, he aims to loosen the content moderation policies of Twitter as he successfully closes his $44 billion deal to acquire the social media company. Many critics are fearing Musk’s plans possibly further aggravating hate speech and disinformation on Twitter.
This tweet comes across as the latest development in a series of arguments between Ocasio-Cortez and Musk. On Tuesday, May 24, the New York rep. told concerned reporters that she would seriously consider exchanging her Tesla for another electric vehicle which unionised workers manufactured.
“I would love to switch,” she said.
Clearly, Musk is an active opponent of unions, with him inviting the United Auto Workers union (UAW) in March to hold a union vote at the company. However, he suggested the efforts of the UAW would not be successful, tweeting that the Bay Area having negative unemployment is the ‘real challenge.’ He added how if these people are not treated or compensated well, “they have many other offers and will just leave!”
Visibly, Ocasio-Cortez has often actively responded to tech billionaires as they showcased their outsized control over social media sites. Weeks ago, when Musk responded with ‘Stop hitting in me, I’m really shy,’ the New York rep replied clarifying that she was referring to Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg. To this she responded saying ‘like I said, ego problems.’
Recently, Musk disclosed that he would be voting Republican in the upcoming election, despite previously having voted Democrat. He took the decision owing to the Democrats’ views on the restriction of free speech.
