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Comment by simondotau | Hacker News Reader

There's a lot of conjecture and motivated reasoning from all sides, enough that I'm doubtful that we can know what really happened. So park the actual facts for a moment. Let's just consider the situation in the abstract.

Musk is many things, but I've never heard anyone seriously claim him to have any particular aptitude or expertise around military strategy or conflict resolution. So if Trump is unilaterally executing on Musk's musings, we can derive two definite (and highly conservative) observations:

1. Musk has opinions

2. Trump has dangerously poor judgement

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Both him and Trump hate Zelenskyy and want him gone. The receipts are there.

Him possibly suggesting that Trump pressure Zelenskyy to comply with his demands by temporarily crippling Starshield’s performance in an active war zone, which means making it harder for Ukraine to defend itself against Putin’s jet-powered Shahed drones, is not merely an opinion. It’s an attempt to influence policy by proposing a way to harm Ukraine, without regard for the lives at stake.

We’ve seen this behaviour from him before. He doesn’t care whether any of his actions or ‘advice’ will harm others.

Everything you said is highly plausible and potentially correct, but I think my previous post still applies. There's a lot of conjecture and motivated reasoning from all sides, enough that I'm doubtful that we can know what really happened.

Of course you're correct that Trump and Musk both hate Zelenskyy, and this established fact and not conjecture. Nonetheless it all still boils down to:

1. Musk has opinions

2. Trump has dangerously poor judgement

Yes, your statements are both correct.

My comment was more in regards to saying 'Musk has opinions' (who doesn't) is downplaying his involvement.

I'm basing this on what the 4 sources have stated mentioned in Telegraph article and also based on his previous behavior and comments about Zelenskyy / Ukraine and overall affinity and support for authoritarian political leaders.

It's all a game for him and winning at all costs.

As far as Musk's opinions are concerned, I'm a fan of YouTube analyst William Spaniel's oft-repeated adage: "Don't listen to what leaders say, watch what they do."

Whatever it is Musk actually said to Trump (reporting of which we should take with a heaping grain of salt, since there are plenty of people with obvious motivations to lie and fabricate) we can see that the service SpaceX controls (Starlink) has remained unaffected, while the service the US military controls (Starshield) is what's in dispute.

Don't listen to what they say, watch what they do.

Exactly. Watch what they do.

To this day full speed hasn't been restored, continuing to endanger lives.

'Zelensky stated that Ukrainian military commanders, the Ministry of Defense, and foreign diplomats are conducting active negotiations to resolve the constraints. However, he noted that management at SpaceX has declined direct dialogue with Ukrainian military representatives.'

From: https://www.kyivpost.com/post/87379

Exactly. Watch what they do.

Even in a degraded state, Starlink and Starshield remains a critical strategic advantage for Ukraine, even if it's less so now than before. Being less helpful to Ukraine isn't good, but it's still actively helping Ukraine, and that is worlds apart from actively helping Russia.

If you can't shoot down jet powered Shahed drones to protect your citizens and vital infrastructure, because a key component has been crippled by your supposedly ally and partner, then it equates to sabotage.

Musk, Trump and co know that they can't openly turn things off as it would be a PR nightmare, so the next best thing is to cripple it and deny deny deny that you've done it.

> Him possibly suggesting

speculation

I think it's pretty clear by now that those statements are not speculations anymore and Musk / Trump with their pettiness continue to endanger Ukrainian lives and instead help Putin.

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