‘Get Help’ – Elon Musk Blasted for Mocking Ukraine With Fake Zelensky Picture The world’s richest man has continued his campaign against Kyiv, this time by using a fake picture of President Zelensky to mock Ukraine’s fight against Russia’s full-scale invasion.

by Kyiv Post | October 2, 2023

Elon Musk has once again caused outrage for social media posts about Ukraine, this time for mocking President Zelensky and the ongoing crisis over US funding for Kyiv.

In a post on X on Sunday evening, the world’s richest man published a modified version of the “frustrated boy meme” with a picture of the Ukrainian president’s face.

The post read: “When it’s been five minutes and you haven’t asked for a billion dollars in aid.”

The post came as developments in Washington meant the future of US aid for Ukraine hangs in the balance amid the political wrangling to avoid a government shutdown.

Barely a week after President Volodymyr Zelensky was in Washington appealing for more funds, the compromise struck in Congress late Sunday dropped new funding for Ukraine amid opposition from hardline Republicans, AFP reports.

Musk’s tweet mocking the plight of Ukraine in the face of Russia’s full-scale invasion sparked outrage on social media.

The campaign group Republicans Against Trump, said: “Why do you mock a brave leader who leads his nation in its heroic fight for their freedom? Have you no shame?”

Journalist Julia Davis replied to the post, adding: “Because Zelensky dares to stand up to Putin and Elon never could.”

Former CIA officer John Sipher simply replied: “Get help.”

US journalist ‘Jay in Kyiv,’ added: “When you’ve licked Putin’s boots day and all night and still you want more.”

Other were a bit more creative in their responses:

Musk’s latest post is just one of a number of recent statements which have given an insight into the businessman’s lack of understanding of the situation Ukraine faces.

Over the weekend he appeared to conflate the situation on Ukraine’s international border with that of the US.

In a post on X, he asked: “Why do so many American politicians from both parties care 100 times more about the Ukraine border than the USA border?”

At the US border, thousands of largely peaceful migrants are crossing in the hopes of claiming asylum in the US.

At the Ukrainian border, tens of thousands of Russian troops have crossed hoping to illegally annex an entire country in what one Moscow general has described as a ‘stepping stone’ to invade Europe.

There was no shortage of people in the replies to his tweet willing to point out what Musk appeared to be missing.

“Ukraine is preventing a much wider war by stopping russia [sic] from invading NATO territory. Ukraine fights for us all,” wrote Paul Massaro.

“Why does the world’s richest businessman sound like a MAGA bot, spewing out automated right-wing talking points?” wrote journalist Mehdi Hasan.

The two posts above are just the latest in Musk’s apparent campaign against Ukraine – last month he wrote “So much death for so little,” in a post about Ukraine’s counteroffensive, apparently in agreement with another post by David Sacks, a venture capitalist and friend of Musk who has criticized US support for Ukraine.

Elsewhere, a senate probe has been launched calling for a review of any incidents where Space X or others have disabled Ukrainian services following the revelation that Musk had not extended the private Starlink satellite network to aid Kyiv’s attack on Russian warships in Ukrainian waters near the Crimean coast.

Musk said he made the decision fearing that Moscow would retaliate with nuclear weapons. “If I had agreed to their request, then SpaceX would be explicitly complicit in a major act of war and conflict escalation,” Musk said.

The move triggered an immediate backlash in Ukraine.

“Sometimes a mistake is more than just a mistake,” Mykhailo Podolyak, a senior aide to President Zelensky wrote.

“By not allowing Ukrainian drones to destroy part of the Russian military (!) fleet via Starlink interference, Elon Musk allowed this fleet to fire Kalibr missiles at Ukrainian cities.

“As a result, civilians, children are being killed. This is the price of a cocktail of ignorance and big ego.”

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    Why do so many American politicians from both parties care 100 times more about the Ukraine border than the USA border?

    Because your boss Putin threatens the entire Western world, whereas Hondurans threaten… dishwashers and fruit pickers?

    • Furbag@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Normally I counter such false equivalencies by stating the obvious “It’s possible to care about more than one thing at a time.”, but in this case, nobody actually cares about the “crisis” at the border (not even Republicans) because it is a manufactured talking point that doesn’t require any action. It’s just an easy scapegoat to point to when the right wants to distract from whatever other untenable position they are currently losing ground in.

      I’ve survived more than a dozen “Migrant caravan” armageddon events complete with 24/7 news coverage about how life as we know it in America is coming to an end because the brown man is here to steal my job and fuck my sister or whatever. Every time it goes away quietly because adding a few hundred illegals who manage to slip by the fence never makes a significant impact on anything anywhere.

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        People do care. The stupid cultists who believe all that Republican bullshit. The ones that eat up Newsmax and Fox News.

        It’s so stupid. Anyone who actually has paid attention over the last 20 years knows that maybe the only thing that has changed is you hear Ranchero playing at construction sites instead of Country. Seriously, how have they impacted anyone’s life. They take the shit jobs no one else is taking for the shit pay no one wants to apply for. It’s not like there’s a ton of people looking for jobs right now. Unemployment is low.

    • gplalpha@lemmy.sdf.org
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      9 months ago

      Elon from hero to bootlicker, i wonder how long til we start to see russian bots on lemmy

      • ZILtoid1991@kbin.social
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        9 months ago

        The fediverse have a better incentive to keep itself spam free. Our platforms are not driven by “attention retaining” and “user engagement”, or at least until ads are not coming here.

        • muntedcrocodile@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          It would be interesting to see Lemmy communities that pay u to see their ads. We really need to make sure communities don’t decide to fund themselves with ads. It will be a whole new game of doing what the current companies are doing thus i hope the fediverse if nothing gives us competition.

  • Zink@programming.dev
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    9 months ago

    For somebody who has loved taking government money, he sure is a bit “fuck you, got mine” about others getting government money.

      • Zink@programming.dev
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        9 months ago

        Honestly if I look at his actions through the lens of what I remember it was like to be a 13 year old edge lord, it kind of makes sense. It fits so well.

        • nonailsleft
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          9 months ago

          He’s making up for time lost. It actually makes some sense to become a multibillionaire first

  • NuPNuA
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    8 months ago

    deleted by creator

    • MeanEYE@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Well he already got his USA visa, so screw everyone else wanting to immigrate. He’s an egomaniac living in a bubble he created for himself and bunch of cult followers blowing up his ass constantly doesn’t make things any better. So he thinks he’s overqualified for everything, except it’s the opposite… he’s below average in pretty much everything other than surfing the Dunning-Kruger wave.

    • ThrowawayOnLemmy@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Yeah, that’s it. When you have more money than most nations and surround yourself with only people who will reinforce your opinions, you start to think you know the answer to everything.

      • The Giant Korean@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        Not only that, but early on people were always talking about how smart he was before (most) realized that he’s a tool. There were comparisons to Tony Stark, etc. His head must have expanded massively from that.

        • kandoh@reddthat.com
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          9 months ago

          He’s gone down the exact same path Kanye has. Thinks he’s a genius, gets stuck in a bubble, that bubble is full of Nazi propaganda, starts spouting off Nazi shit.

    • AJB_l4uOP
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      9 months ago

      I do really think people should show everything he makes on X and say, so people can make the decision by themselves to never give one cent to this guy, if he does not have a profit on X and Tesla and all that he makes, its not the views on x that will keep him having that life style

      • hessenjunge@discuss.tchncs.de
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        9 months ago

        Main reason I’ll never buy a Tesla: Elon Musk.

        Let’s see how well his businesses fare after replacing the wokie buyer base with Nazis.

        • eran_morad@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          Yup. I need a new car in the next few years. Probably will go for an electric. Certainly not a tesla. Musk is a fucking douche.

          • hessenjunge@discuss.tchncs.de
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            9 months ago

            While a lot of Teslas are sold in China, more than double are sold in the US.

            Given the Chinese options available I struggle to understand why anyone in China wants to buy a Tesla though.

        • Shapillon@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          Main reason we shouldn’t buy Teslas:

          These oversized electric vehicules have a huge environmental footprint and we should rather opt for smaller EVs with shorter ranges.

          (anyway individual car ownership isn’t the way to go in the medium to long term ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ )

  • Jessica@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    9 months ago

    This is what happens when an internet troll gets essentially unlimited money and fame from the other edgy turds out there. Ladies and gentlemen, he is Turd Ferguson Pro Max—it’s a funny name that comes with a funny hat.

  • TsarVul@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    I understand him having these views. Money was exchanged behind closed doors, deals were struck, whatever. I can imagine a financial incentive for him to sow dissent via shitty meme. I don’t understand what’s in it for his followers. Is it just about being contrarian? What more must he do or say for it to be clear to them that he’s just kind of a bozo?

    • TranscendentalEmpire
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      9 months ago

      I don’t understand what’s in it for his followers. Is it just about being contrarian? What more must he do or say for it to be clear to them that he’s just kind of a bozo?

      Lots of people are way too invested in a highly inflated stock to back out now. People now realize on some level that Tesla is not worth more than the next three auto industrial giants combined . Maybe at some point, if they had taken advantage of their headstart on EV and invested in a more standard production line …they may have eventually been worth that much.

      Now people understand that Tesla is a marketing company who happens to create EVs. They recognize Elon is an idiot, but he is a good brand salesman. As other auto industry giants shift to EVs, that’s the only thing keeping the over speculated stock price from readjusting.

    • FlowVoid@midwest.social
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      9 months ago

      “Blasted” is used correctly in the title. It is a synonym for “criticized”, derived from a Middle English term that means “blowing air” (see also “blast furnace”).

      Examples:

      Federal transit regulators blasted the MBTA Friday for violating an order prohibiting the use of lone workers on tracks put in place last week

      Jennifer Belveal and John Birmingham with the firm of Foley & Lardner describe the justification for terminating the contract as “flimsy” and blast the university for launching an investigation into what they call “the personal relationship between Tucker and a one-time vendor” “despite no justification to do so.”

      • sadreality@kbin.social
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        9 months ago

        I didn’t realize that regulators had “blasting” in their legal tool box when dealing with non compliant business 🤡

        But I guess brain dead millenial “journalist” could not avoid this editorial touch ehh?

        • FlowVoid@midwest.social
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          9 months ago

          You didn’t realize that regulators criticized others as part of their legal duties?

          In English, words have multiple meanings and the intended meaning must be inferred by context. For example, you referred to regulators “dealing”, and your audience is expected to understand that you aren’t discussing card games.

          • sadreality@kbin.social
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            9 months ago

            Keep digging…

            I am not the first person to highlight how these headlines are getting progressively more childish.

            • FlowVoid@midwest.social
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              9 months ago

              I think it’s more childish to assume that word usage will not evolve over time.

              Regardless, “blasted” has been used in this way for most of our lives. Perhaps you’re just now noticing it?

              From Jun 13, 1997:

              City union leaders blasted an administration-backed proposed charter change Thursday that would strip the Civil Service Commission of most of its powers.

              From Sep 23, 1992:

              Vice President Dan Quayle, broadening his attack on Hollywood, Tuesday blasted the recording industry for producing rap music that he said had led to violence.

              From 1981:

              During the campaign, Roosevelt blasted Hoover for spending and taxing too much, boosting the national debt, choking off trade, and putting millions on the dole.