Elon musk and his sons

[Judas Maccabeus]

South Africa is in the middle of some ethnic cleansing right now, so you might be careful about jumping to some assumptions.

Another example of a Big Lie, I think.

I talked to two Afrikaners yesterday at work, we have an office in South Africa. One of them was weirded out by the claims of ethnic cleansing he is hearing from America. He asked me what these people are thinking.

But maybe if these people can scare us to death, they can succeed in their power grab.

It is the whole “Land Reform “ redistribution that the ANC has promised for years. The bottom line is they will buy or take land from white “commercial farmers” and redistribute it to the majority. In Zimbabwe when they did exactly this, it caused food production to collapse.

Just know that land redistribution is a cornerstone of the ANC platform.

[Judas Maccabeus]

This is unsurprising coming from an Afrikaaner.

Most Afrikaaners are not like that, of course. Not the ones I work with, at any rate.

And the South African ambassador has been expelled because he called the Trump Administration out for what he saw as supremacism.

Many white South Africans I have interacted with have a deep seated resentment at have “lost their country.”

[barnhart]

I never heard of "First Things" before. Not sure what they are about. Some random website is not a real strong source.

You should read it. First Things has a long history of combining careful, intellectual conservatism and Christianity. Contributors over the years have included
Gary Bauer
William Bennett
Peter Berger
David Brooks
Avery Dulles
Peter Leithart
Mark Noll
Ross Douthat
Carl Trueman
and many others. I don't always agree (the editorial stance seems theologically blind to the distinction between influence of a society and controlling it) but it is always worth the effort. Very serious and taken seriously by many intelligent thinkers.

[Judas Maccabeus]

South Africa is in the middle of some ethnic cleansing right now, so you might be careful about jumping to some assumptions.

I am mostly seeing quotes of others. The article is behind a pay wall so I could not see it all. I could just read your clip. There were no quotes from Musk. I could not get an idea of how he thinks from it.

I never heard of "First Things" before. Not sure what they are about. Some random website is not a real strong source. If Musk feels that way, I would disagree with it as I disagree with his having 14 children from multiple women and not in a nuclear family.

If you are talking about the current ANC promises of “Laand Reform “ ethnic cleansing “ would not be an inappropriate label.

[Bootstrap]

I never heard of "First Things" before. Not sure what they are about. Some random website is not a real strong source.

You should read it. First Things has a long history of combining careful, intellectual conservatism and Christianity. Contributors over the years have included
Gary Bauer
William Bennett
Peter Berger
David Brooks
Avery Dulles
Peter Leithart
Mark Noll
Ross Douthat
Carl Trueman
and many others. I don't always agree (the editorial stance seems theologically blind to the distinction between influence of a society and controlling it) but it is always worth the effort. Very serious and taken seriously by many intelligent thinkers.

It's been cited by various people on MN for quite a while, and on MennoDiscuss before that. Here are some posts that point to the website:

search.php?keywords=firstthings

I don't always agree with it either, but it's not a slave of the culture wars, it prioritizes Christianity over tribalism and asks what our role is in this world. The title "First Things" is relevant - what things should we put first?

[Bootstrap]

If you are talking about the current ANC promises of “Laand Reform “ ethnic cleansing “ would not be an inappropriate label.

I agree. And the white-led Democratic Alliance in South Africa also agrees.

https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/so ... 025-02-03/

The mostly white-led Democratic Alliance, the second-biggest party in the coalition government, said it wanted the land reform law to be amended to address certain flaws, but nevertheless corrected Trump on the specifics.

"It is not true that the Act allows land to be seized by the state arbitrarily, and it does require fair compensation for legitimate expropriations," the DA said.

So far, no land has been confiscated. But whites, who are 8% of the population, still own about three quarters of the land. Balancing that out in any way is dicey, of course, but whites took most of this land in 1950 and kicked blacks off of the land. That seems like something that needs to be addressed:

https://www.reuters.com/world/what-is-b ... 025-02-03/

The country's British imperial masters gave most farmland to whites. In 1950, the Afrikaner National Party, representing descendants of Dutch settlers, passed a law taking 85% of territory for themselves and kicking 3.5 million Black people off their ancestral homelands.

None of this has actually happened yet.

https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/so ... 025-02-03/

Ramaphosa said the government had not confiscated any land and he looked forward to engaging with Trump to foster a better understanding over a policy he said ensures equitable public access to land.

Trump's attack was echoed by his South African-born billionaire backer Elon Musk, who said in a post on X the country had "openly racist ownership laws", suggesting white people were the victims.

White landowners possess three quarters of South Africa's freehold farmland, compared with 4% for Black landowners. Black people make up about 80% of South Africa's total population, while about 8% are white.

[Robert]

South Africa is in the middle of some ethnic cleansing right now, so you might be careful about jumping to some assumptions.

Another example of a Big Lie, I think.

I talked to two Afrikaners yesterday at work, we have an office in South Africa. One of them was weirded out by the claims of ethnic cleansing he is hearing from America. He asked me what these people are thinking.

But maybe if these people can scare us to death, they can succeed in their power grab.

I have several people from South Africa that I follow and they speak about what is going on often. It is no assumption. I listened to the political leaders speak too. It was sad.

[Bootstrap]

South Africa is in the middle of some ethnic cleansing right now, so you might be careful about jumping to some assumptions.

Another example of a Big Lie, I think.

I talked to two Afrikaners yesterday at work, we have an office in South Africa. One of them was weirded out by the claims of ethnic cleansing he is hearing from America. He asked me what these people are thinking.

But maybe if these people can scare us to death, they can succeed in their power grab.

I have several people from South Africa that I follow and they speak about what is going on often. It is no assumption. I listened to the political leaders speak too. It was sad.

Could you please name the people you are following? I have some ideas who they might be, but I'd rather not guess.

Some South Africans are seen as right wing extremists even by white Afrikaners.

[Ken]

Why is it any particular concern of ours how South Africa settles its questions of land tenure and property ownership? Any more than say how Guatemala does it, or Nigeria, Canada, or India? All countries that have histories of discriminatory systems of land tenure that disadvantaged minority populations to the benefit of elites. That is what politics and legal systems are for.

They created their messes. Let them deal with it.

And who cares if the people involved are White or Black? I thought we were moving past identity politics based on race.

[Robert]

Not sure it will do you any good since you are not on X.

https://x.com/TheKiffness