Andrew Harnik's report for Axios unveils a remarkable decline in the reputations of Elon Musk's Tesla and SpaceX. The Axios Harris Poll reveals Tesla's shocking drop from 8th to 95th place, with low scores in character and ethics, while SpaceX's reputation shifted from 'excellent' to 'fair.' This decline has extended to Musk’s political standing as well. For further details, [read it here](https://www.axios.com/2025/05/20/axios-harris-poll-tesla-spacex-elon-musk). Kudos to Harnik for this insightful analysis. #ElonMusk #Tesla #SpaceX #Reputation #Poll #Axios #PublicOpinion

The regime #Trump & allies see as a model.

#Orbán’s #Fidesz party proposes #Russia-style crackdown on #Hungary’s #CivilSociety

The new bill fits into a pattern of democratic backsliding for the Central European country.

"The bill says threats to national sovereignty include influencing #PublicOpinion, promoting #democratic #debate, or challenging state-defined values like #Christian culture & traditional family roles."

#auticracy #authoritarianism #tyranny #dissent
https://www.politico.eu/article/viktor-orban-fidesz-party-hungary-russia-democracy-transparency-public-life-civil-society/

White Americans in areas with higher Black poverty more likely to attribute racial disparities to lack of effort: Study

https://phys.org/news/2025-04-white-americans-areas-higher-black.html

https://www.europesays.com/1993287/ Hungarian opposition leader tells supporters he will restore Western alliances if he defeats Orbán #democracy #elections #europe #EuropeanUnion #GeneralNews #hungary #HungaryGovernment #News #Politics #PublicOpinion #ViktorOrbán #world #WorldNews #WorldTopics

#usa #israel #palestine : #war / #gaza / #research / #pew / #publicopinion

„Laura Silver at the Pew Research Center reports that 53% of Americans now have a negative view of Israel, a stark deterioration from 42% in spring 2022 before the Israeli total war on Gaza.

Moreover, in just 3 years the percentage of Americans with very negative views of Israel has nearly doubled, from 10% to 19%. That is nearly one in five Americans.“

https://www.juancole.com/2025/04/majority-americans-negatively.html

A quotation from Lincoln

In this and like communities, public sentiment is everything. With public sentiment, nothing can fail; without it, nothing can succeed. Consequently, he who moulds public sentiment goes deeper than he who enacts statutes or pronounces decisions. He makes statutes and decisions possible or impossible to be executed.

Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) American lawyer, politician, US President (1861-65)
Speech (1858-08-21), Lincoln-Douglas Debate No. 1, Ottawa, Illinois

Sourcing, notes: wist.info/lincoln-abraham/4895…

#ElonMusk has sold #X ,his #socialmedia #company ,to #xAI ,his own #ArtificialIntelligence start-up. Why does that makes sense? Well, the two #Musk companies already share many resources. Especially, the AI models of xAI are already trained on #data posted by the X users who, thus, work for free for Elon. Merging both companies will also boost the use of #AI in X, for instance as far as individualized #publicity targeting and large scale manipulation of #publicopinion are concerned.

"When one actually looks at #publicopinion and #protests over the past two months, however, a rather different picture emerges. While the #media vibes might suggest that #Trump is on a roll, the #data say he’s in trouble."

https://danieldrezner.substack.com/p/the-pluralistic-ignorance-of-the?r=13cw5&utm_medium=ios&triedRedirect=true

#USpol
#pollingdata
#dataanalysis

#Israel #palestine : #domesticpolicy / #publicopinion / #survey / #war / #gaza

„Israelis want Benjamin Netanyahu to say sorry and go away. A survey released this week by the Israel Democracy Institute found that a staggering 87 percent of Israelis think the prime minister should take responsibility for the events of October 7, and 73 percent want him to resign either now or after the Gaza war.‟

https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2025/03/netanyahu-poll-numbers/682008/

A quotation from Arendt

The moment we no longer have a free press, anything can happen. What makes it possible for a totalitarian or any other dictatorship to rule is that people are not informed; how can you have an opinion if you are not informed?

Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) German-American philosopher, political theorist
Interview (1973-10) with Roger Errera, Office de Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française (ORTF)

Sourcing, notes: wist.info/arendt-hannah/45087/

When #JDVance and his #Nazi pals advocate for "free speech" or "freedom of expression" they don't mean "free" at all.

All they want is to crush #dissent, silence all #opposition and manipulate #PublicOpinion with a fuckload of #AI Bots as well as pushing #hate & #disinformation.

This is THE "classic" #HybridWarfare and I am astonished that #BorisPistorius ( @Bundeswehr ) did not mention this in his reply.

We are under attack. Your (BW/ MAD) task ist to protect us.

https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/4/24235213/x-brazil-suppression-speech-elon-musk-india-turkey

.

Global study finds strong public trust in scientists

https://phys.org/news/2025-01-global-strong-scientists.html

"But the point isn’t “courts will save us” malarkey. (In any case, that’s now mainly the mocking phrase of wreckers and sad sacks.) It’s putting sand in the gears, slowing things down as one front in the battle for #publicopinion."

Who Can Stop Elon’s ‘Team’ Wilding Its Way Through the #FederalGovernment? - TPM – Talking Points Memo
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/who-can-stop-elons-team-wilding-its-way-throuhg-the-federal-government

#Elonmusk
#breakingthelaw
#usgovernment
#upholdingtheconstitution
#accountibility

A combination of a hollowed out civil society, fragmented social cohesion, relentless propaganda, and internal mental conflict has led to muted Russian support for the offensive in Ukraine: https://www.newyorker.com/news/a-reporter-at-large/do-russians-really-support-the-war-in-ukraine

Too many men or too few women?—new study finds how gender gap is framed affects perceptions of it

https://phys.org/news/2025-01-men-women-gender-gap-affects.html

A quotation from Chamfort, Nicolas:

«
Esteem is worth more than celebrity, respect is worth more than renown, and honor is worth more than fame.

[L’estime vaut mieux que la célébrité, la considération vaut mieux que la renommée, et l’honneur vaut mieux que la gloire.]
»

Full quote, sourcing, notes:
https://wist.info/chamfort-nicolas/73705/

#Democracy didn't die when super-villain billionaires openly started meddling in #Elections, distorted #PublicOpinion and challengend the very idea of the #State itself.

It died long before that.

Iceland votes for a new parliament https://www.byteseu.com/570813/ #business #Elections #Europe #GeneralNews #GlobalElections #HallaTomasdottir #Iceland #Immigration #PoliticalAndCivilUnrest #Politics #PublicOpinion #WorldNews

By #ToulaDrimonis via #CultMTL, October 18, 2024

“We are being conned on a mass scale and it’s downright alarming how powerful #SocialMedia platforms like #X and #Facebook are allowing #Russian-made #propaganda and other nefarious #ForeignInterests to weaponize #resentment, #anger and #fear to influence #PublicOpinion in our democracies.”

#PierrePoilievre’s #RageBaiting and empty slogans aren’t what #Canada needs

https://cultmtl.com/2024/10/why-pierre-poilievre-sucks-rage-baiting-and-empty-slogans-arent-what-canada-needs/