That Smell of Musk

​Over the weekend, that renowned American scholar Elon Musk posted the following on social media –
 
“Anyone who doesn’t love America is a traitor and beneath contempt.
 
“Those who don’t love America, those who are disloyal should be exiled immediately.”

Fun Fact:  "Not loving America" is actually not a definition of treason. Nor a crime.
 
That aside, I’m not quite sure what Mr. Musk considers a citizen being “disloyal” to America.  Putting up another country’s flag on its day of independence?  Only speaking a foreign language?  Ever speaking a foreign language?  Acknowledging problems in the country's past.  Hating fascism.  Criticizing the government?  Protesting anything?  In any event, none of that is, of course, a crime, nor qualifies for “exile.”
 
More to the point, though, a person who thinks that a citizen who doesn't love America should be “exiled” shows that he or she don't even begin to understand what America means, let alone understand what loving it means.  This is a country, after all, that was literally founded on rebellion against its home country, and fighting a war for the right to do so.  Disagreeing with the country is the birthright of every American.  And the freedom to speak that disagreement is not only enshrined in the Constitution, but so essential to America that it is the very first Amendment.
 
This is especially galling coming from Mr. Musk, of all people, given that his own brother has admitted that the two of them came in the country illegally.
 
What Musk -- and many on the far right who have long cried out "America, love it or leave it!" -- totally miss is that it’s one thing to love your country, but another entirely to hate actions by the government that is in charge at any particular moment.  And what is so indefensible about them missing this massive difference – and yes, whatever flaws Democrats have, the whole “America, love it or leave it!” mantra is owned pretty much exclusively by the far right – is that they themselves have absolutely zero problem attacking the government when Democrats are in charge.  It's impossible to imagine that the far-right has forgotten how much they viscerally hated the government with a passion when President Obama and President Biden were in charge.  Impossible since, if any come close to forgetting, Trump and his cabinet won't let them.
 
Yet none of them “self-exiled” themselves.

To ignore this basic, easy concept is to ignore that while we may dearly love our family, we have visceral, sometimes even bitter arguments with them all the time.  Yet continue to carry that almost-unbreakable love.
 
But in the end, what perhaps leaps out the most is that the person who cried out that “Anyone who doesn’t love America is a traitor and beneath contempt” and that “Those who don’t love America, those who are disloyal should be exiled immediately” -- lest we forget --
 
-- is this guy.