Billionaire SpaceX founder and X owner Elon Musk said that there is a straightforward answer to the problem as demonstrations all throughout the nation show people pulling down the American flag and substituting the Palestinian flag—or at least attempting to. Those who destroy the American flag in favor of another nation should, in his opinion, be handed a one-way ticket to that other nation.
On Thursday, May 2, Mr. Musk blogged about his opinions on a deportation campaign in light of the university demonstrations and then asked his followers what they thought of the proposal in a poll.
“Proposed law: if someone tears down the American flag and puts up another flag in its place, that person should get a free (but mandatory) one-way trip to that flag’s country,” he added in the May 2 post. With over three-quarters of the 1.5 million votes cast in the survey agreeing with the proposed legislation,
Mr. Musk noted in an addition to the initial poll and tweet that, under his proposal, the deportees may finally be welcomed back, but only after spending enough time in the other nation to enable understanding of what it is like. “I’m not saying they can’t come back, but they have to experience that country for some period of time before returning,” he said.
Responding, one reader pointed out that Congressmen waved Ukrainian flags after adopting the most recent $100 billion foreign assistance measure. “Yes, and we should explore the same idea for any politician waving the flag of a foreign country in our Congress,” one commenter stated. Responding, Elon responded, “That was unusual. At least flap the American flag as well!
“We should also have a communism exchange program where we allow American communists to go to any communist country of their choosing and allow one refugee from communism in their place,” another commenter, Tennessee Republican Robby Starbuck, suggested in line with Elon’s.
Still another commenter said, “I fully agree with this. Americans claim entitlement and are spoilt. I would sooner see them suffer in the nation they support and return to America with fresh appreciation for what we really stand for. liberties.
On the flip side of things, several readers opposed Elon’s proposal as anti-free expression. One said, for instance, “isn’t your entire business free speech? Why would you suggest a legislation prohibiting free expression lmfao?
An event at UNC, when demonstrators sought to remove the American flag and were stopped by members of Pi Kappa Phi, added to the broader unhappiness about demonstrators pulling down the flag. “My fraternity brother and others ran over to hold it up, in order for it not to touch the ground,” UNC undergraduate and Pi Kappa Phi member Guillermo Estrada said in explaining what occurred. People started shouting us vulgar names, throwing water bottles, rocks, stones at us. For an hour, we stood guard over the flag countless battles to defend.
