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Musk seems to attract so, so many tinfoil hat type conspiracy theories. He's veering into being almost a Hank Rearden caricature. EDIT: The tinfoil bit was ov

Musk seems to attract so, so many tinfoil hat type conspiracy theories. He's veering into being almost a Hank Rearden caricature. EDIT: The tinfoil bit was over the top, but he's such a lightning rod and attracts so much criticism and persecution from the entrenched interests he is trying to disrupt, that it starts to look like there is some shadowy cabal trying to bring him down. I rather like the guy, we need some level of technological optimism to counteract the gloom and doom that is ever present.

ceejayoz 8y ago
"Boeing often employs PR firms against their competitors" is hardly a conspiracy theory.
- perl4ever 8y ago
  However, Boeing is not the only entity whose lunch SpaceX is threatening to eat. Wonder if other could be involved.
  - ceejayoz 8y ago
    Well, if you read the article, it traces back the op-eds to the people submitting them, who work for a PR firm, which has Boeing highlighted as one of their three big case studies on their website.
codeulike 8y ago
A tin-foil hat isn't really required, you just need to RTFA: An article critical of SpaceX has been repeatedly submitted to (and published in) 4 newspapers by a PR group called LMG who list Boeing as one of their major customers. Boeing are SpaceX's only competitor in the commercial crew area.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- octorian 8y ago
  Yet I somehow feel like the whole Commercial Crew contract wouldn't even exist had SpaceX not paved the way. Other space launch activities, however, have been getting their lunch eaten by SpaceX. This is probably pissing off everyone who was comfortable with the old approach, not just Boeing.
tomp 8y ago
Is the accusation of something being a "conspiracy theory" still a valid dismissal after Snowden?
- kazagistar 8y ago
  Or it was never a valid criticism on its own, but rather a shorthand to explain a toxic behavior pattern by certain people who would seek out all kinds of unsubtantiated nonsense regardless of merit (Lizard People, Illuminati, Social Marxism, etc). It's unfortunate that some people used it as a thought-terminating phrase against all conspiracies.
  - marnett 8y ago
    Do you mean Cultural Marxism? I haven't heard of Social Marxism before.
- Bartweiss 8y ago
  Usually the crazy part of conspiracy theories is that they invent a group that's doing something (Reptillians, the Illuminati, whatever), or describe something a real group couldn't possibly pull off (e.g. the CIA runs North Korea, the Bilderberg Group chooses who wins elections). Which makes it very weird to see people level that accusation against claims that an obviously-real group did an obviously-plausible thing, like "this agency that exists to gather information gathered a lot of information". Or in this case "this PR firm ran several articles to affect PR". Sure, it's a conspiracy in that they aren't admitting to doing it, but why is that surprising?

ceejayoz 8y ago

"Boeing often employs PR firms against their competitors" is hardly a conspiracy theory.

perl4ever 8y ago
However, Boeing is not the only entity whose lunch SpaceX is threatening to eat. Wonder if other could be involved.
- ceejayoz 8y ago
  Well, if you read the article, it traces back the op-eds to the people submitting them, who work for a PR firm, which has Boeing highlighted as one of their three big case studies on their website.

codeulike 8y ago

A tin-foil hat isn't really required, you just need to RTFA: An article critical of SpaceX has been repeatedly submitted to (and published in) 4 newspapers by a PR group called LMG who list Boeing as one of their major customers. Boeing are SpaceX's only competitor in the commercial crew area.

deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
octorian 8y ago
Yet I somehow feel like the whole Commercial Crew contract wouldn't even exist had SpaceX not paved the way. Other space launch activities, however, have been getting their lunch eaten by SpaceX. This is probably pissing off everyone who was comfortable with the old approach, not just Boeing.

tomp 8y ago

Is the accusation of something being a "conspiracy theory" still a valid dismissal after Snowden?

kazagistar 8y ago
Or it was never a valid criticism on its own, but rather a shorthand to explain a toxic behavior pattern by certain people who would seek out all kinds of unsubtantiated nonsense regardless of merit (Lizard People, Illuminati, Social Marxism, etc). It's unfortunate that some people used it as a thought-terminating phrase against all conspiracies.
- marnett 8y ago
  Do you mean Cultural Marxism? I haven't heard of Social Marxism before.
Bartweiss 8y ago
Usually the crazy part of conspiracy theories is that they invent a group that's doing something (Reptillians, the Illuminati, whatever), or describe something a real group couldn't possibly pull off (e.g. the CIA runs North Korea, the Bilderberg Group chooses who wins elections). Which makes it very weird to see people level that accusation against claims that an obviously-real group did an obviously-plausible thing, like "this agency that exists to gather information gathered a lot of information". Or in this case "this PR firm ran several articles to affect PR". Sure, it's a conspiracy in that they aren't admitting to doing it, but why is that surprising?