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The overall sentiment on HN is pretty clear from the replies here. And I agree with a lot of it, he seems to do and say a lot of things impulsively without thin
by version_five 4y ago
The overall sentiment on HN is pretty clear from the replies here. And I agree with a lot of it, he seems to do and say a lot of things impulsively without thinking them through, that often tend to be dumb.
The one thing I respect though (and expect most people here won't) is that he appears to have the "nouveau riche" disrespect for the establishment, and doesn't feel he needs to kiss anyone's ass or play by the rules in a system that is already rigged for rich people. The fact that he has annoyed so many, especially elite/establishment figures, is a good thing. I'd much rather see him use his wealth to piss off the establishment than just to grow richer safely, which he could easily do. So maybe his annoying behavior is at least partially by design, and the fact that it bothers everyone is exactly what he wants, which I think deserves some respect.
- basisword 4y agoWhat anti-establishment stuff has he done? All of the negative things I see people mention about him are just general asshole behaviour rather than things that annoy the establishment.
- memish 4y agoHe's supporting free speech, while the establishment supports censoring the population. Censorship is the tool of the establishment. Free speech gives power to the people. That's as anti-establishment as it gets.
- Jordrok 4y agoIs he really though? You say this as if the twitter acquisition is over and done, and Free Speech has been saved by Musk doing......what exactly? So far we have so few details about what his plans for the platform are (or if he even has any) that everyone is free to project their own ideal outcome onto his actions. Let's wait a bit and see what happens before declaring him the savior of free speech.
- philistine 4y agoHe has multiple examples of using censorship himself to protect his companies. He denied a reviewer access to their vehicle, has stifled the speech of former employees of his companies, and has tried to silence a dissenter publishing publicly available data of his plane. You've fallen for the hype; Elon merely dresses himself in the flag of a free speech absolutist. He is exactly like the establishment in this regard: speech for me, but not for thee.
- memish 4y agoHe has never advocated for removing speech from the public square or removing your right to hear speech. He didn't tell twitter to remove any account. He offered someone money (ie a private arrangement) to take it down and changed his mind. That's very different from forcibly revoking it and imposing censorship on the population. You've fallen for a warped definition of free speech and censorship that is endlessly regurgitated by NPCs.
- chrchang523 4y agoA world where Twitter is controlled by a self-interested Musk, while Facebook is basically aligned with the US political establishment, enables better dissemination of ideas than a world where Twitter and Facebook are both aligned with the establishment. Because Musk has notably different biases than the establishment, and either platform is sufficient for the purpose of giving nationally-relevant ideas adequate distribution. (For this reason, in a world where Musk already controlled Twitter, I would oppose anything that increased his leverage w.r.t. Facebook, because yes, you're correct that Musk's biases are not harmless.)
- hooande 4y agoThis is exactly what people said that they liked about trump. Essentially he isn't polished and says stupid things, "just like regular people!" Is this the new trend? Whenever a wealthy person turns out to be stupid, a certain group of people say "he's sticking it to the establishment"?
- the_only_law 4y ago> Is this the new trend? Just a recent wave of populists?
- themitigating 4y agoAttacking the government also gets you tons of attention and adoration since it's such an easy target. It's like making an airline food joke in the 90s.