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Amazing how quickly Musk became the super villain. Like some people hold political alignment higher than any other value.

PaulHoule 4y ago
I think it's not political alignment, it's stupidity. If he behaved like a left-wing idiot he'd be just as stupid as if it he behaved like a right-wing idiot. (My son didn't want to go to college for a few reasons, 'wokeness' being one of them, he still thinks Musk is an idiot and I have to fight hard to get him to recognize that Musk really has done some good things... e.g. he reminded me that Musk bought Tesla, he didn't found it!) This Bloomberg article recycles a meme image that I usually hate in a way I find hilarious: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2022-05-25/elon-musk-s-twitter-obsession-has-hurt-tesla-s-value https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2022-05-25/elon-musk... A person in Elon's Musk position has a lot of responsibility. If he does something stupid he could endanger the jobs of SpaceX and Tesla employees, not to mention investor's stakes, or the adoption of electric cars (... maybe that will go on without Tesla) or the further development of reusable rockets. If he wants to make a big impact in space travel he's going to need to get contracts and get permits and he'd better be sweet with whatever party is in power to do that. (I knew a black guy who had right-wing views and hated Barack Obama who owned a wonderful patent portfolio for satellite communications but wasn't going to go anywhere because of his attitude.) Trying to act like Donald Trump because it gets him a short-term rush from his Twitter followers endangers everything he's accomplished.
- h2odragon 4y ago
  > wasn't going to go anywhere because of his attitude. Which ain't right, and its far more praiseworthy to make noise about that in an attempt to fix it than it is to submit to "go along, get along." Especially when the latter is so often corrosive to society.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
  - PaulHoule 4y ago
    In this case of that individual it was not his views so much as the dehumanizing way in which he expressed them. When I said that he "hated" Barack Obama I meant it literally: it wasn't like he preferred John McCain or Mitt Romney or wanted to repeal the A.C.A. it was that he saw Barack Obama as a satanic character. The most corrosive thing about the current political situation is that many people believe that one political party is absolutely evil (more than believe the other is good.) Thus you really have a lot of people who think they have only one choice when election season comes around so we aren't seeing a competition to: not be corrupt, have peace and prosperity, efficient government services, etc. Back in the 1980s I saw Ronald Reagan and Tip O'Neill as honorable people who fought hard for opposing views but could also come together and compromise and it just doesn't seem that way today.
    - webmaven 4y ago
      > Back in the 1980s I saw Ronald Reagan and Tip O'Neill as honorable people who fought hard for opposing views but could also come together and compromise and it just doesn't seem that way today. Yeah. Up until that point both parties occasionally played hardball, but compromised and made deals to get legislation passed. Afterwards, starting with Gingrich's "Contract with America" one party made "no compromise" a core value to rally the "base" and get them to the polls. Centrist Democrats kept compromising for a while to bring the GOP to the table, but eventually wised up that the goalposts kept being moved and started digging in their own heels. But it is worth noting that as a result of GOP brinksmanship today's Democratic party is largely to the right of Nixon, and Obama and Biden are to the right of Reagan.
yongjik 4y ago
How "quickly"? Musk called a cave rescuer "pedo guy" back in 2018. If anything, it's been amazing how long people would praise a verified asshole as long as he's rich and successful.

PaulHoule 4y ago

I think it's not political alignment, it's stupidity. If he behaved like a left-wing idiot he'd be just as stupid as if it he behaved like a right-wing idiot. (My son didn't want to go to college for a few reasons, 'wokeness' being one of them, he still thinks Musk is an idiot and I have to fight hard to get him to recognize that Musk really has done some good things... e.g. he reminded me that Musk bought Tesla, he didn't found it!) This Bloomberg article recycles a meme image that I usually hate in a way I find hilarious: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2022-05-25/elon-musk-s-twitter-obsession-has-hurt-tesla-s-value https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2022-05-25/elon-musk... A person in Elon's Musk position has a lot of responsibility. If he does something stupid he could endanger the jobs of SpaceX and Tesla employees, not to mention investor's stakes, or the adoption of electric cars (... maybe that will go on without Tesla) or the further development of reusable rockets. If he wants to make a big impact in space travel he's going to need to get contracts and get permits and he'd better be sweet with whatever party is in power to do that. (I knew a black guy who had right-wing views and hated Barack Obama who owned a wonderful patent portfolio for satellite communications but wasn't going to go anywhere because of his attitude.) Trying to act like Donald Trump because it gets him a short-term rush from his Twitter followers endangers everything he's accomplished.

h2odragon 4y ago
> wasn't going to go anywhere because of his attitude. Which ain't right, and its far more praiseworthy to make noise about that in an attempt to fix it than it is to submit to "go along, get along." Especially when the latter is so often corrosive to society.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- PaulHoule 4y ago
  In this case of that individual it was not his views so much as the dehumanizing way in which he expressed them. When I said that he "hated" Barack Obama I meant it literally: it wasn't like he preferred John McCain or Mitt Romney or wanted to repeal the A.C.A. it was that he saw Barack Obama as a satanic character. The most corrosive thing about the current political situation is that many people believe that one political party is absolutely evil (more than believe the other is good.) Thus you really have a lot of people who think they have only one choice when election season comes around so we aren't seeing a competition to: not be corrupt, have peace and prosperity, efficient government services, etc. Back in the 1980s I saw Ronald Reagan and Tip O'Neill as honorable people who fought hard for opposing views but could also come together and compromise and it just doesn't seem that way today.
  - webmaven 4y ago
    > Back in the 1980s I saw Ronald Reagan and Tip O'Neill as honorable people who fought hard for opposing views but could also come together and compromise and it just doesn't seem that way today. Yeah. Up until that point both parties occasionally played hardball, but compromised and made deals to get legislation passed. Afterwards, starting with Gingrich's "Contract with America" one party made "no compromise" a core value to rally the "base" and get them to the polls. Centrist Democrats kept compromising for a while to bring the GOP to the table, but eventually wised up that the goalposts kept being moved and started digging in their own heels. But it is worth noting that as a result of GOP brinksmanship today's Democratic party is largely to the right of Nixon, and Obama and Biden are to the right of Reagan.

yongjik 4y ago

How "quickly"? Musk called a cave rescuer "pedo guy" back in 2018. If anything, it's been amazing how long people would praise a verified asshole as long as he's rich and successful.