4 ms·

It makes me immensely sad to see how far Elon Musk as fallen, to the point now where there is very little difference between him and a garden variety internet t

It makes me immensely sad to see how far Elon Musk as fallen, to the point now where there is very little difference between him and a garden variety internet troll who enjoys mocking people and causing them distress. He was on track to have have a phenomenal legacy but he threw it all away for the lulz.

ss108 4y ago
Like the other poster said, the respect was and us misplaced. We've gotten in a bad habit of over-respecting temporal success instead of emphasizing things like good character.
jstx1 4y ago
I doubt that he changed, I think we just got to know him better.
- cjbenedikt 4y ago
  Couldn't agree more.
- labrador 4y ago
  This is likely true, but I wonder if he's just another person driven mad by the internet. There's a lot of that going around. The recent stories about how TikTok is upping the incidence of mental illness is an example of how "viral" content infects people. Of course, there are examples of genius engineers going mad without the internet. See Howard Hughes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Hughes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Hughes
  - r721 4y ago
    >I wonder if he's just another person driven mad by the internet There was a NYT opinion piece (by Jaron Lanier) on this topic in case you missed it: >Trump, Musk and Kanye Are Twitter Poisoned https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/11/opinion/trump-musk-kanye-twitter.html https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/11/opinion/trump-musk-kanye-...
    - labrador 4y ago
      That's a good article and pretty close to what I was thinking about. I would add that I think the internet is transmitting fear and panic about "others" that Elon Musk is not immune to.
tonetheman 4y ago
Now he is on track to be a crazy Q billionaire who runs twitter into the ground followed shortly by tesla. I do not know much about tesla maybe they have a board and can kick him.
- sidibe 4y ago
  The short term problem is kicking him would make Tesla a more normally valued car company, which would destroy shareholder value. I really think most of Tesla's value comes from a belief in Elon the individual delivering his endless escalating promises. Much bigger car manufacturers are worth a small fraction of Tesla and are starting to chip away at it's EV market share. That will probably accelerate as Tesla now comes across as a political statement to some. Keeping him is probably worse for the actual bottom line with the brand damage and all the liabilities he piles on the future like FSD and preselling vehicles that don't get made, but causing the crash in prices is bad for the current investors.
  - clouddrover 4y ago
    > I really think most of Tesla's value comes from a belief in Elon the individual delivering his endless escalating promises. Then that's not really "value", is it. It's speculation. > but causing the crash in prices is bad for the current investors That's the risk you take when you speculate. If the speculation was wrong then, yes, that will cost those left carrying the can. And those who bought low and sold high were effective at lining their pockets with wealth transferred from credulous rubes.
StreamBright 4y ago
I am not sure why you think he threw it away. Whatever he says on social media is irrelevant for the progress he made with SpaceX. That will change how we do space exploration. His twitter feed is going to change how we (the people who read his twitter) think about him. The former is much more important than the latter.
- labrador 4y ago
  Nah, clearly there are people at SpaceX who deserve the majority of the credit. Sure, he got the ball rolling but a lot of people are good at starting things. He's revealed himself to be petulant child with stunted, incel attitudes and he won't be able to get the stink off of him.
n1b0m 4y ago
Came to the same conclusion years ago when called the British caver who helped rescue the trapped Thai schoolboys "pedo guy".
- JohnFen 4y ago
  Yeah, that was the proverbial straw, but it's always been pretty clear that Musk is sketchy, and a con man. But I do refer to Musk as "pedo guy" rather than by name most of the time.
labrador 4y ago
Some think he's not a very good troll: Musk is a try-hard. And although the Twitter shock jocks will happily lap him up because he triggers the libs and serves their purposes, Musk is still seen as a dilettante by the inveterate shitposters and bigots. Over on 4chan, the far-right message board, Musk’s Fauci tweet barely merited discussion. “Elon is just being controversial to drive traffic to his website,” one poster mused. Even in his thirsty attempts to be an edgelord, Musk is failing to be anything other than cringey. Elon Musk Is a Far-Right Activist: https://archive.vn/MnN0u https://archive.vn/MnN0u
hpen 4y ago
Yeah, I preferred Elon when he was just some rich guy and not a celebrity. But it's interesting that you don't seem to even consider that some people actually believe Fauci is a joke. Believe in science or not, Fauci said criticizing him is criticizing science. That's so narcissistic.

ss108 4y ago

Like the other poster said, the respect was and us misplaced. We've gotten in a bad habit of over-respecting temporal success instead of emphasizing things like good character.

jstx1 4y ago

I doubt that he changed, I think we just got to know him better.

cjbenedikt 4y ago
Couldn't agree more.
labrador 4y ago
This is likely true, but I wonder if he's just another person driven mad by the internet. There's a lot of that going around. The recent stories about how TikTok is upping the incidence of mental illness is an example of how "viral" content infects people. Of course, there are examples of genius engineers going mad without the internet. See Howard Hughes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Hughes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Hughes
- r721 4y ago
  >I wonder if he's just another person driven mad by the internet There was a NYT opinion piece (by Jaron Lanier) on this topic in case you missed it: >Trump, Musk and Kanye Are Twitter Poisoned https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/11/opinion/trump-musk-kanye-twitter.html https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/11/opinion/trump-musk-kanye-...
  - labrador 4y ago
    That's a good article and pretty close to what I was thinking about. I would add that I think the internet is transmitting fear and panic about "others" that Elon Musk is not immune to.

tonetheman 4y ago

Now he is on track to be a crazy Q billionaire who runs twitter into the ground followed shortly by tesla. I do not know much about tesla maybe they have a board and can kick him.

sidibe 4y ago
The short term problem is kicking him would make Tesla a more normally valued car company, which would destroy shareholder value. I really think most of Tesla's value comes from a belief in Elon the individual delivering his endless escalating promises. Much bigger car manufacturers are worth a small fraction of Tesla and are starting to chip away at it's EV market share. That will probably accelerate as Tesla now comes across as a political statement to some. Keeping him is probably worse for the actual bottom line with the brand damage and all the liabilities he piles on the future like FSD and preselling vehicles that don't get made, but causing the crash in prices is bad for the current investors.
- clouddrover 4y ago
  > I really think most of Tesla's value comes from a belief in Elon the individual delivering his endless escalating promises. Then that's not really "value", is it. It's speculation. > but causing the crash in prices is bad for the current investors That's the risk you take when you speculate. If the speculation was wrong then, yes, that will cost those left carrying the can. And those who bought low and sold high were effective at lining their pockets with wealth transferred from credulous rubes.

StreamBright 4y ago

I am not sure why you think he threw it away. Whatever he says on social media is irrelevant for the progress he made with SpaceX. That will change how we do space exploration. His twitter feed is going to change how we (the people who read his twitter) think about him. The former is much more important than the latter.

labrador 4y ago
Nah, clearly there are people at SpaceX who deserve the majority of the credit. Sure, he got the ball rolling but a lot of people are good at starting things. He's revealed himself to be petulant child with stunted, incel attitudes and he won't be able to get the stink off of him.

n1b0m 4y ago

Came to the same conclusion years ago when called the British caver who helped rescue the trapped Thai schoolboys "pedo guy".

JohnFen 4y ago
Yeah, that was the proverbial straw, but it's always been pretty clear that Musk is sketchy, and a con man. But I do refer to Musk as "pedo guy" rather than by name most of the time.

labrador 4y ago

Some think he's not a very good troll: Musk is a try-hard. And although the Twitter shock jocks will happily lap him up because he triggers the libs and serves their purposes, Musk is still seen as a dilettante by the inveterate shitposters and bigots. Over on 4chan, the far-right message board, Musk’s Fauci tweet barely merited discussion. “Elon is just being controversial to drive traffic to his website,” one poster mused. Even in his thirsty attempts to be an edgelord, Musk is failing to be anything other than cringey. Elon Musk Is a Far-Right Activist: https://archive.vn/MnN0u https://archive.vn/MnN0u

hpen 4y ago

Yeah, I preferred Elon when he was just some rich guy and not a celebrity. But it's interesting that you don't seem to even consider that some people actually believe Fauci is a joke. Believe in science or not, Fauci said criticizing him is criticizing science. That's so narcissistic.