5 ms·

I actually think this is quite a long way away from funny. We've been able to watch Elon Musk get radicalized in real time. That's quite worrying when you consi

I actually think this is quite a long way away from funny. We've been able to watch Elon Musk get radicalized in real time. That's quite worrying when you consider the amount of resources he has available to him. During the Trump years there was a lot of talk about how Trump is bad, but fundamentally incompetent. Well now we're going to see what extremism looks like when a far more competent person is orchestrating it.

mcv 4y ago
He's actually not coming across as that much more competent. He seems to be running Twitter into the ground, rather than improving it.
fastball 4y ago
Musk's behavior in this whole thing seems far from competent.
- cactusplant7374 4y ago
  He's the CEO of five companies and he just landed in Qatar to party at the world cup. His worth ethic is suspect and the stuff of myths. Supposedly he never stops working but he's an expert at Elden Ring.
  - wongarsu 4y ago
    Musk being CEO is not really like a startup founder being CEO. For example at SpaceX the company is basically run by Gwynne Shotwell, with Elon being the visionary and face of the company, with the clout and authority to dive deep into any part of the company he thinks is important right now and help facilitate or micro-manage stuff. But when he is occupied elsewhere for a couple months the gears keep turning without him just fine. I imagine his other companies (with the notable exception of Twitter) work the same.
    - cactusplant7374 4y ago
      * A few months ago SpaceX was on the verge of bankruptcy according to Musk. * Tesla's stock is down and they haven't done any innovation in a long time. FSD is a complete failure. Musk's tweets are hurting the brand. People don't want to buy an alt-right electric car and Elon has become the brand. * Revenue dramatically decreased at Twitter since Musk took over the company. Likely headed towards bankruptcy in the near future. * Neuralink is a pipe dream that conducts unnecessary experiments that kill animals. He copied all the experiments of the lead academic researcher and passed them off as his own. There is nothing novel about what they have done. * Boring Co. hasn't built anything of value. In fact, they have backed out of numerous projects. It's a complete and total dereliction of duty.
  - sandworm101 4y ago
    He doesnt stop working. Thats the great thing about being boss: you get to define what "working" means. In his mind, what he is doing in Quatar qualifies as work. He probably deducts expenses, those he doesnt just charge to whatever company he thinks most benefits from his travels on a given day.
  - concordDance 4y ago
    I think you're making the mistake of assuming the amount he works per week is constant, rather than varying from 80 hours during hell year to 20 when things are going fine. There are a LOT of sources on him having worked very long hours at points.
    - cactusplant7374 4y ago
      > when things are going fine. Things are not going fine. Things are on fire. How do you buy a company and immediately lose 50% of the revenue? That is a shocking failure.
rgbrenner 4y ago
Are we watching musk "get" radicalized? Or has he always been that way? Because I remember way back, when journalists would write poor reviews of Tesla, he would go after them... typically accusing them of being compromised in some way, or not really being a journalist. Then there's the swatting of a tesla wistleblower. Or when a customer was "rude", he canceled their tesla pre-order. Or when that tesla employee posted a self driving video of his own car--he fired him. Or when there was an anonymous blogger that posted negative tesla investment advice, musk tracked him down, and called his employer trying to get him fired. Im not going to keep going.. there are so many of these dating back a decade. I think the truth is he said what he thought people wanted to hear ("free speech absolutism"), and then once he obtained twitter, who he really is--exceptionally thin skinned--wont let him run it in a principled way.
- heather45879 4y ago
  So he’s just like Bill Gates in the 90’s. A little douche with an ego and deceptive business practices. Not sure why no one mentions his asperger's syndrome because that’s an obvious mastodon in the room.
  - dragontamer 4y ago
    > asperger's syndrome Elon Musk just _pretends_ to have Asperger's. I know plenty of people on the spectrum, they aren't assholes. There's also the "Ye's bipolar disorder" effect. Its a challenge I'm sure to have it, but I also know people who are bipolar. Anti-semitism is _NOT_ on the list of symptoms. We can criticize Ye's anti-semetism without making fun of his bipolar / mental illness. So even _IF_ Elon hada Asperger's (and I'm not convinced he does. I think its all pretend for more clicks / his public relations image), there's nothing about Asperger's that makes you a self-contradicting asshole.
    - heather45879 4y ago
      I agree and not trying to typecast—but maybe their personality + Asperger’s = dubious people-oriented decisions? I’m not a doctor nor do I know anyone with Asperger’s but it is a variable at play. But quickly looking it up it’s a social-oriented disorder. Elon is making dubious social-oriented decisions.
A4ET8a8uTh0 4y ago
Yes. However, I would argue that is a good thing. Musk has become a poster child one can easily point to and ask a question along the lines of 'is it reasonable for society to allow a person with resources near some nation-state levels to exist and not limit their ability to gather that amount of resources?' While in general I am very permissive and I hate imposition on my individual freedoms, I am increasingly convinced that leveling of playing field is necessary. You reach an upper limit of say 'five small islands' and you start seeing major increase in tax burden. As you can undoubtedly tell, I am no tax expert, but I am tired of this prince equivalent of our times. Wait, not princes ( princes had some structures that kept them somewhat in check ). Maybe robber barons is a better comparison. US managed to get them under control once, but that required a world war II. I am honestly not sure we can repeat that approach this time. << Well now we're going to see what extremism looks like when a far more competent person is orchestrating it. I would hesitate to characterize Trump as incompetent. He and Musk share some qualities and note that both of them managed to use the existing system to their advantage better than an average person ( leaving for a moment the above average starting point for both ). Still, fool and his money is soon parted and notice that both of them manage to screw everyone they interact with ( but themselves ), which indicates some level of competency. Unfortunately, that competency is focused only one thing. In short, I disagree. Twitter saga is just better documented. WH by necessity is harder to properly scrutinize ( despite all the leaks and media attention ).
- jl6 4y ago
  > Musk has become a poster child one can easily point to and ask a question along the lines of 'is it reasonable for society to allow a person with resources near some nation-state levels to exist and not limit their ability to gather that amount of resources?' It’s an interesting question but if you’re hoping for a ‘no’ answer, Musk is a pretty mild test case. For all his failings, he hasn’t used his personal wealth for anything that bad. Far worse is done by corporations and governments (and actual princes). In fact, I’m not sure individualistic supervillainy actually happens all that much. Being bad at scale is still a team effort.
  - A4ET8a8uTh0 4y ago
sandworm101 4y ago
Radicalization is very interesting. Rather than talk of a person being radicalized in a paticular way (medical/religion/politics/flat earth etc) can a person become susceptible to radicalization across the board? Can someone be "radicalized" into taking radical stances in every context? I have seen older relatives fall down this hole. Every little thing is now life-or-death, order v chaos. Musk might be on that pattern.
hgdfhgdhgfdh 4y ago
How exactly is he radicalized? Because he suspended 7 journalists for 12-24 hours for doxxing the flight with his kid on it?
- dragontamer 4y ago
  ElonJet pointed out where the flight was. The journalists simply pointed out that ElonJet was using public data from the FAA. So no, its not considered doxxing. All airplanes must be tracked, otherwise there's a chance that they'll crash into each other. If you don't like that, then maybe don't fly in a private jet all the time. Share your jet with others. Or God forbid, use a cheaper, more efficient, better-for-the-environment electric vehicle.
  - hgdfhgdhgfdg 4y ago
    [dead]
    - dragontamer 4y ago
      The Journalists he banned were not named Jack Sweeney. Also, Jack Sweeney is just posting data from this webpage: https://www.adsbexchange.com/ https://www.adsbexchange.com/ Its not like Jack Sweeney actually has ABS-B detectors of his own. All airplanes in the USA are going to have to have their ABS-B transponders on, to prevent mid-air collisions. You must broadcast your location at all times. https://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/technology/adsb https://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/technology/adsb https://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/technology/equipadsb/research/airspace https://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/technology/equipadsb/researc...
    - Jotra7 4y ago
    - SilverBirch 4y ago
      You can track Elon’s flight from the tail number using the ADS-B system and the tail number is public information. You can find it all over photos all over the internet, even if you couldn’t you could just drive over to the airport, you can also verify it by checking the plane is registered to a company co-located at SpaceX. It’s all public information in about 200 different ways.

mcv 4y ago

He's actually not coming across as that much more competent. He seems to be running Twitter into the ground, rather than improving it.

fastball 4y ago

Musk's behavior in this whole thing seems far from competent.

cactusplant7374 4y ago
He's the CEO of five companies and he just landed in Qatar to party at the world cup. His worth ethic is suspect and the stuff of myths. Supposedly he never stops working but he's an expert at Elden Ring.
- wongarsu 4y ago
  Musk being CEO is not really like a startup founder being CEO. For example at SpaceX the company is basically run by Gwynne Shotwell, with Elon being the visionary and face of the company, with the clout and authority to dive deep into any part of the company he thinks is important right now and help facilitate or micro-manage stuff. But when he is occupied elsewhere for a couple months the gears keep turning without him just fine. I imagine his other companies (with the notable exception of Twitter) work the same.
  - cactusplant7374 4y ago
    * A few months ago SpaceX was on the verge of bankruptcy according to Musk. * Tesla's stock is down and they haven't done any innovation in a long time. FSD is a complete failure. Musk's tweets are hurting the brand. People don't want to buy an alt-right electric car and Elon has become the brand. * Revenue dramatically decreased at Twitter since Musk took over the company. Likely headed towards bankruptcy in the near future. * Neuralink is a pipe dream that conducts unnecessary experiments that kill animals. He copied all the experiments of the lead academic researcher and passed them off as his own. There is nothing novel about what they have done. * Boring Co. hasn't built anything of value. In fact, they have backed out of numerous projects. It's a complete and total dereliction of duty.
- sandworm101 4y ago
  He doesnt stop working. Thats the great thing about being boss: you get to define what "working" means. In his mind, what he is doing in Quatar qualifies as work. He probably deducts expenses, those he doesnt just charge to whatever company he thinks most benefits from his travels on a given day.
- concordDance 4y ago
  I think you're making the mistake of assuming the amount he works per week is constant, rather than varying from 80 hours during hell year to 20 when things are going fine. There are a LOT of sources on him having worked very long hours at points.
  - cactusplant7374 4y ago
    > when things are going fine. Things are not going fine. Things are on fire. How do you buy a company and immediately lose 50% of the revenue? That is a shocking failure.

rgbrenner 4y ago

Are we watching musk "get" radicalized? Or has he always been that way? Because I remember way back, when journalists would write poor reviews of Tesla, he would go after them... typically accusing them of being compromised in some way, or not really being a journalist. Then there's the swatting of a tesla wistleblower. Or when a customer was "rude", he canceled their tesla pre-order. Or when that tesla employee posted a self driving video of his own car--he fired him. Or when there was an anonymous blogger that posted negative tesla investment advice, musk tracked him down, and called his employer trying to get him fired. Im not going to keep going.. there are so many of these dating back a decade. I think the truth is he said what he thought people wanted to hear ("free speech absolutism"), and then once he obtained twitter, who he really is--exceptionally thin skinned--wont let him run it in a principled way.

heather45879 4y ago
So he’s just like Bill Gates in the 90’s. A little douche with an ego and deceptive business practices. Not sure why no one mentions his asperger's syndrome because that’s an obvious mastodon in the room.
- dragontamer 4y ago
  > asperger's syndrome Elon Musk just _pretends_ to have Asperger's. I know plenty of people on the spectrum, they aren't assholes. There's also the "Ye's bipolar disorder" effect. Its a challenge I'm sure to have it, but I also know people who are bipolar. Anti-semitism is _NOT_ on the list of symptoms. We can criticize Ye's anti-semetism without making fun of his bipolar / mental illness. So even _IF_ Elon hada Asperger's (and I'm not convinced he does. I think its all pretend for more clicks / his public relations image), there's nothing about Asperger's that makes you a self-contradicting asshole.
  - heather45879 4y ago
    I agree and not trying to typecast—but maybe their personality + Asperger’s = dubious people-oriented decisions? I’m not a doctor nor do I know anyone with Asperger’s but it is a variable at play. But quickly looking it up it’s a social-oriented disorder. Elon is making dubious social-oriented decisions.

A4ET8a8uTh0 4y ago

Yes. However, I would argue that is a good thing. Musk has become a poster child one can easily point to and ask a question along the lines of 'is it reasonable for society to allow a person with resources near some nation-state levels to exist and not limit their ability to gather that amount of resources?' While in general I am very permissive and I hate imposition on my individual freedoms, I am increasingly convinced that leveling of playing field is necessary. You reach an upper limit of say 'five small islands' and you start seeing major increase in tax burden. As you can undoubtedly tell, I am no tax expert, but I am tired of this prince equivalent of our times. Wait, not princes ( princes had some structures that kept them somewhat in check ). Maybe robber barons is a better comparison. US managed to get them under control once, but that required a world war II. I am honestly not sure we can repeat that approach this time. << Well now we're going to see what extremism looks like when a far more competent person is orchestrating it. I would hesitate to characterize Trump as incompetent. He and Musk share some qualities and note that both of them managed to use the existing system to their advantage better than an average person ( leaving for a moment the above average starting point for both ). Still, fool and his money is soon parted and notice that both of them manage to screw everyone they interact with ( but themselves ), which indicates some level of competency. Unfortunately, that competency is focused only one thing. In short, I disagree. Twitter saga is just better documented. WH by necessity is harder to properly scrutinize ( despite all the leaks and media attention ).

jl6 4y ago
> Musk has become a poster child one can easily point to and ask a question along the lines of 'is it reasonable for society to allow a person with resources near some nation-state levels to exist and not limit their ability to gather that amount of resources?' It’s an interesting question but if you’re hoping for a ‘no’ answer, Musk is a pretty mild test case. For all his failings, he hasn’t used his personal wealth for anything that bad. Far worse is done by corporations and governments (and actual princes). In fact, I’m not sure individualistic supervillainy actually happens all that much. Being bad at scale is still a team effort.
- A4ET8a8uTh0 4y ago

sandworm101 4y ago

Radicalization is very interesting. Rather than talk of a person being radicalized in a paticular way (medical/religion/politics/flat earth etc) can a person become susceptible to radicalization across the board? Can someone be "radicalized" into taking radical stances in every context? I have seen older relatives fall down this hole. Every little thing is now life-or-death, order v chaos. Musk might be on that pattern.

hgdfhgdhgfdh 4y ago

How exactly is he radicalized? Because he suspended 7 journalists for 12-24 hours for doxxing the flight with his kid on it?

dragontamer 4y ago
ElonJet pointed out where the flight was. The journalists simply pointed out that ElonJet was using public data from the FAA. So no, its not considered doxxing. All airplanes must be tracked, otherwise there's a chance that they'll crash into each other. If you don't like that, then maybe don't fly in a private jet all the time. Share your jet with others. Or God forbid, use a cheaper, more efficient, better-for-the-environment electric vehicle.
- hgdfhgdhgfdg 4y ago
  [dead]
  - dragontamer 4y ago
    The Journalists he banned were not named Jack Sweeney. Also, Jack Sweeney is just posting data from this webpage: https://www.adsbexchange.com/ https://www.adsbexchange.com/ Its not like Jack Sweeney actually has ABS-B detectors of his own. All airplanes in the USA are going to have to have their ABS-B transponders on, to prevent mid-air collisions. You must broadcast your location at all times. https://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/technology/adsb https://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/technology/adsb https://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/technology/equipadsb/research/airspace https://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/technology/equipadsb/researc...
  - Jotra7 4y ago
  - SilverBirch 4y ago
    You can track Elon’s flight from the tail number using the ADS-B system and the tail number is public information. You can find it all over photos all over the internet, even if you couldn’t you could just drive over to the airport, you can also verify it by checking the plane is registered to a company co-located at SpaceX. It’s all public information in about 200 different ways.