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Indeed, watching Hacker News go from a nearly unanimous Musk Cheerleading Squad to the precise diametric opposite of that -- literally in the course of one mont

by caeril 3y ago

Indeed, watching Hacker News go from a nearly unanimous Musk Cheerleading Squad to the precise diametric opposite of that -- literally in the course of one month -- because he didn't echo CIA talking points about Ukraine was hilarious to watch.

ceejayoz 3y ago
There's already been plenty of detractors, especially around the "full self driving" system. The big shift seems to have come more from when he made a very public ass of himself with the Twitter acquisition and subsequent clear hypocrisy on free speech issues.
Zigurd 3y ago
I used to be an admirer if not exactly a stan. I was an optimist that pushing FSD would result in safer roads. I liked the cheeky touches like a virtual whoopie cushion. Many tech bros are small-l libertarian without being asses about it. Who doesn't want regulation to be simple and government to be non-interventionist where there is no benefit? Russia started a land war in Europe and Elon is an appeaser from the start. Not cool. The magnitude of Russia's aggression, and the extent to which it would have grown if appeased threatened to create a global conflict. From there, Elon went on a weird red pill journey, boosting racists and outright Nazis with replies on Twitter that made him impossible to excuse. The CIA is not the source of Elon's problems. He's got a screw loose.
gambiting 3y ago
It's been way longer than a month, I stopped respecting him around the time when he kept pushing the idiotic self driving system in Teslas when it was already obvious that it's nothing more than a scam designed to extract your money. It was only downhill from there.
- caeril 3y ago
  Sure. There were a few people, perhaps you, who tried pointing out how he was a charlatan, how Tesla's profits were wholly due to carbon credit sales and the core business was a disaster, how he rarely delivered on his insane promises, how the new Roadster, the Cybertruck, and the Semi were vaporware, how there was nothing revolutionary about SpaceX reusable boosters etc, who were roundly and consistently downvoted because the HN zeitgeist was to huff Elon's farts. Literally one month after his infamous Ukraine tweet, it was completely reversed. My comment really isn't even about Musk, it's about HN. HN doesn't care about facts or rational arguments, despite the relatively high IQ here. It's politics, and always has been. And this abrupt change demonstrated that quite well.
r00fus 3y ago
It's not his position on Ukraine/Russia that's worrying. It's his retweeting of known white-nationalist content pretending it's not. It's his complete faceplant of "free speech maximalism" and numerous public moves that prove he's the exact opposite (latest being his currying favor with Erdogan by hiding his opponents tweets during voting hours). In short, it's him shredding his image and principles (even if that was a cover) that gave him any legitimacy in public discourse. I have to admit, I used to stan.

by caeril 3y ago

ceejayoz 3y ago

There's already been plenty of detractors, especially around the "full self driving" system. The big shift seems to have come more from when he made a very public ass of himself with the Twitter acquisition and subsequent clear hypocrisy on free speech issues.

Zigurd 3y ago

I used to be an admirer if not exactly a stan. I was an optimist that pushing FSD would result in safer roads. I liked the cheeky touches like a virtual whoopie cushion. Many tech bros are small-l libertarian without being asses about it. Who doesn't want regulation to be simple and government to be non-interventionist where there is no benefit? Russia started a land war in Europe and Elon is an appeaser from the start. Not cool. The magnitude of Russia's aggression, and the extent to which it would have grown if appeased threatened to create a global conflict. From there, Elon went on a weird red pill journey, boosting racists and outright Nazis with replies on Twitter that made him impossible to excuse. The CIA is not the source of Elon's problems. He's got a screw loose.

gambiting 3y ago

It's been way longer than a month, I stopped respecting him around the time when he kept pushing the idiotic self driving system in Teslas when it was already obvious that it's nothing more than a scam designed to extract your money. It was only downhill from there.

caeril 3y ago
Sure. There were a few people, perhaps you, who tried pointing out how he was a charlatan, how Tesla's profits were wholly due to carbon credit sales and the core business was a disaster, how he rarely delivered on his insane promises, how the new Roadster, the Cybertruck, and the Semi were vaporware, how there was nothing revolutionary about SpaceX reusable boosters etc, who were roundly and consistently downvoted because the HN zeitgeist was to huff Elon's farts. Literally one month after his infamous Ukraine tweet, it was completely reversed. My comment really isn't even about Musk, it's about HN. HN doesn't care about facts or rational arguments, despite the relatively high IQ here. It's politics, and always has been. And this abrupt change demonstrated that quite well.

r00fus 3y ago

It's not his position on Ukraine/Russia that's worrying. It's his retweeting of known white-nationalist content pretending it's not. It's his complete faceplant of "free speech maximalism" and numerous public moves that prove he's the exact opposite (latest being his currying favor with Erdogan by hiding his opponents tweets during voting hours). In short, it's him shredding his image and principles (even if that was a cover) that gave him any legitimacy in public discourse. I have to admit, I used to stan.