The fusion hype should be blamed squarely on journalists, not on "the public." The LM99 room temperature semiconductor circus was a very different phenomenon,

The fusion hype should be blamed squarely on journalists, not on "the public." The LM99 room temperature semiconductor circus was a very different phenomenon, mostly driven by internet people rather than journalists. And very short-lived. If mainstream journalists were as skeptical of fusion as a net power source as they were of LM99, people would be better informed. "fast-charging, high-range" EVs are already here, so I'm not sure what you're on about. "non-degrading," no, but nobody is actually claiming that. machine learning also exists and does useful work. We can argue that it's overhyped. That's a different conversation than the one about whether fusion power can ever work.