3 ms·
The thing is that almost everyone believed him until it became known that many times he either: 1. didn't know what he was talking about 2. was over-optimisti
by Eisenstein 3y ago
The thing is that almost everyone believed him until it became known that many times he either:
1. didn't know what he was talking about
2. was over-optimistic about timelines to the point that there would be very little difference if it were a lie
3. objectively lied on purpose in order to further self interests
4. exaggerated or over-promised more than could be attributed to salesmanship
5. flip-flopped and refused to acknowledge the change in stance
6. stated things entirely to be vindictive, and let the truth of the statements be irrelevant
The problem isn't that people 'never believe', the problem is 'whatever is said should be suspect to the point that if it is actually true then that is entirely a side-effect of the statement and not the point of it'.
- brandonagr2 3y agoEveryone believed what? You seem to be unaware or Elon time or how Elon has made predictions in the past, generally not that "this will happen by date X" but that "this cannot possibly happen _before_ date X". Which are very different statements. There is a contingent of people who want to retcon any statement ever to paint Elon as a fraud, when reality is much too subtle for trivial blanket labels like you want to apply.
- rsynnott 3y agoIt's been obvious that he's inclined to talk nonsense for a _long, long_ time, tho. At this point, there are shades of him being E Lon Hubbard to the remaining believers; for most of them it seems totally unshakeable. (Humanity was extremely fortunate that the existence of L Ron Hubbard and the existence of the Internet did not significantly overlap.)