3 ms·

Why is Elon Musk attacking Wikipedia?

21 points by jruohonen 3y ago

ZeroGravitas 3y ago
It's unwise to assign these outbursts to Musk specificially. Like Trump, many of odd statements reported in the press are actually just them reflecting back odd opinions held by the communities they are associated with, rather than something novel they've come up with. So there's a decades long campaign against Wikipedia from the political right and Musk is just playing to that audience. "What does Wikipedia need money for?" is a classic that comes up all the time on HN and elsewhere.
- tstrimple 3y ago
  > rather than something novel they've come up with. https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1716102436123783175 https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1716102436123783175 I don't think anyone is confusing this with novel thought.
- Zigurd 3y ago
  The extent to which Musk just picks up trash takes on right wing media shows how easily he is manipulated, and, if predisposed to those views, how lazy he is in expressing it by being so unoriginal.
  - ben_w 3y ago
    It's one of those irregular adjectives: "I am well-cultured, you speak in clichés, he is a stochastic parrot". You could say these things of him (he also does this with many things from The Culture series), but you can also just say that constant exposure is what turns figures of speech into phrases into clichés into common sense into cultures. But something something mote of dust something something plank of wood, or that other one about everyone can be fooled some of the time and some of us all the time — either way, point is, even if you can see his mistakes clear as day, we're all fallible to this kind of thing.
rsynnott 3y ago
I think this is possibly putting too much thought in. I kind of assume it's because he's _desperate for attention_; every time the Musk news dies down he does some stupid thing or other so that people talk about it.
sillywalk 3y ago
Musk offered $1bn if Wikipedia would change its name to Dickipedia. How old is Musk?
- johnnyanmac 3y ago
  Had to check. 52. Definitely shows age doesn't bestow wisdom. Apparently money doesn't either.

21 points by jruohonen 3y ago

It's unwise to assign these outbursts to Musk specificially. Like Trump, many of odd statements reported in the press are actually just them reflecting back odd opinions held by the communities they are associated with, rather than something novel they've come up with. So there's a decades long campaign against Wikipedia from the political right and Musk is just playing to that audience. "What does Wikipedia need money for?" is a classic that comes up all the time on HN and elsewhere.

tstrimple 3y ago
> rather than something novel they've come up with. https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1716102436123783175 https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1716102436123783175 I don't think anyone is confusing this with novel thought.
Zigurd 3y ago
The extent to which Musk just picks up trash takes on right wing media shows how easily he is manipulated, and, if predisposed to those views, how lazy he is in expressing it by being so unoriginal.
- ben_w 3y ago
  It's one of those irregular adjectives: "I am well-cultured, you speak in clichés, he is a stochastic parrot". You could say these things of him (he also does this with many things from The Culture series), but you can also just say that constant exposure is what turns figures of speech into phrases into clichés into common sense into cultures. But something something mote of dust something something plank of wood, or that other one about everyone can be fooled some of the time and some of us all the time — either way, point is, even if you can see his mistakes clear as day, we're all fallible to this kind of thing.

rsynnott 3y ago

I think this is possibly putting too much thought in. I kind of assume it's because he's _desperate for attention_; every time the Musk news dies down he does some stupid thing or other so that people talk about it.

sillywalk 3y ago

Musk offered $1bn if Wikipedia would change its name to Dickipedia. How old is Musk?

johnnyanmac 3y ago
Had to check. 52. Definitely shows age doesn't bestow wisdom. Apparently money doesn't either.