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I’m of the belief that the reason he has so suddenly become hated in the last few years (because it’s really unjustified, if you look purely at his works) is a
by sneak 3y ago
I’m of the belief that the reason he has so suddenly become hated in the last few years (because it’s really unjustified, if you look purely at his works) is a direct result of engineering by those who would suffer if he continued his ascent without public opinion against him. None of the public narrative about him (especially the Twitter stuff) or the reasons people generally mock him make much sense, or are very relevant to 99% of the things he is actually spending time and resources on. It’s 100% manufactured.
Starship and access to orbit, as well as Starlink (which cheap access to orbit enabled) are indeed insanely powerful geopolitical tools. Many of the existing geopolitical engineers would hate to see him not be firmly subordinate to themselves.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the FAA’s decision is being used as a bargaining chip here. You don’t get to do things like this in the USA unless you play ball 100% with the existing people who control access to orbit.
Nobody is richer or more powerful than the people who presently control the satellite-based weapons and surveillance systems that the US operates. Nobody will be able to be in a position to replace or supplant them without some sort of negotiation with them.
Imagine it: with a working Starship, Musk could replace GPS, Keyhole, and whatever the rods-from-god system is codenamed, in a matter of months (or perhaps weeks, if the payload design work is already underway), for anyone on the Earth who he thinks would benefit his goals. A lot of the leverage that exists against him (and can presently be used to constrain him) would be gone, never to return. It’s already fairly obvious that the geopolitical status quo on Earth is not very important to him.
- rout39574 3y agoI think the recent wave of vitriol is mostly associated with his decision to destroy Twitter in the process of attempting to make it a safe space for racists. That and his seeming to align himself with our strategic adversaries on the world stage. The latter is possibly dismissable as "Well, that's just your opinion, man..." but he gives muscle to his opinion by making business decisions with strategic policy implications (e.g. turn off Ukraine starlink service at strategig moments..) The twitter vandalism is very clearly "his works".
- sneak 3y ago[flagged]
- feoren 3y ago[flagged]
- mongol 3y agoAre you of the opinion that Ukraine is involved with murder and slaughter?
- snovv_crash 3y agoAT&T wouldn't be happy with you pulling their cell tower repeaters into a warzone either. Using shared infrastructure for war purposes exposes it to retaliation.
- _kbh_ 3y agoExcept no one is going retaliate against starlink as it would stop _everyone_ from launching satellites.
- sneak 3y agoHumans who subscribe to game theory have gambled against Russia with much higher stakes than these in years past. I would not depend on “nobody can launch satellites” being sufficient deterrent when GTO brinksmanship with the USSR put only Stanislav Petrov between reality and total human extinction. If you believe, as I do, that Ukraine’s ability to export shale gas to the west is a literal existential crisis for Russia as a state in the long term, then it makes sense that they would go to quite significant extents indeed to ensure that that remains impossible, right up to things that would mostly destroy Russian society in the process, tragically.
- _kbh_ 3y ago
- ajmurmann 3y agoI used to be pretty much a Elon fanboy. I don't hate him now, but feel mixed and largely neutral about him. What did that for me is that his communication on Twitter seemed to ignore the fact that having a very large audience brings responsibility. It's different if I mention to some buddies in the pub over beers that I read some research about vaccines that made me wonder if I should get the vaccine than if I tweet the same thing to an audience of many million people. I am just making this vaccine example up in this case because I am too lazy to go back through his history, but he has said a lot of things with wide-reaching implications without doing proper research and due diligence required when communicating to that many people, many of whom see him as a role model. This does very real harm and makes me question his maturity.
- snovv_crash 3y agoSame boat. I think he's been in a place where nobody has said "no" to him in such a long time that he's just lost touch a bit with reality. Also, I really don't think it's fair to make opinions of him unless you also make opinions of the other billionaire's based on what they actually think, not just their PR firm. You're not going to get _any_ off-the-cuff remarks from Bezos, for example.
- ajmurmann 3y ago> Also, I really don't think it's fair to make opinions of him unless you also make opinions of the other billionaire's based on what they actually think, not just their PR firm. You're not going to get _any_ off-the-cuff remarks from Bezos, for example. That's my point though. I am not judging the content of his opinions. I am concerned about the fact that he is voicing them with little care. Everybody has some weird opinions and half-baked ideas. It's very different to have these thoughts in your head vs sharing them with friends and family or to to voice them to 160 million followers. He can think in private whatever he wants and I wouldn't care or judge him unless it starts to impact other people. I think lots of weird shit, but it just makes my wife roll her eyes. Nobody is gonna die from it.