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Why are there so many new militant Elon accounts on HN now? They routinely start flamewars and make low quality comments like this? A week ago someone commente

Why are there so many new militant Elon accounts on HN now? They routinely start flamewars and make low quality comments like this? A week ago someone commented how they were flagging anything that was submitted to HN that painted Elon in a negative way.

gostsamo 3y ago
They are running away from Twitter. Joke aside, I suspect that those people have always existed, but the debate is more polarized now and many of the people who tended to leave nuanced comments don't bother any more when it comes to Musk articles.
happytiger 3y ago
Looks like an organized campaign. It’s dramatic and noticeable. Probably state actor related as this site is full of influencers and definitely “on the radar.”
dotnet00 3y ago
Like the other poster, I agree that it's likely just because conversations about him have become so polarized. I also often find myself flagging anything related to Musk, I don't even have anything against him, I just find that most of the discussion tends to be totally unproductive, often full of deliberate lies and misinformation. Not much nuance, usually just a mix of blind fanatics who uncritically eat up the most scifi interpretation of anything he says and people pushing the usual tired, countered talking points or misinfo ("fix earth first", "slaves on Mars", "he shutdown Starlink in Ukraine", "he just bought his way into space" and so on).
- guilamu 3y ago
  I mostly agree with your comment but "he shutdown Starlink in Ukraine" is misinfo? Musk literally say he did it. How is that misinfo? https://amp.theguardian.com/technology/2023/sep/07/elon-musk-ordered-starlink-turned-off-ukraine-offensive-biography https://amp.theguardian.com/technology/2023/sep/07/elon-musk...
  - patd 3y ago
    Your own link says that Walter Isaacson retracted the claim.
  - dotnet00 3y ago
    See the note and footnote on that article. They had always had cells over Crimea off, they received a request from Ukraine to enable them, SpaceX refused, likely for liability reasons (as using the Starlink antennas as drone control systems is officially against SpaceX's stated policies, as such use is also not backed by the US government). Isaacson for some reason interpreted that as them shutting it down in response, which got reported as if it were sabotage.
    - harshreality 3y ago
      That's not what Isaacson wrote, and it's not even what Isaacson tweeted to try to diffuse the situation when book excerpts were published. What actually happened, as reported by Isaacson: Elon called Isaacson in a fit one night, worried about how Ukraine seemed to be poised to use starlink to attack Sevastopol (Crimea). Isaacson reports explicitly that Elon, after much dithering, had starlink engineers secretly geofence starlink so it was disabled near Crimea. THEN Ukraine discovered this. As reported by multiple noteworthy people on twitter and elsewhere, Ukraine had previously tested starlink's coverage, they didn't just build drone boats and hope that wherever they sent them, starlink would still work; think about how little sense that would make. THEN Ukraine contacted SpaceX/Elon asking in a panic for starlink to be enabled (re-enabled), and Elon declined. (This is what Isaacson and Elon rely on for all their non-denial denials.) Isaacson's "correction" of the record does not deny that Elon called that night, while "in a state". It doesn't deny that Elon reduced starlink coverage by telling engineers to do that on the down-low. It simply re-states the last thing in that series of events, that starlink was disabled near Crimea, and that Ukraine called to ask SpaceX to turn it on (really, turn it back on) and they declined. Why would Elon have been so concerned about a Ukrainian drone-boat attack on Sevastopol using starlink navigation if such an attack wouldn't work by default? Why would he have communicated at length with Isaacson that night if Elon's narrative is to be believed? It's tough, given all that, for me to see Isaacson's correction as anything other than a lie by omission. If he'd wanted to make a crystal clear correction, he certainly could have done so. He's a veteran journalist. He knows the art of the non-denial denial.
elfbargpt 3y ago
This is one of the few comments that doesn't actually mention Elon at all, not sure why you posted this reply here. The comment is specifically criticizing slow bureaucracy in the US, somewhat independent of anything related to SpaceX / Elon. I think the same comment would apply if it was ULA trying to get a test launch through
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]

gostsamo 3y ago

They are running away from Twitter. Joke aside, I suspect that those people have always existed, but the debate is more polarized now and many of the people who tended to leave nuanced comments don't bother any more when it comes to Musk articles.

happytiger 3y ago

Looks like an organized campaign. It’s dramatic and noticeable. Probably state actor related as this site is full of influencers and definitely “on the radar.”

dotnet00 3y ago

Like the other poster, I agree that it's likely just because conversations about him have become so polarized. I also often find myself flagging anything related to Musk, I don't even have anything against him, I just find that most of the discussion tends to be totally unproductive, often full of deliberate lies and misinformation. Not much nuance, usually just a mix of blind fanatics who uncritically eat up the most scifi interpretation of anything he says and people pushing the usual tired, countered talking points or misinfo ("fix earth first", "slaves on Mars", "he shutdown Starlink in Ukraine", "he just bought his way into space" and so on).

guilamu 3y ago
I mostly agree with your comment but "he shutdown Starlink in Ukraine" is misinfo? Musk literally say he did it. How is that misinfo? https://amp.theguardian.com/technology/2023/sep/07/elon-musk-ordered-starlink-turned-off-ukraine-offensive-biography https://amp.theguardian.com/technology/2023/sep/07/elon-musk...
- patd 3y ago
  Your own link says that Walter Isaacson retracted the claim.
- dotnet00 3y ago
  See the note and footnote on that article. They had always had cells over Crimea off, they received a request from Ukraine to enable them, SpaceX refused, likely for liability reasons (as using the Starlink antennas as drone control systems is officially against SpaceX's stated policies, as such use is also not backed by the US government). Isaacson for some reason interpreted that as them shutting it down in response, which got reported as if it were sabotage.
  - harshreality 3y ago
    That's not what Isaacson wrote, and it's not even what Isaacson tweeted to try to diffuse the situation when book excerpts were published. What actually happened, as reported by Isaacson: Elon called Isaacson in a fit one night, worried about how Ukraine seemed to be poised to use starlink to attack Sevastopol (Crimea). Isaacson reports explicitly that Elon, after much dithering, had starlink engineers secretly geofence starlink so it was disabled near Crimea. THEN Ukraine discovered this. As reported by multiple noteworthy people on twitter and elsewhere, Ukraine had previously tested starlink's coverage, they didn't just build drone boats and hope that wherever they sent them, starlink would still work; think about how little sense that would make. THEN Ukraine contacted SpaceX/Elon asking in a panic for starlink to be enabled (re-enabled), and Elon declined. (This is what Isaacson and Elon rely on for all their non-denial denials.) Isaacson's "correction" of the record does not deny that Elon called that night, while "in a state". It doesn't deny that Elon reduced starlink coverage by telling engineers to do that on the down-low. It simply re-states the last thing in that series of events, that starlink was disabled near Crimea, and that Ukraine called to ask SpaceX to turn it on (really, turn it back on) and they declined. Why would Elon have been so concerned about a Ukrainian drone-boat attack on Sevastopol using starlink navigation if such an attack wouldn't work by default? Why would he have communicated at length with Isaacson that night if Elon's narrative is to be believed? It's tough, given all that, for me to see Isaacson's correction as anything other than a lie by omission. If he'd wanted to make a crystal clear correction, he certainly could have done so. He's a veteran journalist. He knows the art of the non-denial denial.

elfbargpt 3y ago

This is one of the few comments that doesn't actually mention Elon at all, not sure why you posted this reply here. The comment is specifically criticizing slow bureaucracy in the US, somewhat independent of anything related to SpaceX / Elon. I think the same comment would apply if it was ULA trying to get a test launch through

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]