3 ms·
The issue isn't whether he's making an ass of himself, he certainly does that anytime he gets a platform to speak on regarding general topics. I think everybody
by adventured 3y ago
The issue isn't whether he's making an ass of himself, he certainly does that anytime he gets a platform to speak on regarding general topics. I think everybody knows he does that at this point. So what.
Why should I care if Musk makes a fool of himself when trying to talk about anything outside his competency? Why would I become emotionally charged about such a meaningless topic? His detractors do, they can't control themselves. It's because they now view him as someone to fight with in the forever culture war; they previously viewed him overwhelmingly as an ally, prior to the Trump years.
At issue is whether people can be rational enough to control their emotions and separate out Musk's obnoxious personality, the way he broadcasts it often, from the factual reality of his accomplishments.
The need of his detractors to strip him of all accomplishment, is plainly pathetic. It's easy to recognize both good and bad in regards to the life of a person, without lying and pretending someone like Musk is just all bad/negatives (terrible person, zero accomplishments - that's the detractor position).
They view him as a political and cultural opponent (to one degree or another). If you're their opponent, you must be entirely destroyed (not partially, entirely). Since we live in a culture of extremes in terms of politics / partisanship. Their opponents can have no good qualities, no positives, they're all nazis across the board.
George W Bush garners a lot more sympathy/ respect from the same exact people than Musk does. The guy that launched a war with Iraq that got hundreds of thousands of people killed in the following civil war, he's more likable than Musk per their views. That's the insanity we're dealing with. Because Michelle Obama likes Bush, and Ellen Degeneres likes Bush, the Clintons built a rapport with the Bush family, so golly gee he can't be all bad, tee hee, it's so cute how he paints and stuff. The same people called Bush a nazi while he was in office. It's because he's no longer viewed as part of the culture war, they called off the attack.
- hughesjj 3y agoNot everyone who hates musk Hates him because of the 'cultural war'. Personally my turning point was the pedophile comments levied against the diver who rescued those kids trapped in that cave combined with him repeatedly lying to pump TSLA stock and ever thinking the boring company was an idea he could execute on. That said, I've seen no evidence that he's contributed more than funding and hype for his companies. Perhaps that's enough for some people to call him a genius, and I suppose in those domains he is, but everything I've seen w.r.t his engineering indicates to me that he's an idiot. That wouldn't be a problem we're it not for him giving out bad engineering takes everywhere, but I digress. @ George Bush, I'd definitely want to include his pushing common core, banning government funds for stem cell research, tax cuts, financial deregulation, waterboarding, and making Dick Cheney his VP on his list of failures
- kiba 3y agoIf all Musk is good for is for hype and funding, there's a dime a dozen entrepreneurs who would have done the same thing as him and be equally as successful and make himself less of an ass. I evaluated him as a person who inserted himself and made engineering decisions for good or ill and the result speaks for themselves. Now, whether or not we agree if Musk is good at engineering is beside my point. We should hold our entrepreneurs to higher standard, and not excuse their shitty behaviors.