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As one of Elon's ex-fan's (or at least had a generally positive opinion of him) like I suspect many of us here once were, it is astonishing how consistently wro

As one of Elon's ex-fan's (or at least had a generally positive opinion of him) like I suspect many of us here once were, it is astonishing how consistently wrong and ignorant he has been, and it has gotten worse year over year. I think there is a legitimate possibility he fried/is frying his brain on Ketamine.

dist-epoch 1y ago
Yet his net worth and political power keep growing (yes, I know about the TSLA stock price). I wish I had a fried brain like his...
alkonaut 1y ago
There are numerous examples of people who appear to be intelligent, witty. Maybe they hid their darker sides (be it some authoritarian, populist, racist or otherwise objectively bad tendency). But they did hide them. But then something seems to change and they quite quickly descend into being very unlikeable. And it's not just always "ideas". It seems to permeate their entire being. The transformation includes going from being "likeable" in a broad sense, to very abrasive personalities even when you factor out their views. It's really scary and depressing. We only notice this in some really high profile cases (Musk, Notch, a few politicians...), but I'm sure there are thousands of less visible people who have done this transformation without anyone noticing but their close friends and family. While I might sound like RFK Jr: I'd really like for someone to go to the bottom of what causes it.
- mariusor 1y ago
  > We only notice this in some really high profile cases (Musk, Notch, a few politicians...) I attribute this to the amplification effect of social media has on the output from these famous people. But at the same time I blame their slide into madness on social media because for both Notch and Musk (and I would also add JK Rowling to this list) it all started with disproportionate amount of genuine hate from well meaning individuals for stating opinions slightly outside the Overton window. I think the "twitter mob" is frankly more to blame than the people themselves, because without it, all three of them would still censor their public outbursts more than they do now after the dams of hate against them have already broken and there's no lower depths they can sink to. That's why I think it's important to be polite even to the assholes.
butlike 1y ago
Does he ACTUALLY take ketamine or is he more on the spectrum anyone will admit?
rsynnott 1y ago
As someone who's never been an Elon fan, nah, he's been fairly consistently confused about basically everything for as long as he's been a public figure, but his fans were willing to turn a blind eye to a certain point, because they found his stuff aesthetically appealing.
- Gud 1y ago
  Not at all. I’ve been following Elon for a long, long time. Since he was the PayPal guy who was going to blow his fortune buying Russian rockets. He was absolutely 100% focused on his ventures back then. His political awakening has been slowly happening over the last 10 years, at least his public persona. There was no “turning a blind eye” when I invested in Tesla when the Dragon capsule first docked with the ISS, in 2012. I figured if this intelligent person can revolutionise the space industry, he can do the same with the car industry. He has absolutely changed.
  - rsynnott 1y ago
    > when I invested in Tesla when the Dragon capsule first docked with the ISS, in 2012 This is what I mean! You invested in a company that made heavy consumer goods because he did a space thing! These are totally unrelated! You liked his aesthetics! 12 years previously to that, well, there was this nonsense: https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-arm-wrestle-paypal-partner-settle-software-argument-book-2023-9 https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-arm-wrestle-paypal... Like, I'm sorry, you can't tell me that's a sensible way to do software engineering.
    - Gud 1y ago
      No, I didn’t like “his aesthetics “. I saw a person capable of doing extraordinary things. He didn’t do “a space thing”. He succeeded in revolutionizing the space industry. FWIW I also invested in BYD around the same time.
    - M3L0NM4N 1y ago
      It is funny to compare things of the magnitude of "arm wrestle to win an argument over an operating system" to the defamatory personal smears, political conspiracy theory peddling, and general stupid and crybaby behavior.

dist-epoch 1y ago

Yet his net worth and political power keep growing (yes, I know about the TSLA stock price). I wish I had a fried brain like his...

alkonaut 1y ago

There are numerous examples of people who appear to be intelligent, witty. Maybe they hid their darker sides (be it some authoritarian, populist, racist or otherwise objectively bad tendency). But they did hide them. But then something seems to change and they quite quickly descend into being very unlikeable. And it's not just always "ideas". It seems to permeate their entire being. The transformation includes going from being "likeable" in a broad sense, to very abrasive personalities even when you factor out their views. It's really scary and depressing. We only notice this in some really high profile cases (Musk, Notch, a few politicians...), but I'm sure there are thousands of less visible people who have done this transformation without anyone noticing but their close friends and family. While I might sound like RFK Jr: I'd really like for someone to go to the bottom of what causes it.

mariusor 1y ago
> We only notice this in some really high profile cases (Musk, Notch, a few politicians...) I attribute this to the amplification effect of social media has on the output from these famous people. But at the same time I blame their slide into madness on social media because for both Notch and Musk (and I would also add JK Rowling to this list) it all started with disproportionate amount of genuine hate from well meaning individuals for stating opinions slightly outside the Overton window. I think the "twitter mob" is frankly more to blame than the people themselves, because without it, all three of them would still censor their public outbursts more than they do now after the dams of hate against them have already broken and there's no lower depths they can sink to. That's why I think it's important to be polite even to the assholes.

butlike 1y ago

Does he ACTUALLY take ketamine or is he more on the spectrum anyone will admit?

rsynnott 1y ago

As someone who's never been an Elon fan, nah, he's been fairly consistently confused about basically everything for as long as he's been a public figure, but his fans were willing to turn a blind eye to a certain point, because they found his stuff aesthetically appealing.

Gud 1y ago
Not at all. I’ve been following Elon for a long, long time. Since he was the PayPal guy who was going to blow his fortune buying Russian rockets. He was absolutely 100% focused on his ventures back then. His political awakening has been slowly happening over the last 10 years, at least his public persona. There was no “turning a blind eye” when I invested in Tesla when the Dragon capsule first docked with the ISS, in 2012. I figured if this intelligent person can revolutionise the space industry, he can do the same with the car industry. He has absolutely changed.
- rsynnott 1y ago
  > when I invested in Tesla when the Dragon capsule first docked with the ISS, in 2012 This is what I mean! You invested in a company that made heavy consumer goods because he did a space thing! These are totally unrelated! You liked his aesthetics! 12 years previously to that, well, there was this nonsense: https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-arm-wrestle-paypal-partner-settle-software-argument-book-2023-9 https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-arm-wrestle-paypal... Like, I'm sorry, you can't tell me that's a sensible way to do software engineering.
  - Gud 1y ago
    No, I didn’t like “his aesthetics “. I saw a person capable of doing extraordinary things. He didn’t do “a space thing”. He succeeded in revolutionizing the space industry. FWIW I also invested in BYD around the same time.
  - M3L0NM4N 1y ago
    It is funny to compare things of the magnitude of "arm wrestle to win an argument over an operating system" to the defamatory personal smears, political conspiracy theory peddling, and general stupid and crybaby behavior.