this post was submitted on 24 Aug 2024
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Another one bites the dust.
I admit it, I once assumed Elon was a genius.
(events happen)
Okay, not a genius, but a good businessman.
(events happen)
Okay, a bad businessman, a good PR person.
(events happen)
Okay, a bad PR person, but not a Nazi.
(events happen)
Well fuck, he's a Nazi supporting conspiracy theorist.
God damn, if I was that wrong about one person. I'm just gonna stop having opinions about famous people. It's all smoke and mirrors.
There was a time where Elon Musk (EM) was pretty much a nerd darling. The real life Tony Stark.
I don't know where you are, but in the UK the positive image dropped quite quickly once he called a British cave diver a pedophile over the remarks said cave diver (Vernon Unsworth) said that EM offering his small submarine to help the Thai cave boys was a "PR stunt" and also to "stick his submarine where it hurts" (link). Admittedly the latter was harsh words, but to then go ahead and call a British person in Thailand a pedophile (obviously referencing Gary Glitter) was incredibly childish, petty, and virtually made a lot of Brits distrust EM as well as see him for who he really was from the online tantrum.
I do feel sorry for those who have been suckered into thinking EM isn't some narcissistic arsehole, although the number is dwindling (a personal highlight was when he got booed after Dave Chappelle introduced him to his audience in San Fransisco)
I'll admit to assuming he must be kind of a cool nerd for naming some of his SpaceX things after Culture ships (from Iain M. Banks' novels), but now I feel sullied by association from having enjoyed the same books.
Same with the Hitchhikers stunt.
His personal LLC is called "Excession", considering some of the plot points in that book I doubt he enjoyed it at all, it's just "nerd set dressing".
If you were from California you probably knew he was full of shit because he duped the state out of a bullet train, promising the Hyperloop like from Futurama.
Of course the Hyperloop got voted for and nothing ever came of it because if it is possible, Elon would not be part of finding that out.
On the bright sight, he also promised Saudi Arabia to build a Hyperloop, also for The Line city in Neom, that's turning out to be a great way to syphon SA's oil sales state fund.
But seriously, a Hyperloop would work best on Mars, where the pressure differential would be minimal, while a tube would keep the dust out. Elon's master plan is still to build a Mars colony with indentured servants under threat of no air. On the way, he's scamming whoever it takes, and getting any investment or benefit he can land.
hyper means fast and loop means circle
and that concludes our intensive three-week course.
I've recently got suckered into a group that turned out to consider calling people "narcissistic" is an "ableist slur... because narcissism is a disability".
EM is still kind of a real life Tony Stark, the character is not exactly an altruistic philanthropist either.
that still feels like a massive insult to tony stark, like stark did quite specifically save the universe didn't he? pretty sure he's supposed to be the quintessential hero who is very much imperfect but still ultimatly does good.
It's wild how much he's done to piss on his own legacy. Just a few short years ago he was considered a quirky visionary.
Not anymore, but it's not like anyone will ever be honest with him to his face, which must be really nice.
In 2017 his name was mentioned as a visionary comparable to the Wright Brothers and Zefram Cochrane (inventor of the warp drive) on a Star Trek episode set in the 2250s. It felt at the time that this line risked dating the episode but I don't think anyone could have expected just how much he would go on trash his own reputation.
The only thing that saves this line is that we found out a few episodes later that the character who spoke it secretly came from the Mirror Universe - where he grew up Musk's embrace of Nazism was probably seen as a virtue.
At the time it was just an ad-lib by Jason Issacs, guessing he wished on a monkey's paw for it to make sense in context.
By a character who was explicitly evil and whose judgement we were not meant to trust, though
Yes - that was the next sentence I wrote?
Ah, I managed to completely miss the last part of that comment because I'm an eejit who can't read good
In the, admittedly terrible, movie Moonfall (2022) they use his tech and one of the main characters keeps saying things like "God I love Elon". I guess it was under development in years previous but we long knew that he was a babyish edgelord (see behaviour over the rescue of the Thai soccer team in 2018).
Seems shortsighted to make him such a focus.
i don't get why they'd do stuff like that in general, you just.. don't fucking refer to living people in media that's set in the future lol, precisely for this reason!
it's also kind of cringey to talking about currently living people because it feels like such a cheap grab at being relatable, "ooooo we're talking about [person who is currently popular], that's right, someone from your specific time period is relevant in the future!"
the one way you can do it in a decent way is to have it be an offhand remark, and even then you better be quite certain that they're not going to suddenly start lighting orphanages on fire 5 years after everyone's seen your production.
Remember the flamethrower? This thing looked like actual fun. Even the name was/is hilarious
I do.
The only product of his I wish I'd bought.
I can't make the lyrics fit the tune ☹️
All people have to do is keep their mouth shut and people will create a positive image for them. So many open their mouth and then break the illusion showing how unhinged they are.
Yeah it's a weird thing about parasocial relationships. You like someone based on things you've seen about them on TV and then you start feeling like you know them. But really, nope you don't.
I think it's fine to like famous people, but just understand that you don't really know them. If you later find out they're a horrible person well then don't like them anymore and it's no big deal. You only like the things you know about the person, but if you avoid going down the road of feeling like you really know them, it's fine.
I think he was at the very least rather gifted in some ways. Then his brain declined and then declined again and again. Substances + alcohol + covid fog + aging?