Elon Musk: Always A Douche

[Barrister]

Also, prerequisite,  "we need 50 more".

I didn't say it at the time, but I felt the same way - at the time.

That was several years ago.  Things have changed.

I just don't understand Musk.  You're a massive government contractor - both from SpaceX, but also electric vehicle credits.  You have to know that Democrats will come back into power some day.  What possible benefit is there to becoming to nakedly partisan?

[Zanza]

Also, prerequisite,  "we need 50 more".

I didn't say it at the time, but I felt the same way - at the time.

That was several years ago.  Things have changed.

I just don't understand Musk.  You're a massive government contractor - both from SpaceX, but also electric vehicle credits.  You have to know that Democrats will come back into power some day.  What possible benefit is there to becoming to nakedly partisan?

Maybe he was always a fascist and could just hide it better before? Or he changed his mind. Anyway, he seems to be a true believer, not just an opportunistic sycophant like Zuckerberg.

[Barrister]

Maybe he was always a fascist and could just hide it better before? Or he changed his mind. Anyway, he seems to be a true believer, not just an opportunistic sycophant like Zuckerberg.

Yes, whatever else you can say, Musk is definitely a true believer.

[Grey Fox]

Also, prerequisite,  "we need 50 more".

I didn't say it at the time, but I felt the same way - at the time.

That was several years ago.  Things have changed.

I just don't understand Musk.  You're a massive government contractor - both from SpaceX, but also electric vehicle credits.  You have to know that Democrats will come back into power some day.  What possible benefit is there to becoming to nakedly partisan?

Maybe he was always a fascist and could just hide it better before? Or he changed his mind. Anyway, he seems to be a true believer, not just an opportunistic sycophant like Zuckerberg.

Watchout. While Musk can't be President, Zuckerberg can. They are not high but also not 0 that the next Republican candidate is Zuckerberg.

[Barrister]

Watchout. While Musk can't be President, Zuckerberg can. They are not high but also not 0 that the next Republican candidate is Zuckerberg.

There is 0 chance that assberger asshole could be the GOP nominee.

Say what you will about Trump, but he has a certain weird "rizz" (as the kids would say).  Zuck has none at all.

[Grey Fox]

I think he's going to spend the next 4 years being Musk's beard.

[PJL]

I think he's going to spend the next 4 years being Musk's beard.

It was telling that the cartoon that got 'banned', that Musk was not one of the people at Trump's feet,.

[Solmyr]

So this is how democracy dies. With thunderous applause, and a cringe tech bro doing a nazi salute.

[Sheilbh]

I just don't understand Musk.  You're a massive government contractor - both from SpaceX, but also electric vehicle credits.  You have to know that Democrats will come back into power some day.  What possible benefit is there to becoming to nakedly partisan?

To what extent is NASA and American energy transition dependent on Musk? My understanding is that NASA is very reliant on SpaceX. I think there's similar issues with Starlink as an aspect of foreign policy.

There is a solution - nationalisation - not sure that's got a chance though (and worth noting that the US state's reliance on Musk was something that started under Obama because the goals aligned and it was an affordable public-private partnership way of achieving policy goals like transition to EVs, with an American company).

There's something of Perot about it because he was also a tech guy (Electronic Data Systems!) who also had huge amounts of state contracts which in a weird way he leveraged into politics rather than it preventing him from getting involved.

[Legbiter]

I just don't understand Musk.  You're a massive government contractor - both from SpaceX, but also electric vehicle credits.  You have to know that Democrats will come back into power some day.  What possible benefit is there to becoming to nakedly partisan?

Is the 4chan troll LARP the highest amount of fun you can have once you're far enough up Maslow's hierarchy? The first billion kicks in and all revealed preferences manifest? The Biden admin snubbing him and him subsequently going all in and ripping their heads off is sort of impressive now with sufficient hindsight.  Maybe he'll go invade Parthia after Mars.

[garbon]

I saw between issues with links for non-users/logged in and his nazi salute, many reddit communities are starting to enact bans around linking to twitter.

[HisMajestyBOB]

Posting on or linking to Twitter should be viewed the same way as posting on or linking to Stormfront.

[Tamas]

Posting on or linking to Twitter should be viewed the same way as posting on or linking to Stormfront.

Indeed. It reflects very bad on press people (be it journos or company/politician press people) that they have been too lazy to leave Twitter.

[Barrister]

I just don't understand Musk.  You're a massive government contractor - both from SpaceX, but also electric vehicle credits.  You have to know that Democrats will come back into power some day.  What possible benefit is there to becoming to nakedly partisan?

To what extent is NASA and American energy transition dependent on Musk? My understanding is that NASA is very reliant on SpaceX. I think there's similar issues with Starlink as an aspect of foreign policy.

There is a solution - nationalisation - not sure that's got a chance though (and worth noting that the US state's reliance on Musk was something that started under Obama because the goals aligned and it was an affordable public-private partnership way of achieving policy goals like transition to EVs, with an American company).

There's something of Perot about it because he was also a tech guy (Electronic Data Systems!) who also had huge amounts of state contracts which in a weird way he leveraged into politics rather than it preventing him from getting involved.

NASA?

It's always open to the US government to say "screw it, not interested".  Not that I think the US government will just zero out NASA funding, but sending probes to Mars or a new lunar mission are certainly not anything required.  The US now, sadly, has a long history of mostly ignoring space travel.  They could continue in that trajectory.

As for electric vehicles - Tesla made it's mark back when electric vehicles were a crazy novelty.  Tesla's competition was the GM EV 1 of the Nissan Leaf, both of which had horrendous battery life and struggled to find any market share.  Tesla had success in making EVs that had useable battery life, and were even kind of luxurious.

Nowadays though, all the legacy auto makers have made advancements in EVs.  Now Tesla still has an advantage in that market - largely due to its first-mover mindshare plus it's charging network - but it's nothing guaranteed.

[Valmy]

Tesla made EVs cool. And Musk had a big role in that. That is his big achievement that I can see. And at the time I thought the fact he was going out and getting things done that needed to be done that the governments couldn't or wouldn't do was great and I mistakenly thought he was staying out of the corrupt political nonsense. So I thought he was cool. But...that all turned out to be very much bullshit and I was mistaken. But I still think he made EVs cool so good for him in doing that.

However, the harm he is now doing to fighting climate change and advancing scientific causes very much overwhelms whatever good he might have achieved. Unfortunately.

It does kind of baffles my brain that having a decent EV company and doing some space stuff makes you this rich but if I knew how to be super rich I wouldn't be sitting here chatting with you dudes.