Post #2520734
2026-01-15 10:13 UTC
Replies (10)
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@jaybone@lemmy.zip 2026-01-15 10:31
Yeah he had quite a few people in the geek / tech world that liked him or at least were indifferent. Then he started losing his shit quickly followed by getting all MAGA political. He probably would have been happier had he not gone all Nazi, or if he always was that way, at least kept it to himself. Now he is sad everyone hates him lol.
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@arctanthrope@lemmy.world 2026-01-15 11:41
one of the most retroactively embarrassing moments in my life is in like 2015 or '16 I was doing some dumb team-building thing for some school-adjacent activity, and the task was to create a "new Mount Rushmore," basically as a group nominate four people who are doing good and important work in the world. I suggested musk. at the time most people there hadn't heard of him, so I gave a little spiel about how he was the "founder" (which I thought was true at the time) of PayPal, Tesla (which people were just becoming aware of), and SpaceX. every time I remember it I cringe and hope nobody else does. although most other people in the group suggested Beyonce as someone doing "important work for humanity" so idk if they have much of a leg to stand on to criticize my choice
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@glitchdx@lemmy.world 2026-01-15 16:20
Yeah, and all he had to do to maintain that image was keep his mouth shut and let the pr people talk for him, but no that wasn't good enough for his ego.
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@saimen@feddit.org 2026-01-15 14:48
The rumor is he had PR people (which he fired at some point) probably doing stuff like this for him with exactly this goal to make him look like Tony Stark or a pretty cool dude who wants to advance science.
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@sunbrrnslapper@lemmy.world 2026-01-15 13:25
I think of him more like the next John McAfee.
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@ImmersiveMatthew@sh.itjust.works 2026-01-16 02:21
Tony Stark made his money primarily by inheriting and then massively expanding his father’s defense technology company, Stark Industries. You do not become the biggest weapon manufacturer in the world by not being a psychopath/sociopath so while the movies held up Tony as a genius, he like Elon is a genius at exploiting others and not really a genius at inventing new tech. I wish more people saw through it.
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@snooggums@piefed.world 2026-01-15 12:44
Musk thinks he is Tony Stark but he is really Justin Hammer.
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@tamal3@lemmy.world 2026-01-15 23:51
A really amazing sixth grade math teacher I worked with had a life-size poster of Elon Musk taped to the back of her door 10 years ago. Not so much these days.....
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@SlurpingPus@lemmy.world 2026-01-16 11:39
Back in the day I've listened to him at some panel gathering, about AI. And heard nothing that wasn't already said by sci-fi writers and tech thinkers. So his ‘genius’ anyways eluded me, while him being the moneybag raised suspicions. Hearing that he was in PayPal immediately put everything in place, because that company was known for decades for freezing people's accounts on random pretext and keeping the money.
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@CaptPretentious@lemmy.world 2026-01-17 04:30
I remember when I first heard about him, knew nothing about him. Just some guy who owned Tesla who was open-sourcing some EV tech. That sounded great! That's about when it all fell apart. I learned who he was. Fired for incompetence. Fumbles basic questions (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HE_xHVYwHw8 tldr, guy asks about maglev and airbearings and Elon stumbles around a while to say... "wheels" 🤦♂️). He's not now, nor has he ever been a genius. I genuinely don't think he's even smart by any standard. I think he's just rich and that's it. I remember watching videos about Hyperloop, and the engineering behind it was painfully obvious how unsafe it was going to be, and somewhere between impossible and impractical to build/maintain. Like, that idea only works on paper, or in Sci-Fi. The test track they built rusted out and was poorly secured. And it rusted out largely, because the engineers didn't account for the water in the cement or something... Or the Boring company. It could have been the best company if it were just called the Boring company but sold cool shit, like the flamethrower. I get the real reason behind it was to stop some public transit project, blah blah, I know, I get it, I've seen and heard it a million times. But the proposed idea he gave, the fact anyone looked at it, at him and was like "Yeah, this seem even remotely possible and definitely not a bat-shit crazy idea" astounds me. At best, it was a worse version of every single subway system ever invented anywhere on earth. At worse, a giant death trap machine that would make the Final Destination movies look tame. I've riden on many planes, trains, and automobiles. And the only time I've ever felt really unsafe was in a Tesla. Poorly built, poorly designed. Yet people keep buying them. You have mechanics saying their a POS, you have tech folk saying it's a POS, you have the news showing you it's a POS. I don't understand. Hell, he's made so many claims that just haven't happened. Vehicles that he said were coming out, "next year"... Explaining Elon to people, it's like explaining why "Solar freaking roadways" doesn't work and is a stupid fucking idea.