this post was submitted on 23 Jul 2023
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Just like a year ago it was considered an essential part of modern discourse and society. The media was heavily dependent on Twitter. Now, Twitter has lost a lot of influence.
If Elon had simply kept his stupid mouth shut, he wouldn’t have been forced to buy the company, let alone for such a high price. Once purchased, if he had been less of a maniac and just managed Twitter in a boring way that maintained the status quo, then it would still be better off today than it currently is. Everything Elon has done has made the company less valuable and driven away users.
No, once purchased, the problems were already insurmountable. The company was bought on company debt, meaning that it was in deep shit on day 1 of him owning it. It wasn’t profitable before that move, and adding a ton of debt didn’t improve the situation.
All moves Musk did are essentially cost-cutting measures (except for the ones where he's trying to establish it as a social network for Nazis).
Firing 75% of the staff works as cost cutting but is very short-sighted. Acting like an attention-starved “fellow kids!!” edgelord and ruining the Verified program wasn’t cost cutting. And then, his edgelordness led to losing 60-70% of ad revenue, which surely nullified any legitimate cost cutting attempts.
There was a method behind these things, which are the exception I mentioned. He removed the moderation staff, because he wanted to encourage Nazi content on the platform, and moderators are bad for that. The paid verified program meant that only fans of him and Nazis would pay money and thus be verified, so he could legitimately amplify their voice on the platform.
The problem he ran into is that advertisers don't like their ads next to Nazi propaganda, so now revenue is down.
I really don't understand why he doesn't see that Coca-Cola doesn't want their product next to some guy just posting the N-word over and over.
on purpose. by design. with intent.
But what if he’s just a fucking idiot?
Hanlon's razor is reserved for people without a life long rap sheet of blatant malice.
For what it’s worth, I think Elon is both evil and an idiot.
It's possible that Musk is good at some things and not good at others, but his success at those things he's good at have caused him to think he's good at everything.
That’s the Techius Bromus Effect. They get too much smoke blown up their asses that they eventually believe they’re capable of solving every problem.
I made up the term but the idea is true.
If Musk just shut his face and kept doing his thing, he would have been a historic figure. Not Edison or Tesla famous, but like an Alexander Bell tier name sure. Especially if his Mars plans panned out. But dude wanted to be Tony Stark and forgot that Stark was charming and likable (in the movies at least) and he… is not.
Not really. Not by any stretch of the imagination. He's more of a Carnegie type. except Carnegie managed to convince people he was actually a good person. (his philanthropy is responsible for a LOT of the libraries. But also, he came down hard when it came to union busting, and a lot of his dirty work was done by Henry Frick.)
In any case, the reality is, his prior 'good' reputation- including for all things you're saying he's going to be famous for doing- is more the result of having a good PR staff keep him looking ... like that. he's not a founder of Tesla. he's not a brilliant engineer (or a brilliant anything else.) he's just a rich guy tossing money around to make it grow.
I mean, he had a genuinely good reputation prior to the big money and PR back in 2012-ish. I followed him because I love space stuff, and he was this awkward nerd pushing for electric cars, solar power, and reusable rockets, which were so insane it was basically considered impossible. Most of his early twitter conversations were discussing rocket details with other space nerds, pulling videos of RUDs on request, and sharing some of the hidden numbers that we'd normally never have access to. He was genuinely involved in the early years at SpaceX.
Up until he called the guy who saved the cave children a pedo, he was basically held up as one of the individuals who would be responsible for changing the world for the better. An actual example of capitalism being used to push society forward. Then it was a steady downward spiral, but early Elon was basically just a nerd that liked rockets and green tech. Had he stuck in that lane, and not been greedy about squeezing every penny of profit out of Tesla workers, he'd probably still be considered the "real life Iron Man" instead of another classic example of how capitalists are consumed by greed.
So, don't get me wrong, I am deeply disappointed in what he's decided to do with himself, but he was a legitimately popular figure and led SpaceX to face off against the military-industrial space industry and break a monopoly that's been in place for half a century. The myth was exaggerated, but his initial popularity was earned before being wasted.
I'm sorry but only delusional 12 year olds ever believed Muskrat was anything but an attention whore, all of us engineers saw right through the act
Yeah? Then why didn’t all the engineers decry him right then and there? Didn’t see much talk calling him out. Ya’ll just let that shit ride? Especially seeing the popularity he was building?
You ever look at his Hyperloop proposal from 2014?
Its not even an engineering CAD drawing. Its three lolipops drawn on FEA (I don't think even with ANSYS but some cheaper program instead...) with Elon Musk saying that its simulations for an earthquake.
It was hilariously bad. All the engineers I knew of the Hyperloop proposal told me that Elon Musk was an idiot back then.
His Mars plan cannot pan out, no more than using rockets in place of airplanes for international travel.
The man is a compulsive attention seeker. He owns some companies that legitimately are good at what they do, arguably pioneers in their field. It's not enough for him. SpaceX being the leading rocket launcher is not enough for him. Doing something already possible, even if done many times better or cheaper is not flashy enough for him. He needs to go to Mars.
The problem with that is that he is probably going to at least destroy the companies having them chasing his pie in the sky ideas as well as possibly having people die (depending on how far along he manages to take some of his plans).
I thought what he said about his new AI company was hilarious. His new AI company seeks to ‘understand the true nature of the universe’. Just jaw droppingly pretentious, and it is so on-brand for him, as techno-Jesus. Just having a normal AI company isn’t enough - it has to be accomplishing something ridiculous.
There's nothing wrong with SpaceX's Mars launch plan, and while the rocket travel plan is niche (read: ultra rich), it's viable assuming Starship winds up hitting the same reliability levels as airplanes. Course, worst thing that happens is a couple hundred millionaires and billionaires die, so... I see no downsides lol.
Obviously, I'm not gonna defend Elon himself, but sending a Super Heavy to Mars isn't some grand project like it would be for NASA. For one, other than the engines it only takes a couple of months to build a new booster and Starship, and for two it would take a minimum of 6 months for the Starship to reach Mars after launch (from the optimal window), essentially tying up a single Starship. It also tests low gravity propulsive landing, which is being designed for one of the Artemis landers, as well as the fuel conversion process using solar power to convert CO2 into methane rocket fuel. Which would greatly simplify future NASA projects for Mars.
I doubt there would be a NASA mission on an untested launch platform, but the lack of payload is also what makes it so cheap. They might toss some projects as a just in case, but it's otherwise an interplanetary proof of concept. I might hate Elon, but SpaceX is currently the best rocket company around, with the Super Heavy likely to make the Space Launch System obsolete the moment it's certified for government launches.
If you mean launching a rocket to Mars, yes eventually they will be able to do that. That is not what Musk's bullshit. It's a permanent base with people on Mars.
The rocket travel plan is not niche, it's impossible. Sound (environmental) concerns, refueling time cutting into the flight time benefit on turnover, Gs exerted on launch etc. Moreover Musk billed it as a regular service not a "dive to Titanic" kind of activity for billionaires.
It's also impossible to make a rocket as reliable as a plane. If you seriously consider that possible I cannot argue with you on any other point. Just the planes ability to land and maneuver unpowered makes it much more safer and reliable. The nature of it's fuel itself makes it much safer and reliable.
Starship/SuperHeavy is not ready. Engine production rate is a huge problem and they need a lot of them per vehicle. They also currently are unreliable with quite a few failures on the last launch. Some might be a result of the first failing but there were at least two clusters of failure, suggesting at least two independent failures.
So when they get SS/SH working the best thing to do would be to take government contracts, or fly Starlink satellites up if it's profitable. But yeah sending a rocket to Mars for free is exactly the kind of stunt I would expect Musk to do. Like demanding the launch to be on 4/20.
Oh don't be so hard on the idea... I think we should encourage Musk to launch himself and other billionaires to Mars 💪
Unfortunately I don't think he is the guy to actually put himself in harm's way l.
But is he, really? I haven't watched much Marvel but I distinctly remember Tony Stark as a jerk, and that's even dismissing his bullshit ideology of
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yc8qbcIMZVg
That's kinda the point of his character ark. It takes till the end for him to really show us who he is deep down. Also, RDJ nailed the balance of ego and redeeming qualities.
But Elon is not the hero of any story. He's the evil child playing with a magnifying glass on an anthill and he views everyone but him as an ant.
Fuck Elon and I can't wait till the Saudis come to collect on that $44B they loaned him.
Well, this is news to me. The Saudis owning Tesla is definitely going to be a bitter joke.
Saudi Group is the 2nd largest investor in Elon's buyout and the largest single entity investor.
Basically America's billionaire class (aka Elon's alt right clubhouse gang), now are in the pockets on the evil empire with the single worst human ethics record in modern day society.
If that doesn't scare the shit out of you, I don't know what will.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/10/28/saudis-kingdom-holding-company-to-maintain-twitter-stake
I dont understand this sentiment. When Jack Dorsey sold twitter he wanted it delisted so someone could make it more publicly owned. He thought Elon could do that and so it was sold. Its essentially the opposite of what Reddit is trying to do.
If Elon comes in amd says "this company needs to change or else it wont survive" i would believe that. People are essentially mad that the company doesnt have investor funding.
Sorry, you believe what Elon Musk says about anything at this point?
Dorsey sold Twitter for a reason. It wasmt money. You tell me why he thought Elon was the best option
Why wasn't it money? Are you saying he isn't a greedy billionaire like all of the other tech CEOs?
Twitter wasnt profitable and had net losses as it was losing hundreds of millions a year. Dorsey wanted to make twitter profitable while making it more inclusive and trusted. At the time he saw Elon as the best leader based on how he had led Tesla.
Dorsey only held about 2% of the company. The only winners on that sale were the investors. All i was trying to say is if Elon had done nothing, the only winners would have been investors.
You are implying that Dorsey picked Musk to take over Twitter. He didn't. Musk tried to do a pump-and-dump like he always does and he fucked around and found out. He even tried to back out of buying it. You're basically telling me to ignore the whole history of the lead-up to Musk's purchase in exchange for some conspiracy theory involving Jack Dorsey that doesn't even make sense.