Stephen Fry released a statement: "Elon Musk is not a Nazi. Nazis make really good cars."
Stephen Fry released a statement: "Elon Musk is not a Nazi. Nazis make really good cars."
What's great about this, and Stephen Fry is brilliant, is not that he's absolving Musk, or that he's criticizing Tesla, but that it is an argument likely leading to Elon Musk protesting,
'No, my cars are good enough that I can be a Nazi!'
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I would describe Elon Musk as an autistic adult whose weird behavior patterns and way too much money are dangerous in a system that gives money way too much power.
edit: just to be clear to the angry arrow smashers, I'm not offering excuses, rationalizations or support for Elon Musk, just a purely clinical view of his behavior, and why it's so dangerous that our system gives so much power to money. Without the influence his billions give him he would be just another annoying weird guy. Some people would probably even feel some sympathy for him if it didn't carry the risk of being called Evil.
Autism =/= fascism or even being an insensitive moron. Autistic people are often highly sensitive to such topics.
You're painting autistic people in a bad light. There is nothing about autism that excuses such behavior.
There's also no reason to take anything I said as an "excuse".
His potential neurodivergence does not excuse the evil. The majority of autistic people comprehend morality.
I don't think he's trying to excuse it. I think he's saying you'd view an autistic Nazi walmart greeter more differently than you'd view an autistic Nazi whose already the wealthiest man in the world, and society's values are letting that wealth have a huge platform and allowing him to basically run the country unilaterally.
An autistic Nazi plebian doesn't have that kind of influence. Many people would probably pity them. An autistic Nazi being given the world is probably a bad thing.
Yeah I guess we're not allowed to talk about this guy clinically at all. Has to be about good vs evil.
You want to argue that armchair psychology is more important in this situation than condemning doing a Nazi salute?
Armchair psychology and armchair political rants are both armchair activities., so neither is more important, and they can both happen at the same time.
It's just interesting that all statements about <bad guy du jour> are considered support if they aren't condemnation. If you said Bill Cosby used to do funny standup for example, you would be flooded with hate because the only acceptable reason to mention Cosby is condemn him for being horrible. But understanding the psychology of horrible people is actually important. Think how it would be if you got a rectal disease and it turned out there was no cure because assholes are gross so nobody studies them and anybody who mentions them except to rant about how disgusting they are gets pounded with douchevotes and called a pervert. Objective talk about aspects of sociopaths should be okay. Don't be the Christian who clutches their rosary every time somebody says "Satan".
Not a lot of normies can hyperfocus enough to become billionaires
I think extreme wealth is a matter of luck. Lots of equally clever, equally hardworking people succeed moderately, but extreme wealth and success are a perfect storm of timing, economics, and a lot of other things that nobody controls.
Where did you get your degree in psychology? How much experience have you had evaluating autistic people?
Your Honor, I move that this is not a courtroom, you and I are just ordinary people sharing our opinions.
Your opinions are offensive and it's really disturbing that you have yet to realize that when everyone is telling you that.
Or maybe you don't care if you offend autistic people and those who love them.
Either way, it doesn't speak highly of you.
Personal attacks are uncalled for. If you're autistic I would appreciate knowing in what way I have offended you. I think what the douchevoters are telling me is that on subjects where they feel strongly hateful they see anyone who doesn't join the chorus as The Enemy. I actually don't like Elon Musk. When he entered the public eye I thought he was a visionary out of a sci fi story, proposing to launch gleaming old-school rocket ships to Mars. I've seen his trajectory veer from that and, in crude terms, "go psycho". On a personal level I think he's sad case, and on a political level he's very dangerous due to his vast wealth. His main role in history could be to demonstrate the dangers of unlimited wealth, just as Trump's might ultimately be to demonstrate the dangers of dumbing down a population of voters. People who insist on seeing a binary world full of only Good People and Horrible People are meme-level thinkers who also illustrate that last point.
You have offended every autistic person by thinking you can both diagnose autism from a distance and that you personally have that ability.
What other medical issues do you think you personally can "clinically" diagnose in someone without ever talking to them? What gives you the tools or knowledge to do so? You apparently have no professional training in the field.
Of course you pretending to be a doctor and diagnosing people is offensive. I imagine you wouldn't dream of doing that with, for example, HIV just because someone has certain mannerisms. And the fact that you don't understand that is pretty fucking wild.
I would describe the wealthiest person in the world, Elon Musk, as the oligarchic son of an apartheid mining oligarch. His personality “quirks” are an irrelevant distraction that excuse & explain nothing.
It's worse than that, in my opinion. It's ableism. Leaving behind the fact that we only have his word to go on that he has "Asperger's Syndrome," people with high-functioning ASD do not have a problem telling right from wrong. ASD does not make you racist and it sure as fuck doesn't make you throw a Nazi salute without knowing exactly what that means.
And the fact that he has yet to say he didn't throw a Nazi salute doesn't even seem to faze such people.
I've autistic friend, she's not a nazi. He's just a cruel and rich sociopath.
I would say your friend's actions need to be watched and controlled because they're dangerous, and that the friend as a person needs help.
He has never been diagnosed with autism. In fact, he claims to have Asperger's Syndrome, which was a diagnosis for high-functioning people on the Autistic spectrum invented by a Nazi. And he uses that claim as an excuse for his awful behavior.
If you are an actual clinician, it is absolutely unethical to diagnose someone with autism that way.
And if you were an actual clinician, you would know that no amount of "weird behavior patterns" have anything to do with embracing fascism, being a bigot, and throwing a fucking Nazi salute. And the suggestion that people would sympathize with someone who does that who isn't rich because they claim to have autism says a lot more about you than it does anyone else.
I used the term autism because it's the term used by my wife, a special ed professional for 40 years who has gone out of her way to study brain development and all kinds of disorders. According to her Musk is autistic, regardless of whether he's been diagnosed. People keep using the word "excuse" - apparently it's not okay to wonder WHY people do evil things. It reminds me of people who only want to throw drug addicts in prison and not think about what causes addiction.
A "special ed professional" is not able to diagnose autism from a distance any more than anyone else.
And yes, saying "he is autistic" to explain why he does something atrocious is an excuse.
And yet I'm not excusing his actions. He's an adult and he's fully responsible for everything he says and does. I just don't hate him, I think his fall from "Let's colonize Mars" to sucking Trump's dick and being a danger to society is a sad tale. I also feel sad that people can't even regard him as a human being - that's the exact mentality that eventually lets the government throw people into gas chambers.
And yet you're still diagnosing someone with autism from a distance, which is not possible.
Until you figure that out, nothing you say is defensible.