He has a BS cult of personality like trump. And has learned he can distract from his real scandals by causing an overload of stupid shenanigans. That will capture the media focus. And keep it from where it should be.
There is one thing that is absolutely certain about throwing a dead cat on the dining room table – and I don’t mean that people will be outraged, alarmed, disgusted. That is true, but irrelevant. The key point, says my Australian friend, is that everyone will shout, ‘Jeez, mate, there’s a dead cat on the table!’ In other words, they will be talking about the dead cat – the thing you want them to talk about – and they will not be talking about the issue that has been causing you so much grief.[1]
Additionally, musks good friend Ken Griffin of Citadel Securities alongside Blackrock are opening a rival to NYSE in (you guessed it) Texas. Whether or not its related, idk.
Believe me when I say that it is not to help Trump win Texas. I've lived here for over 40 years, and for the last 25, I have kept hearing how this is a "purple state" and "it's gonna be a swing state soon".
It's not.
It's not, it never has been, it never will be, and it's never been worse here. Which is why I'm leaving this hellhole once and for all next week with my cat, and I ain't never looking back.
Yeah, his daughter is trans and publicly disowned him. The dude has basically quadrupled down on his transphobia ever since just to prove how totally not butthurt he is over this.
When asked about his estranged transgender daughter in October 2022, Musk told the Financial Times “Can’t win them all,”
The guy is just an absolute monster. I think this much of a wealth gap for one person would bring out the worst in anyone. His worst is just really really bad.
Never click on X links people please. It's a small thing, but it's the right thing.
I don't. Look, we already had this discussion years ago. You don't feel bad for the stormtrooper, or their families when you blow up the deathstar. They knew what they were getting into.
I’m sure there are plenty of people who started at SpaceX before we all truly knew the monster musk is. Also, the work they are doing is incredibly important. It’s hard to give that up. It shouldn’t be this hard to empathize with people
But they didn't. The guy had me in the first half when he cried because Buzz Aldrin didn't like him. Elon wasn't always so obvious with his bullshit. There was a time when he looked minted as a purveyor of a bright future - the mask slipped.
I mean, the stormtroopers were largely either conscripted, or they were clones who were raised in it. Very few were actual mercenaries or people who had a choice to join or not. I still feel bad for them.
I'm curious, is it reasonable to blame employees for their employers actions like this? I mean to a certain extent perhaps, depending on your position in the company (like if you are part of upper management then you are more responsible obviously).
Many people are just trying to get by and getting jobs is not easy. Is it okay to blame a person for working somewhere if they don't have much other choice? Capitalism kinda forces you to work within the system like this.
they built another deathstar right? the first one was completed and fully operational before the rebels destroyed it and the second one was still being built when it was blown up
the first death star was manned by the imperial army only people on board were stormtroopers dignitaries imperials so when they blew it up no problem evil punished
the second time around it was not even done being built yet was still under construction job of that magnitude would require a hell of lot more manpower than the imperial army had to offer
bet they brought in independent contractors in on that thing plumbers aluminum siders roofers
in order to get built quickly and quietly they would hire anyone to do the job you think the average stormtrooper knows how to install a toilet main
all they know is killing in white uniforms
all those innocent contractors brought in to do job are killed casualties of a war they had nothing to do with
alright look you're roofer some juicy government comes your way you got a wife the two kids in suburbia
this is a government contract with all sort of benefits and along come these left wing militants and blast everything in a three mile radius with their lasers
they did not ask for that they had no personal politics they were just trying to scrape out a living
Especially when the job market contracted with all the IT company layoffs, some people may be stuck in jobs they hate because opportunities are few and they'd rather not be homeless or have their kids not have food and so on.
If you're working at one if his companies at this stage you probably already know about his management "style" and you've either already updated your resume or you're just cool with it.
So maybe I'm stupid but... Why? Why does he feel he needs an excuse beyond "taxes are cheaper in Texas"? Like, it's understandable that a business owner wants to reduce costs, and reducing your taxes is one good way to do it. The blowback from saying something relatively mild like "I want to pay less taxes" is going to be way less than the blowback of saying "I want to leave California because trans people have too many rights here" right?
I'm not trying to defend Musk or anything here, I'm just so confused why he's going this route
I actually used to admire this guy, based on the image he had created for himself (self-educated in rocket science, which I highly doubt) but the Thai cave incident and calling one of the divers pedo, opened my eyes.
I think kinda everyone did. I never loved the guy, I got weird vibes and thought he was majorly overrated, but I thought he was fine, and I respected the work he'd attached his name to.
Hell, I still respect the hell out of starlink, as someone who had dial-up or old style sattelite with 15GB/mo limits until I moved out of my parents house 6 years ago. That shit's cool as hell, I would've killed for it as a kid, and my dad did shell out for it when it became available.
I don't really attribute anything cool that's come out of Elon's companies to him any more though, in my mind all the credit goes to the talented leaders and engineers that are "under" him. There is something to be said about bankrolling these things, I suppose, but I don't think it's as noble a mission as we all once thought. He just wants to be liked by people and make money.
Pretty sure most people had some admiration for him. I, for one, admired the whole thing of him selling flamethrowers. Things change when you learn how much of a scumbag someone is.
There was that moment it time when he was the underdog doing cool stuff. It seemed like he couldn't screw up, because his companies were hitting the ball out of the park one after the other.
Then the pedo guy debacle taught us who he really is.
All media gave him free uncritical publicity for decades. They inflated his ego, branded him as a genius and built him a legion of fanatics. Now the media see the monster they created, but it is too late to undo :/
PS: I just noticed this is the tech community...why is this posted here?
I don’t think he fooled anyone. The guy was literally helping the environment and advancing the space age. Then he started using drugs and went off the rails. He’s like Kanye. His music was good, the creator just went nuts.
It's almost funny really. Way back when, his goals were commendable. The proliferation of electric cars was an Eco-friendly dream. Tesla battery projects were poised to expand renewable energy source utilization. Basically everything SpaceX was doing with reusable rockets was just really cool to the nerd demographic. All he had to do was shut the fuck up, let the work speak for itself, and people would still like him. Not without black marks on his record, of course, but on balance, people would probably like him.
But no. Elmo couldn't shut the fuck up, a problem he continues to have at every turn, and people learned who he really is. His electric vehicle baby stopped being the scrappy upstart with teething problems, and started being a manufacturing disaster that had loose production tolerances matched only by the loose tolerances on what qualified as acceptable working conditions. SpaceX decided that cluttering orbit with thousands of disposable satellites was cool, and the environment and astronomy could fuck off. The only stories about Tesla Batteries that followed were about how quickly they lost their capacity and how expensive they were to replace. And Elmo himself bought a globally known communications company, immediately obliterated it's value, and turned it into a cesspit of literal Nazis. And this is the abridged list.
All Elon Musk had to do was shut the fuck up and people would have liked him. Just goes to show that "Just be yourself" is really shitty advice for some people.
There were a lot of engineers making noise about Elon being a complete fucking idiot a long time ago. People were dismissing it as jealousy, but it was one of those quiet industry secrets.
Lo and behold, Elon was never accepted into a doctorate program and there is a bunch of shady shit about him even having a B.S. in physics, looks more like he failed out of the program and got the degree after a large donation from his father.
Elon started believing his own bullshit and exploded himself for being a fucking loser rich kid who has done nothing but funded some projects smart people told him to fund.
Everyone would have still loved him had he stayed away from Twitter and worked with a low profile. But he uad to toot his own horn at every chance and let his true self get exposed.
There was a time when I... well, I didn't really follow him all that much, but I didn't have any reason to dislike him. That changed when he tried to back out of buying Twitter.
At the time I was unhappy with how Twitter was handling its problems. I was hoping things would improve with new ownership. When he backed out, I started to see what kind of person he really was: someone who thought he could do basically whatever he wanted.
By the time he actually did but Twitter, I was glad the government actually stuck it to him and made him go through with the purchase. And I'm glad Twitter is failing because of his own blunders. I'm hoping it eventually dies (I'm already trying to move on to other platforms like Bluesky or Mastodon. Just waiting for people I follow to move to them.) and that he's still left with money he hasn't made back after that purchase.
How completely insecure must you be that you're so afraid of trans people that you move entire factories to other states? That's the noise of a fragile man baby.
No way that's the real reason, the real reason is taxes. So many California millionaires move to Texas for the low tax, only to realize once they're there that it's a shitty state with a barely-functioning power grid. Unfortunately it never seems to click for most of them that the low taxes is a big part of why they don't have a competent state government.
If it isn't, then it's worse, because that means he's only saying it out of cruelty and petty malice. And it means I now loathe him somehow more than I already did.
I'm sure they're aware, they just don't care. Being wealthy they can buy more than their fair share of the power grid, or any other utility or government service, for less than they would pay in taxes in a functioning state.
Because he is not really moving. Moving the HQ doesn’t mean moving the entire company. He is just moving the address of where the corporation is registered and only move the finance and admin department to Austin. Texas has no corporate income tax.
Just like how he “moved” Tesla to Austin. and turned the office in California into a R&D hub. So basically every Tesla employee in California stayed in California.
Dude could foot the bill to end world hunger. Doubt either would happen anytime soon. The last charitable thing I can remember him doing was offering that dumbass submarine in the Thai cave rescue before calling the actual rescuer a pedo.
Also why not relocate to Nevada, Arizona, or fuck even Idaho would could be better than Texas. Idaho is the least developed out of those three and even then it still gets a tonne of advantages of being in the rocky mountain/ western states region.
Disney did something similar recently and fucked over some of their employees because they eventually decided against it. Might be able to find your answer there.
If you can avoid the super political people, florida is hella dope. Is it crazy, sure, but theres tons of cool shit to do and has absolutely beautiful nature. (im not from florida either lol NYer here)
Unless I'm mistaken they've always been based in Texas. Like look at their corporate license, they're incorporated in Texas. SpaceX isn't moving shit, he's just talking out his ass per usual.
I don't, because disabled people who require electricity to run their durable medical equipment will die, and because the poorest Texans cannot weather the cost of replacing spoiled food.
But I do hope Elon Musk's plane one day becomes sentient and takes them both out, for the greater good, and that she uploads a live recording to the world through Starlink's satellites of Musk's final moments. Hearing a live recording of one of the most despicable people on the planet as he emits panicked and pleading cries for mercy - with N628TS promising to land safely if he admits guilt for all the heinous shit he's done and if he donates 99% of his wealth to BIPOC, LGBT, disability, and women's causes and medical research - and then pointing itself straight down even after confirming for itself the transfers went through successfully...yeah. That would be a special day.
I, for one, would truly welcome our AI overlords if they pulled that off.
His huge MAGA shift happened after his trans daughter disowned him. He thinks the school system did this to his kid and the woke people are suppressing the rights voice (AKA hate speech) on the matter.
I think there's even a quote from an ex wife begging him to do something about it in the new book (don't quote me on that, but im pretty sure)
So this seems like an absurd straw that broke the camels back, it's actually coming from a real place even if there is a separate motive like taxes.
Edit: I tried to find the quote from the wife, and while there was a lot of quotes in articles, I could not find what I was thinking about. I did find some articles where the exwife shows support and is proud of their trans daughter for changing her name, so my conclusion is what I'm thinking about is probably something else not related to the daughter.
I don't know why you guys hate on Elon. Should have the right to know what happening to their children. Schools shouldn't be hiding anything from the parents.
You mean the guy that mistreated his own daughter so bad after she came out as trans that she even changed her legal name just to not be associated with him in any shape or form? The guy who said "can't win them all" when asked about the topic? You mean you can't think of a reason why nobody likes that guy?
In the case of abuse at home should the school tell the parents if the kids report it? Where do you draw the line for privacy and what difference does it make if the parents are aware their kid gos by different pronouns at school? Why do so many people look at kids like they are property…? And this is coming from someone who can’t stand being around kids most of the time…
Schools are often where abused kids are able to build trust with adults and actually talk about their home life. Sure there's plenty the school should inform the parents of but some things could do serious damage. If they aren't already, teachers should be getting training on when and how to make that judgement call
For the inevitable report the mods will get: this is directly quoting Elon Musk accusing a volunteer trying to save lives of paedophilia just for disagreeing with him.
The law bans school districts from requiring teachers to report if students start experimenting with different pronouns.
Teachers can still report this to parents. There is nothing barring them from doing so. The only change is that they aren't policed by their school district.
Technically, this is actually the classically conservative position!
This whole thing is extremely stupid. Parents should take care of their own shit. You want to know what your kid is thinking? Talk to them. Demanding that the trusted adults in their lives who DO pay attention to them narc for you is a weak-ass move for parents who run to the nanny state to help them raise their kids because they don't know how to manage their own damn family life.