Is Elon Musk the greatest visionary or the greatest snake oil salesman of our age?

[BigMoaner]

For those still on it, Has the tide turned from him on X? Is he being slaughtered, this time from all angles?

 

[weltweit]

View attachment 457185

Hate to spoil a good poster but Musk did found SpaceX ..

 

[weltweit]

For those still on it, Has the tide turned from him on X? Is he being slaughtered, this time from all angles?

I don't follow Musk on X because if I did my feed would be doomed to extremists ..

 

[HeAthen]

For those still on it, Has the tide turned from him on X? Is he being slaughtered, this time from all angles?

I do hope so.

 

[Cloo]

it's all pretty fascinating. This is Vivek Ramasway, the biotech mogul and DOGE partner with the man baby:

"The reason top tech companies often hire foreign-born & first-generation engineers over 'native' Americans isn't because of an innate American IQ deficit (a lazy & wrong explanation). A key part of it comes down to the c-word: culture," Ramaswamy wrote in his December 26 post.

He added that he knew “multiple sets of immigrant parents in the 90s who actively limited how much their kids could watch those TV shows precisely because they promoted mediocrity … and their kids went on to become wildly successful STEM graduates.”

He added: "A culture that venerates Cory from "Boy Meets World," or Zach & Slater over Screech in "Saved by the Bell," or 'Stefan' over Steve Urkel in "Family Matters," will not produce the best engineers."

Ok - you spent years supporting a "nativist", often outright racist, MAGA campaign, that's primary ideological framework is to be an inward America, and you come out with this toe-curlingly patronising and condensending shite (swap the "nationalities" around by the way, imagine it was a white american saying this on a public stage about Indians) and you don't think it will create an almightly tare in the fabric of all the shite you and your alogrithymic populists have been stoking for years? I thought these tech dudes were supposed to be smart? And remember this is not some liberal reversal - it's just wanting the supply of cheap labour to flood into silicon valley, if it was any other industry and their's wasn't affected, I doubt they'd give a shit.

So what will trump do - go with the overwhelming majority of MAGA's who will disagree with Ramaswamy, or go the other way and inrage them all?

This is just the sort of thing that will happen when your whole campaign is based on spectacle, emotional lunacy, hero worship etc and populist momentum. When it actually comes down to action and decisions then the whole thing gets revealled for what it is - a big fake ball of spinning shite.

What was fucking hilarious about Ramaswamy's rant is that he goes on about (90s) TV shows and 'video games' and 'hanging out at the mall' somehow entirely bypassing smartphones, social media and the entire last 30 years of things we're told make kids useless. Big 'How do you do, fellow school kids?' vibes there.

 

[teqniq]

Wrt to Ramasway, I saw this, which I was not previously aware of:



So just another scam artist then.

 

[Yossarian]

What was fucking hilarious about Ramaswamy's rant is that he goes on about (90s) TV shows and 'video games' and 'hanging out at the mall' somehow entirely bypassing smartphones, social media and the entire last 30 years of things we're told make kids useless. Big 'How do you do, fellow school kids?' vibes there.

Saved by the Bell ended in 1993, when Ramaswamy was eight years old, so I don't know why he's reaching for that as some kind of cultural touchstone, there must have been plenty of shows venerating nerds in the last 30 years

 

[Yossarian]

More movies like Whiplash, fewer reruns of “Friends.”

Ramaswamy isn't even consistent with his sitcom stuff - Friends lore isn't exactly my Mastermind subject, but wasn't the Ross character a nerd with a successful career as a paleontologist?

 

[two sheds]

wasn't the Ross character a nerd with a successful career as a paleontologist?

woke subject

 

[BigMoaner]

What was fucking hilarious about Ramaswamy's rant is that he goes on about (90s) TV shows and 'video games' and 'hanging out at the mall' somehow entirely bypassing smartphones, social media and the entire last 30 years of things we're told make kids useless. Big 'How do you do, fellow school kids?' vibes there.

it also is just the usual "productive/transactional" view of life that so imbedded everywhere. If you're not striving somehow, you're a loser. The last thing these people want is you to waste hours and hours at the mall, hanging out with friends. Nothing 'for itself'.

 

[BigMoaner]

woke subject

ffs are even fossels woke now?

at least christmas wasn't cancelled this year.

 

[BigMoaner]

there's something a bit delightful i have to say about those whose whole grandstand was being the medicine for the "woke mind virus" suddenly getting infected when their bottom lines are under threat.

talk about paint yourself into a dumbass corner

 

[two sheds]

couple of comments on reddit I thought were pertinent. Musk wants highly skilled immigrants (to work for low wages and in inhumane conditions with the threat of their visa being revoked), Trump wants immigrants to work for low wages to mow his lawns.

 

[Nylock]

he’s endoursed a tweet basically calling American workers “retarded”.

America First! Own the Libs on Bro Brogan! America First! Trans Something Or Other! America First!

Sort of. Sometimes.

Bellend.

I do hope the blowback is severe and ideally violent against these oligarch fuckers. Much as I loathe the american right and their carcinogenic politics, seeing them completely lose their shit on these smug carpet-baggers who've totally pulled their masks off would be satisfying. Sadly, I think the cognitive dissonance exhibited by most of these people is so complete, so all-encompassing that they would likely be happy to go along with whatever these rapacious corporate overlords propose -so long as the leader endorses it... =/

Another thing though is when you have someone like Bannon, pretty much a nazi but who is far smarter I believe, esp politically, than musk then nothing will get past him or his alt right legions, so musk if you don’t toe their line to the exact tee then you’re in for a long and probably painful war.

To the seventh circle of hell, the lot of ‘em

Sadly, Musk has that much money that he could have Bannon disappear without trace with no trail leading back to him. He'd never do it ofc because the urge to fuck it all up and splurge it out in a k-addled x-post would be too much for him to resist. He also has enough money to totally buy off Bannon should the need arise. Bannon may come across as some ideological purist but if someone writes him a fatter cheque to ditch his current principles than that grubby little opportunist would sell his own people out in a heartbeat. The only thing I'd give that performatively outraged bloviator any credit for is that he would make the changeover very gradual so as not to rouse suspicion from his income stream, erm I mean, supporters...

Saved by the Bell ended in 1993, when Ramaswamy was eight years old, so I don't know why he's reaching for that as some kind of cultural touchstone, there must have been plenty of shows venerating nerds in the last 30 years

Big Bang Theory immediately comes to mind.

 

[BigMoaner]

They've even gone off him there:

View attachment 457028

morbidly curious - what does the 11/2/10 mean at the top of that post? is it some sort of 4chan lingo?

 

[two sheds]

The need for validation

 

[Ax^]

he been using the alternative account to tell himself that he is a wonderful father

the man has some issues,
seeming as kids run for the hills at the first opportunity

 

[Elpenor]

Numerous PMs comments of support

 

[Kaka Tim]

The need for validation

View attachment 457220

Douglas Murray does this on the spectator facebook page. This clearly fake fb profile of a scantily clad young women called Marsha Renthoul is on there a lot praising his articles to the skys.

 

[krtek a houby]

Sock puppetry from Musk.

Shocked, I tells ye!

 

[Ax^]

maybe its the maybelline, nope it definitely all that ketamine

 

[BigMoaner]

I could be wrong but this really looks like a loose-loose for President Musk and Trump, especially President Musk.

the thing is that there are large portions of Maga that truly want a closed or near closed borders inward state and anything less will be painted as a betrayal. But because President Musk has zero self awareness, he will not see that all his America First! grandstanding to get trump over the line and be the Main Character in general could really be his downfall, the outcome being he is despised by nearly all sides of the political spectrum which fast forward a year I can easily see being the case.

But then because of the world we live in all he will have to do is do the Men with Mikes podcast circuit and rail against gays or trans or something and all will be faithfully restored.

 

[Rob Ray]

If only there were some way we could harness the cringe produced by Elon Musk as an energy source ...

Why Elon Musk changed his X name to 'Kekius Maximus'

Tesla CEO and world's richest man Elon Musk, who is known for his quirky and out-of-the-box antics on social media, has now updated his X (formerly Twitter) account by changing his name. Musk is now known as "Kekius Maximus" on the social media platform and has also replaced his profile picture...

economictimes.indiatimes.com

 

[BigMoaner]

Fantastic interview with post-human feminist philosopher Rosi Braidotti where she uses Musk as a central point to explore her philosophy

 

[Ax^]

 

[BigMoaner]

In the words of Alan Partridge: “Lovely stuff”.

 

[kabbes]

In the words of Alan Partridge: “Lovely stuff”.

Not his words, BigMoaner, the words of Shakin’ Stevens

 

[BigMoaner]

Musk is very partridge like come to think of it.

 

[krtek a houby]

Nah, even Alan has a conscience.

 

[quiet guy]

If only there were some way we could harness the cringe produced by Elon Musk as an energy source ...

Why Elon Musk changed his X name to 'Kekius Maximus'

Tesla CEO and world's richest man Elon Musk, who is known for his quirky and out-of-the-box antics on social media, has now updated his X (formerly Twitter) account by changing his name. Musk is now known as "Kekius Maximus" on the social media platform and has also replaced his profile picture...

economictimes.indiatimes.com

So he's now known as Big Knickers