• ceenote@lemmy.world
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    6 days ago

    Nobody has done more to disprove the “Rich people are smarter than everyone else” idea.

    • 9point6@lemmy.world
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      6 days ago

      Remember a decade ago when he was being lauded as our time’s Einstein?

      … Hahahahahahaha

      • alekwithak@lemmy.world
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        6 days ago

        Yeah by his own PR team, mostly, but it was a pretty easy fascade to see through when you actually listened to the man speak. Still don’t forgive Dan Harmon for letting him shit on R&M with the eLoN tUsK bullshit. Or Star Trek Discovery for that matter, which happened much later after he had already shown his true face to the world. I know Harmon got paid because he’s talked about it, but I would really like to know how much he spent on getting a passing reference in the least popular ST show of all time.

        • SatyrSack@lemmy.sdf.org
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          I would really like to know how much he spent on getting a passing reference in the least popular ST show of all time.

          From what I have heard, that part of the line was not even scripted. The actor ad libbed it in hopes that it might lead to him being gifted a free Tesla vehicle.

          EDIT: There was also the completely unrelated reference in a later episode, in which a character mentioned having gone to Musk Junior High School. That may have been a paid reference.

            • QueenHawlSera@sh.itjust.works
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              5 days ago

              My head canon is that in universe Musk Jr. High isn’t a real school and it’s just an edgy joke… the space version of saying you went to the “Adolf Hitler School for Tolerance and Friendship”

              You say it for a laugh when you’re 14 or acting like it on Space 4Chan

        • Cruxifux@feddit.nl
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          6 days ago

          Yeah I realized it as soon as I heard him on Joe Rogan. I was like “oh, this guy is actually not a super genius at all.”

          Now I think he’s kind of a moron actually.

          • QueenHawlSera@sh.itjust.works
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            6 days ago

            I knew it was a grift from the start because people who are kind and wise don’t spend millions purely to make sure I know how kind and wise they are.

        • dohpaz42@lemmy.world
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          6 days ago

          There was also an episode of Young Sheldon where Sheldon had sent equations for reusable rockets to NASA, and at the end of the episode it showed Elon buying the equations from NASA.

          • ReallyActuallyFrankenstein@lemmynsfw.com
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            6 days ago

            He was also in South Park, and Rick & Morty. He had a great PR team considering what they were working with behind the scenes. They dressed him up real nice.

            Then he fired them, because he didn’t like having to wear anything in public. Metaphorically-speaking.

        • QueenHawlSera@sh.itjust.works
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          6 days ago

          A friend of mine has head canoned that the guy from Star Trek was joking about being from Elon Musk University and that it’s the old “Adolf Hitler School for Friendship and Tolerance” gag but in space.

          I’m just gonna go with that because fuck it’s the equivalent of listing Deepak Chopra as one of the greatest philosophers of the 21st century in your hard sci-fi setting.

      • QueenHawlSera@sh.itjust.works
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        6 days ago

        And I am proud to have called bullshit on it from day one.

        Whoever leads us to the promised land isn’t going to have a for profit LLC

        • skisnow@lemmy.ca
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          5 days ago

          Well done. I’m like most people in that I didn’t spot it until he started talking about a subject I knew about. The first Tesla Roadster looked amazing1, and then the hyperloop sounded like a cool idea2, and then oh wait what’s he saying about software development now?

          1 because its body was made by Lotus

          2 except it doesn’t work

          • QueenHawlSera@sh.itjust.works
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            It wasn’t anything specific, it’s just… the idea of this guy being the real life Tony Stark didn’t pass the smell test. Not because he didn’t seem bright, but because I couldn’t believe ANYONE lived up to the hype that Elon had.

            That and… well… the idea of the Private Corporation coming to save the day and guide us into a Utopia sounded way too much like a Libertarian Fantasy.

          • Blackmist@feddit.uk
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            5 days ago

            Yeah, he’s like LLMs in that regard. Sounds plausible until it’s a subject you don’t have much knowledge of, then suddenly turns into a dribbling twat when it’s one you do understand.

            Then you realise he was an idiot all along.

    • GeeDubHayduke@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      6 days ago

      Literally had someone saying that earlier today. Something along the lines of “you don’t become the richest person in the world without some competency.” Just ignore the fact he started on third base…

      • QueenHawlSera@sh.itjust.works
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        6 days ago

        Not even. He started on home, he just claimed he ran there and for some reason people believed him even though he still had a bat in his hand.

        Elon has had “Penisdick” written all over him since day one

      • jacksilver@lemmy.world
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        5 days ago

        I mean, yeah he had a lot of advantage, but he did have to do something right to become the richest man. But making some good gambles doesn’t make you a good person nor does it mean you’re great at everything.

        Maybe he was good at finding companies at the right time to invest, but that means jack about any economic or political acumen. Same reason why we don’t want businessmen in politics, being good at one thing does not mean you’re good at everything.

      • Ilovethebomb@lemm.ee
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        6 days ago

        I don’t know exactly how much his parents were worth, but his net worth has increased by many thousands of times. That’s not “third base”, saying he got where he is by luck and nepotism is just wilfully ignorant.

        Trump, on the other hand, would have done better if he just left his money in a savings account.

        • conditional_soup@lemm.ee
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          6 days ago

          I dunno, man, we could probably get into an entire dissertation about this, but I’m not totally convinced that most of these fabulously wealthy people didn’t just fail upwards by throwing the spaghetti plate at the wall; the only difference between them and us is that, often, they start with a lot more spaghetti to throw

          • Ilovethebomb@lemm.ee
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            6 days ago

            Pretty much all of the three digit billions crowd are in tech of some description. There’s definitely an element of being in the right place at the right time, but there’s also a lot of business skills as well.

            A lot of their success seems to be recognising an opportunity before anyone else, whether that’s luck or skill is difficult to know.

            • skisnow@lemmy.ca
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              5 days ago

              A lot of their success seems to be recognising an opportunity before anyone else

              Pretty much everyone in the world has at some point in their lives had some idea or spotted some gap in the market that could be a successful product, but 99% of us don’t get to act on that because the rent is due and will be due again next month.

    • Ilovethebomb@lemm.ee
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      6 days ago

      I genuinely think he’s had some sort of cognitive decline.

      He went from being merely wealthy to the richest man in the world, and nearly everyone thinking he’s a genius, to being hated by nearly everyone and losing money fast.

      • naeap@sopuli.xyz
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        6 days ago

        Think is, he never was a genius - actually quite far off from it

        He is just a spoiled boy having luck with gambling the money he got

      • kautau@lemmy.world
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        6 days ago

        Generally the truly smartest people (the ones who actually figure out spaceflight, electric vehicles, satellite internet) aren’t the wealthiest. Sure many of them end up pretty wealthy due to stock options, high salaries, companies competing for them and the like. But often at the end of the day they just retire into their wealth and spend their days traveling or living in their huge houses or whatever.

        But the CEOs, the politicians, the investors, the self-labelled “Founders,” those approaching or in the 1%; For those it’s not about making something, doing their jobs, changing the world, etc. It’s about winning. They need to feel better than others. And for most of them that feeling never goes away. They rarely retire, and often even when they do they still pull strings from the background (see Bill Gates). Some psychopathic part of their brain makes it so their most important and purest drive is to constantly get to that next target, that next exponential stock valuation, that next acquisition, that next news broadcast they can jerk off to about how they beat someone else in a campaign or about how line go up or whatever.

        So when these people are in the middle of their career, they’re relatively unnoticeable by most. They’re “founding” companies by employing those smarter than them with money they have. They’re selling said companies, moving on. They’re making shady deals, laundering money, because they are smart enough to beat the system and the system is against them because they’re so smart.

        But for those that amass enough wealth like Elon, the drive never goes away. But what do you do after you’re the richest person in the world? Well, try to become the most powerful person in the world. But you can’t just run for office, the ketamine has told you that it’s faster to latch onto the recent rapid rise in fascism so you join up with Trump. Who gives a shit what kind of person he is, especially because eventually you’ll beat him. He’s a stepping stone for now, a boost pad to get you speaking with those who can get you real power, and more money because it’s never enough.

        But thinking that everything in the world works like a startup, and if you just hire more college grads, crack the whip, take stimulants to stay up to ship the product in a completely inconceivable world (government and social policy) to what you’re used to (technology and product development), it all falls apart. And then when you’ve always had success with the investors siding with you because “line go up,” you suddenly don’t have success because “line don’t go up” in the white house and Trump is getting pressure to find something to cover up giving 2 trillion dollars to the rich and there’s no quick fix.

        So you do more ketamine, lash out. You always knew trump was a pedo, a garbage human, but it didn’t matter because he was a stepping stone, so now, probably earlier than you’d like, you pull out your cards of putting him down in the hopes that you can get that power that you need because the money doesn’t matter now, feeling that you beat him is what’s most important.

    • k0e3@lemmy.ca
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      5 days ago

      Seriously? I thought Edison at best, but Einstein? What did this shithead discover, exactly?

      Edit: whoops wrong comment to reply.

  • krashmo@lemmy.world
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    6 days ago

    He collected data on all Americans from multiple government agencies, successfully killed multiple investigations into several of his companies, and secured additional government contracts for those companies. Is that what we’re calling nothing these days?

    • SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca
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      And Trump is now threatening to cancel those government contracts. So he’s blown everything he’s gained (and then some) from his little fling with Trump.

      • pi3r8@lemmy.world
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        That’s what trump does. He threatens. Then in the majority of times he gets distracted or backs down. Those contracts aren’t cancelled until they are cancelled.

        • SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca
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          Yeah he’s all TACO when doing things that’ll break the economy. But killing SpaceX won’t break the economy and he’s looking for something he can do that’ll make him appear strong. I wouldn’t bet either way on this, they’re both nutjobs.

      • krashmo@lemmy.world
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        Even if we assume those contracts get canceled, unless they force him to destroy that data (which probably isn’t possible at this point) and reopen all those investigations then that’s not really true, is it?

    • katze@lemmy.cafe
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      He collected data on all Americans from multiple government agencies, successfully killed multiple investigations into several of his companies, and secured additional government contracts for those companies. Is that what we’re calling nothing these days?

      But he also inflicted a lot of long-term damage upon himself and his businesses. So the question in the post still stands.

    • null_dot@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      5 days ago

      How will he benefit from the data he collected? He’s not in advertising and even if he were a snapshot isn’t worth much - you’d need an ongoing stream. Location data from teslas would be more valuable than the data could’ve stolen with doge.

  • GratefullyGodless@lemmy.world
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    5 days ago

    Musk learned the hard way why other billionaires don’t get directly involved in politics, and buy politicians instead. That way they get what they want, but let the politicians take the heat for pushing through the billionaires agendas.

    The problem for Musk is that his ego wouldn’t allow him to sit quietly on the sidelines calling the shots. He had to prove how smart he was, and how he was the only one who could fix the government. Now, he’s pissed off almost everyone, has lost various large foreign contracts for his companies, drove sales of Tesla into the ground, and is watching Trump undo the “brilliant” governmental cost cutting that he did.

    And, his ego still won’t let it go, as now he’s suggested he’ll start his own political party. You just know the other billionaires are looking at him and going “What a dumbass!”

    • Taalnazi@lemmy.world
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      5 days ago

      And still some dumb Americans will think:

      “Billionnaires got a lot of wealth, so they must know what they’re doing. Let them fix it.”

      When the actual answer is:

      “Billionnaires never once worked as much as we did. They got born with a fuckton of money. Let them eat cake.”

  • finitebanjo@lemmy.world
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    Even if he loses hundreds of billions of dollars he’s still richer than like 99% of individual people worldwide will ever be.

    I will save the schadenfreude for when he pays for the deaths of men, women, and children who were denied care from the USAID funds being cut.

    • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
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      He won’t though because although what he did is immoral it wasn’t illegal. After all the president of the United States authorised these actions they must be legal.

      Financially he’s going to suffer but there’s nothing in law that can be done to him.

      • finitebanjo@lemmy.world
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        We’ve both seen how quickly the legislative landscape can change, let’s not write this loss off just yet.

      • BeNotAfraid@lemmy.world
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        6 days ago

        It’s actually a name. Pajeet is a genuine Hindu name. It’s a pejorative, in the same way “Paddy” is both an Irish name and used as a slur for Irish people.

        • Thunderbird4@lemmy.world
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          According to the link above, and the Hindu American Foundation, it’s not a real name and is exclusively pejorative.

          • ryannathans@aussie.zone
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            Ya gonna have to tell that to the people I have met with this name, sorry guys your name is not real!

              • k0e3@lemmy.ca
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                5 days ago

                From the wiki:

                The implication makes fun of a typical Indian male’s name.

                Doesn’t say it’s not a real name though. Neither does the screen cap of the tweet.

                • Thunderbird4@lemmy.world
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                  5 days ago

                  And what does it say right above that?

                  An invented term for a South Asian person.

                  And from CubitOom’s link:

                  An invented Indian-sounding given name

                  And from the sources cited on Wikipedia:

                  a derogatory made-up Indian name originating on 4chan in 2015

                  First seen on 4Chan, The term “pajeet” is an ethnic slur, coined as a derisive imitation of Indian names

        • skisnow@lemmy.ca
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          Anon’s use of slurs is disgusting and absolutely should be condemned. But the underlying observation seems to track with my LinkedIn feed; there’s a lot of people in tech on the subcontinent whose dream ticket is to get their company acquired by a deca-billionaire and think that simping online is a good way to make it happen.

          (Not all people etc)

  • nomad@infosec.pub
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    5 days ago

    Somehow nobody has mentioned the drugs? And obvious signs of mental illness? Obviously high functioning, but that does not make the decisions less nuts.

    Has anybody seen the Johnny Harris video on musk? It was all fun and games until the drugs came out to play.

  • DarkFuture@lemmy.world
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    6 days ago

    Generational wealth leads to people who are both extremely rich and extremely stupid.

    And Elon Musk is the best example of that in the history of mankind.

  • Dr. Wesker@lemmy.sdf.org
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    6 days ago

    Just say “retard” if you’re gonna say it. Lazily censoring it seems worse, because implications.

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      Right? I’m tired of the euphemism treadmill telling me what I can and can’t say. Especially if we are coming up with childish phrases like “unalived”

      I used to call myself a <transgender slur> until woke cispeople got on my case about it.

      Ahh… I guess it’s better than the old internet where the N-Word was your fast pass to being seen as funny and cool?

      • clang@lemmy.zip
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        This has always felt very doublespeak-y to me. Sort of like a control mechanism.

        I don’t know anyone “unhoused” who has ever been offended at the word “homeless”. It just seems silly to me.

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        I run into that shit with cripple.

        Fuck them, I’m the one on the fucking cane, I call myself what the fuck I want, and I will gladly fight about it.

        But, yeah, the edge lords will fuck things up

    • Apytele@sh.itjust.works
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      I have a decent amount of patients that label could apply to and I don’t like seeing it used at all. Literally just a few weeks ago I was consoling a patient who was angrily crying because they perceived someone had used it to refer to them. I’m unsure if it was reality based; they do hallucinate and I didn’t personally witness it but its far from impossible and they were absolutely distraught. Using it pejoratively AND censoring it means you knew it was fucked up and did it anyway.

  • AllNewTypeFace@leminal.space
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    6 days ago

    Centrist Dems will take him back and anoint him as the leader of the Resistance in a New York minute, if doing so will keep AOC on the margins.

  • Disaster@sh.itjust.works
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    6 days ago

    Well… there is that bit where his companies now have all of the data they were able to loot from the Federal departments he ruined.