Elon Musk

seems like we should have a thread on this guy, idk

Who he?

It's really an anagram of "Nole Skum."

Suk Lemon

ahe's kinda like tony stark, so i gather from ten mins research, but without the weapons and with clean energy and space

it's kinda surprising he isn't more well known all things considered

seriously. if wiki is even half-accurate shouldn't he be a fixture on Time mag or something?

His family sound really annoying. Was married to, uh, somebody who was in that St Trinians film, uh, the one with Russell Brand.

You realise that if he was ever to become involved in some sort of scandal and subsequent cover-up, newspapers could use the headline, "Elongate"

if he was caught cheating he'd be THE MUSKRAT

dude owes his company's survival to gov programs but
says it's no big deal if Romney wins and makes good on his promise
to obliterate them all.

lots of companies do well out of govt contracts/programs, i'd imagine.

so hyperloop huh

people on twitter so mad. trying to understand why. i guess it boils down to:

1) shouldn't we fix BART / buses / systems that working class people use before building toys for rich people

2) LA-to-SF only is ridiculous, there's like a whole state in there

3) nobody wants to hear half-baked plans from an arrogant rich dude

still, i mean, it's pretty cool, right?

1) shouldn't we fix BART / buses / systems that working class people use before building toys for rich people

There are lots of problems everywhere all the time. Can't let it stop technology from moving forward.

2) LA-to-SF only is ridiculous, there's like a whole state in there

There's a whole country, even! LA-to-SF sounds like a perfectly fine beta test.

3) nobody wants to hear half-baked plans from an arrogant rich dude

Not all rich dudes are arrogant. Elon Musk has never struck me as anything close to that.

people on twitter so mad.

who do you follow?

i'm not getting that impression from all the tech ppl i follow

unveiling this while CA is deep in the hole with it's bullet-train project (something I support wholeheartedly btw) is pretty arrogant

You might be right, Johnny, dunno. I was just trying to figure out why there was this explosion of contempt all over my twitter feed after the announcement.

markers, here are some of the people that were entertainingly scathing: kalebhorton, quartzcity, tcarmody, mikesonn

i do follow tim but i guess whatever he said didn't stick

cool monorail bro

lol

i have a plan for a train that goes from boston to atlanta in 10mins, its called lasertrain and ill give you some cool drawings of it in a couple weeks, its ridiculous no one is building it btw it only costs $10

im not gonna build it tho cause im kinda busy

even i can afford that

unveiling this while CA is deep in the hole with it's bullet-train project (something I support wholeheartedly btw) is pretty arrogant

isn't his point that hyperloop would be fraction of the cost and twice as fast?

the douchey thing is that he made a big ol deal abt something thats not at all real

Which is how 70% of architecture and urban planning works.

sure 70% that sounds totally realistic too

I meant 94% sorry.

To me, it really sounds like a kickstarter project... but from a billionaire.

i mean who knows maybe its revolutionary technology but its so preliminary its p comical to call a press conference abt it

maybe this is the best way to convince someone else to give it a shot idk

LOL "elon musk"

This should keep us occupied for a while: http://www.spacex.com/hyperloop

markers, here are some of the people that were entertainingly scathing: kalebhorton, quartzcity, tcarmody, mikesonn

I wasn't scathing about Musk (I am about futurism in general) - if anything, he has a good track record on quixotic tech quests. I hope he's successful with this. I also hope there's a state left that can use it.

unveiling this while CA is deep in the hole with it's bullet-train project (something I support wholeheartedly btw) is pretty arrogant

Knowing how CA politics works (and the CA rail projects are amazingly political), how would you expect a non-arrogant to even get traction with this?

I have no doubt that Musk will solve the Hyperloop technical issues. I very much have doubts about him navigating Sacramento.

I was describing this to my wife today and kept calling it Supertube.

Bad connotations...

http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/supertrain-1_7696.jpg

lol @ the "open source" pdf proposal. build a section of the thing and then get back to us when you have it working.

Musk says the Hyperloop is best for distances of 900 miles. Beyond 900 miles, he thinks you're better off in a supersonic jet.

Lol

I never use my supersonic jet anymore as parking is always a total bitch

I have to say I rather like Elon Musk. He's made a massive pile of money and rather than sitting on it or managing it in mundane ways; he's making risky bets on thinks he's passionate about: Cars, Rockets, vacuum tubes.

Hyperloop seems a bit ridiculous to me, vacuum tube powered trains and trains in evacuated tubes are an old chestnut, almost as old as railways themselves. However, he's built a commercially viable private space programme and a car company* in the last ten years so anything is possible.

*Tesla isn't really a car company it's a power train company and if it is still making cars in 5 years I'll be surprised.

ya i'm kinda ll for crackpot genius billionaires actually doing interesting stuff, up until they become str8 up supervillains obv

lol @ the "open source" pdf proposal. build a section of the thing and then get back to us when you have it working.

― wk, Tuesday, August 13, 2013 2:23 AM

he might do this

is this dude one of the crazy silicon valley libertarian types or is he just beloved by them?

iirc he has liberal tendencies mixed in w the libertarianism

xp I heard him speak and he seemed not crazy and to have some kind of social or at least environmental conscience, unlike the usual libertarian types, but maybe he's just better at hiding it

(I like him too fwiw and right now he seems one of the most likely "crackpot genius billionaires" to solve some hard problems which are overdue for solving, so I hope he carries on with that. Also hoping that one day I'll get to see/read his computer game that appeared in some 8-bit micro type-in listings mag in the 80s)

he's not as bad as some of the other silicon valley libtards, I'll give him that.

nonetheless, this is a stupid proposal

A little voice inside my head said

here is is... so fucking annoying. Also, can you just change the numbers after you commit a crime?

https://stickercity.store/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/cybertruck-reviver-license-plate-1024x771.jpg

Haha, but of course

https://www.extremetech.com/cars/342140-californias-new-digital-license-plates-get-hacked

Speaking of Cybertrucks - ghastly early morning accident, just up the hill from me

https://www.ktvu.com/news/3-die-1-injured-fiery-piedmont-cybertruck-crash

I see he's now calling for Vindman to get the death penalty

And Bluesky users are pa3dos. Guy is rattled.

didn't he call the Thailand cave rescuer guys pee-doz as well? That's his go-to insult, which may be telling

God, I just think about the This American Life segment from a few months ago in which Ira Glass interviewed both Alex Vindman and his wife, Rachel, about what they would do if Trump were reelected. Rachel worried that they might need to leave the country, but Alex said he can't imagine ever doing so -- he's a career military officer who served to protect it.

Then there was this bit toward the end:

When I asked them about their most far-fetched fears, Rachel said she was hesitant to mention this next one because it's so out there. But she worries that Alex would be tried for treason, and the penalty could be death.

Rachel Vindman
Yeah, I don't want to seem like a nut, but if you just google or just do a search on Twitter or something-- what they want most of all is Alex to be arrested and tried for treason. They truly think that he went against his commander in chief, and that is an act of treason.

After the election, Glass checked back in with Rachel, who says that they are planning to stay in the country because Alex is adamant about it, but they are also "watching the indicators" to see if they might be in danger.

She concludes:

My head says it'll probably be OK. My heart is very scared. But I don't want to live my life in fear. I don't want to live in my own country afraid when neither I nor my husband has done anything wrong.

Notably, Alex's brother Eugene was just elected to Congress in Virginia.

They're twins, so they can totally punk the Congress by alternating days

is Musk on speed or something? I remember tweakers from my youth that acted similarly delusional, only they didn't have any money

He's probably on *EVERYTHING*

wtf is this list of names shit

didn't he call the Thailand cave rescuer guys pee-doz as well? That's his go-to insult, which may be telling

― Andy the Grasshopper, Wednesday, November 27, 2024 5:11 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

Tbf that is seemingly everyone’s go-to insult for everyone these days

i seriously only ever hear it in Musk context

is Musk on speed or something? I remember tweakers from my youth that acted similarly delusional, only they didn't have any money

― Andy the Grasshopper, Wednesday, November 27, 2024 4:39 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

yeah the stories of him calling in all the Twitter employees at 2 AM to implement a shitty and possibly illegal feature that they can't really do anyway definitely strikes me as the sort of thing a meth head with a billion dollars might do

Remember too re:insults that Elon can't really use "Nazi" as a pejorative.

hes p open about being on ketamine all the time right?

well the thing is due to his massive government contracts he's not really supposed to be on drugs all the time, turns out nobody really enforces that though

turns out the real drug test was all the drugs we did along the way

i seriously only ever hear it in Musk context

― the last visible dot (Doctor Casino), Thursday, November 28, 2024 1:53 PM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

“Not Like Us”?

Tim Pool called Emma Vigland a pedophile because she said she was against banning books.

On Twitter every celebrity is accused of pedophilia. People were trying to use it against Tim Walz because he was a coach.

i don't have a Twitter account, so i guess that could be a factor here.

this didnt work??? https://t.co/l4vwBIUoeG pic.twitter.com/8w8TbNg93V

— evil fucking skeleton (@chumblings) December 2, 2024

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/05/us/politics/elon-musk-trump-rbg-election.html

These creeps love using kid as a shield huh

I love art dude pic.twitter.com/VSoffTjY66

— BUDDYHEAD (@BUDDYHEAD_) December 5, 2024

He's not even trying to hide his politics any more.

Only the AfD can save Germany https://t.co/Afu0ea1Fvt

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 20, 2024

so this guy is now a major problem for democratic institutions around the world huh

can't he fucking overdose already

The list of people I want to simply fucking drop dead at the moment, for the good of the world, is really, really quite upsettingly long. But he's near or at the top. Worst Nazi nepo-baby in a crowded field, an idiot who believes he's a genius because he chooses not to see the thumb his father's wealth placed on the scale, a malign bigot and destructive fool who's taking his own shortcomings as a human being and a father out on the entire planet.

as much as I don't care about Matt Yglasias, he pointed out a few days ago on bsky that Musk is worth 4xxbillion; and 10 years ago, the richest man (Bill Gates) was worth 77 billion. This is fucking unconscionable bullshit and Musk's ability to wield this wealth via threats and influence are a danger to the entire world.

Unless I’m wrong (very possible) I comfort myself that his whole “wealth” is in his fucking Tesla meme stock and fucking Dogecoin (not the most stable of power bases). In any case, he should be taxed to oblivion and stripped for usable body parts.

I think he's getting by

so now he’s throwing his support behind the AfD in Germany

Don't want to rush to any conclusions but I'm starting to think he might not be that cool of a dude

mods can we rename thread to "Elon Musk is the worst human alive" plz

Was a a friend’s house and his six year old son asked who Elon was and my buddy said he was the richest man in the world and to this the kid replied “he is probably a bad guy than”.

kid otm

Yeah, I think we're starting to see the real afrikaaner billionaire:

Elon Musk has caused outrage in Berlin after appearing to endorse the far-right, anti-immigrant Alternative für Deutschland.

Musk, who has been named by Donald Trump to co-lead a commission aimed at reducing the size of the US federal government, wrote on his social media platform X: “Only the AfD can save Germany.”

there is not a death cruel enough for him

NEW: Pediatric cancer research advocates spent years building up to this week. They celebrated when their priorities were included in the CR. And then, Elon began tweeting pic.twitter.com/PXZTKBzELd

— Sam Stein (@samstein) December 20, 2024

just heard some GOP congressman on PBS News Hour fawning over Musk... 'Finally someone has to courage to call things as they are' etc. 'We should be lucky to have this genius working for us for free' barfola

I want them all dead :-)

^^^ Wish I could put a Musk-esque emoji to that

I wonder how & when the trump/musk bromance implodes... probably sooner than later, trump hates anyone hogging the attention

i don't think trump likes the fact that elon is seen as the one driving this current shitshow. especially if he feels that it puts him in a weaker position at the time of the inauguration, which it might.

Musk is now trying to stir up further unrest in Germany after the Magdeburg Christmas market attack.

He's called Chancellor Scholz an 'incompetent fool' and told him to 'resign immediately'. It's the same playbook as in the UK during the August riots.

The more leaders he attacks the better, probably.

Funny, the attacker is a Musk fan!

i was walking my dog this morning, thinking about oligarchy and elon musk

when i got home, i googled elon musk and oligarchy, and one of the first articles (vox - the greatest publication of our life) had a subhead that read

"We’ve never seen a political donor this loud, proud, and culturally influential."

is this true?

https://www.vox.com/money/387348/elon-musk-trump-president-billionaire-oligarchy

probably? the only modern equivalent I can think of is Oprah (though even her support of Obama in 2008 was constrained by pre-Citizens United campaign contribution limits)