Elon Musk (yet another authoritarian)

[MDlaxfan76]

Musk shines light on the Hopkins agenda:

https://x.com/elonmusk/status/174545576 ... mfE5ey8-Lw

The best response:

"Imagine the privilege of deciding who has privilege."

Musk is an eccentric genius, eccentric enough to get involved politically whether he wants to or not. IMO, he's also a national treasure. He's our eccentric genius.

Perhaps the fanlax Musk haters would prefer if he was a citizen of Moscow or Beijing

very smart, yes. Genius? Not so sure.
When I think of genius, Einstein comes to mind. Very low key, quiet and thoughtful....but, oh those thoughts

Fermi and Feynman in the same class.

Einstein & Fermi, sheesh!... talk about an anachronism. Both incredible minds no doubt but you need to consider the time periods they lived/operated in as compared to Musk.

Who's to say that in today's social media scene Einstein wouldn't be some sort of cultural/political influencer aside from his main interests. And who's to say Musk wouldn't have flourished in an earlier "very low key, quiet and thoughtful" environment?

Suggest you rethink...

I don't see why there's any stake in Musk being called a "genius" versus just a very, very smart guy or 'brilliant'. He's obviously super bright, and it's obvious that he's also 'on the spectrum' with some countervailing issues of personality.

Brilliant people does not equal wise people, nor does it make them good people or bad people. Just brilliant.

And Musk definitely has some self-destructive aspects of his personality. Putting aside his issues in his family, he's definitely let his ego and impulse control problems blow huge economic value in a very short period of time.

And, unlike some of his other endeavors, where I think history will look kindly upon his contributions in the advancement of technology to th benefit of society, I think he's become a paragon of some of the worst of what social media has wrought in society... and he keeps making it worse.

Twitter was actually attempting to figure out how to address the downsides of social media when they were acquired, and Musk blew that all up, pretty transparently based on his own rage at having been limited in his own egotistical spewing by rules of decorum and law. And thus it's a worse cesspool of anger and divisiveness now than what Twitter was trying to clean up from prior to purchase.

I hope at some point he has an epiphany and realizes that he took the wrong path with Twitter and either sells it, allowing someone else to rebuild it, or closes it down. In either case, turning his attentions to other areas in which he can have a more positive impact.

[njbill]

Brilliant people does not equal wise people, nor does it make them good people or bad people. Just brilliant.

Well said. To put it another way, “smart” is important, but to my thinking, it ranks below character and judgment.

[tech37]

Brilliant people does not equal wise people, nor does it make them good people or bad people. Just brilliant.

Well said. To put it another way, “smart” is important, but to my thinking, it ranks below character and judgment.

"character and judgment"? And yet the Bidens are your heros.

[njbill]

Compared to your hero Trump, who is dumb as a rock, has no judgment whatsoever, and comes in at -100 on the character scale, yeah, Joe gets high marks.

[Seacoaster(1)]

Compared to your hero Trump, who is dumb as a rock, has no judgment whatsoever, and comes in at -100 on the character scale, yeah, Joe gets high marks.

Yeah, maybe the worst whataboutism ever.

[tech37]

Compared to your hero Trump, who is dumb as a rock, has no judgment whatsoever, and comes in at -100 on the character scale, yeah, Joe gets high marks.

Yeah, maybe the worst whataboutism ever.

That would be absolutely true if I actually liked Trump.

[Farfromgeneva]

Musk is a bigger egomaniac than Trump and as big of a cry baby. This will ultimately be his downfall as a businessman. He needs to shut his mouth stay off of social media and start paying attention to his supposed businesses. Unlike Orange Duce, Musk has real stockholders and boards of directors. Both are tiring of him.

As I said a long while back this is going to be like Howard Hughes buying TWA…

[Farfromgeneva]

Musk shines light on the Hopkins agenda:

https://x.com/elonmusk/status/174545576 ... mfE5ey8-Lw

The best response:

"Imagine the privilege of deciding who has privilege."

quite the twitter thread...

I have mixed feelings about DEI, but then again I'm in a bunch of those buckets that I actually agree have some degree of "privilege", as defined, in American society. So, it's a bit scary to be labeled as having "privilege"; I think that gives me a little bit of empathy for those feelings. And I think DEI proponents who see themselves as needing to, paid to, confront their constituents on these issues in order to open their eyes to issues, can sometimes be tone deaf in their delivery, making those "scary" feelings worsen.

But other than "middle class" on that list, I do agree that there are various inherent advantages that have accrued historically, with legacy effects today at a minimum, for those various broad brush groups relative to the "non" obverses of each. Yup.

And there are lots of sincere efforts to work to balance those advantages, which I think ultimately benefit the productivity of our society. Some can feel uncomfortable.

For instance, when my white, Christian, Ivy League educated, cisgender athlete son gets told that he would have a harder time climbing the political and policy ladder in DC (as a Dem) than if he'd been "non" of multiple of those, it feels bad...shouldn't it be the best person? Of course it should, but are many of the best people only recently even on the list? The latter was his reaction (I just need to compete harder)...he eventually got his job on the Hill, vibing well with the former Hopkins football athlete CoS of a former Ivy League athlete man. Once he landed the job, he told me who it was with, turns out the Rep was a former lax teammate of mine, but that was never mentioned in the interview process, only later did the Rep realize the connection (He's now Governor of Delaware, great guy). Serendipitous world. But "privilege" can play a role in serendipity.

My son had a great experience and I have no doubt contributed at an excellent level, despite not being a multiple "non". Did "privilege" play a role in his getting that job? did privilege play a role in his being at an Ivy? Yup...probably so. On the other hand, he was the only staffer in the office who wasn't a "non" on at least one of those attributes...way fewer staffers today in Congress have his profile than 20 years ago...and on the GOP side, the Ivy background has become a big negative...yup, gonna be biased against Ivy grads despite lots of them in the actually politician ranks...

Bottomline, the world is a more competitive place today for those with "privilege". We need to compete harder than we used to, in order to achieve similar successes...but is that actually a problem? Or is it a good thing?

My son argues it's the latter. A welcome thing.

But it's a little scary for those of us who had more of an advantage, even if we didn't recognize it at the time.

On the middle class thing, seems to me that wealth is relative, so maybe he point is that versus lower economic strata, middle class background has significant advantages, but bigger "privilege" is seriously wealthy versus the mass...but middle class may be a proxy for living in a safe, secure environment with better schools, etc, so growing up in a middle class family is indeed a "privilege" that some in our society don't enjoy.

Seems to me that these are relative advantages to someone without them, and they typically cluster into something meaningful.

The next question is how to address them...IMO, making sure those without those advantages at a young age get a helping hand to have access to the opportunities our society affords; they then need to grasp that helping hand and make the most of it...and if that makes it all a more competitive society, all the better.

Here’s the thing: you seem to be far better than many who found their base quickly, so to speak, but I don’t want any (citizen) telling others how to spend their money until that person is a stump (giving tree) themselves. The dishonesty in many I find is doing/giving enough for it to be publicly sufficient but not giving to the point of stress before they scream at others and force transfers while simultaneously beating their chest about what they do and give to others. You’re supposed to do what is right for you and if it means become a tired stump you still do it because you think it’s right and by then if you’re
Doing it the right way I hve zero doubt others will notice, recognize and pitch in voluntarily.

[Farfromgeneva]

Musk shines light on the Hopkins agenda:

https://x.com/elonmusk/status/174545576 ... mfE5ey8-Lw

The best response:

"Imagine the privilege of deciding who has privilege."

Musk is an eccentric genius, eccentric enough to get involved politically whether he wants to or not. IMO, he's also a national treasure. He's our eccentric genius.

Perhaps the fanlax Musk haters would prefer if he was a citizen of Moscow or Beijing

very smart, yes. Genius? Not so sure.
When I think of genius, Einstein comes to mind. Very low key, quiet and thoughtful....but, oh those thoughts

Fermi and Feynman in the same class.

... Musk is not in the same class, not even close. His genius is not in science or engineering, it is more in marketing big ideas and talking a good game. Currently the only genius he is showing is for self destruction.

Self destruction how? According to what standard?

Money-wise, I can buy your argument that X has lost money since his purchase. But X is still a major platform with half a billion users. Advertisers can protest all they want. They will likely come back or be replaced by others who want access ot that many impressions. And his goal is to make it like other apps that allow voice, face, text and payment features. So who knows.

If you mean self destruction for another reason, I'd be interested to hear your take.

Leverage amplifies gains and losses. Elon is as leveraged as any person in the world. Both to banks and Investors and to the govt. banks are pulling back from him because he heck then and everyone knows it. They have no time in this environment for his games. Investors-watch the already happening migration from FMR, Balckrock etc to a sovereign wealth funds in countries that will kill you for questioning them and no one here is flying to visit.

Govt-they are tired of his antics as well. And he’s getting to into their business these days in dilutive ways. That spigot which has floated his crazy idea for 15yrs is closing.

He needs the degenerates who support trump to float him now. He’s super illiquid and overrated both economically and to specific money/power cohorts that are shutting him down now.

See how this could be equivalent to him being a sweater unwound by a thread? And why hes pivoted heavily in many positions over the last 5yrs to sucking MaGA balls?

[Farfromgeneva]

Musk shines light on the Hopkins agenda:

https://x.com/elonmusk/status/174545576 ... mfE5ey8-Lw

The best response:

"Imagine the privilege of deciding who has privilege."

Musk is an eccentric genius, eccentric enough to get involved politically whether he wants to or not. IMO, he's also a national treasure. He's our eccentric genius.

Perhaps the fanlax Musk haters would prefer if he was a citizen of Moscow or Beijing

very smart, yes. Genius? Not so sure.
When I think of genius, Einstein comes to mind. Very low key, quiet and thoughtful....but, oh those thoughts

Fermi and Feynman in the same class.

... Musk is not in the same class, not even close. His genius is not in science or engineering, it is more in marketing big ideas and talking a good game. Currently the only genius he is showing is for self destruction.

Self destruction how? According to what standard?

Money-wise, I can buy your argument that X has lost money since his purchase. But X is still a major platform with half a billion users. Advertisers can protest all they want. They will likely come back or be replaced by others who want access ot that many impressions. And his goal is to make it like other apps that allow voice, face, text and payment features. So who knows.

If you mean self destruction for another reason, I'd be interested to hear your take.

How much value has the site formerly named Twitter has lost? I heard the debt could get a 30 bid…maybe.

Maybe….feels more like 10-15 cents as there’s no tangible assets just IP.

[MDlaxfan76]

Compared to your hero Trump, who is dumb as a rock, has no judgment whatsoever, and comes in at -100 on the character scale, yeah, Joe gets high marks.

Yeah, maybe the worst whataboutism ever.

That would be absolutely true if I actually liked Trump.

And likewise if any of us had the Bidens in our "hero" column.

"character and judgment"? And yet the Bidens are your heros.

But yeah, on the character and judgment scale "Joe gets high marks" compared to Donald. Which is the choice.

Back to Musk, my point was that his brilliance, wherever one places that on the scale of such, does not equal being wise or good (or bad). Just smart...talented, yes.

And IMO, he's been prescient on some major technology transformations and opportunities, and truly excels in persuading others to follow those opportunities, fund those opportunities. Without that salesmanship, and that funding support (OPM) his success would be rather limited. But kudos for the salesmanship and the prescience.

It appears that he really blew it on his assessment of Twitter and what his own "brilliance" would deliver. He's been rather inept as well in the management of people in that takeover. Most importantly, however, his own egotism has blown up in his face, with his resentments on being limited in his impulsive expressions by the norms Twitter was trying to maintain so as to support an ad based business model. It's too soon to really know how it will all play out, but he's already admitted that he made a gross error in valuing the company. And the loss of revenue is real.

And we know that he's got some serious impulse control issues, and he has been drinking the disinformation and misinformation kool-aid for awhile. Not wise.

Geneva says it more bluntly above, but I think that's right...this very loud set of errors is going to cost him much of the goodwill and PR he'd built. That "salesmanship" is going to be much more difficult now, and there's a large set of the players in the world, government, finance, corporate who are going to question ever backing him again.

Perhaps he'll rebound somehow, but right now he seems to be digging deeper and deeper hole.
Maybe the play is to get MAGA in power? I dunno.

[a fan]

Brilliant people does not equal wise people, nor does it make them good people or bad people. Just brilliant.

Well said. To put it another way, “smart” is important, but to my thinking, it ranks below character and judgment.

"character and judgment"? And yet the Bidens are your heros.

Tech knows perfectly well that the Forum doesn't have one single solitary person who is a Biden champion. Not one.

This is primetimeTech: he'll lose his mind if he thinks you're putting words in his mouth, yet as we see repeatedly, he does it himself on the regular.

[Farfromgeneva]

Brilliant people does not equal wise people, nor does it make them good people or bad people. Just brilliant.

Well said. To put it another way, “smart” is important, but to my thinking, it ranks below character and judgment.

"character and judgment"? And yet the Bidens are your heros.

Tech knows perfectly well that the Forum doesn't have one single solitary person who is a Biden champion. Not one.

This is primetimeTech: he'll lose his mind if he thinks you're putting words in his mouth, yet as we see repeatedly, he does it himself on the regular.

Some folks believe that is character.

[a fan]

Musk shines light on the Hopkins agenda:

https://x.com/elonmusk/status/174545576 ... mfE5ey8-Lw

The best response:

"Imagine the privilege of deciding who has privilege."

Musk is an eccentric genius, eccentric enough to get involved politically whether he wants to or not. IMO, he's also a national treasure. He's our eccentric genius.

Perhaps the fanlax Musk haters would prefer if he was a citizen of Moscow or Beijing

very smart, yes. Genius? Not so sure.
When I think of genius, Einstein comes to mind. Very low key, quiet and thoughtful....but, oh those thoughts

Fermi and Feynman in the same class.

... Musk is not in the same class, not even close. His genius is not in science or engineering, it is more in marketing big ideas and talking a good game. Currently the only genius he is showing is for self destruction.

Self destruction how? According to what standard?

Money-wise, I can buy your argument that X has lost money since his purchase. But X is still a major platform with half a billion users. Advertisers can protest all they want. They will likely come back or be replaced by others who want access ot that many impressions. And his goal is to make it like other apps that allow voice, face, text and payment features. So who knows.

If you mean self destruction for another reason, I'd be interested to hear your take.

Leverage amplifies gains and losses. Elon is as leveraged as any person in the world. Both to banks and Investors and to the govt. banks are pulling back from him because he heck then and everyone knows it. They have no time in this environment for his games. Investors-watch the already happening migration from FMR, Balckrock etc to a sovereign wealth funds in countries that will kill you for questioning them and no one here is flying to visit.

Govt-they are tired of his antics as well. And he’s getting to into their business these days in dilutive ways. That spigot which has floated his crazy idea for 15yrs is closing.

He needs the degenerates who support trump to float him now. He’s super illiquid and overrated both economically and to specific money/power cohorts that are shutting him down now.

See how this could be equivalent to him being a sweater unwound by a thread? And why hes pivoted heavily in many positions over the last 5yrs to sucking MaGA balls?

I explained this when he was shooting his mouth off pre-Twitter buy: he needs .gov money from the MAGA and Republican crowd. And naturally, they were delighted to think that Musk is now their hero, even though his main deal is to make the electric cars that they despise, while sucking down the billions in subsidies that, again, Republicans claim to hate. It's hilarious watching how fast Musk got Republicans on his side. What was that PT Barnum line, again?

As for Kram's claim that X has (a half a billion users).....you have no idea how many users X has. No one does. The books are closed. Third party analysts disagree with this number by more than a few users. But if you want to keep buying what he's selling, go right ahead. He also claimed....and so did the Forum's Republicans......that he'd give X free reign without censoring or suspending/banning users. That was a fat lie, and naturally, X is now no different that Twitter: censoring and limiting postings.

But now, of course, America's Republicans don't complain about censorship on X anymore. They don't care that it's happening, because they can't pin it on "the libs". They're perfectly happy with censorship if they like the guy doing the censoring.

[kramerica.inc]

Censoring how?

Is X actually censoring words and shadow banning posters the way Jack did? That was a crazy blatant.

Or do you mean "censoring" by allowing those who buy the checkmark to cut to the front of the line on post responses?

One was done secretly, and the other is done openly as part of the subscription business model.

Two very different things, if that's what you mean.

[Farfromgeneva]

Censoring how?

Is X actually censoring words and shadow banning posters the way Jack did? That was a crazy blatant.

Or do you mean "censoring" by allowing those who buy the checkmark to cut to the front of the line on post responses?

One was done secretly, and the other is done openly as part of the subscription business model.

Two very different things, if that's what you mean.

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/amp/nation ... om-twitter

[Farfromgeneva]

Here’s another one from months later

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2023/04 ... ournalists

[a fan]

Censoring how?

Is X actually censoring words and shadow banning posters the way Jack did? That was a crazy blatant.

A. it's a closed book, remember?

B. you have NO CLUE what the algorithm is that X uses, and who gets banned/censored and why. You are ASSUMING that it's awesome because you like the new owner.

C. the owner of every single press (that's all that X is: a printing press that sells advertising) chooses what runs, and in the case of social media, who sees what. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

D. there is LESS transparency now than there was when it was a public company. Surely you understand this.


Censoring is a poor choice of word. Editing is better...the owner of the press gets to choose what to print, so to speak.

Our way of life depends on this legal reality, and for whatever reason, Republicans have convinced themselves that they get to tell a private company what to do. Not on my watch, comrade.

I'm 100% behind however Musk wants to run his company. It's his choice, not yours, or the .gov (assuming no laws are broken), or anyone else's.

I'm simply telling you, nothing has changed: the owner (or its assigned manager) decides how it's run. And because it's a private company? You have NO CLUE what Musk and his employees are doing now.

[a fan]

Censoring how?

Is X actually censoring words and shadow banning posters the way Jack did? That was a crazy blatant.

Or do you mean "censoring" by allowing those who buy the checkmark to cut to the front of the line on post responses?

One was done secretly, and the other is done openly as part of the subscription business model.

Two very different things, if that's what you mean.

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/amp/nation ... om-twitter

Impossible! Republicans told us Musk wouldn't do such things!!

[kramerica.inc]

I see both sides. You cant call your self the free speech app and ban people. Anyone. But I do find those reports interesting because my personal anecdotes are very different. I've seen more and better discussion and free speech on X in the past year than ever before. Perhaps it IS just my algorithm.

I worked in a left leaning, major mainstream media outlet for 5-6 years. My current opinion is that there are ZERO 100% trustworthy news outlets right now. Almost every piece or author has a strong agenda. You have to be smart about how you get your "news" these days and be your own reporter. Research non-reported data, understand who prepared those reports, and only believe the news when it is live pictures when it's happening.

So for those things, X is awesome. Its real easy to see things live-time AND know exactly what the camera man/reporter's agenda is. Jack's Twitter was crap. Elon's might not be to your liking, but IMO, its a lot more transparent and open than the previous version.