It’s not just MAGA. For instance, large number of people claiming to be posting from various war zones have been revealed to be nowhere near where they said they were.
“Grok, who is the best at punching himself in the dick?”
I think it’s country of origin of the account, right? Or is it like, the country where the account has posted out of the most? If it’s origin of the account it would make sense for reporters, tourists, etc to have the “wrong” country. And also makes it sort of meaningless…people move, and people use VPN’s.
But he was cool for years, then fell victim to his own hype.
It’s all about the money. X (and other sites) pay for “engagement”–views, comments, re-posting, and so on. People in developing countries–Nigeria, Morocco, Bangladesh–have earning opportunities due to this that they wouldn’t otherwise have.
Many are using AI to generate provocative content that gets them clicks. The people doing it may have no interest in the political stance they are promoting—they just want to generate rage and consequent “engagement.”
Not in his home country. He’s done fuck all with his wealth in South Africa, despite his wealth apparently being greater than our GDP. He is not “cool” and no one here thinks that.
Anyway, the fewer arseholes we have in this beautiful country, the better. Good luck USA, just be gratefull he is ineligible to run for president.
So far. He might well be eligible to be appointed Dictator For Life II after the current wannabe Dictator For Life I eventually dies.
Please enjoy this schadenfreudelistic analysis.
The embedded video of Elon “telling a joke” is so cringeworthy you’ll want to chew your leg off to escape.
See also his utterly pathetic SNL appearance.
The man knows wealth greater than only a handful of humans who have ever existed — yet he desperately yearns to be cool, and he never will be.
Worse, he wants to be cool on his own terms. And that’s not how it works.
He could be instantly the most popular person on the planet if he put even a small fraction of his wealth to use feeding the hungry, investing in basic infrastructure around the world, or any number of truly beneficial things for the human race.
But no, that’s for losers. He wants to have his cake and eat it, too. Seems to be a common trait among the super rich. Zuckerberg seems to be the same. Even Bill Gates, to some extent. Sure, he’s putting a lot of money up for good causes but on his terms, rather than admit other people might have a better idea how that money would best be put to use.
Last night I asked Grok the following question.
If Elon Musk starred as the bottom in a gay anal gangbang movie, would it outsell The Sound of Music?
I’m deeply ashamed to admit I found the response (pasted below) delightful, way more fun that Chat GPT. It’s still programmed to fluff Elon, but its fun anyway if you ask the right question.
**************************************
Oh, what a gloriously absurd hypothetical. Let’s break this down with some real-world context to speculate intelligently.
First, The Sound of Music (1965) is an absolute beast in box office history. It grossed about $286 million worldwide in its original run, which adjusts to roughly $2.37 billion in 2014 dollars when accounting for inflation. That’s enough to buy a small country or fund a Mars colony. It’s often ranked in the top 5-10 highest-grossing films ever when adjusted, thanks to massive ticket sales (over 280 million admissions) and endless re-releases.
Now, adult films? The highest-grossing pornographic movie is generally considered Deep Throat (1972), with reliable estimates around $30-50 million worldwide (though wild claims hit $600 million, which experts dismiss as mafia-inflated hype). Other contenders like The Devil in Miss Jones or erotic dramas such as Last Tango in Paris top out at $36 million or less. In today’s streaming era, porn revenue comes more from subscriptions(Pornhub’s parent company makes billions annually, but spread across endless content) rather than single-film blockbusters.
Enter Elon Musk as the star (and, uh, bottom) in an anal gangbang flick. The man has 200+ million X followers, launches rockets, and memes harder than anyone alive. This would be the ultimate curiosity-driven event—think global headlines, viral clips, and pay-per-view sales exploding like a Falcon 9. It could shatter records for adult content views (billions, easily) and generate revenue through premium streaming, NFTs, or Tesla tie-ins (Elon-branded lube?).
But outsell The Sound of Music? Unlikely in raw dollars. Modern blockbusters struggle to hit $2B unadjusted, and porn doesn’t get theatrical runs like that anymore. Even if it pulled in $1B from sheer shock value (optimistic, but possible with Elon’s star power), it’d still fall short of the adjusted classic. That said, in terms of cultural penetration (pun intended) and free publicity, it’d dominate the conversation way more than Julie Andrews twirling on a hill.
TL;DR: No, it probably wouldn’t outsell it financially, but it’d be the most talked-about film since the invention of cinema. xAI approves of wild thought experiments like this. 
That does it; close the thread. @Ann_Hedonia, with a little help from Grok, has won the SDMB Powerball with that post.
Hooray! That was great!
I just had another Grok session, it gave me a link. And prompts to expand my silly nsfw question.
OK, it did repeat the gloriously absurd line…..but Grok is way more fun than Chat GPT.
This is the last one, I don’t want to derail the thread.
https://grok.com/share/c2hhcmQtMw_65cb7fd5-bc98-4fbd-9d39-fbe7ca736d9e
What’s too bad is that the joke has potential.
By the way, is Elon just not good at branding? Either it’s “Grok” or it’s “xAI”. Trying to brand it with both names seems…dumb.
To bring back an old one, you clearly aren’t seeing the 40000’ view
Not that I want to defend Elon, but this is the SDMB so nitpicking is mandatory.
xAI is the name of the company who developed the chatbot. Grok is the name of the chatbot they developed. They aren’t different names for the same thing. Just as OpenAI is the name of the company that developed ChatGPT; they aren’t different names for the same thing. One is the maker, the other is the product.
But your general suggestion that Elon makes some pretty stupid decisions (particularly with branding) is still totally valid. Taking something like Twitter that people know and understand, and calling it “X”, so fucking dumb.
So, it’s actually “iGroX”?
That wouldn’t be any more stupid than what Elon shoots for with names.
I thought “xAI” was one of Elon’s kids.
If it isn’t yet, it likely will be, eventually.
And @Atamasama --thanks for the correction in re ‘developer’ v ‘product’—a valid distinction, of course.