Also, we tend to hate them for it. Even in our personal lives, those types of self-aggrandizing liars suck.
Mind you, I predict that at the end of the day Elon Musk, like Steve Jobs and others before him, will ultimately be considered historically more important for his contributions as an entrepreneur than for his personal assholery and ethical missteps. But that doesn’t mean that the people who have to put up with his personal assholery and ethical missteps in the here and now aren’t entitled to hate him for it.
My impression is that a lot of the hate came from his covid denialisms which were totally selfish in nature. he didn’t want to abide by covid rules so he started downplaying the virus that has probably killed 20 million people so far.
Also his net worth doubled during covid from about 100 billion to 200 billion and he complains about how he shouldn’t have to pay any taxes on 100 billion in new wealth that he didn’t do anything to earn.
I don’t really like the love/hate relationship a lot of people have with him. they love him, then he does something dumb and they hate him. then he does something they like and htey love him again. The back and forth is tiring of being supposed to love/hate someone based on what they did in the last 5 minutes.
Overall hes a guy with some personality issues and some bad business practices who is good for the human race based on what he invests in from what I can tell. the technologies he invests in are good for humanity.
IMO this is a big part of why he gets so much hate. Everyone knows someone like this in real life.
Don’t forget the Neuralink crap.
I mean, you’re kind of proving my point. Or maybe we have differing opinions on what makes one an asshole. He has some stances I don’t agree with but they are in the range of reasonable, especially if you actually read the articles/tweets instead of forming an opinion based on the click-bait headlines.
Nope, it’s true. I guess if you wanted to you could track his plane and find out how many nights he stays in Austin vs Boca Chica but the fact that an old 70’s 1200 sq ft dump is where he stays a majority of the time is pretty surprising.
To add to all the other points made about Musk being an outrageous asshole, there’s the incident cited by Ashlee Vance in his biography of Musk. When Elon Musk rose in prominence and the size of his empire grew, his personal assistant who had been loyal to him for 12 years, Mary Beth Brown, suggested that she should have a raise and a more senior title since she was doing a much bigger job than in the early years. He told her to take two weeks off, and when she returned, he announced that he’d gotten by just fine without her, being able to do both his job and hers. Then he fired her.
Musk has gone to a lot of trouble to publicize denials of this story, as per the article below, but the facts remain that (a) he’s an asshole (cite: the many posts upthread), and (b) she did in fact leave the company.
You can make your own conclusions if you like. I personally believe her story over his denials because it’s so consistent with his narcissistic asshole character.
You just missed this one by minutes:
Instead of using some small fraction of his many-hundred-billion net worth to aid Ukrainian refugees he’ll instead go on Twitter and roleplay Pretend Tony Stark because threatening an autocrat to a mano y mano fight is definitely going to help end this crisis.
Elon Musk is basically what a drunk frat boy’s idea of what a world-changing billionaire genius would be like.
Stranger
Many years ago, I wrote that the electric car would win; I wrote about transhumanism; I wrote about the simulated universe; and 90% of most other things I’ve ever seen him chatting about or working on.
My personal annoyance is the man hasn’t sent me my royalties. (Ditto, Kurzgesagt)
But I do grant that he had far more will to go out and do something past pontificating.
So violating civil rights, trying to tank his own company, and multiple articles about how he spread COVID misinformation, from tweeting antivax memes that were known to be false to admitting he wanted to be able to go out an infect people rather than lockdown—you think those are all legitimate areas of disagreement? And that’s without including the other stuff already posted in this thread about how he pretends to be the creator of a company that he wasn’t, how he keeps doing these self-aggrandizing moves to pretend to be trying to help people, and gets upset when being told he might have to pay taxes. Also, don’t forget the shit like calling people pedophiles because they dare contradict him, getting into pointless feuds—to the point he got sued for defamation over it. A guy who saved several children was defamed as a pedophile for saying his stupid sub idea wouldn’t work.
The only reason I’d say he’s not an asshole is that such a term is too light for the things he’s done. Hell, the pandemic shit alone makes him partially responsible for so many deaths, all because he’s a selfish prick.
I can’t figure out what your definition of “asshole” is if you think all of this is acceptable, normal behavior. I know people I have cut off from my life for less.
Well, for one thing, a technocrat billionaire has no place appropriating Iain M. Banks, so there’s that.
Also, White South African who fled like a chicken at a time when conscription was already winding down…
I don’t hate him. I just think he’s an asshole when he doesn’t have to be.
But whatever, it’s his life to live the way he chooses. I can appreciate that he’s done some good in spite of the fact that he is often a jerk.
I have to say, I see this as a positive. Sure - a chicken move - but conscription was part of the apartheid regime, and the less white people that supported that, even in the dying stages, the better for the country.
Really? Care to form an opinion about this one where Musk shits on people who care about Ukraine as “virtue signaling”, even though 10 days ago he himself expressed support?
The man is a billionaire who could do or say anything he wants, but he chooses like to act like a tendentious shitbird, apparently trying to be the coolest 14-year-old edgelord in the room.
And his fans and apologists are really the most annoying thing about him. They all parrot the same tired lines in response to criticism: “You’re taking things out of context. You’re responding to media characterizations, not what he said. He’s done a lot of good. You’re just jealous. He’s so smart and rich. You’re just a poor hater.” UGGGGGGGH it’s like NPC in a video game.
Just a bit of follow-on to the story about Musk abruptly firing his dedicated personal assistant after 12 years when she asked for a raise. Part of his denial of the story (in the link I posted) contains this remarkable passage:
“Mary Beth was an amazing assistant for over 10 years, but as company complexity grew, the role required several specialists vs one generalist,” Musk tweets. “MB was given 52 weeks of salary and stock …"
Now think about that for a moment. Musk’s business ventures grew, and so he says his personal assistant was no longer competent to deal with the new complexity. Yet he himself was perfectly suited to continue acting as CEO of all of it. The implicit assumption about his assistant’s alleged lack of ability to equally grow and learn exemplifies a stunning level of hubris, perhaps because Musk considers himself the smartest human in existence whereas other people are just automatons of fixed and limited skill sets. And even if she wasn’t up to the job (which I doubt is true) there was no place for her anywhere else in the company?
Oh, and the “52 weeks’ salary” which I guess is supposed to sound like some kind of benevolent generosity sure sounds to me like it was probably the minimum mandatory severance for being fired after 12 years of service, and was probably contingent on signing an agreement not to sue for unlawful dismissal.
Everything about Musk just screams “asshole!”. And yes, it’s indisputable that the asshole has done some beneficial and innovative things.
There’s opposing it here, as the ECC did, and that was extremely laudable.
And there’s running away overseas at a time when it was just one year of service and didn’t involve the Bush War or serving in townships, any more. I’m of an age with Musk, and I went to varsity with many guys who’d just done that one-year stint. And others who just refused to go.
I am younger than you, then, and originally from a different country but “just one year of service” seems one year too much to assist in propping up the apartheid regime.
Do you have a similar view (for our USA friends) of objectors (either conscientious or cowardly) to the war in Vietnam who fled to Canada?
He certainly comes off as a dick here, mocking people for supporting Ukraine/Trans rights/etc.
Elon Musk reminds me of the TV drama characters who are terrible people but good at their one thing so they become successful in their field. Most people watching recognize that the character is compelling but ultimately an awful asshole. Some people never get past the “so cool” stage and assume these are people to respect and emulate.