What gets me is that he has the means to become the most beloved man in history pretty much on a whim. I can’t even begin to comprehend the amount of good he could do by dumping half his fortune into good causes, which would still leave him with orders of magnitude more money than he’d need to buy/do whatever the fuck he wants with.
The attention he craves is right there. But he chooses instead to be a villain. Why?? Be a fucking superhero - even if it’s for completely selfish reasons, humanity won’t give shit.
I don’t get it.
If I randomly obtained a billion dollars, let alone hundreds of billions, I’d spend the rest of my life riding a warm-and-fuzzy high. Helping people feels good!
Look at Bill Gates. He’s a complete asshole and was widely hated until he stepped down from Microsoft. But, spend just a small fraction of his fortune on charity, much of it self-serving, and he’s now he’s widely loved.
If I randomly obtained a billion dollars, let alone hundreds of billions, I’d spend the rest of my life riding a warm-and-fuzzy high. Helping people feels good!
The thing is, you don’t become a billionaire if you have empathy. If you’re a normal kind of person who likes helping other people, you start giving away your money long before you hit $1B.
In a functioning society, we wouldn’t have to rely on the “philanthropy” of rich people to fund good causes. It should not be possible for one person to hoard so much wealth that they get to personally decide which issues get ignored.
I completely agree. It’s like one of those supposedly uplifting news items about a kid selling their rare stamp collection to pay for their bus driver’s surgery. Sure, it’s nice the kid did that, but what kind of dystopia are we in where someone with a steady job can’t get the health care they need.
From what I understand, Musk was under investigation from multiple federal US agencies for malfeasance, I don’t know for what, but he got involved to make those investigations go away. Then he got addicted to being in charge after buying The Presidency.
Because, as we all know, narcissists love being in charge, and adulation.
And why is he being an asshole, when he could be generous and beneficent, and get the adulation he craves? Because he thinks he’s superior, and like he said, empathy is weakness, He is unable to understand, or feel empathy.
Tesla was a going concern (with excellent product quality) when Musk bought it. The product roadmap was already there. The only big things Musk has influenced are underfunding quality during scale-up and rolling out the Dumpsterwagen. Well, that and lying about self-driving.
What gets me is that he has the means to become the most beloved man in history pretty much on a whim. I can’t even begin to comprehend the amount of good he could do by dumping half his fortune into good causes, which would still leave him with orders of magnitude more money than he’d need to buy/do whatever the fuck he wants with.
The attention he craves is right there. But he chooses instead to be a villain. Why?? Be a fucking superhero - even if it’s for completely selfish reasons, humanity won’t give shit.
I don’t get it.
If I randomly obtained a billion dollars, let alone hundreds of billions, I’d spend the rest of my life riding a warm-and-fuzzy high. Helping people feels good!
Look at Bill Gates. He’s a complete asshole and was widely hated until he stepped down from Microsoft. But, spend just a small fraction of his fortune on charity, much of it self-serving, and he’s now he’s widely loved.
The thing is, you don’t become a billionaire if you have empathy. If you’re a normal kind of person who likes helping other people, you start giving away your money long before you hit $1B.
In a functioning society, we wouldn’t have to rely on the “philanthropy” of rich people to fund good causes. It should not be possible for one person to hoard so much wealth that they get to personally decide which issues get ignored.
I completely agree. It’s like one of those supposedly uplifting news items about a kid selling their rare stamp collection to pay for their bus driver’s surgery. Sure, it’s nice the kid did that, but what kind of dystopia are we in where someone with a steady job can’t get the health care they need.
All hail the orphan crushing machine.
Money is a social construct. Society should have a say in how it’s allocated.
From what I understand, Musk was under investigation from multiple federal US agencies for malfeasance, I don’t know for what, but he got involved to make those investigations go away. Then he got addicted to being in charge after buying The Presidency.
Because, as we all know, narcissists love being in charge, and adulation.
And why is he being an asshole, when he could be generous and beneficent, and get the adulation he craves? Because he thinks he’s superior, and like he said, empathy is weakness, He is unable to understand, or feel empathy.
I’ll give you a hint. It starts with “e” and rhymes with “Epstein didn’t kill himself”…
I need more dots to join.
Yeah, who’s Eepstein? Apart from the offspring of a great felt scientist and some dead guy with fluffy hair.
He had that aura when he was building Tesla and solar city and the gigafactory. Become a billionaire and fight climate change? Go Elon.
Go to Mars? Bit of a stretch goal, but helping Nasa and science is good. Go Elon.
Save kids trapped underground? Go Elon.
What? Called him a pedophile? Maybe he has some inside knowledge. Anyway.
Shout about doge coin? Bit weird. Ok he’s just having fun.
Sell a consumer grade flamethrower? What?
Pay 44bn for Twitter? What? Where’s the value? This doesn’t save the world.
And down and down.
Tesla was a going concern (with excellent product quality) when Musk bought it. The product roadmap was already there. The only big things Musk has influenced are underfunding quality during scale-up and rolling out the Dumpsterwagen. Well, that and lying about self-driving.
I was addressing the downward trajectory of his outside perception, not his actual skills.
Musk is willing to risk his capital, and does seem to be able to identify talented engineers and individuals. He used to be able to attract them too.
Working theory is that you don’t get to his point by having morals.
He could literally fund free lunches for kids in schools, forever.
In comparison to his wealth, that’s so small time that it’s not even worth mentioning.
Yeah, because doing anything altruistic is “virtue signaling.” No one really cares about anyone but themselves. How do I know? Because I don’t.
I didn’t say any of that.
Rich people are just celebrities with hoarding tendencies.
Celebrities are just rich people sportsy, artistic, sympathic, entertaining or sexualized looking enough to get public attention
Dumping ill gotten gains into charity will not make you beloved down in history so much…
Certainly not " the most beloved"
Bill Gates makes a strong argument for becoming beloved while you’re still around to enjoy it.