this post was submitted on 24 Mar 2024
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Asklemmy
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Elon Musk, of course!
"I've done more for the environment than any single human on earth. What I care about is the reality of goodness, not the perception of it - and what I see all over the place is people who care about looking good while doing evil," - Elon Musk
/s
It's actually hilarious that he mentions "people who care about looking good while doing evil" because that's basically his entire existence.
The way he's doing for the environment is controversial (i.e. unnecessary drama on social media and news, and this list is long)
I don't think the Musk hate is completely justified. Yes, he has awful takes, and yes, some of his projects are stinkers. However, you can't deny that his projects have done a net good for humanity. He made electric vehicles commercially viable and got legacy car manufacturers to make their own, made huge progress in decreasing the cost of space launches, and is giving underserved areas high-speed internet. Each of those is difficult to do on their own, and his companies have done them all simultaneously.
He setup hyperloop to get the funding that should have gone to the high speed rail network of California, and then let it go bankrupt in order to sell more cars.
Isn't CHSR already funded?
Also, Hyperloop was the stinker I was referring to
Electric vehicles are part of the problem. Definitely not part of the solution. Personal cars are incompatible with any realistic sustainability target. He actively sabotaged the development of public infrastructure to make profit out of his stupid cars. He's evil as fuck.
New electric and plug-in hybrids are still better than new gas cars, and those are easier sells than high-speed rail unfortunately. People still want their Ford F150s.
We have not made any real progress on passenger rail until Biden came into office with the exceptions of California and Florida. Unless you can link a good source, I don't buy that Musk singlehandedly delayed nationwide high-speed rail projects.
Not nation-wide, but definitely in California and he claimed that himself. Anyway, if you want to dig deeper: https://disconnect.blog/the-hyperloop-was-always-a-scam/
This but unironically. Tesla put electric vehicles on the map. Starship will change humanity forever, and Neuralink is already helping patients.
He's not perfect (but hey, Von Braun was worse), but at least he's actually doing stuff that matters.
I get your point, but he didn't create Tesla, he bought it (as far as I know). So it could be argued that these things would be happening with or without him. But with him, he's giving electric cars (at least, that brand) a bad name.
Given the amount of his personal wealth he put into Tesla and the financial tricks he pulled to get further funding (if what is said in Elon Musk by Ashley Vance is true), then it seems likely that Tesla would have gone bankrupt without him. Maybe any rich person could have done it, and electric cars would always eventually be on the trajectory they are now, but he was the rich person that actually did it. He should get some credit for that, I think. But it is right that he didn't create Tesla, and he should definitely stop implying that he did, I agree with that.
If he pulled his funding like he did with OpenAI, they would have found funding somewhere else (like OpenAI)
The only thing he does is invest in all manners of companies, and once one of them becomes successful, he pretends like he is a founder and sues the actual founders if they disagree. Or he pulls funding because they don't want him to be the CEO.
Guy is an egomaniac that only invests to make it seem he is a cool guy on the internet.
Back then they had no cars at all though.
But yeah he's not personally building the rockets and engines, but he's still far, far better than 99% of politicians and oligarchs who are just using the same money to go to Epstein's island etc.
Sorry mate, you drunk the Koolaid. I hope you will see the much sadder reality of who he is and what he does, because you will learn to spot some well crafted propaganda.
all I can hear is a big fat boot being licked very thoroughly
He's not going to give you a free car, no matter how much you defend him online.