this post was submitted on 14 Jan 2025
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I'm struggling to think of good stuff to praise him for.
I mean, he is pushing a lot of good tech forward. He is also fighting against bureaucracy and for freedom of speech.
he's doing none of that
He is doing so, so, so much. If we didn't have Elon to manage all these companies - they would be nowhere near where they are today. It's a no-brainer fact.
They would be nowhere if they didn't have his money. Otherwise Musk actively hinders his companies with his idiocy. This is well known from SpaceX employees.
https://x.com/yoloption/status/1595213678147764224?mx=2
The companies' success is from being in fields that the employees are passionate about so they'll grit their teeth and put up with it to be able to work there.
And fighting for free speech, are you kidding? He's fighting for his own speech period. Anything he doesn't like tends to get journalists temp banned or shadowbanned from Twitter for example.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/December_2022_Twitter_suspensions#%3A%7E%3Atext%3DOn_December_15%2C_2022%2C_Twitter%2C%2C_CNN%2C_and_The_Intercept.
Ok bud.
So you're telling me if Elon dies today. Tesla, spaceX, Twitter etc. will die with him?
Nah. I'm just saying they wouldn't be anywhere near where they are today if Elon wasn't there to manage them.
I would agree that some of his businesses are doing well, but I would give more credit to the scientists and engineers making it happen. We found out shortly after the election that he had almost no involvement in SpaceX lately in fact.
He does get some credit for actually gathering those people and starting the companies sure, however all the insane things he's done and is doing have really heavily undercut all of it for most people, myself included. I was a fan of his until he completely without evidence accused some diver of being a pedophile just because they didn't want to use his awful "submersible" to rescue those Thai children years back.
The pedo incident was lame, but you ditched Elon just for that??
He didn't start any of his companies, he just bought all of them (maybe the exception is the boring company)
Do you honestly believe SpaceX, Neuralink, Tesla etc. would be where they are today if it wasn't for Elon? If you say yes - I'm sorry but you have no idea what you on about.
Did I said that? I am just pointing out about the companies origin because I don't understand how this misinformation keep spreading still and with so many resources about it. I guess it is true that "A Lie Can Travel Halfway Around the World While the Truth Is Putting On Its Shoes".
But in any case I will answer your loaded question. No I don't think his companies would be where they are today, because Elon has one thing that he was good at, and it is hyping, marketing, creating a narrative, a lore, and creating a fan base. An example is this lore that he created about his companies origins, it was always known but he kept it from the public discourse for many years and created his persona of nerdy genius that everything he touches turns to gold. And in a way that is true, because it was his performance and hype that keep his companies invested whilst many other would have investments puled off, even with constant mised deadlines, with his wild claims that "X will be a reality in N months" that never come to reality, this would tank the trust, public perception and capital of maybe any other company but for him, the personality cult he so careful cultivated kept people invested, kept the mantra "trust Elon". And that was what kept his companies, especially Tesla in the green.
And I think part of this success is his image of kinda awkward nerd genius, which makes it easy for people to trust him and keep listening to him even after his promises failing to materialize, I guess because Elon is "Not like others CEO", "he is smart, he know what he is doing", "he is an engineer guy, not a business CEO, so he is not lying through his teeth, there is a reason" and so forth.
And he lost his magic, his ability to keep this image was lost some point before he bought Twitter but I guess that does not matter anymore, because this amount of money just perpetuates itself at some point and now he also has a new source of fan base in the political right that is not based on the old image of the nerdy genius and instead on the old and tried conservative grift of inflammatory and tribalistic discourse.