this post was submitted on 13 Aug 2024
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[–] [email protected] 250 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (4 children)

"I shot a guy in the head, but then a different guy moved into the house where he lived, so it wasn't that bad?"

[–] [email protected] 102 points 2 months ago (1 children)

That's great. That's great.

[–] [email protected] 56 points 2 months ago

Yeah so it’s not as scary as people think

[–] [email protected] 21 points 2 months ago (1 children)

"I shot 1/4 million people in the head...."

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[–] [email protected] 149 points 2 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 58 points 2 months ago (5 children)

Mr Musk was talking about nuclear power with the former president when he said people have an unfounded fear of nuclear electricity generation. It is the “safest form of electricity generation”, he argued.

“People were asking me in California, are you worried about a nuclear cloud coming from Japan? I am like no, that's crazy. It is actually, it is not even dangerous in Fukushima. I flew there and ate locally grown vegetables on TV to prove it," he said during the interview on his social media platform X on Monday.

[–] [email protected] 158 points 2 months ago

Sensible people: Nuclear power is quite safe, likening it to a nuclear bomb isn't really a valid comparison.

Elon Musk: Nuclear power is quite safe, not all that different from nuclear bombs, which get a bad rap.

[–] [email protected] 45 points 2 months ago (5 children)

I would love to learn about the mortal danger solar panels put me in

[–] [email protected] 36 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Don't know about solar but I know nuclear at least used to be statistically safer than wind per MW just due to injuries during construction. Gotta remember, it takes a lot of solar or wind to make the same amount of power as a nuclear plant and that means a lot of construction work. But I also haven't seeen those stats for a while so it may have changed.

Nuclear is very safe assuming you don't build the plant in a tsunami prone area which also happens to be practically on top of 4 different fault lines.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 2 months ago (8 children)

I was bullish on nuclear for a while but having looked at how expensive it is to build out I don’t think it really makes much sense anymore

[–] [email protected] 31 points 2 months ago

It really depends on the location and situation. With the new generations of reactors they can also do things like seawater desalination with the waste heat alongside power production. You also have situations where the nuclear waste heat is used to heat entire communities far more efficiently than could be done with electricity. There are also many places where solar and wind just aren't practical for various reasons. In those areas nuclear may be a good option for base load power. Nuclear is also still far less environmentally destructive than hydro.

Yes, nuclear power plants are henoiusly expensive and there are definitely areas that they shouldn't be built, but they do still serve a purpose in certain areas. Most of the flack nuclear gets is just because most of our reactor fleet was built durring the cold war. New technologies can acheive far more with nuclear power far more safely and cost effectively than those old reactors.

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[–] [email protected] 132 points 2 months ago (13 children)

“The injured were sprawled out over the railroad tracks, scorched and black. When I walked by, they moaned in agony. ‘Water… water…’

I heard a man in passing announce that giving water to the burn victims would kill them. I was torn. I knew that these people had hours, if not minutes, to live. These burn victims – they were no longer of this world.

‘Water… water…’

I decided to look for a water source. Luckily, I found a futon nearby engulfed in flames. I tore a piece of it off, dipped it in the rice paddy nearby, and wrang it over the burn victims’ mouths. There were about 40 of them. I went back and forth, from the rice paddy to the railroad tracks. They drank the muddy water eagerly. Among them was my dear friend Yamada. ‘Yama- da! Yamada!’ I exclaimed, giddy to see a familiar face. I placed my hand on his chest. His skin slid right off, exposing his flesh. I was mortified. ‘Water…’ he murmured. I wrang the water over his mouth. Five minutes later, he was dead.

...

Everywhere, as far as my eyes could reach, all the houses had collapsed, all the trees and electric poles had been broken down. About two kilometres away, around the spot which later proved to be the explosion centre, thick dark smoke whirled up from a sea of yellowish dust.

I remained stunned, completely stunned. The next moment I heard a faint groan, then disconnected words that seemed to come up from the bottom of the earth: "Yuko . . . dead . . . I’m dying . . . don't stay ..." It was my wife, but it was not anything like a voice uttered by a human being: it was a voice squeezed out from the last bit of life in death's grip. "What? Be strong now! . . . Where are you? Where are you?" As if in reply, a pile of tangled timbers moved with a creaking noise. Bleeding all over, my wife stood upright, with our two-month-old baby tightly in her arms.

All around us we heard shouting, groaning, cursing, voices calling father, voices calling mother, voices in search of brothers and sisters. All over the central part of town flames were shooting out as if the earth's crust had been ripped open. And these sorely burnt men and women all in stark nakedness! It was as if our corrupt world had come to an end, giving way to hell. My wife was most painfully wounded. On her whole body were stuck countless fragments of glass, large and small, that reflected pallid lights like a glittering spearhead of a demon. She could see nothing.

I took my wife on my back, and held the baby on my left arm. We walked three hundred metres, stepping barefooted on the debris and broken sheets of glass that went to pieces under our weight, and took refuge on a sand bank in a river where the tide had ebbed. Here we joined hundreds of suffering people, and the sound of the frantic search of parents for their children was heartrending enough to make one giddy.

....

But it wasn't that bad, right?

[–] [email protected] 31 points 2 months ago (2 children)

is this your source? - https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1946/08/31/hiroshima

if not I’m curious to read the full source text please.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 2 months ago

Oh wow. They have the full book there?

This is from the book Hiroshima by John Hersey. I remember reading it in high school. It's a great book.

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[–] [email protected] 117 points 2 months ago (5 children)

Did he just say the Atomic bombs were not that bad??? The Fucking ATOMIC BOMBS?!

Can we just drop one on his house now?

[–] [email protected] 51 points 2 months ago (3 children)

This is the same guy who told Steven Colbert he wants to nuke the Martian poles.

To which Colbert replied, “Are you SURE you’re not a supervillain?”

That was in 2016.

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[–] [email protected] 105 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (2 children)

I didn't want to take this at face value without context so I found when they discussed this. Check around 1:17:00 in this video.

https://youtu.be/lfBQoWxQaEM?si=6Ev6rx62KESH-HgR

And yeah, he did say exactly what the OP states. So... yeah.

To give the absolute benefit of the doubt, I could say they were referring specifically to nuclear fallout rather than the initial explosion, as a full on explosion is less likely in a nuclear plant emergency. But even assuming it was just an incredibly distasteful way to reference that, there are still thousands of deaths and even more injuries/illnesses associated principally with radiation poisoning.

This is not to say I'm against nuclear energy, but by god we've got to have more careful consideration than this.

Edit: As a bonus, Musk talks about his views on global warming around the 1:10 mark. The issue with greenhouse gasses is, uh... making it hard to breathe?

[–] [email protected] 56 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Musk is not that bright. He pretends to be smart but just throws money at smart people and then acts as if he is actually the smart one. But he's just a dumbass with apartheid money.

[–] [email protected] 51 points 2 months ago (2 children)

For more context: hes comparing nuclear energy disasters like chernobyl to the bombings of japan, saying that because those cities recovered therefore people are wrong about chernobyl still being uninhabitable and that people shouldn't be so scared of nuclear energy. Hes not saying bombing cities isnt so bad in general, just that its not as bad as how "(((they)))" say it is at chernobyl. Nevemind the fact that even if chernobyl was able to rebound it still would've been a major and tragic disaster!

This actually perfectly demonstrates his lack of knowledge and ability to perceive himself unduly as an intelligent person because of his financial success. Hiroshima and Nagasaki were able to rebuild and the nuclear fallout was short-lived because the bombs were detonated miles above the ground to maximize their immediate devastation, while the chernobyl reactor exploded on/in the ground and there is still uncontained radioactive material within the compound because it is basically impossible to clean up.

Also, the comments on that video are depressing.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I haven't watched the video - so I'm going on what is said above, but its like these billionaires are not seeing people as human. They see that after Hiroshima people live in the city but cannot understand that those people weren't fungible. We didn't replace them - they are different people.

Two other small points, but first a caveat - I'm very pro civil nuclear power.

It simply isn't possible for any nuclear power plant to explode like a nuclear bomb. That can't happen - like my car contains an engine but can't fly like a plane. There have been nuclear leaks and chemical explosions in nuclear plants - these are bad. However, they are very different things from what happened to Japan.

Modern nuclear weapons would have much higher yields and probably fallout. Here's a terrifying tool for the morbidly curious:

https://nuclearsecrecy.com/nukemap/

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[–] [email protected] 76 points 2 months ago (3 children)

I listened to a bit of the interview and it's just insane nonsense, trump is ALL over the place with his topics, calling folks losers as a child would. But what was really odd was trump had this lisp almost like he had too much saliva in his mouth. It was gross and resembled that of an old man rambling incoherently

[–] [email protected] 63 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

The lisp is probably loose dentures. After all, Trump IS the oldest presidential nominee in US history. Come to think of it, that explains the incoherent ramblings also.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Yeah, the loose dentures have been noticable since his first campaign, there's just so much other wretched shit going on with him that people don't notice as much.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 2 months ago

I just don't get how I, a poor, was able to finance with Care Credit and time out my visits to have implants put in, so i could fix my grill. He couldn't come up with a grift for someone to pay for his?? Which reminds me... these chompers should finally get paid off this year!🥳

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[–] [email protected] 57 points 2 months ago

Actually unhinged lmao

[–] [email protected] 55 points 2 months ago (9 children)

Just some numbers to put into relation :

| Casualties |

Hiroshima:- 90,000–166,000 killed

  • 80,000–156,000 civilians
  • 10,000 soldiers
  • 12 Allied prisoners of war

Nagasaki:- 60,000–80,000 killed

  • 60,000–80,000 civilians
  • 150 soldiers
  • 8–13 Allied prisoners of war

Total killed (by end of 1945): 150,000–246,000

Source: Wikipedia - Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

[–] [email protected] 32 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Hiroshima:- 90,000–166,000 killed
80,000–156,000 civilians

And modern nukes are SIXTY TIMES more powerful than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 2 months ago

Not just that, but far more of them. And also missiles that consist of dozen of smaller warheads inside

And these missiles can travel to literally any place on earth, no matter where they started, as they follow a sub-orbital trajectory into space

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[–] [email protected] 55 points 2 months ago

People worship these shit stains, can you believe that?

[–] [email protected] 46 points 2 months ago (1 children)

To people like Trump and Musk Nazi labor camps are just a good example of an efficient workplace.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 2 months ago

Everyone got showers, I don't know what the big deal is. I've seen pictures, have you seen the pictures? All of those people were in great shape. My doctor says I'm as healthy as someone half my age, but I'd kill to be in as good a shape as some of the people in those pictures.

[–] [email protected] 44 points 2 months ago (1 children)

"Not as scary as people think"

[–] [email protected] 25 points 2 months ago (1 children)

You can still see buildings standing. No big deal.

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[–] [email protected] 40 points 2 months ago (5 children)

Great, really love to see the consent being manufactured for a lil nuclear war! Just a limited engagement bro, just a couple of nukes bro!

Damnit, it's tough but I just don't think dying in a nuclear holocaust is worth it to know that those dumb fucks will also suffer and die.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Just have a limited nuclear exchange, as a treat

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[–] [email protected] 33 points 2 months ago

Lets just ignore the increase in cancer in the survivors. (https://www.rerf.or.jp/en/programs/roadmap_e/health_effects-en/late-en/cancrisk/#:~:text=Tumor%20registries%20were%20initiated%20in,(10.7%25)%20(Table).)

And that there was a massive and expensive undertaking to rebuild hiroshima and nagasaki, who were lucky to only end up with short acting radioisotopes, unlike places like chernobyl. (https://davidson.weizmann.ac.il/en/online/askexpert/recovery-time-nuclear-disaster)

Both of these dudes are idiots.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 2 months ago (4 children)

Both of these cunts need to be launched into the sun.

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[–] [email protected] 27 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Imagine that, 80 years later it's all rebuilt!

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[–] [email protected] 24 points 2 months ago

I've been to the museum at Hiroshima. He can fuck off.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 2 months ago

Yeah, because that's how you measure human tragedies, in buildings. Not loss of life, the aftermath, multigenerational trauma or anything else humane. But not unexpected from two of the most disgusting people in the western world, so 🤷‍♀️

[–] [email protected] 22 points 2 months ago

Just two idiots thinking they've got it all figured out.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 2 months ago

Please ignore them. Next.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Two of the most influential men in the world right now.

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[–] [email protected] 17 points 2 months ago (1 children)

So, at one point we wanted Tesla cars, powerwalls, and tiles. All of that went right out the window. So two cars and full solar setups for three houses...poof. Unfortunately we still have Starlink due to work requirements, but as soon as we don't need it, it is going right back out.

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[–] [email protected] 17 points 2 months ago
[–] [email protected] 16 points 2 months ago

People are replaceable objects to these things

[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 months ago

Calls himself an anime fan and he's never watched Grave of the Fireflies.

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