• beepnoise@piefed.social
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    4 months ago

    There was a time where Elon Musk (EM) was pretty much a nerd darling. The real life Tony Stark.

    I don’t know where you are, but in the UK the positive image dropped quite quickly once he called a British cave diver a pedophile over the remarks said cave diver (Vernon Unsworth) said that EM offering his small submarine to help the Thai cave boys was a “PR stunt” and also to “stick his submarine where it hurts” (link). Admittedly the latter was harsh words, but to then go ahead and call a British person in Thailand a pedophile (obviously referencing Gary Glitter) was incredibly childish, petty, and virtually made a lot of Brits distrust EM as well as see him for who he really was from the online tantrum.

    I do feel sorry for those who have been suckered into thinking EM isn’t some narcissistic arsehole, although the number is dwindling (a personal highlight was when he got booed after Dave Chappelle introduced him to his audience in San Fransisco)

    • Andrew@piefed.social
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      4 months ago

      I’ll admit to assuming he must be kind of a cool nerd for naming some of his SpaceX things after Culture ships (from Iain M. Banks’ novels), but now I feel sullied by association from having enjoyed the same books.

    • averyminya@beehaw.org
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      4 months ago

      If you were from California you probably knew he was full of shit because he duped the state out of a bullet train, promising the Hyperloop like from Futurama.

      Of course the Hyperloop got voted for and nothing ever came of it because if it is possible, Elon would not be part of finding that out.