[brindlejim]

I agree with the author that there is a good Elon and a bad Elon.

But I think Twitter only gets the bad Elon.

At Tesla, Elon is producing EVs to help save the planet. At SpaceX, he is producing spacecraft to help save humanity. At Twitter, he is making the world a better place for unfounded conspiracy theories and Russian talking points, which he himself promotes.

In the last month, Elon has claimed on Twitter that 1) the attack on Nancy Pelosi's aging husband was due to a dispute with a gay lover; 2) Ukraine, a sovereign nation, should give up its industrial heartland to a bunch of rapists and war criminals; 3) Taiwan, a sovereign nation, should subjugate itself to the Chinese police state.

That is, Twitter employees don't get the visionary. They get an abusive boss who is also bad at filtering information, leaning into stupid theories, and willing to traffic with police states to forward his interests.

Frankly, I miss the good Elon, and I wonder where he went.

* https://www.cbsnews.com/news/elon-musk-taiwan-china-ukraine-...

* https://www.vice.com/en/article/ake44z/elon-musk-vladimir-pu...

* https://www.cbsnews.com/news/elon-musk-paul-pelosi-tweets-li...

[woodruffw]

I don’t buy the premise: it’s not clear to me how prolonging our dependence on personal cars saves the planet, or how anything about space exploration is going to save the billions of humans who live on Earth.

It’s very easy to confuse objects of technical fascination with moral virtue, particularly when our world appears bleak. But Musk has demonstrated no motives other than profit and infamy.

[angelbar]

1) Its better to let the fossil fuels burn in a central site to generate energy than to be burned in individual ICE vehicles. Not including renewable energy.

2) SpaceX is not directed to save people in earth, but humanity in general. There is a need to generate other organizations for save earthlings, but it is not SpaceX. -But Musk has demonstrated no motives other than profit and infamy-... Sure.

[brindlejim]

I think that making humanity a multi-planetary species, by definition, derisks the possibility that humanity will die out, especially if the extra-terrestrial colonies are self-sufficient. I actually don't see how you can logically dispute that. I find Elon's drive to make us multi-planetary totally respectable, and a logical action based on the nuclear and climatic risks we face on Earth.

Making cars electric means that we could swap in an alternative form of fuel, like nuclear, without breaking an economy and society that depends on driving.

I think Musk has demonstrated mixed motives, and in that, he resembles most people. His political and geopolitical opinions are regrettable, and if we wants to operate a large social media platform and appease advertisers of many stripes, he should probably shut up. But I doubt he has the humility or self-awareness to do that.