[agentofoblivion]

I’m pretty sure those are supposed to be moral lessons, not misery porn. But hey, you seem to openly accept the idea of enjoying another’s suffering, and I admire that kind of honesty. I hope it doesn’t end up causing you misery.

[wpietri]

I don't think you're quite getting the moral lesson in telling stories about gods punishing hubris, so let me spell it out: titanic arrogance is bad and comes with consequences, so don't do it, kids. The point is for people to see particular kinds of suffering as both appropriate and necessary.

I agree that people enjoying suffering generally is pretty bad, and I avoid it. But I make an exception for people who cause suffering receiving the just consequences of their terrible actions. If Musk were just some guy who were living a quiet life and then got cancer or something, I'd feel for him. But he's not. He's someone who's been aggressively a jerk for more than a decade.

His deciding to take on being a CEO of yet another company, one he didn't really understand except as a user, was bad enough. But as a former Twitter user and employee, I've had to watch him destroy something that a lot of people, me included, worked very hard on. I've had to watch him harm thousands of people quite directly, and many more indirectly. And all for nothing more than his arrogance and some half-baked clout-chasing notions.

So I am absolutely going to enjoy the fuck out of his serial rake-stepping. Could this be bad for me? Well that's a question I will take seriously from somebody in saffron robes that spends 10 hours a day meditating. But it's not one I'll entertain from the Volunteer Musk Defense Brigade, and especially not from one of its members who was busy performing lack of empathy recently on this very site: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35824824

[agentofoblivion]

Yes, pride -> fall, I get it. Although it's the celebration of the fall from the sidelines that I'm questioning. I can feel the spite in your words--towards me, towards Musk, and the "other side", which are a faceless group you call the Volunteer Musk Defense Brigade, of which I'm apparently an unknowing member, I guess because I don't think some technical glitch is that big of a deal. You seem to feel lots of spite for people you've never met. I think there are plenty of tragedies written of people destroyed by their spite--maybe Notes from the Underground qualifies.

And in an irony of ironies, you crawl through my post history and take objection to me expressing my lack of empathy for those that make repeated bad financial decisions, but you're not only defending that very sentiment, but taking it a step further: enjoyment of the suffering. I hope you find peace, brother. I'm going to put my robes back on and get those last few meditation hours in now.

[wpietri]

You're not questioning it. You're objecting to it. If you were actually questioning, you would have engaged with the fact that stories about hubris justly punished have been a staple of moral education for literal millennia.

But you're only objecting to it when it's somebody you like. When it's poor people, you're fine with trumpeting your imagined moral superiority. But when it's a famous rich guy, you're out here doing free PR on his behalf. You did not "go build something" then, and you're unable to even reflect on your blatant double standard.

You have no standing to moralize at me. And just to be clear, what I feel for you is not spite, but contempt, because you're not only a hypocrite, but you're using what might be otherwise valid moral points to derail discussion of one of the world's biggest jerks. Motes and beams, buddy.