[mmooss]

> Love him or hate him, he gets shit done.

That's the strongman argument, also used for people like Mussolini. The world besides Musk, before Musk, and after Musk (unless he destroys it) gets plenty of things done. 99% of Silicon Valley did it without him.

They get things done for some, and destroy and kill others. If he's so good - or even basically capable as a manager and leader - then like the others he can really get things done, by meeting all the goals and requirements, which includes the rights and welfare of everyone else.

And Twitter has worked out very poorly - possibly the most money-losing deal ever?

[bdangubic]

he bought full and entire control of America for measly $44bn, likely will be viewed later in history as the greatest investment ever made :)

he didnt buy twitter to make money off it, he bought it to control the masses and swing election - mission accomplished

[adamredwoods]

Plutocracy unveiled.

[bdangubic]

look at where democracy got us - maybe time to try something else? :)

[mmooss]

> look at where democracy got us

It's gotten us far beyond anything humanity imagined before it - or than any other form of government has achieved - in terms of freedom, justice, security, prosperity, health .... It's like early Google investors saying, 'look where that investment got us' - as a criticism!

Name any non-democratic country that compares!

[adamredwoods]

Ranked voting, for a start!

[bdangubic]

ohh that would be the day! not to sound all pessimistic on this fine saturday but people are too stupid to see the benefits of it

[mmooss]

Many places in the world use it now.

[Cumpiler69]

> 99% of Silicon Valley did it without him.

Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Zuckerberg, the entire PayPal Mafia, all of SV's big players did the same things or worse than Musk to create their trillion dollar empires, except more low-key and with less public exposure. They were all ruthless strong men. You don't get to build empires by "being nice".

Musk is the hate poster child of SV due to his excessive personality and massive social media exposure, but he's no worse than the other SV giants that don't leave the shadows and stay out of the limelight.

>That's the strongman argument, also used for people like Mussolini.

I should have stopped responding to you right here. Comparing a controversial tech entrepreneur to Mussolini is the ultimate -200 IQ exaggeration since comparisons like these denigrates the actual suffering people under Mussolini and other dictators had to endure.

[mmooss]

Who did Gates publicly call a pedophile? Who did Zuckerberg incite mass harassment against in order to terrorize them and drive them out of their workplace? Which of those people spread and incite hatred against Jewish people, immigrants, trans people, and endless more? Which of them openly backed a political candidate? Which openly and intentionally lied to their shareholders and the market?

In fact none of them did any of that - all these people succeeded, on incredible levels, without doing any of those things Musk does.

>> That's the strongman argument, also used for people like Mussolini.

> I should have stopped responding to you right here.

Why? Just address it on its merits.

[Cumpiler69]

>Why?

Because it's waters down the massive suffering of people living under these dictators had to endure. Musk may not be a good guy by modern ethical standards, but he never caused millions to die or suffer like Mussolini so please lay off comparisons for which you don't understand the historical context.

You basically show you have no idea what you're talking about with such gross comparisons.

[mmooss]

Fair enough point, but do we wait until millions suffer and die in order to call it out? Causing widespread suffering is a means fully embraced, planned, and enacted by Musk and the team Musk is on. How much more warning do you need?

And they justify it by saying 'we get things done'.

[Cumpiler69]

>Fair enough point, but do we wait until millions suffer and die in order to call it out?

Reading mean comments on Elon's social media platform is not "suffering". You can just turn it off and stop using it. You also don't have to work for Elon's companies, you are free to work anywhere else.

Stop comparing it to life under dictators. Talk to people who lived under Pol Pot, Stalin, Mao or Ceuasescu. Comparing Elon or his tech companies to those is a huge disservice to millions who saw actual suffering.

Comments like these come from people in positions of extreme privilege who never knew actual suffering and think they're doing the world a favor with their thought.

[adamredwoods]

Dictator for a day?

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/what-trump-has-said-he...

[mmooss]

> Reading mean comments on Elon's social media platform is not "suffering". You can just turn it off and stop using it.

The comments have a real-world impact - does anyone claim otherwise? Why would we even imagine that people magicially forget what they read on X when they log off? The hate spreads and is inflamed, people are conditioned to cruelty, and we know very well where that leads in the real world: brutality, oppression, and harassment. Musk's goal is to terrorize federal workers into leaving their jobs - not just in their X feeds.

How do you not stand against that? How do you spend time defending this person?

> Stop comparing it to life under dictators. Talk to people who lived under Pol Pot, Stalin, Mao or Ceuasescu.

Only life under Pol Pot, Stalin, etc. is bad enough to be a problem and nobody else can be criticized? (And I didn't compare anyone to those people, you did.) That's an extreme standard. And again, do you wait until people are dying and being oppressed? They already are victims of hate, violence, and oppression in record numbers.