[threethirtytwo]

People don’t look at the complexity of a human character. They take the easiest extreme and run with it. I was on another HN thread where practically everyone was calling Elon a psychopath.

If you think objectively Elon is not a psychopath.

[sumeno]

He has a higher body count than any serial killer who has ever lived with DOGE alone. He may or may not be clinically diagnosable, but he's a monster either way

[ben_w]

While I share your opinion on his character, the first part of what you say is also true for almost everyone who wielded the kinds and scales power that was given to him via DOGE: Every battleship is a hospital not built, etc.

[sumeno]

There's a big difference between leaders making carefully considered decisions that have life and death consequences and what doge did.

[ben_w]

Sure, this is why I opened the way I did. I agree Musk's a wrong 'un.

[aeternum]

> Every battleship is a hospital not built

It's sad that this is believed when it's most often the opposite. Especially in this case we have a literal historical example. You'll never guess what Henry Kaiser built before creating Kaiser, the largest set of hospitals in CA.

[ben_w]

I can't imagine why you think that's a good example.

The money spent on the ships* could not be double-spent on hospitals. The workers whose manual labour was dedicated to those later ships could not be simultaneously dedicated to more hospitals. The crew of a battleship cannot be simultaneously working in a hospital, the maintenance teams repairing it cannot be simultaneously repairing a hospital.

Every resource-management game demonstrates this principle, even if they're all gross simplifications.

* Wikipedia says Kaiser's ships were cargo and transport, not battleships, which means they had the potential to be a net positive on the economy. This is better than a battleship, because domestic military gear can't be a net positive: the point is to keep matériel and personnel around to deter enemies, and only use them for training and when enemies aren't deterred.

[aeternum]

This could be true if labor were ever the bottleneck in construction projects.

It almost never is.

[sjsdaiuasgdia]

This is a false equivalency, and it minimizes the carelessness and maliciousness of how DOGE operated.

[Angostura]

You’re right. Sociopath is probably a better fit.