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Comment by aetimmes

1 year ago

> the things he's done are amazing

The things he's _purchased_ are amazing.

The things he purchased were fine. They became revolutionary under him.

The man has a lot of flaws and since covid drifted into ideologies I don't agree with. I also wouldn't buy a Tesla. But there is no denying that both Tesla and SpaceX revolutionized their respective industries. And it seems safe to say that neither would have managed to do this without Musk. And at least SpaceX manages to sustain a substantial lead over the competition and continues revolutionizing industries.

This is obviously untrue. what you’re really saying is “I don’t agree with Elons views so it would be uncomfortable for me to think that he has some admirable qualities, so I don’t allow myself to think about it”

SpaceX, the topic of this thread, was wholly started by him, with him being very hands own since the beginning till at least the first F9. Just watch any fab tour with him, be the old ones from 2005 or the new ones at Texas.

He is also a founder at Tesla, as when he entered the round A financing Tesla was just three guys, some networking, and nothing more. Even the "Tesla" trademark and logo registration was made by SpaceX people. He didn't found his own car company with just J. B. Straubel (another Tesla founder who was being paid by him to develop electric car batteries at the time) because he thought it would be better to cooperate with that other group that was was inspired by the same idea and he though he would be able to concentrate more on SpaceX that way. He was wrong and had to take the CEO position on Tesla later to avoid bankrupcy, move the Model S design headquarters to SpaceX, etc. And it's now nothing like what it was when he first put money on it.

It's amazing the mental gymnastics otherwise intelligent people reach for just to allow themselves to feel superior over someone whose politics they disagree with.

  • It's a self defense mechanism after all - someone demonstrably successful and accomplished holding different views forces you to introspect the narratives you were sold... so it's easier to just argue against the former.

    I would venture a guess that the bulk of Elon animosity started exactly at twitter acquisition time, when the people selling the narratives lost their merchanting channel and so they made sure to poison the well beforehand.