Comment by jrflowers
6 days ago
> I think you need to moderate any thoughts on Musk
The idea that forming an opinion about somebody based on what they publicly repeatedly say and do over the course of years is somehow the wrong approach with This One Guy is an act of unnecessary and unjustified generosity. “Loving the drama” is not in any way exclusive to having actual opinions, and trolls are not magical beings that exist in an inscrutable superposition of possible realities that they may or may not support.
It is downright silly when someone’s conduct is so clear that the only way to defend them is to handwave away everything that they say and do and retreat into the philosophical ideal of the unknowability of a man’s heart. That is an academic exercise that’s only useful in analyzing fictional characters and has negative value when applied to real-life powerful people that fund politicians and buy social media sites to forcibly mold public discussion to fit their values.
I'm not defending Mr. Musk at all. I'm saying it's pointless to spend more than 0.0001% of my time or brainpower thinking about him and his politics -- a COMPLETE waste of time exceeded perhaps only by reading his Tweets, be they heartfelt or performative or trolling. To the extent I'm thinking about Elon, I'm thinking about what led to his success, and how those lessons might apply to me or people I'm supporting.
Saying “we don’t know what he actually thinks” is a defense. You only ever see people use that line when it comes to his politics, but never say, to question whether he actually likes Diablo 4 or AI.
When it comes to things that people find mundane or agreeable, the stuff he posts about all day reflects what he thinks but when he gives fifty million dollars to Stephen Miller[1] in 2022 to fund his Citizens for Sanity ads[2], maybe he’s trolling or it’s drugs or whatever.
> I'm thinking about what led to his success, and how those lessons might apply to me or people I'm supporting.
This is quite literally a defense of his character. If your response to “this guy sucks, here is proof that this guy sucks” is “there is literally nothing bad he could do that justifies thinking about anything other than the positives about him”, that is what defending a person looks like.
1
https://thehill.com/policy/technology/4912754-musk-donated-m...
2
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2022/11/who-is-behind-citize...