Comment by nomorewords
1 day ago
No it's not sad, the man was basically an unelected official, laid off thousands of government workers and the second order effects of that will affect millions. All while he also toys with Ukraine and lives are lost so that he appeases an autocrat?
"No it's not sad, <I disagree with his politics>." really just proving GP's point imo. Imagine if you couldn't post a thread about Microsoft products on HN without republicans feeling the need to jump in to talk about how much they hate Bill Gates for his donations to Kamala Harris's campaign in 2024. It's really tiresome.
One of these people use their money to spread hate and promote themselves, the other does not.
The problem here is that one side of the political debate now uses "hate" as a synonym for "political opinions I disagree with". The political rhetoric has gotten so out of control that it's making it difficult to have a civilized discussion about anything, even topics that aren't inherently political (like a freaking flying car that does 0-60 in 0.8s!).
This is legitimately the stupidest comment I've seen on HN all year. One of these people have devoted billions of dollars to eradicating disease, providing education, developing living conditions and essential infrastructure, and improving quality of life and life expectancy for the worlds poorest, globally, for decades. The other has cozied up to corrupt kleptocrats and every other manner of scum to benefit himself while enriching himself at the expense of everyone else, particularly in his recent quest to become the worlds first trillionaire.
The temptation to succumb to Godwin's Law is so, so, so strong. How shitty and horrible of a person does one have to be for someone on HN to admit that they are a shitty and bad person? At some point the Big Bang sterotype of "nerd" who jerks off to the idea of a rich guy who "computers" and "businesses" and "engineers" outgrows tiresome and becomes despicable once said rich guy facilitates/encourages/actualizes concentration camps. Grow up.
The black pill for me is that these people's votes count equally
It's not politics to dislike a guy who fired thousands of Americans from their jobs for fun, disproportionately veterans. Failed to even do the thing he set out to do which is save the country money, and then quit. That's just incompetence with material negative effect on people's lives
I'd see it as totally fair.
We also weren't discussing GoDaddy as a registrar without mentioning it's CEO killing elephants and being an all around douchebag. Or Oracle without the lawnmower.
It's tough to ask people to dissociate the CEO from the company, especially when he's doing all the PR by himself.
> disagree with his politics
Its the character. Buying a global media platform to "promote free speech" and then shunt the entire thing and himself behind a particular political party. This guy uses his money and his twitter account to support neo-nazi hate groups in my country (Britain First, Patriotic Alternative, Hundred Handers, Tommy Tennames). He has no self-restraint. Its abhorrent. Its not "about politics" when the politics is about racial superiority and ethnic cleansing.
> Imagine if you couldn't post a thread about Microsoft products on HN without republicans feeling the need to jump in to talk about how much they hate Bill Gates for his donations to Kamala Harris's campaign in 2024. It's really tiresome.
and if Bill Gate was literally campaigning for the Dems, getting up on stage, handing voters cheques and THEN being employed by the government to run a department then you'd have a point.
He repeatedly crosses the line of what is appropriate. People with that level of wealth should stay the fuck away from politics and respect democracy instead of using their money and business to have excessive influence on democratic outcomes. Its unseemly and disrespects the idea of everyone getting the same amount of votes. I respect that donations have similarities but there's a difference between making a donation and being excessively public.
> People with that level of wealth should stay the fuck away from politics and respect democracy instead of using their money and business to have excessive influence on democratic outcomes.
People with that level of power — because it is power — will do what they will. “The strong do what they can, and the weak suffer what they must”.
> Its unseemly and disrespects the idea of everyone getting the same amount of votes. I respect that donations have similarities but there's a difference between making a donation and being excessively public.
We have transitioned, it would seem, from the pretence of “goodness” to naked displays of power. Unseemly, definitely.
Justice. Righteousness. Old fashioned words and old fashioned ideas. Oh for a good and righteous king!
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Where is the hyperloop? Where are the tunnels? Where is the mars program? Where are self driving cars?
He's a bloviating conman and no rational person should believe that this demo will ever see the light of day, if it wasn't faked.
This is completely outside of politics.
> Where are self driving cars?
On the road.
> Where is the mars program?
Starship is the required precursor.
> He's a bloviating conman
Enough of what he promised has been delivered that has made him a trillionaire.
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> laid off thousands of government workers
Preferably those tasked regulating his companies.
Anyone who believes that USAID was saving millions of lives (and that therefore millions of lives will be lost without it) hasn’t done the math.
Which math, please elaborate.
Did you not hear the claim that was widely quoted in the media that USAID had saved more than 91 million lives over 20 years? Anyone who believes that hasn’t done any math on it, or even thought about that number at all. I’m too hungry to be eloquent about it, so here’s someone else who is: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4eQZdxlPCU>.
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If they fired 90% of the government employees, nobody would feel the difference. Most people are just paper pushers and part of the nonsense system. He wanted to manage it like a company, and what any CEO would do when they just start working: trim the fat.
100% of the people I know that got DOGE’d were amazing people drastically underpaid for their efforts already…
3 or 4 data points isn’t a whole lot more than an anecdote, but it’s still more data than baseless claims line you’re throwing around here
They might choose to do that after gaining a cursory understanding of the actual inner workings of the organisation. Especially if that organisation functions differently than corporations.
So things are better now after firing all those ppl, right?
Do you care about food safety, disease prevention, consumer protection or the ability for the government to investigate blatant corruption?
Do you think this has gotten better or worse?
I hope you get fired, too.
"If you want a reduction in seat warmers in government you deserve to lose your job where you're actually being a productive member of society"
Guess he hit a nerve, eh? My condolences you got hit by the layoffs, try to not browse Reddit and Facebook all day at your next government job. Or do, but ONLY if you work for the IRS or ATF, they deserve nothing less.
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> the man was basically an unelected official
Only the President and Congress were elected. The rest are all appointed.
> laid off thousands of government workers
He did at the direction of the President, who was elected. Government service is not a jobs program.
> the second order effects of that will affect millions
speculation
> All while he also toys with Ukraine and lives are lost so that he appeases an autocrat?
Decisions about Ukraine go through Trump. Musk is in a delicate position - it is illegal for him, as a private businessman, to be a combatant, but he seems thrust into that position.
Yeah, and even with all the qualifications here, the man is still an absolute asshole.
All you need to do is see how frequently he posts on Twitter to know he's broken and trying to fill the hole with money and attention.
> absolute asshole
I've worked with engineers "on the spectrum" my entire career. They can be difficult to get along with. None of them were evil, none intended to offend or hurt others. It would just come out wrong.
Once I understood, it wasn't an issue for me any more.
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> it is illegal for him, as a private businessman, to be a combatant, but he seems thrust into that position.
Just doing his job and following orders?
Have a read about his actions on Ukraine, even just this last week. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2026/10/16/musk-appro...
Starshield is run by the US government, not Musk.
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This isn't TikTok. You can say "pedophile" here.
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Reporting literally just came out that throttling starlink for ukraine was his idea…but sure he is just a helpless innocent billionaire with no control whatsoever
Musk replied to that post, defending his company's involvement. "Starshield systems are owned and controlled by the US government. Any limits on speed or usage are decided by the US military and ultimately POTUS," he wrote. Musk added that Starlink is for "civilian or defensive activities and cannot be used for offensive military action, as doing so would be inappropriate for a commercial company".
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c8wy9veedgygo
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> Only the President and Congress were elected. The rest are all appointed.
So an unelected official would be correct, right?
> He did at the direction of the President, who was elected.
Where is your evidence? Reporting contradicts what you say - https://www.politico.com/news/2025/03/06/trump-cabinet-musk-...
> speculation
Not really. Multiple independent sources and reports have confirmed the damage done by Musk during his time at DOGE.
> Decisions about Ukraine go through Trump. Musk is in a delicate position - it is illegal for him, as a private businessman, to be a combatant, but he seems thrust into that position.
He is as "thrust" into that position as he was "thrust" into the DOGE role.
What are your thoughts on his illegal state-sanctioned intimidation of ex-FEMA CFO?
You're wasting your keystrokes; it's WalterBright, whose personal mission is to defend the idea that money is virtue, that those with money should be worshipped, and that anything other than laissez-faire capitalism is demonic.
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