Tell your revenue stream to go fuck themselves. It’s a bold move Elon. Let’s see if it pays off.
You’re acting like he wants Xitter to succeed. I suspect he wants it dead because he thinks it contributed to his child being trans. And also because some of his financiers don’t want an Arab Spring.
Edit: Either way he’s a piece of shit.
I used to agree with you, but now I really think he’s just a narcissist who wants the attention. If Twitter wasn’t profitable, the longer he owns it the more money he’s going to lose on top of how much he over paid for it. If he really wanted Twitter gone, he could have bought it and just… shut it off.
Like every single techbro, he thinks he’s the smartest guy in the room and demands the masses worship him for that. He just was lucky enough to have money to buy an entire platform to stroke his ego.
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How about buying a social media platform and making sure everybody sees whatever you say?
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No
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If he didn’t want it to succeed, he wouldn’t have rebranded it the same exact way he tried to rebrand PayPal. He wants this X everything app to be a thing.
There would be much less compromising ways for him to destroy Twitter if that was what he really wanted. He could have left his puppet CEO to do all the ridiculous shit and sit on his real life Iron Man throne only to eventually say “Welp, we tried. Clearly this site was doomed from the start.” and shut it down. Which people would have believed before he revealed what a clown he is.
No, no, no, it’s not Elon who’s out of touch. It’s the advertisers who are wrong! Just wait until all of Earth, apparently, hears of how these big mean advertisers killed the wondrous and righteous place named X. There will be outrage!.. so thinks Elon anyway. What a deluded moron.
Musk responded that the advertising boycott is likely to kill the company. “What this advertising boycott is going to do is it’s going to kill the company, and the whole world will know that those advertisers killed the company and we will document it in great detail,”
When Sorkin pointed out that advertisers see things differently, Musk replied, “oh yeah? Tell it to Earth.”
Sorkin continued: “They’re going to say, Elon, that you killed the company because you said these things and they were inappropriate things and they didn’t feel comfortable on the platform. That’s what they’re going to say.”
“And let’s see how Earth responds to that,” Musk replied.
I mean… I think that pretty much removes any last doubt anyone might have had that Elon Musk had any grasp on the reality that he himself exists in.
Dude you missed quoting the best bit!
“If somebody is going to try to blackmail me with advertising, blackmail me with money? Go fuck yourself,” Musk said.
Sorkin replied, “but,” and trailed off. Musk wasn’t done. “Go fuck yourself. Is that clear? I hope it is. Hey, Bob!” Musk said. Musk was apparently addressing Disney CEO Bob Iger, who previously said at the conference that advertising on X “was not necessarily a positive” association and so Disney “decided we would pull our advertising.”
The Muskrat told Disney CEO to go fuck himself.
On video.
With a hard F. No dissembling.
The Tesla board should remove him as CEO as he is clearly unstable.
It’s mean to laugh at people self destructing.
But anyway … fucking lol.
I think he’s going to OD someday
I’m not about to condone suicide.
But the world can do with less billionaires, especially those as mad as Elmo.
He was already destituted as CEO years ago.
I need this video
Clearedtoland posted it earlier
https://twitter.com/jd_durkin/status/1729991850079990080/video/1
Is there a non-shitter link?
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
https://www.piped.video/watch?v=U_M_uvDChJQ
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source; check me out at GitHub.
First of all thanks for sharing
Second of all, lmao what a retard
No idea how anyone could drive one of those Tesla deathtraps with this guy at the helm
He’s clearly lost what little he had
Isn’t he talking to Sorkin, tells him to fuck off and then he talks to Bob?
I don’t think the fuck off was directed at Sorkin, but the companies who had pulled advertising.
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Did you watch the clip?
Not what I would be looking for in a CEO.
What a ceo does or doesn’t do is immaterial
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If someone is so unhinged that he repedatly can’t control his language and emotions, it is a valid reason to suspect that these Person might have serious psychological Problems. So this Person might not be suitable to perform his dutys as CEO of a Company. And he also shouldn’t because the Stress and Pressure that comes with this Postion might add to his Problem.
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I just checked your Account. Created 5 Days ago. Only one Post with Bad ratio, lots of negative Comments. So I guess you are just a Troll and not worth of my Time.
Is english your first language? Because “Unhinged” is a pretty common Word even for me, with english as a second Language. Here is a Link to a Dictonary that might help you.
He’s a CEO. His job is to guide his company to make money. His actions are actively doing the opposite: he is causing his company to lose money.
While this happens from time to time, a smart, presumably stable CEO reverses course and engages in damage control when this happens. Instead, Musk is doubling down hard, despite knowing full well this is likely to destroy the platform formerly known as Twitter.
Look at it this way. You have an investment banker than handles investing a great deal of your money. You just found out said banker just made a series of awful decisions which caused the investments of several of their other clients to crash. They are unrepentant and refuse to take responsibility, instead telling those involved to go fuck themselves.
Would you want that person to continue to handle your money?
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Tesla and SpaceX, his other companies, are making money. If you’re on the board of those then there’s no reason to wonder if Musk is causing the company to lose money because you can just look at revenues and see that he’s not.
https://menafn.com/1107514727/Teslas-Musk-Says-Fallout-From-Sweden-Strike-Insane
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Well, good decisions aren’t his forte, so what else is left there?
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We’ve got another fan boy here who doesn’t realize Musk actually isn’t directly responsible for any of the innovations of the companies he funded or purchased. He just had money.
A bit of clear eyed professionalism would be a good start.
What he has achieved in the past is in the past.
Tesla is a major public traded company.
Business is business.
Your charismatic public facing CEO has turned from an asset to a liability?
Punt him.
Tesla is facing some headwinds, increasing competition in the EV space, reported troubles with some of its upcoming products, industrial disputes. Nothing that can’t be dealt with … If your CEO is not shitting the bed in public in another company and quite clearly under a lot of stress.
How can he be providing the attention and care Tesla needs from its CEO and for that matter Space X etc etc
More importantly how are the public, shareholders, customers viewing this? Do they think there is a loose unit in charge behaving irrationally and will that affect the confidence in the company?
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Because they see what he is doing at Twitter? Like, what the hell dude, that question has such an obvious answer, yet you ask it anyway. And I know why you do it - because now you will try to argue that what happens with Twitter and his public image doesn’t matter to Tesla which is a load of bull
His behaviour is pretty self explanatory.
He truly must believe he’s one of the good guys. Lmao Earth isn’t going to rise up for a divorced apartheid emerald mine inheritor, you dork.
Aren’t loans collateralized with Tesla shares? Maybe he is implying that if Twitter goes poof, it could really hurt or possibly destroy Tesla
If I remember correctly, only a third of the whole payment was financed with Tesla shares as collateral.
Now that, that sounds like blackmail.
Yeah, fuck divorced people!
You can’t hold a firm grasp on reality if it is distorted by your massive narcissism already. He thinks anyone but the bags of shit still on his platform care.
Twitter never actually mattered and nothing of value will be lost. He can pound sand.
Yikes. Broke Mind Virus.
What does he mean with his Earth comments? I’m so confused.
He means the planet is on his side. Because his ego is that size.
That’s crazy. This is why they tell you not to do drugs.
Not to do ketamine anyway, which apparently is his drug of choice.
He should have stuck to weed I guess.
I mean, he seemed pretty fucking high out of his gourd, so I suspect that he didn’t really know what reality he was in.
“And let’s see how Earth responds to that,” Musk replied.
I’m getting strong Kanye vibes from Elon these days.
Kanye’s straight up bipolar, maybe even schizoaffective. Musk still just looks like a narcissistic asshole, and the grandiosity about “Earth” caring about Twitter is par for the course
I’m sure the ketamine also doesn’t help, in Elon’s case.
As someone who takes prescribed ketamine on the regular, it blows my mind that he can still hold the shit opinions he has. I only ever feel more connected to everyone and more present with the small joys around me.
I’m guessing he takes it in vastly more quantities than you and also that it would affect someone who is already an asshole narcissist a different way than it would someone like yourself.
with his money, k is prolly the weakest chem hes on
I was just thinking the exact same thing the other day. Dude needs to take his meds.
Yep. Can’t put my finger on what’s happening there exactly, but there’s some kind of mental health crisis going on and it’s very public.
Earth?
The last time Earth told me anything I was on a lot of drugs.
Gaea told me she thinks Elon is a complete fuckwad and is the worst of the worst kind of virus on her.
A recent comment of mine:
In an old interview, Mr. Narcissus [Elon Musk] said he may have bipolar disorder; he said he experiences “great highs, terrible lows, and unrelenting stress”.
He has doubts because his highs and lows follow events in his life, whereas episodes from bipolar disorder often appear without triggers. […]
We’d know if he went for an evaluation/possible diagnosis, but I cannot even imagine him doing it.
Kanye West is usually manic when he acts this way. I guess this supports Musk’s suspicion.
He has doubts because his highs and lows follow events in his life, whereas episodes from bipolar disorder often appear without triggers. […]
Maybe the events are what follow the highs and lows.
Quick, someone introduce Musk to Jonah Hill!
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Gotta respect that double spacing. 👍
I don’t get it, what double spacing?
The double spaces between sentences. Tbh, it is kinda nice for readability.
If you were taught on a typewriter, you double space for life. It’s impossible to stop once ingrained.
I was taught by people who were taught on typewriters, and it’s still ingrained.
OK that doesn’t show here (Firefox on Linux), I actually copied the text into an editor, and searched for double spaces, and none were found.
Tried another Browser Falkon which uses QtWebEngine, and there are no doublespaces there either.
So apparently some browsers render Lemmy posts differently.Browsers collapse whitespace unless told not to by the webpage CSS. I’m not using a browser though, I’m using Boost for Lemmy.
Ah that explains it. 👍
“Boost for Lemmy” I learned a thing existed today, that I was unaware of yesterday. Thank you for that!
I am happy to have accidentally helped someone. 😁 Take care!
I really wish it would come back in style. I hate the single space after a full stop, it feels inadequate.
Huh, I thought Markdown basically just ignored all extra whitespace
HTML in browsers ignores the whitespace, I think, not markdown specifically.
Plus, Markdown is more like guidelines than a standard.
This is the thing, yes. I’m using an app to browse Lemmy.
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I’m guessing most people on the internet don’t do it?
Definitely not 😁 But that’s cool, you stand out from the crowd. For us who use an app to browse Lemmy, at least.
Lol
Alternative conspiracy theory, he got paid to do that, as twitter even with all the bad things was a political tool against fascism and misinformation.
Maybe, but I do think he’s dumb and egotistical enough to lack self awareness.
He was backed by the Saudis. This money is nothing to them. They win if Twitter profits, they win if Twitter burns. I don’t thing they care.
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Once you’re that rich, the currency is favours and influence, not just money. He got in out of his depth, then got helped out by some big backers. What they offered him, in the backroom deal, I’ve no clue.
Frankly there is no alternate conspiracy that can make this make sense. Even if the point is destroying Twitter, why does he have to be the one to personally take the reputation hit? He could downright hire some celebrity CEO to say and do all the shit he wants done, get all the flak while he relaxes on a yacht. There may or may not be backroom deals but he’s still being a chump for exposing himself like that. His business are taking hits because he’s seen as increasingly unreliable.
Even if he loses al his companies he still has money to live on that yacht for the rest of his life,(doubt it as USA is practically funding him), he is a narcissist he wants the attention, he wants people talking about him.
But any guess is as good as mine, maybe he is the Manchurian candidate maybe not.
I think he’s just proof that money doesn’t make people immune to internet brain rot.
There’s no way he would’ve willingly taken a hit to his reputation like this
Kompromat?
I really don’t understand this take at all. He just seems like a straight up fool to me. Even if he was coerced into destroying Twitter, why do people seriously go, “Oh no! There is literally nowhere else to have these kinds of discussions or rallying!” When there are in fact PLENTY and could even be MADE for these kinds of situations? Look at the Fediverse for example, but why stop there? You’ve got other silly social media sites that can be used the same way if someone actually tried hard enough. If those don’t work out, you can always find a way IF you truly do care enough.
I really don’t understand this take at all.
Reddit just like Lemmy it’s not an accurate representation of reality, yes you are all tech experts, you use Linux and Lemmy, opensource software and hate the system, the average citizen uses windows, spends his time on TikTok, meta or whatever, they will use whatever is convenient for them.
if someone actually tried hard enough.
People try hard enough all the time, just not in your virtual bubble.
Reddit just like Lemmy it’s not an accurate representation of reality
Thank you for reminding us. This place can be a bit crazy sometimes, and reddit too.
Twitter has roughly 240 million daily users, about half of whom are from USA. It might be a bit early to call it a ruined company.
By comparison Lemmy has 30,000 active users and steadily dropping.
It’s actually pretty funny how much of an echo chamber Lemmy can be. All I see is positive comments about how Lemmy is so great and growing, and Twitter is dead! Meanwhile it’s the opposite. Twitter is still very much alive, and Lemmy is becoming a small cul-de-sac echo chamber.
My Lemmy app lets me tag people, which I use to tag people who are rude to others, nice to me, helpful, racist, etc, just so I can remember who was nice and who wasn’t nice to interact with, and I literally see the same handful of people in every thread, and the front page of “everything” is filled with the same people making every thread.
Same with Reddit. We all thought Reddit was dead, and, well… it isn’t. Some days I really regret getting IP banned for shilling out Lemmy. Plenty of communities I really miss from Reddit that just simply won’t work on Lemmy, because of how Lemmy is so FOSS centric.
Musk says X advertiser backlash is “going to kill the company.”
For once I hope you’re not wrong, Musk!
“It’s not me being an antisemitic transphobic bigot that’s killing Twitter; it’s all the companies who don’t want their brands next to my antisemitic transphobic comments!”
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Musk was responding to a post that said Jewish communities “have been pushing the exact kind of dialectical hatred against whites that they claim to want people to stop using against them.” The post also referenced “hordes of minorities” flooding Western countries, a popular antisemitic conspiracy theory.
It’s the kind of post you can find easily on X these days, and likely would have gone unnoticed had Musk, with more than 160 million followers, not re-shared the post with the comment: “You have said the actual truth.”
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That’s not what he was agreeing to, he agreed with a conspiracy theory that claims that Jewish people are actively encouraging the “Great Replacement Theory”. So it’s two conspiracy theories stacked on top of one another.
Oh shit, is that how capitalism works? I never thought the money leopards would eat my face!
Smartest thing he’s ever said.
I have never in my life seen an interviewer try to get someone to save face like this. Elon has zero self awareness, and he’s basically behaving like a petulant child. Who the fuck sees this man as a genius?
He needs to stop hitting the ke–actually, no. He needs to hit more of that shit. At least until the road dead ends.
Well he’s rich, so he’s a genius. And we should worship him.
/s
Well he’s rich, so he’s a genius
This is why I’m fine with all the news stories about him. He’s actively debunking this every single time.
Yeah I don’t think American society was quite ready to handle a publicly moronic billionaire.
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Trump never got the popular vote.
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At this point it starts to really look he wants X to bankrupt so he doesn’t have to pay
His backers include the Saudis. If he doesn’t pay, they’ll whip out ol’ bonesaw on him
He never actually wanted it as a company, he only wanted to open it up because he had a misguided belief it was some evil corporation controlling what people can say and he wanted that control instead.
I don’t even think it was that, from what I understand he claimed that he was buying Twitter out of a desperate bid for attention. And then he was too fucking stupid you understand how Finance law works, and that you can’t just back out of a billion dollar deal last second with no warning or without probable cause.
Why wouldn’t he have to pay? He already had to pay when he bought it. He put in cash and took on debt. The only real benefit to this thing tanking is he can take a massive capital loss and probably never pay income tax again.
The downside is he would owe a lot of money to people you don’t want to owe and he looks like a bigger moron by the day. Sooner or later, Tesla investors are going to get spooked by his deranged behavior and then he’s in a world of hurt. All his wealth is tied up in Tesla and he uses his position as CEO to pump the stock with all his bullshit lies. It’s like a giant Ponzi scheme. As soon as the value comes back down to Earth and the stock is priced like a normal company he’s in big trouble.
probably never pay income tax again
He doesn’t pay income tax now. He has no taxable income. The guy isn’t drawing a salary, his money comes from capital gains and he’s taxed on that.
Yes, that’s correct but a year or two back he did liquidate some of that money and to pay taxes. I thing he’s the record holder for having to pay the must taxes at once by a single individual.
He’s definitely trying to destroy Twitter on purpose.
I’m glad that I never fell through the hype of him being the real life Tony stark, 10 years ago people were sure this guy was going to get us on Mars and save the world. There are Comics out there of him being not only supportive of trans rights, but inventing the Tesla Model TG in order to give us all cat girls
I would be willing to forgive a lot if he could give us all cat girls. Not all, but a lot.
If you turn to me into a cat girl, it would redeem his spot in the history books in my eyes, and I would start liking him for the first time. Because I am proud to say that I never believed the pipe about this guy being the real life Tony stark.
This guy isn’t even good enough to be the real life Norman Osborne as Iron Patriot.
No, his more of a Steve Jobs, in that he knows how to get the right people in a room and get investors to invest in his companies.
We can’t rule out the Mars thing. I’m still looking forward to it.
Although I imagine if SpaceX does get to Mars, it’ll be in spite of Elon, not because of him
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The best part was the dead silence when he was waiting for laughter or something, the silence was murder on his soul. Not unlike when Dave Chapelle brought him out on stage for who knows why and he was booed like …how fucking out of touch are you Dave, and why would you bring that turd out?
Dave got rich and kinda lost his grip with reality
There is probably some secret rich person drug that they’re all doing that makes them this way. We’ll find out about it in a few decades.
Like lead in gasoline
It’s a lack of negative reinforcement. Normal people face negative reinforcement every single day: if you screw up you lose something. Relationships, jobs, money, etc.
After a certain amount of wealth the negative reinforcement starts to disappear. You don’t need to give a shit about what “little people” think when you can always find an audience that agrees with you. When people will put up with your shit because you’re the one footing the bill. When expensive mistakes are pennies to you.
It’s called “unwavering approval from your peers.”
We’d all be pieces of shit if our peers cheered us on for every bad thing we did.
Or when he died on his ass on SNL. Or when he appeared in a Rick & Morty episode and managed to kill it by his mere presence. He thinks he is edgy, funny and cool but he isn’t. Instead he is awkward, unfunny, weird and deeply unpopular for being a dick.
You know looking back on the history of Dave Chappelle and his blatant misogyny, it’s not surprising in hindsight that he turned out to be a piece of shit. He doesn’t seem to be fond of the idea of minorities getting rights unless it is specifically the minority he belongs to. If this guy were a white man, he would be up on stage saying the n-word twice is often and screaming about how the radical left wants to cancel him.
for who knows why
Money.
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Uhh, I think it was less about culture wars and more about the Saudis getting info on Arab Spring activists considering they bankrolled it.
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That’s a losing game for them. Whackamole at best. For every social media platform that dies, several more seek to replace it.
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Sure and each less relevant then the one before.
He’s so painfully unfunny that it’s hard to tell sometimes if he’s making an attempt at humor.
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If there’s anything left to sell after all the debtors. His genius plan to save money by not paying any bills isn’t a great long-term business strategy. Not to mention that billions in debt settled on the company just by buying them. It’s like buying a Ferrari, digging around in the seats for loose change, and then setting fire to the Ferrari while screaming at Mickey Mouse that you won’t be blackmailed with money.
It’s so fun to watch.
Considering how the company is leaded with debt, I wouldn’t be surprised if a single € would be overpaying currently.
Lower prices to entice them to come back
Sadly, that will probably work. Just like it did the last couple of times. Or just wait a month.
It will bring them back for a while, but as that happens their earnings diminish and the company debt increases.
A textbook example of what happens when you tear down things of which you don’t understand why they are there
Chesterton’s Fence
“What this advertising boycott is going to do is it’s going to kill the company, and the whole world will know that those advertisers killed the company and we will document it in great detail,” Musk said.
No need, you making twitter toxic to advertisers and the resulting fallout is already very well documented.
Even if it wasn’t obvious that he is the problem, he’s underestimating how many people think that toxic shithole has run its course already. Those advertisers might as well be cheered for it.
I actually really feel bad for Grimes now. If this is at all indicative of how he acts in personal relationships, he had to have been emotionally abusing and gaslighting her.
She chose to stay and have more than one child with him. I don’t feel sorry for her. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice though?
That’s true of plenty of abused women.
And a lot of them can’t be saved unless they’re willing to admit there is a problem and seek help. This is a woman who has a lot of resources at her disposal that a whole lot of domestic abuse victims regardless of gender do not have.
The fight we had after you caught me cheating killed our relationship. It’s your fault, and I’m going to tell all your friends.
What is this dude thinking? Who cares what he documents. What is he even talking about?
He’s defending himself… I guess, due to some antisemitic remarks he made recently and all his advertisers are bailing on xtwitter. So he said ‘fuck you’ to the advertisers and accused them of blackmail basically. So, ya know, billionaire fascist shit.
. So, ya know, billionaire fascist shit.
AKA
The flailing infantile tantruming of someone who is not used to facing repercussions for their actions.
I interpreted that as a veiled threat of reprisal against the companies boycotting it. Maybe that’s a darker way of thinking about it, but I wouldn’t be too surprised.
h eliterally said he had a graveyard full of his enemies.
I dont think you are being too dark in thinking hes threatening people for not obeying his brilliant magnificence.
Yea. It’s a very detached and odd statement he said, but I’m still wondering why not many are drawing the line to that. For the record I doubt he can do much damage to these corporations himself.
“I’m not wrong, it’s everyone else’s fault for not seeing how great I am.”
Lol what an idiot. Truly.
Pretty sure they can switch advertisers and pay everyone less if they really want to stay in business.
Heck, reducing salaries could actually make twitter profitable for once.
“Never go full Elon”
I’m going to start using this from now on
He seriously thinks the public will blame the former advertisers and be angry at them when the issue was obviously Musk running the company into the ground?
‘running the X into the ground’ actually has a term, it’s called elonning.
Where X declares a variable, not just Xitter
Yes… I just realised that X has two meanings now. Wait… 3.
X gon’ give it to ya
It applies to all his companies, not just X.
He’s elonning Tesla right now too.
Usually people with fuck-you money don’t literally, publicly say “fuck you” to their revenue streams. Usually.
When your that rich, they just let you do it.
Well, I doubt Disney will bring its ad business back to Xitter, but Musk is rich enough that he doesn’t have to care.
I wonder if hes going through a mental breakdown. Im all for him going down, but the way hes talking is weird.
Certainly nothing that a brain implant can solve…
And behaving. If not, then I believe he believes he is above all of this.
He’s been going through one for years now.
He’s the right age for a midlife crisis and a lot at that point can get triggered by growing mortality combined with a perceived lack of accomplishment in life. Additionally, as others have said, substance abuse is likely a factor in his life. A lot of wealthy people have huge substance abuse issues that their access to vast resources allows them to buffer most of the usual consequences of such. On top of all of that, he’s going through a divorce and child custody case with Grimes that is gearing up to be more toxic than a bottle of freshly pumped reactor four coolant water from the Chernobyl disaster.
Yeah I think mental breakdown is a pretty good bet. It is highly likely Musk has a substance abuse issue on top of all of that which is likely not helping anything. The wealthy in the United States do have some of the highest substance abuse rates because for many of them, their lifestyles and access to their vast wealth helps to buffer pretty much a lot of the usual consequences that people face with substance abuse issues. It wouldn’t surprise me the least to hear Musk diagnosed with oppositional defiant disorder and that he’s largely avoided his “come to Jesus” moment in that due to his vast wealth.
the way hes talking is weird
Yeah, it looks exactly the same way my Aunt used to talk when she was heavy on psychedelics, including the body language. It’s a kind of disinhibition where the mind isn’t firing any of the parts that would usually guide a person on making thoughtful responses and keeping up with the current situation. Like Musk in the video constantly looks like he’s talking to someone out in the audience rather than responding to the person asking the questions but then after talking jets his head right back to the person asking questions like he’s asking “more fuel please”.
I would be surprised if all of this isn’t driven by some substance abuse. But that said, none of anything that’s happening is likely good for his mental state, even with his wealth all of this is likely taking a toll on his mental state. The drugs only beg the question of how aware he might be of his declining mental health. But he’d likely tell any doctor concerned about Musk’s mental state to go fuck themselves at this point.
Was this written by an AI?
It sure reads that way. Absolutely bizarre writing style
He’s so much like Trump. Except maybe even more childish somehow.
Because Trump, as weirdly as he may go about it, has made his way through life on his (inherited fortune from his from his crook of a father and) force of personality.
He gets people to do what he wants them to do by projecting an image, a brand, through the way he acts and speaks. Look at The Apprentice. He’s playing this role that says (without saying out loud), “Look at me. I’m a straight shooting, no nonsense business leader and my personality and business sense have brought me success, money, fame, luxury, and power. You want that too? You want to be like me? Then do what I say.”
Not saying it’s authentic or that it should work, but Trump’s entire existence is based on this tactic. He’s constantly projecting an image, and it’s that projection of that image that gets him his way. His force of personality is just as, if not more central to his power as his money (make no mistake, the money is necessary too).
This, in contrast with Musk, who’s typically cultivated his following based on ideas and drive. He gets people to go along with him because he’s seen as a modern day Edison (and to be fair, the comparison, in some ways, is apt… especially the less flattering ones), a groundbreaker, rules breaker…a visionary.
Simply put, among the people who follow these guys, people follow Musk for what he says (in terms of his big ideas), people follow Trump for the way he acts (in terms of the image he projects). It takes a strong set of blinders to ignore Musk’s sharing of his worse ideas and Trump’s less than impressive antics, but their respective cults have had plenty of practice in those mental gymnastics.
Thus you’re left with the mind boggling (to the rest of us) situation where Musk’s followers don’t care how he acts, because they are laser focused on his ideas, while Trump supporters couldn’t care less about the crazy or incoherent stuff he says, so long as he keeps projecting that macho, confident persona.
So that’s how Musk gets away with being “Trump, but more childish”: he’s not depending on the personality like Trump, so he can act that way without turning his supporters off, because they don’t care about that in the first place.
Musk’s entire angle is "it’s okay to be a humongous asshole if you achieve your goals.
Trump’s is, “It’s okay to be a humongous asshole, as long as you can sell it as arrogance bred from success.”
This is spot on accurate, Donald Trump is a Salesman who sells the character of trump. He knows that No Nonsense billionaires with a genius intellect who are well first in the art of the deal do not exist, but he will sell you the fantasy.
I daresay that Kevin O’Leary on Shark Tank makes a good case for one existing.
Funny enough O’Leary will also tell you he has lost money and that its a gambling game of trying to be smart and cautious which is what makes hime unpopular because he is too honest that you can lose.
I agree. It’s part of being no nonsense.
