Elon Musk | Doer of things on X and sad little man

Yep, even if they were a flawless product, I wouldn't give that clown a penny.
Yep, i am in the same boat. I will get an EV but it won't be a Tesla. I'll wait until Merc or BMW has a superior product. I don't really even like going on Twitter anymore because ad impressions make him money.
 
I wouldn't buy a Tesla anyway, because of stuff like build quality and i-Pad design, but if I did want one then I still wouldn't buy one on principle because of Musk. I'm sure there is an increasing number of people who are in that position.

Whenever I see a Tesla on the road these days I have an extra level of disdain for the driver that is usually only reserved for Jeeps. This is all down to Musk.
 
It’s not rude. Possibly poorly written.

I have Twitter account. I don’t tweet. I don’t follow anyone. I have zero followers. I had a fairly useful 15-30 minutes most days that I’d use Twitter as a quick news source. That’s gone now.

The site is now impossible to use. Every single recommended tweet, and the Home Screen, is Darren Grimes, Farage, GB News, et al.

The algorithm hasn’t been tweaked so much as high jacked.

It’s a fair point that I could follow a bunch of people and have different content pushed at me. But… why? Why is the default now a litany of racist and stunted right wing ghouls?

Has this recently happened or did my adblocker just get rid of this stuff?

One of my best mates is having a bit of a turn towards the right and the 'anti-woke' side of things lately and it's in part down to Twitter. He says he was constantly being bombarded with woke, liberal, trans, 'black angel' etc tweets and people to follow. I said that he'd gone looking for them because I never saw any of it (albeit knew it existed). I followed music, car and football accounts, cannot remember much SJWing at all before I got rid of the account. Wasn't sure if I'd tweaked my settings to just ignore 'recommended tweets' or anything like that.

I know I have FBPurity to get rid of everything I don't want on Facebook (and the account will probably go soon anyway) but wasn't aware of a Twitter variation to ignore all the stuff that gets shovelled your way by algorithms, etc.
 
Reasoned questioning of science happens during peer review; it’s built into the process of accepting new science.

One of the fundamental strengths of democracies has been that debate happens at many levels throughout society in order to achieve an intelligent and informed consensus. The "twitter files", a silly way to release the information but at least it is now out there, have shown that twitter and by extension likely all major social media companies were stifling the debate/discussion around Covid at the behest of the government, so that only the government approved narrative could be expressed. Many of the people whose opinions they were shutting down were themselves physicians or scientists who didn't agree with the government scientists. Science does not stop at the doors to the Centre for Disease control. In fact, it seems to me quite obvious that physicians on the front lines would have a lot to contribute and a very different perspective versus the physician bureaucrats working for the government.

This is particularly important in a situation where the pharmaceutical companies have very large profits that can be made from getting favourable decisions from the government. It is easier for the pharmaceutical companies to "capture" a few government physicians through a combination of lobbying, research funding grants and career opportunities after they leave government, than it is to sway the opinions of thousands of physicians and scientists across the country and at diverse universities and other organizations.
 
Reasoned questioning of science happens during peer review; it’s built into the process of accepting new science.
Peer review is broken beyond repair. The majority of peer review studies have non reproducible results, less so in math and physics, and more in social studies. Abusing the system (especially in non top tier) is pretty easy, and even without malicious actors, the system is pretty bad.

As anecdotal evidence in my field (AI/Computer Vision):

- one of the most cited papers (over 125k citations) has an error in the proof of convergence.

- another massively cited paper (over 40k citations) is wrong in the explanation why stuff in that paper works.

For what is worth:

- last year I was outstanding reviewer in both of the main venues in computer vision (there were probably less than 20 people who got the award in both), and I didn’t spend more than 2 hours in any of the paper I reviewed. Most of reviewers are worse than me and spend less time than that. You can imagine that in very technical papers, this means extremely superficial reviewing.

And computer science is light years ahead of social sciences in this. In social sciences, abusing statistics is pretty easy to come with whatever conclusions you want. In fact, you can get papers by just playing to the current social trends. There was this group of researchers who managed to get 8 batshit crazy papers by just playing to the trends. For example, during the middle of me2 campaign they got a paper accepted that arguments that ‘masturbating with the photo of someone without their permission is rape’.

Of course this does not mean that the entire system doesn’t work at all, but a dose of skepticism is needed. Saying that, what he is saying is probably some agenda against Fauci / right-wing conspiracy which has been going for some time, and likely gonna get intensified in the future. However the main point is correct, but the messenger is the wrong one.
 
Musk's "reasoned questioning" is probably akin to the loon on facebook who shouts all day about climate change being a hoax in which all the world's governments are behind and all the scientists are paid off to keep pushing - except those contrarian few who are literally paid and live lavishly on selling books, recording podcasts, going on conferences all around the world to "expose the truth". Those contrarians have absolutely no agenda and can 100% be trusted!
 
One of the fundamental strengths of democracies has been that debate happens at many levels throughout society in order to achieve an intelligent and informed consensus. The "twitter files", a silly way to release the information but at least it is now out there, have shown that twitter and by extension likely all major social media companies were stifling the debate/discussion around Covid at the behest of the government, so that only the government approved narrative could be expressed. Many of the people whose opinions they were shutting down were themselves physicians or scientists who didn't agree with the government scientists. Science does not stop at the doors to the Centre for Disease control. In fact, it seems to me quite obvious that physicians on the front lines would have a lot to contribute and a very different perspective versus the physician bureaucrats working for the government.

This is particularly important in a situation where the pharmaceutical companies have very large profits that can be made from getting favourable decisions from the government. It is easier for the pharmaceutical companies to "capture" a few government physicians through a combination of lobbying, research funding grants and career opportunities after they leave government, than it is to sway the opinions of thousands of physicians and scientists across the country and at diverse universities and other organizations.

Please tell us more about how physicians on the front line felt about Covid?
 
I have to preface that I don't like musk at all.

But the sheer amount of hate he's receiving from the left is hilarious considering how much the environmental libs loved him beforehand.

You would have thought he was the reincarnation of hitler or something.
 
I have to preface that I don't like musk at all.

But the sheer amount of hate he's receiving from the left is hilarious considering how much the environmental libs loved him beforehand.

You would have thought he was the reincarnation of hitler or something.


I don't like him.... But. Hmmm.


The narrative that the left loved Musk is utter horsehit. The left tend not to love billionaires, no matter what you hear.
 
I don't like him.... But. Hmmm.


The narrative that the left loved Musk is utter horsehit. The left tend not to love billionaires, no matter what you hear.
Musk is an arrogant annoying little manchild with God complex so common to these silicone Valley type fellas that I absolutely abhor.

And yes the left us very prone to sucking off billionaires if they happen to be on their side, unless by left you mean hard core communists but even then I'm not sure.
 
In theory he's right in this particular tweet, but you just know that his idea of 'reasoned' questioning is conspiracy theory and idiots talking about things they have no idea about.
Well questioned reasoning needs to be by those capable or qualified to question reasonably, he is only partly right because he leaves that bit open ended and not specific enough for the questioning.
 
I have to preface that I don't like musk at all.

But the sheer amount of hate he's receiving from the left is hilarious considering how much the environmental libs loved him beforehand.

You would have thought he was the reincarnation of hitler or something.
Fair bit of hyperbole in your comments.
Also the term you use of "environmental libs" is just fecking dumb. The environment is not a concern of just "libs" or "lefties"
It should for anyone with even half a brain be a concern of everyone.
 
I have to preface that I don't like musk at all.

But the sheer amount of hate he's receiving from the left is hilarious considering how much the environmental libs loved him beforehand.

You would have thought he was the reincarnation of hitler or something.
Musk now seems to have the adulation of the far right and is alienating people who previously had a more favourable opinion of him. It seems logical rather than hilarious that left leaning folks are much less likely to be supportive of Musk these days.
 
But the sheer amount of hate he's receiving from the left is hilarious considering how much the environmental libs loved him beforehand.

The left never loved Musk but let's pretend that we did. Have you never changed your mind about someone once you get more information about them?
 
Musk is an arrogant annoying little manchild with God complex so common to these silicone Valley type fellas that I absolutely abhor.

And yes the left us very prone to sucking off billionaires if they happen to be on their side, unless by left you mean hard core communists but even then I'm not sure.


Can you name any billionaire the left like?

And show me some lefties who used to love Musk?

I think it's you who doesn't know wfat the political left is. There is a huge left wing between the centre and communism. Go a few pages back and have a read, save the rest of us having this tedious discussion again.
 
Fair bit of hyperbole in your comments.
Also the term you use of "environmental libs" is just fecking dumb. The environment is not a concern of just "libs" or "lefties"
It should be for anyone with even half a brain be a concern of everyone.
Generalization, is it not mostly the let's concern?
You should take it as a compliment.
Musk now seems to have the adulation of the far right and is alienating people who previously had a more favourable opinion of him. It seems logical rather than hilarious that left leaning folks are much less likely to be supportive of Musk these days.
The conservative adulation of Musk is pathetic as well not denying that.

But the absolute sheer hatred that I've seen on society media from the opposing side on him has been to put it lightly extreme beyond hilarity.
 
Generalization, is it not mostly the let's concern?
You should take it as a compliment.

The conservative adulation of Musk is pathetic as well not denying that.

But the absolute sheer hatred that I've seen on society media from the opposing side on him has been to put it lightly extreme beyond hilarity.


It's weird to be put out by criticism of someone you don't like. Just as weird to pop into a thread about someone you don't like to have a laugh at people he's pissing off.
 
Generalization, is it not mostly the let's concern?
You should take it as a compliment.

The conservative adulation of Musk is pathetic as well not denying that.

But the absolute sheer hatred that I've seen on society media from the opposing side on him has been to put it lightly extreme beyond hilarity.
I haven't seen this sheer hatred you talk about. And you assume every time that it's coming from the "environmental libs"? All the while describing the alt-right trolls who hang on to his every word as "conservatives". OK...
 
The left never loved Musk but let's pretend that we did. Have you never changed your mind about someone once you get more information about them?
Yes but That wasn't my point, I just find the sheer hatred spewed on him extreme.
Can you name any billionaire the left like?

And show me some lefties who used to love Musk?

I think it's you who doesn't know wfat the political left is. There is a huge left wing between the centre and communism. Go a few pages back and have a read, save the rest of us having this tedious discussion again.
Left is a broad term but let's go with a very general us based view of it and then you have folks fawning over someone like oprah not so long ago.

I'd say Musk was pretty popular among that section at least that was the impression I got, almost every coverage of him I saw was positive and he got to be in stuff like iron man and Saturday night.
 
Yes but That wasn't my point, I just find the sheer hatred spewed on him extreme.

Left is a broad term but let's go with a very general us based view of it and then you have folks fawning over someone like oprah not so long ago.

I'd say Musk was pretty popular among that section at least that was the impression I got, almost every coverage of him I saw was positive and he got to be in stuff like iron man and Saturday night.

So broad it's a meaningless buzzword.
 
Yes but That wasn't my point, I just find the sheer hatred spewed on him extreme.

Left is a broad term but let's go with a very general us based view of it and then you have folks fawning over someone like oprah not so long ago.

I'd say Musk was pretty popular among that section at least that was the impression I got, almost every coverage of him I saw was positive and he got to be in stuff like iron man and Saturday night.

I don’t understand why any of this is strange or surprising to you. The impression we have of people can evolve over time. Would you have believed, 5 years ago, that the entire United fanbase would think Mason Greenwood and Ryan Giggs are despicable people?

When Musk was just known as a bloke who was pushing the motor industry to shift away from fossil fuels then a lot of people who cared about the environment would think he’s one of the good guys, based on a very superficial knowledge of what he’s like as a person.

Over time he reveals himself to be a horrible man-child, adored by bell-ends, so opinions change. There’s nothing weird or hypocritical going on here. It is what it is.
 
It's weird to be put out by criticism of someone you don't like. Just as weird to pop into a thread about someone you don't like to have a laugh at people he's pissing off.
Admittedly my shit stirring nature got the better of me, I saw it bumped on the main thread and couldn't contain.

But don't be mistaken i don't give a rat's ass about Musk himself.
I haven't seen this sheer hatred you talk about. And you assume every time that it's coming from the "environmental libs"? All the while describing the alt-right trolls who hang on to his every word as "conservatives". OK...
Well for one I didn't say it came exclusively from environmental libs i don't where you took that from and b i used broad terms again as I mostly see used in most social media.


The political environment has turned to such a sorry state that you could use the these terms interchangeably but for the sake of argument it's useful in painting a broad visualization.
So broad it's a meaningless buzzword.
Thought you say that.

Anyway I excuse myself.
 
I don’t understand why any of this is strange or surprising to you. The impression we have of people can evolve over time. Would you have believed, 5 years ago, that the entire United fanbase would think Mason Greenwood and Ryan Giggs are despicable people?

When Musk was just known as a bloke who was pushing the motor industry to shift away from fossil fuels then a lot of people who cared about the environment would think he’s one of the good guys, based on a very superficial knowledge of what he’s like as a person.

Over time he reveals himself to be a horrible man-child, adored by bell-ends, so opinions change. There’s nothing weird or hypocritical going on here. It is what it is.

Changing your opinion on something based on new information seems to be a foreign concept to some. You pick an opinion and you have to stick with it forever no matter what. Any change based on new things is “hypocritical”
 
Thought you say that.

Well by your definition it basically is everyone who isn't a right wing activist. So that's too broad a definition to be of any use.



Admittedly my shit stirring nature got the better of me, I saw it bumped on the main thread and couldn't contain.

But don't be mistaken i don't give a rat's ass about Musk himself.

Colour me sceptical.

Also the The General forum is much more suited to shit stirring.
 
Interesting phenomenon, these Don'tlikeHimbuts. Don't know if they bring more variety than those ButwhathasHedons.

BTW most leftists I know have no idea who Soros is.
 
Last edited: