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Comment by RodericDay | Hacker News Reader

Oh man I totally disagree with this.

Elon Musk has almost "manifest destiny" ideas about the inherent goodness of America. He talks about the virtues of unfettered capitalism while his lobbyists keep India from playing in American satellite markets. He donated to Marco Rubio as well as to democrat candidates.

I don't think Musk is particularly principled. We're just lucky that he thinks rockets and alternative energy are cool.

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Totally agree. His personal/family life is a shambles which is a real litmus test of character and integrity.

He has achieved great financial, business, and technology successes and is a visionary, but let's not confuse that with being a role model or hero to be emulated.

Stallman on the other hand gets nothing but respect from me for his personal integrity and values.

Musk has a great backing by a few enlightened persons that try to bring ideas that were floating 40-60 years ago to reality as due to technological advances some of them are now possible or viable and no longer need to reside in sci-fi world only.

Just because he subscribes to a different ideology doesn't mean he isn't also very principled. I mean, his "manifest destiny" ideas (as you put it) led him to give his competitors open access to Tesla's patents.

The parent poster gave an example of hypocritical behavior:

> He talks about the virtues of unfettered capitalism while his lobbyists keep India from playing in American satellite markets.

Their principles are just different, man.

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