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Comment by x86_64Ubuntu | Hacker News Reader

It is kind of strange how before, HN was an altar of Musk devotees praising him and his crusade for Free Speech Absolutism. And now, it's crickets. While the changes he's making are far worse than imagined, no one that wasn't a devotee imagined he was going to do anything beneficial for the platform. So I assume they are just being quiet now since nothing that's being done can be handwaved away.

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Maybe it's better to assume the best of people? Maybe we are just changing our minds in light of new facts rather than remaining "devotees"?

The ever-present problem with that way of looking at it is that there's actually nothing special or new or more obvious about these events than any previously that should have keyed you in that he's a petulant, stupid man-child.

If this actually woke you up, why didn't you wake up when he called a diver a pedo for no reason, and instead of apologizing he fought it in court saying that "nononono it's perfectly normal we said it all the time as kids" as if that should make it okay.

I wouldn't call myself a devotee, but I'm still on the positive side of the opinion spectrum.

The primary reason to not talk much is that it's useless. You can't reason with an angry mob. Sure there are plenty of things to criticize, but the mob is not focused on valid criticism targets. Anything and everything is hailed as a sign of evil and/or incompetence. It is incredibly exhausting to try to provide nuanced reasoning against kneejerk hate.

Overall I thought the whole Twitter purchase was a distraction when it was first announced and I still think that. I'm much more interested in SpaceX.

There's definitely some vitriol flying around relating to this - some directed at Musk, some directed at the woke/left/liberals they feel are responsible. But there are far more reasonable criticisms of the last couple of weeks' worth of chaos that express a tone of incredulity than anything. To me I think it's just that most of the things people have a problem with are basically indefensible, so either his fans won't try defend them or they've come round to the idea that he's maybe not who they thought he was.

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