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Comment by tluyben2 | Hacker News Reader

I find that one of the biggest riddles since this Twitter thing; why do so many people feel they need to protect (well... they aren't doing much but should online, so better say ; take sides) with one of the richest men in the world who really doesn't need their help at all. He also will not ever reciprocate, in any way, shape or form. So why are so many people trying to defend everything he does?

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PhilosophyTube aka Abigail Thorne has a take on this in her "what's wrong with royalty" video: If people associate prestige with something they can identify with, then the prestige can "rub off" on them in their perception, they can claim to be part of it. E.g. Britishness being tied to the royal family and that being inherently more refined than more base communities.

For Musk, he's a white, rich tech bro who explicitly announces his "alpha" status https://nypost.com/2022/05/23/elon-musk-told-first-wife-at-t... (which I'll let you read between the lines yourself on) - a lot of white wanna be rich tech bros will identify with him.

And that's not even going into the whole "If I lick his boots enough senpai might notice me" dynamic

Maybe what you take for protecting Elon is really just having a different opinion? I've personally 'defended' Musk a lot on HN already, not because I particularly like him or think he needs it, but because I honestly think that he is smart and archieved some impressive successes. He's still flawed, obviously, but that doesn't mean that I won't disagree with someone arguing that he is just to dumb to manage anything.

Now, of course there are fanboys agreeing with everything and haters disagreeing with everything, but in these Elon threats I saw a lot of accusations of fanboyism/blind hate when the actual commenter simply disagreed about the situation.

Yeah, that makes sense, but it seems more and more like fanboys than people like yourself. I have heard him say smart things and seen him do good things, and I say that in a nuanced way. I was more talking about people on Twitter (and everywhere else really...) who come in droves telling 'critical' people they are left-wing, woke and, of course, jealous of Musk. If you are just commenting something positive about Musk that has merit, then of course that's great, but the slack-jawed adoration for the dude is just incredible. Especially when he is being a dick and/or wrong.

I guess I never looked up to someone in that way maybe... Especially someone who I don't know personally and see on the internet (and thus might be a horrible person irl).

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