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Comment by silentsanctuary | Hacker News Reader

> TLDR: The status quo elite that have been looting the USA for decades is being replaced by the guy who runs SpaceX and is the most transparent elite we've ever seen. Why is that scarier?

The reason why it's scarier is that for those of us who've come to understand Elon, his actions, and his methods better, it's clear that:

- he IS "the status quo elite that have been looting the USA for decades"

- instead of being an incredibly smart polymath who turns things to gold, it's become obvious his main talent is actually just convincing other people that he's smart

- the successes of Tesla and SpaceX have had to come DESPITE Elon's management, and despite having huge budgets to hire some of the smartest people around, he's still an incredibly weighty anchor pulling them down

- rather than being transparent, he's playing at being a showman - and people who are only passively observing the situation are getting sucked into it

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>the successes of SpaceX have had to come DESPITE Elon's management

Can you elaborate on this? AFAIK all other rocket companies without Elon have not been as successful. Also Eric Berger and multiple employees at SpaceX seem to disagree with your statement.

> the successes of Tesla and SpaceX have had to come DESPITE Elon's management

Huh? Name some better leaders who run more successful EV and space companies. There aren't any! Twitter is as popular as ever, and now xAI appears to be highly competitive.

But yeah sure, Elon is the common problem among all these successes.

He does make outlandish promises and lots of mean tweets though.

Twitter is losing users for the first time in its existence and lost 75% of its valuation since takeover.

Tesla is loing steam as other nations start linking Musk with the fascist threat looming over the US.

SpaceX, like all his successful ventures, are carried by exceptional talent. Attributing it to Musk is an insult to them.

Tell me, with him twitting an average of 60+ times a day, reaching max level in Path Of Exile, and now spending a fair share of his time dismantling the government, where does he find the time to put any work in his many companies? Answer: he doesn't.

My conclusion from reading The PayPal Wars was exactly that. That PayPal succeeded despite Musk.

As for all that government efficiency BS; it is just to swap to oligarchy. I mean, the name DOGE gives it away. DOGE was the first memecoin, entirely and openly being bullshit, yet it succeeded despite of that.

Meanwhile: not good emotional connection with father like the rest of these so-called strongmen (Trump, Putin, ...), and from a rich position of influence as child. Ie. he never was white trash, with his father having been part of pro-apartheid movement (a fight lost but which is meaningful for a young Elon). Furthermore, I am not convinced his drugs usage, in the end, serves him.

Sorry, but that is mental gymnastics. You've already made your conclusion and are torturing reality to make it fit.

Actually, I used to like Elon and was almost about to buy a Tesla, before the overwhelming burden of evidence required me to change my mind about him.

What motivates your point of view? I'm genuinely very curious.

Because "looting the USA" is a ridiculous accusation agains someone who is became wealthy from creating genuinely great products. He spent everything he had on SpaceX and Tesla and came incredibly close to losing it all. He is not some robber baron or oligarch who is wealthy by hoarding natural resources.

How is he the status quo elite? What leads you to believe he's not intelligent? Like those 2 things alone you need massive cognitive dissonance to believe.

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