Fins

I believe you could just as well conclude that these people are not conservatives by any reasonable stretch of the word, too. But then, "liberal" doesn't quite mean what it used to as well.

People at The American Conservative [0] might be religious nuts but I don't think anyone could in good conscience accuse them of being anywhere near alt-right.

And alt-right engages in identity politics, believes in primacy of the group over individual, see "enemies" behind every tree, and want to use the State against groups they dislike. Very much like the left. And while you would not want to meet either on a dark street, both, in US at least, are, generally, clowns who would be the first ones to be sent to the camps in the Reich, or USSR, or any other shining example of what happens when either come to power.

[0] https://www.theamericanconservative.com/

> and because there's no modern conservative that isn't altright

This is a rather amazing claim, I would be very interested in seeing some supporting evidence, since alt-right has far more in common with the left than with any proper and traditional conservatism. Unless, of course, you define "people I don't agree with" as alt-right with no regard for what they ideology might actually be.

If we look at all the college administrations that quickly crumble after students protest that they might have to pass past a building in which, had they gone inside, they could have heard something they would not like, this dismissal rings quite hollow.

And once we look at riots in Berkeley, the guy who went a-shooting congressmen, or fine folks who had beaten up a gay POC journalist (a Quillette journalist, but still), well, not all of them are students, but they are doing just fine inflicting violence on whoever they designate as "Nazis", or "Fascists" or whatever the scare word is today.

I don't think people who consider Harry Potter to be a pinnacle of fine writing should be in the business of telling Juniors from Seniors.

Also, for marketing spam, which this is, it isn't written even to Rowling's standards.

It's quite unlikely many other countries are going to go quite as far disrupting natural pricing to make Tesla look almost affordable as Norway did.

There's also that story about oil companies sitting on the secret of perpetual motion...

Also, those companies happen to build products that are needed and can actually be afforded by people who need them to, you know, make a living, unlike Elon's shiny toys.

This conspiratorial mindset on part of Tesla's fans is far more detrimental than any mythical shorts' conspiracy or anything.

They could perfectly well do it themselves.

In CIS states they prefer the term thermo-rectal cryptanalysis. A soldering iron in one's nether regions does wonders for extracting secrets.

Yeah, and trhey also run child prostitution rings out of their evil hotel pizza parlors.

Lengths to which the SV crowd would go to pretend that it is not absolutely, thoroughly, and irredeemably morally bankrupt are truly scary...

Oh, of course there is demand, that's quite obvious. (Well, there was demand for Juicero, too, for a while)

Not too many people might use the car exactly like that, and I do it only when I actually need to get the car there. Otherwise flying is more pleasant. But there are quite a few use cases where recharge/refuel time, usually for people who need cars to make a living.

Personally, I just will not, ever, buy anything from Musk, because I think that he is a terrible (even by SV standards) person, but yeah, sure, Teslas obviously work for some people. But saying that they are the bestest, uncompromiziest, never before had the world seen anything as awesome super-vehicles is just ridiculous.

If anything, driving across Southern US, even if you are on a leisurely road trip, in a car with cooled seats (a $30K Hyundai works) is far more pleasant than in a car with fart jokes.

Yeah, I absolutely can see how someone who pays (sometimes living) wage to lots of people, pays taxes, obeys the law, and generally does not push costs on bystanders would be an evil cabal in the VC-fueled SV bubble!

That's not really the only compromise Tesla has. It got terrible ergonomics, lack of what is now isn't considered particularly luxury features, mediocre build quality, repairs that can take months etc. But it got fart jokes! So it all evens out. /s

For my personal usage, when I am traveling (which usually is something like driving 2000 miles with a single long stop) filling/charging time makes all the difference between getting there how I want it or not, too.

Saying that Tesla has "no compromises" is very much definition of selling snake oil.

Except that "dorks and hippies" drove it very much because it was the eco-friendliest thing out there.

So, self-driving is safer for those specific circumstances where self-driving is safer? Well, sure. Not much surprise there. That's not very persuasive about self-driving being (or ever being) safer than humans at real world driving in general conditions.

One could even argue that adding FSD to the mix for those ideal conditions will "condition", as it were, humans to suck even more at driving exactly when human input will be required.

My first WinMo device (and still the most convenient smartphone I've ever had, the SCH-i760) was perfectly well operable 95% of the time even without the stylus -- there was a joystick (and a dialpad) on the front. I rarely had to actually use a stylus.

IE eventually got pretty useless, but unlike iPhone you could always load alternative browsers, shells, and what not.

Sorry, I am still seeing that yes, iPhone is easier to use, as long as you don't need to do much, but functional? Not back then. And whether capacitive or resistive screen is better is a big question -- at least resistive is far more precise.

What is your definition of functional then?

Obviously, Apple did something (likely marketing, imho, and of course extreme ease of use) right to make the iPhone as popular as it is, but I would need to be convinced that it had something to do with functionality.

And therein lies the problem -- Google has been extremely successful at persuading itself and others that "can invert a binary tree on a whiteboard" is in any way synonymous with being "smarter". That's how we end up with at best people believing that ML will give us self-driving cars and at worst with all the societal problems that result from what these companies do, "but we just need to adjust that algorithm, train that model, and more, more, MORE of your personal data, and then we will lead the world to utopia" thinking. And they might even believe that.

Ed.: also appear to be very often very insecure about it.

Ohh, the audacity!

I've cancelled Amazon altogether couple years ago (which is an even more ridiculous process than cancelling Prime) and can't say I even noticed it. Apart from not getting any fakes in those two years.

Didn't some "anti-fascist" try to attack a detention center recently? It did not end well.

There certainly where high quality applications for WinMo, and discovery was as simple as reading a forum or two. Sure, maybe not quite as easy as going to the app store and downloading some fake app that does absolutely nothing and steals your info, but it worked pretty well. And chances of the WinMo app being actually malicious were lower, too.,

Umm, no, it was not. Even Windows Mobile was far more functional than iPhone. But iPhone looked cute, and had some ease of use affordances for people who could not be bothered actually learning anything (but then this had always been Apple's target audience).

I am pretty sure that despite TFA's claims, stolen cars were being taken to the West Side (of Chicago), not to West Chicago, which is a suburb about 30-40 miles away.

Didn't work with me, and I like shiny new things as much as anyone. But being old and cynical I want that shiny to be actually useful for something.

I've never heard anyone say that you can't drive long distance in an electric car. The difference is how long will it take you.

Isn't 2.6 sec 0-60 something you only get with the "ludicrous" upgrade, where it counts how often you actually use it? There are faster ICE cars.

Good God, no, I don't think you can even do 2000 miles in a day (if you ever sleep) while staying even remotely legal. But I did quite a few San Jose to Las Vegas drives in 8 hours. 2000+ were when I first drove my wife's car from San Jose to Austin, which took me 2 days. Bloody thing goes 600+ miles on a tank, which is more than I can take. Could that be done in a Tesla? Sure, but it would take longer and involve planning the trip around chargers even if they were everywhere. Second time I was moving my car, which is technically faster, but has more reasonable mileage, and made two long stops, but only because instead of morning, as planned, left in the evening (apparently if an SV apartment complex says that the rental office is open on a Saturday, it does not mean that anyone will actually be there to give the keys to). It was still much faster than would be possible in anything you need to charge. And somehow all the interesting little spots where I felt like stopping and taking pictures didn't have any Superchargers anywhere near. Nor, often, any gas stations.

Automakers were regularly having losses long before there were any Tesla to blame.

It's pretty clear that ICE will be replaced by something, quite possibly electric, at some point in the future, and they need to prepare for it, but pretending that in 2 years electric cars will be anything but a statistical error in the number of cars sold, let alone that anyone is going out of business over it, is just a load of wishful thinking SV BS.

Then, of course, I just don't understand how anyone can, in a good consciousness, give Elon even a red cent.

If somebody is paid extremely good money to work on doing FSD using ML snake oil, and is completely insulated from any failures of the system, what else would you expect them to say?

Same thing when you have G/FB/T people believing that they just need to adjust the algorithm a bit, and that will miraculously fix all the negative social effects of their product.

When you are a hammer, the whole world looks like a nail.

LOL. Seriously. Can we please stop with this asinine assumption that only people who did not try a Tesla can possibly dislike them? It got old 5 years ago.

Sure, Tesla has pretty good acceleration (other than the roadster, nothing you couldn't get with an ICE). When I was 20 years younger, I might have even cared. Now I am somehow more interested in meaningful comforts and conveniences, and outside of the SV gaggle of kids who thing that being a computer on wheels, with a big screen means that Tesla is a "luxury" car, presenting even Model S as somehow competing with any of the big name luxury brands is just laughable. Hell, even my wife's Hyundai plug-in has things that you can't get in any Tesla. For half the price. Well, but Tesla has fart jokes. I'll take colled seats, thank you very much.

I wouldn't even start with the AP, it's not any better than anybody else's driver assist systems. Except when it drives you into a fire truck or median barrier, of course. Then it could be considered a natural selection tool, I guess /s

FWIW, in the same period I did 2 2000+ mile drives, and a few in 300-500 range, and in all of them I needed to actually get where I was going in some reasonable time. Maybe with stops at some vista points, but those generally do not have superchargers anywhere near. Could I make it in a Tesla? Sure. I could make it in a Leaf probably, too. It would just take significantly more time, and I would need to spend much more time at places that have chargers, and those (just like places with gas stations on the Interstate) usually aren't all that exiting.

For Tesla's target market, people with more money than actual need for a car as a tool, it actually all makes sense and works quite well. But I somehow doubt that this market is large enough to "drive German automakers out of business in 2 years" as some claim here, or even to make a significant dent in ICE car sales, absent some drastic legal or tax pressure.

SO basically, if you adjust your behavior to match the car, it will, eventually, get you where you're going. And if you really want to enjoy lunch and sightseeing at such beautiful places as the Supercharger station in Kettleman City. Not everyone is willing to make these tradeoffs, especially for a car that costs twice as much as a comparable ICE one.

Somehow I doubt that where you live, those "two ton death boxes" are often driven on a sidewalk.

If scooters keep to the road, they are perfectly fine. When they drive on sidewalks, eventually one of them will be biting my elbow.

Do cars in that city often drive on a sidewalk, like scooters?

It's actually quite useful for "hey, did you see my dog?" or "do you know what happened at ... last night?" things. But being a social network (so basically, evil by definition) you do get a worrying amount of "these people look weird here" , political fights and other BS that comes weith the social network territory.