• Geetnerd@lemmy.world
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    5 days ago

    It astounds me that a middle aged man, who can literally afford anything, do anything, go anywhere, is so fragile emotionally that he craves adulation from absolute strangers. Particularly teenage boys, which emotionally, he is also.

    It would be pitiable if we wasn’t such a psychopath.

    • Billiam@lemmy.world
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      5 days ago

      As a wise man recently said,

      They tried to rig the game, but you can’t fake influence.

      Money can buy everything but it can’t buy respect. Nobody respects Musk getting to level 90+ in SSF HC PoE2 because he just bought his way there. Nobody respects him on Twitter, because he bought his way there. Nobody respects Tesla, because (say it with me kids) he bought his way there.

      • vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works
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        5 days ago

        Money can absolutely buy respect the problem is fuckwad is too stupid to know how, for example he could bankroll building functional replicas of historic vehicles and weapons for museums which would earn him some respect. That’s assuming he doesn’t want to help the poor and build public libraries like Rockefeller or Carnegie.

        • seemefeelme@infosec.pub
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          5 days ago

          You’re both right - spending tons of money just to build influence does not buy you respect, but investing your money in something that contributes to the greater good does. Unfortunately for Elon, this requires good intentions and substantial effort, neither of which he possesses. So, he bought an epic gamer account to brainwash the most vulnerable members of society into believing he’s some kind of 22nd century technogenius! Seriously, what the fuck is actually wrong with this man???

          • 5too@lemmy.world
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            5 days ago

            Thing is, he could still hire people who do know how to do that - he just doesn’t see the point. Like the person who refuses to hire an electrician instead of just doing it himself, he keeps getting it wrong and then being shocked.

            • Semjaza@lemmynsfw.com
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              4 days ago

              He had one, but he fired her and looks to be too stubborn and sure of his own competence to hire another one (or maybe too proud to admit that she was right and useful after firing her for petty reasons).

    • Sterile_Technique@lemmy.world
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      5 days ago

      What gets me is that he has the means to become the most beloved man in history pretty much on a whim. I can’t even begin to comprehend the amount of good he could do by dumping half his fortune into good causes, which would still leave him with orders of magnitude more money than he’d need to buy/do whatever the fuck he wants with.

      The attention he craves is right there. But he chooses instead to be a villain. Why?? Be a fucking superhero - even if it’s for completely selfish reasons, humanity won’t give shit.

      I don’t get it.

      If I randomly obtained a billion dollars, let alone hundreds of billions, I’d spend the rest of my life riding a warm-and-fuzzy high. Helping people feels good!

      • merc@sh.itjust.works
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        5 days ago

        Look at Bill Gates. He’s a complete asshole and was widely hated until he stepped down from Microsoft. But, spend just a small fraction of his fortune on charity, much of it self-serving, and he’s now he’s widely loved.

        If I randomly obtained a billion dollars, let alone hundreds of billions, I’d spend the rest of my life riding a warm-and-fuzzy high. Helping people feels good!

        The thing is, you don’t become a billionaire if you have empathy. If you’re a normal kind of person who likes helping other people, you start giving away your money long before you hit $1B.

        • Yardy Sardley@lemmy.ca
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          4 days ago

          In a functioning society, we wouldn’t have to rely on the “philanthropy” of rich people to fund good causes. It should not be possible for one person to hoard so much wealth that they get to personally decide which issues get ignored.

      • Geetnerd@lemmy.world
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        5 days ago

        From what I understand, Musk was under investigation from multiple federal US agencies for malfeasance, I don’t know for what, but he got involved to make those investigations go away. Then he got addicted to being in charge after buying The Presidency.

        Because, as we all know, narcissists love being in charge, and adulation.

        And why is he being an asshole, when he could be generous and beneficent, and get the adulation he craves? Because he thinks he’s superior, and like he said, empathy is weakness, He is unable to understand, or feel empathy.

        • Hemingways_Shotgun@lemmy.ca
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          5 days ago

          From what I understand, Musk was under investigation from multiple federal US agencies for malfeasance, I don’t know for what

          I’ll give you a hint. It starts with “e” and rhymes with “Epstein didn’t kill himself”…

      • Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In@lemmy.world
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        5 days ago

        He had that aura when he was building Tesla and solar city and the gigafactory. Become a billionaire and fight climate change? Go Elon.

        Go to Mars? Bit of a stretch goal, but helping Nasa and science is good. Go Elon.

        Save kids trapped underground? Go Elon.

        What? Called him a pedophile? Maybe he has some inside knowledge. Anyway.

        Shout about doge coin? Bit weird. Ok he’s just having fun.

        Sell a consumer grade flamethrower? What?

        Pay 44bn for Twitter? What? Where’s the value? This doesn’t save the world.

        And down and down.

        • futatorius@lemm.ee
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          4 days ago

          He had that aura when he was building Tesla

          Tesla was a going concern (with excellent product quality) when Musk bought it. The product roadmap was already there. The only big things Musk has influenced are underfunding quality during scale-up and rolling out the Dumpsterwagen. Well, that and lying about self-driving.

          • Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In@lemmy.world
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            4 days ago

            I was addressing the downward trajectory of his outside perception, not his actual skills.

            Musk is willing to risk his capital, and does seem to be able to identify talented engineers and individuals. He used to be able to attract them too.

        • Woht24@lemmy.world
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          5 days ago

          In comparison to his wealth, that’s so small time that it’s not even worth mentioning.

          • Geetnerd@lemmy.world
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            5 days ago

            Yeah, because doing anything altruistic is “virtue signaling.” No one really cares about anyone but themselves. How do I know? Because I don’t.

        • Saleh@feddit.org
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          5 days ago

          Celebrities are just rich people sportsy, artistic, sympathic, entertaining or sexualized looking enough to get public attention

        • 5too@lemmy.world
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          5 days ago

          Bill Gates makes a strong argument for becoming beloved while you’re still around to enjoy it.

    • NewDayRocks@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      5 days ago

      And let’s be real, it’s ok to be emotional and want attention. That’s human.

      But I’m sure this can be done, and is probably easier to accomplish by not being a nazi, which is the real issue here.

      • hackitfast@lemmy.world
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        5 days ago

        You’ve probably seen people with mommy and daddy issues before, but this is the first time we’ve ever witnessed a billionaire with severe mommy and daddy issues.

        Dude wants attention and doesn’t care how he gets it. Helps a lot to be a Nazi too.

        • futatorius@lemm.ee
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          4 days ago

          this is the first time we’ve ever witnessed a billionaire with severe mommy and daddy issues

          Trump’s one of those too. His mother was a hyper-reserved Wee Free ball of congealed repression, and his father was a mob-connected slumlord bully. None of the kids got affection. Some internalized it, some became raving assholes like Trump.

      • Geetnerd@lemmy.world
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        5 days ago

        Yes. Thanks.

        Humans are pack animals. We’re not supposed to be alone. When we are, bad things happen, mentally. Which is on display with Musk.

    • Queen HawlSera@lemm.ee
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      5 days ago

      Right? I wouldn’t be trying to pretend to be King Shit in a game I don’t even know how to play, I’d make my own game with black jack and hookers, hookers who are voiced by Jack Black. That’s right I’m casting a cisman in the role of a sexy cisfemale character and there’s not even a joke or a bit to it. The character is not implied to be trans and there’s not even a transphobic quip about it, I just got Jack Black to voice a woman because I could, because I’ve got fuck you money… And if the ESRB or Gabe Newell didn’t like it, I’d start an alternative to Steam that actually works.

      It seems such vivid Imagination is wasted on those who cannot make their dreams into reality…