I personally have somewhat mixed feelings. I do enjoy a good dumpster fire like any good internet denizen ( and I won't deny that there is an odd level of.. excitement maybe.. that one major social platform may go down ). I have no love for social media as some of my posts may indicate and for a variety of reasons including the amount of oxygen this creation takes and the amount of confusion it causes in general population, it would not be the worst thing ever.
That said, the sheer amount of weird emotion attached to this particular billionaire is just perplexing. Only few years ago he could do no wrong. Today, it seems, he is being ganged up on including by some of his biggest internet fans. And media oblige for whatever reason. I dislike billionaires, but I dislike them as a caste in our societies. I don't see Elon as a savior of mankind or the devil, but those emotions that swirl around him are made to make him look like one or the other.
Somehow, one is supposed to pick sides.
Trump seems to create the same emotions. It is truly fascinating.
I was about to say that you're talking about two different problems. But, no, what's happening to Musk is the same thing that happened to Trump. Their inner circles knew how rotten they both were, but outside of that they were largely unknown.
New Yorkers despise trump and have for ages. From tenants, to contractors, to business partners they all know what a shitheel he is. Outside of NY though trump was largely seen as an affable caricature of a rich dude. Case in point: NYC as a whole isn't averse to republicans and yet they still rejected trump in 2016.
Elon's the same way. Sure he called that diver a pedophile. But he also had a Tesla employee hounded until he fled the country. Musk had the guy swatted for fucks sake (or tried to at least). Or what about the journalist who pissed him off and ended up having some Tesla features disabled on his car. Or his ex-wife who talked about being treated like an employee. These things were mostly inclined to stay in the background until Musk elbowed his way into the spotlight. Now the whole world can see that he went full on Howard Hughes.
<< Outside of NY though trump was largely seen as an affable caricature of a rich dude.
This is a very interesting statement to me. I am trying to recall conversations with my wife's side of the family, who supported Trump ( initially, mostly ) and their impression of him was almost exactly that ( plus, "he is a businessman so he knows the game" or something to that effect ). I am in in Chicagoland, but now I am curious if any serious study was done on whether that is how he was perceived as ( ideally before it became socially awkward to state your political affiliation openly ).
<< Their inner circles knew how rotten they both were, but outside of that they were largely unknown.
And that is the other interesting thing. Prior to whatever caused this change of hearts, I only saw impressions of Musk that were similar to impressions of Gates ( you know the ones - saving Africa or something; I know it reads awful, but I really don't remember what his PR presents him as ) - visionary making cameos in odd cultural vignettes ( I think he did one in 'Big Bang Theory' ). The articles describing his work style were very slowly bubbling up.
<< These things were mostly inclined to stay in the background until Musk elbowed his way into the spotlight.
And became too much of a power center himself.
I will need to sleep on it, but I think I agree with you.
It's because even though Elon Musk is no right-winger, he voted straight Democrat his entire life until very recently but then he voted for a Republican. The haters will brook no deviation from their accepted political narrative, and when Musk did it the hordes of people with pronouns in their bios turned on him.
For those people it has nothing to do with technology, which is why their takes were so hysterical and wrong. It's 100% about politics every day, 24/7.
That said, the sheer amount of weird emotion attached to this particular billionaire is just perplexing. Only few years ago he could do no wrong. Today, it seems, he is being ganged up on including by some of his biggest internet fans. And media oblige for whatever reason. I dislike billionaires, but I dislike them as a caste in our societies. I don't see Elon as a savior of mankind or the devil, but those emotions that swirl around him are made to make him look like one or the other.
Somehow, one is supposed to pick sides.
Trump seems to create the same emotions. It is truly fascinating.