White backlash. One of the most powerful cultural forces throughout American history is white backlash. It is intense, self-righteous, often brutal, and absolutely inevitable. Anyone in the civil rights activism biz is an idiot if they don't understand this and have a plan to deal with it.
Sex education. Conservatives have always been conservative about sex. In particular, they have fought "progressive" sex education in schools for decades. These days that means teaching about gay and trans issues, but those are nothing special. They're just different varieties of sex and gender presentation, and conservatives hate having their kids taught any of it.
Elon Musk. At age 24 Musk started a company that he sold four years later for $22 million. Three years after that he sold his share of PayPal for $175 million. At age 31 he started SpaceX and within six years won a commercial resupply contract with NASA for the International Space Station. SpaceX has conducted 150 successful launches and is also building out a global internet constellation called Starlink that currently comprises more than 2,000 small satellites in low earth orbit, with the aim of eventually placing 40,000 satellites in orbit. At age 37 Musk became CEO of Tesla, the first mass producer of consumer electric cars. Within a decade Tesla had sold a million cars and is currently worth about $1 trillion. A subsidiary of Tesla makes batteries and solar panels for residential use. Musk is also a founder of Neuralink, which conducts research into brain implants, and OpenAI, which is responsible for the GPT-3 natural language model that has recently produced gaping jaws all over the internet. Elon Musk is 50 years old.
Of course, Musk also has The Boring Company to his name. And "full self driving" mode for his cars that's anything but. And that infamous Joe Rogan interview. And SEC issues. And that cave rescue fiasco. And hyperloops. And (depending on how the lawsuit turns out) an aggressive lack of concern for the treatment of Black employees. Plus he just generally likes to mouth off in idiotic ways sometimes.
But there have always been lots of PT Barnum-esque entrepreneurs like that around. It's good for business. That said, a man with half a dozen highly successful startups by the time he's 50 is no fool and no slouch. Feel free to hate him personally all you want, but there's no question that he's a brilliant corporate show runner. His background alone is enough to lay odds that he'll be successful with Twitter, and that same background is enough to suggest that he doesn't really care much about partisan blather. He just wants to make money and become even more famous.
This is why I read this blog.
I guess this was merely idiotic:
https://i0.wp.com/boingboing.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/musk.jpg?fit=1&resize=620%2C4000&ssl=1
White backlash to elitist activists on the ground seeking their pound of flesh???? Sounds very petty bourgeois negro.
PSA: Ignore the troll.
Well, except for the 3rd, 4th and 5th sentences, the last paragraph applies equally well to Trump.
But there have always been lots of PT Barnum-esque entrepreneurs like that around. It's good for business.
That said, a man with half a dozen highly successful startups by the time he's 50 is no fool and no slouch. Feel free to hate him personally all you want, but there's no question that he's a brilliant corporate show runner. His background alone is enough to lay odds that he'll be successful with Twitter, and that same background is enough to suggest that he doesn't really care much about partisan blather.He just wants to make money and become even more famous....and stay out of prison.
"Mr Merdle was immensely rich; a man of prodigious enterprise; a Midas without the ears, who turned all he touched to gold. He was in everything good, from banking to building. He was in Parliament, of course. He was in the City, necessarily. He was Chairman of this, Trustee of that, President of the other."
So now we know the Egyptian empire was started by R1B-V88 descendents who not only came from Asia minor, but was in southern Europe as well 10000 years ago, across the Sea to likely Sahara grass lands.....oh my. Yet more proof that R1 in Eurasia is the greatest genetic line and R1B the greatest subhalogroup. Yes, they were not "white", but distant cousins of R1B-l51.....yup.
Jealous negros.
Please do not feed the cryptoracist troll.
What's wrong little man??? Can't handle the truth.
Re white backlash: I think this is primarily a generational thing (https://bityl.co/C37u) which will weed itself out with each passing post-race riot generation.
Re sex education: Some of the most conservative ppl are also the most depraved by their own standards. Is it hypocritical? Yes, but it's that they feel guilt over their own prurience and sexual pleasures, that they seek out others to blame for their own "deviancy".
Re Musk: Spot on. The concern I have is about global oligarchs. Our tax system is rewarding success and the central bank is encouraging it, but at the expense of democracy.
To that point--he sold some stocks to raise money to buy Twitter, but mostly (?) used them as collateral for loans...so.....minimize capital gains taxes and maybe the interest is deductible.
But things are changing???
https://www.reuters.com/business/exclusive-musk-talks-new-twitter-financing-sources-2022-05-02/
Re re white backlash: whether you call it white backlash or something else, I am unsure that the influx of minorities to the US is as unified a block as we might think. Asian and Hispanic people both seem a little suspicious of social justice causes when it doesn’t involve their own groups. The solidarity is a bit surface level, and they typically assimilate fairly readily. We’ll see
Re re sex education: I think we can draw a dividing line between those who court the conservative vote and conservatives themselves. The average conservative voter is a lot more like Mike “only dinner with my wife in attendance” Pence than Donald “grab em by the pussy” Trump I think
Not that all conservatives are of the utmost standing in their sexual morals but it’s a little too easy to just blame it on Catholic guilt
Re re Musk: I’m more concerned about corporate interests and I try to resist plopping Musk and Bezos’ faces on my image of oligarchs. Faceless lobbying groups (not just oil but even dumb stuff, like insurance companies) do way more work in the subverting democracy regard than the guys we know about. Musk really doesn’t do that much political stuff. He’s just a dick
No, that isn't the point. As time passes, interracial marriage and acceptance of diversity will slowly turn the minority of white Americans who would consist of this backlash, into a tinier piece of America.
I speak of what I see around me, not of politicians. Obviously, there is a spectrum of conservatives, but, I know not of a hard moral line that any given conservative can't cross, especially when it comes to sex.
Fair enough, but, where do those corporate interests (lobbying) get their funding from? Once SCOTUS blew open the doors to unlimited campaign funding (via SuperPACs), the voice of the oligarchs and the would-be oligarchs were outsized. Koch, anyone?
“ As time passes, interracial marriage and acceptance of diversity will slowly turn the minority of white Americans who would consist of this backlash, into a tinier piece of America.”
Key word: slowly. Very very slowly. From what I’ve seen, in more than a few cases, just because a “minority” becomes a family member doesn’t mean someone becomes more accepting of that minority” as a group. “Our so-and-so” may be ok, I guess, if you force me to say so, but all the rest out there are still scum o’ the earth.” Very human, unfortunately.
Same with women re. abortions. Once roe is outta here, you can be sure that some of the most rabid “abortion foes” in the abortion-ban states will make dang sure that their little virgins have full access. Only other people’s daughters are whores.
The chart I linked to clearly shows the generational changes in attitude.
Since the GOP is clearly the party of White Male Nationalism any predicted increase in minority GOP members is wishful thinking. Sure a handful of wealthy fair skinned Hispanics will go GOP as they always have but visible minorities will always be treated as outsiders by the GOP so they will never become regular GOP voters.
Re: Musk...
I personally don't give a shit about him. I think journalists, pro-bloggers (and retired pro-bloggers) who are hooked on Twitter care a lot more about him than, well, anyone but his *other* fanbois, the 4Chan crowd.
I mean, whatever, he's a douchebag with a lot of money. Henry Ford was also a douchebag with a lot of money.
See the similarity? I don't mean the cars. People in the US just fucking worship money. It is pathetic.
Elon deserves a giant gold statue for finally forcing an electric car market into existence after decades of resistance from the industry. And his rockets are flipping the space industry on its head, too, so pretty awesome.
But yea, unfortunately he really has bought into a particular strain of Silicon Valley libertarian durp that sounds like it was hammered out in a freshman dorm room over way too many pot brownies. Proof that people who are geniuses in multiple areas can still be absolute f'ing morons in others.
Btw, not to come across like a fanboy, but check out the documentary "Who Killed the Electric Car?" from 2006 if you really want to appreciate just what Elon overcame. Crazy stuff, and one of the reasons I think the media has obsessed with him over the years... billionaires with the gall to use their power to attack global warming must be destroyed.
Or you can look at it as an ironic overreach, in which a bunch of enthusiasts try to make the case that GM destroyed their perfect electric cars, because evil.
Or not.
https://www.chevrolet.com/electric
You are correct on all counts, sir.
He isn't a slouch. But he might not be the nicest person to work for.
The key to the start ups is the get people who know how to do things working for you. For the initial one(s), it's mainly the founders that get it going--but they may not be able to make it commercially viable. For the rockets and cars, it's about being able to get the backing and the people to put things together--as well as being willing to take risks. He may be the driving force behind his companies, but he did not do it alone. The big question is can be put a management team in place to keep things humming once he leaves? What happens when it no longer can run as a Silicon Valley start up--the work force ages, medical insurance premiums go up, people start families, etc.? (Yes, I'm speaking to stereotypes)
This is not hating on Musk. He has done some incredible things. Tesla is amazing (though I don't believe the self driving hype), as are the rockets that go to the ISS. But the valuations seem a bit bubbly to me and the markets are limited. It will be interesting to see what happens now that all the major car companies are going all in on EV's.
Elon Musk is this century's Howard Hughes. And Musk will meet the same fate as Hughes.
So, when he is injured in the desert and picked-up by a stranger, will that pickup truck be electric?-)
& no later than 2025.
KD: White backlash. One of the most powerful cultural forces throughout American history is white backlash. It is intense, self-righteous, often brutal, and absolutely inevitable.
Not absolutely inevitable. It was avoidable. But beginning in 1965 greedy business GOP and foolish starry-eyed Democrats changed U.S. immigration law so that a massive demographic change took place. And here we are.
Read history. Find out why post-WW2 borders and people were shifted around so that nations were largely mono-ethnic (e.g. Poland). It was to prevent internal and external conflict.
N.B. Everybody is racist. It's all a matter of degree. The max, is White Supremacy. The minimum is discomfit when you are the only person (only) of your race or heritage in a community. That's racist as well.
KD: Anyone in the civil rights activism biz is an idiot if they don't understand this and have a plan to deal with it.
The demographic transformation is irreversible and there is nothing anybody can do about it. Inter racial/ethnic/cultural strife is what the United States will experience for the rest of its history.
Nope. 1965 was about Eastern Europe which made no impact. Your wrong there. 1970 changed the generally education requirements which pushed up legal immigration quotas. 1979 was the migrant rise which peaked from Mexico in 2007. Tell missionaries and Republican businesses to stop telling these scabs to come from central and South america.
Even the 1951 immigration act liberalized illegals from southeast asia.
So Kevin, when are Democratic politicians going to put together Trump/KSA part on the artificially high oil prices. Indeed they aren't filling their quotes as they said they would. Sounds like manipulation to me. American oil, like Venezuelan oil is expensive. It's only when exports rise to crowd out Saudi oil do they move. Guess what is starting to surge and will pop 2nd quarter gdp? How much longer can they keep losing money for Drumph?
“Musk is also a founder of Neuralink, which conducts research into brain implants,”
I just find it so weird that right wingers who live in a world where Bill Gates and the Covid vaccine are trying to implant “chips” in our brains to control us also look tho this guy as their savior.
Lol, nobody cares about that line. You don't need vaccines to implant chips. Republicans did that years ago. See the stupidity in that line???
Musk has also made a serious contribution to clean energy future, especially by developing large scale battery technology. But climate change deniers have forgiven him.
He might make a profit by turning Twitter into 8Chan, but I doubt it. His goals are not technology driven so he may be out of his depth.
If Tucker Carlson started offering implants/chips to bond his fans with him forever, the lines would start in five minutes.
"White backlash. One of the most powerful cultural forces throughout American history is white backlash. It is intense, self-righteous, often brutal, and absolutely inevitable. Anyone in the civil rights activism biz is an idiot if they don't understand this and have a plan to deal with it."
"She was asking for it."
Same energy.
You are missing the most obvious part of Musk's success.
He has been absurdly lucky.
Choice 1: He is smarter and a better businessman than anyone else in history.
Choice 2: He has been lucky.
The odds are that Musk will not be as lucky in the future as he has been in the past.
The odds are high that Musk is an absurdly smart and talented man. Most absurdly smart and talented men don't achieve 1% of what Musk has achieved.
There is a good chance that Twitter is a bridge too far. A substantial decline in Tesla could force Musk to sell Twitter at a significant loss and to sell a ton of Tesla stock. There is a good, maybe 20%, chance, that Musk will lose $100 billion on Twitter.
Lots of brilliant people. Being lucky doesn't cross out being brilliant.
About Elon Musk:
It is true that he has been very successful. His success is due to three factors, none of whom is brilliant engineering.
1. Genius as a salesman.
2. Brilliant networker (the key to any business success).
3. Narcissism with associated massive sense of entitlement.
You have these three and you are set for a highly successful career (in dollar terms).
There is nothing in Musk's public utterings that would indicate "brilliance", let alone "genius" (in any other sense than salesmanship.
If he is "successful" with Twitter (in dollar terms) remains to be seen but I think the chance is better than zero. That this success comes at the cost of yet another source of damage to our political culture and to our system oo government is 100% certain. And Musk does not care because--being a narcissist--he is unable to understand it.
How is he brilliant as a salesman? He doesn't do anything a traditional salesman does.
"His success is due to three factors, none of whom is brilliant engineering."
Musk did get acccepted to Stanford's Ph.D. physics program which probably helped with hiring decisions. And both Steve Jobs and Bill Gates were just average programmers before they started their companies. I think true with Zuck as well.
There's ot much evidence he wants to make money, either, as since releasing the Model S at Tesla, he has turned all the money he's earned into new companies or charity. No yachts, no big houses, no fancy cars. The jet he flies on is the same one they use to ferry engineers around. His girlfriends have refused stipends officially (tho apparently he does pay for kids stuff).
He lives in a very weird world pr privilege where all he has to think about is work and lately he's gathered some toxic yes-men around him unlike how he's operated in business.
When Musk was a child, his adenoids were removed because doctors suspected that he was deaf, but his mother later decided that he was thinking "in another world."
--https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elon_Musk
The first two points are sound, the third re: Musk is transparently flimsy and lazy.