https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2023-11-17/hiltzik-elon-musk-is-an-antisemite-what-can-anyone-do-about-it
Elon Musk has gone full antisemite, raising questions about the future of his companies and their relationships with commercial and government entities.
are there any other viable domestic rocket companies that launch as often as SpaceX does?
There is absolutely nothing these over-hyped "space" companies can do that the US couldn't do far better and far cheaper through NASA itself - you know, just like they did when they sent astronauts to the moon?.
that's a fair point but it was also politically necessary to spend half a billion or more per launch to "show the ruskies who the real superpower was" - and a lot of the tech was still being developed. now, 50 years on, the tech is much more established, materials science has matured, and it's cheaper for a non-government organization to perform the launches.
getting nasa involved is just going to involve gratuitous spending and pork barrel politics - look towards the SLS program. vastly over budget with not much to show for it. rounding down, you could buy every single launch SpaceX has made this year and still have a few billion $$$ in spare change left over for the cost of SLS... and it's flown, what? once?
NASA’s first launch of the heavy lift Artemis, vs Space X’s Starship’s disaster of a “successful test” are different paths (and seems largely because the cut costs on protecting the lunch pad with water).
Falcon and all the previous space x rockets seem much less influenced by Musk than the Starship. Same as the Tesla Truck, I feel the Starship project is more vanity than engineering, and might not succeed the way Falcon etc. did.
it was also politically necessary
There's absolutely nothing "necessary" about a nationalist pissing contest between two vile empires. I know that's an irrlevant tangent... but anyway.
and it’s cheaper for a non-government organization to perform the launches.
No, it isn't. The US just did what it has always done... develop technology with public funds and then hand it off to the crony class to exploit for privatized profit at everyone else's expense. Nothing about it is cheaper or more efficient - those are easily debunked myths.
getting nasa involved is just going to involve gratuitous spending
Duh... that's how space exploration happens - through gratuitous spending. Whose money do you think Phoney Stark is burning through? His own?
Getting NASA involved is going to lead to results other than merely corporate parasites getting rich off money that could have been far, far better spent - that's pretty much it.
There’s absolutely nothing “necessary” about a nationalist pissing contest between two vile empires.
I dunno, I don't think it was necessary, but I do think we got some pretty cool stuff out of it. Satellites are kind of neat, I like those, I like knowledge about space and radiation and stuff. I would also like healthcare, that's probably a higher priority, but I would like to have both.
We didn't decide to have a cold war, we just had one. It was natural. It was the way of the world at the time.
but I do think we got some pretty cool stuff out of it.
Do you know why the US had to create NASA? The US wanted to get into space - but the corporates weren't interested. There was no profit in it. So Eisenhower had to wait until Sputnik was launched, and then used the media hysteria to push through massive state intervention to actually get it done - same way Roosevelt had to use WW2 to launch the massive state intervention that resulted in the GI Bill (without which the modern-day idea of a "middle-class" wouldn't even exist). This was no obstacle for the USSR, of course - they just went ahead and did it.
Here's the thing... nobody got any poorer because the US sent a bunch of flyboys to play tic-tac-toe on the moon. But the existence of people like Phony Stark does make us all poorer.
He had enough at birth to fail upwards comfortably. Doesn't matter that he had less at birth.
Exactly. Start every kid with unlimited physical and mental health care, never wanting for any basic need, traveling the world on cool first-class vacations, attending fancy private schools. See if they don't all turn into "self starters."
Exactly. In just a few thousand years, he'll run out of money as long as he keeps buying yachts every day.
But no, seriously, if we want him to be less relevant it's pretty simple. Stop going to Twitter (fuck x, i won't call it that ever) don't buy tesla, and lobby against SpaceX. At least, until Elon has no control (edit: and financial benefit) over any of those.
Stop using his shitty services and supporting him. This is not a hard thing to grasp.
I mean, if Lemmy has trouble figuring that out, what hope is there for the normies?
Good luck with that. People always say they're going to leave twitter/X. But they come back. Like they're addicted to it.
I don't know what purpose "Like" serves in the last sentence. They're clearly addicted to it. And not some watered down version of addiction. Some are just as addicted to that form of social media as drug addicts are to opiates or amphetamines. It's become a chemical addiction but their withdrawal symptoms are only mentally observable.
Leave X and let it die, like you should have done when the butt-musk bought the site a year ago. Durr.
I can't believe people still use that site in light of everything we know about Musk. It should have been a ghost town months ago.
I still can't believe people even used it before Musk bought it. Literally any other forum is more effective for engaging with others and being able to follow a discussion.
It’s less that Twitter consumed forums and more that it was practically the final nail in the coffin for RSS feeds.
What can anyone do about it?
Stop buying from companies he owns.
Stop using services he owns.
Same. Any minute now I'd be taking my daily jaunt around space, but alas, the major players in the space are Bezos and Musk, so because of my principled stance (and nothing else!) I am going to shit post on the fediverse instead and then maybe play some video games.
the larger of the two classes, not simply eat the ruling class?
I wouldn't feed these parasites to dogs - never mind the working class.
Because we’re too busy working and the tools we would use to organize are being bought and tanked by the ruling class.
I understand it can be hard for some people because the people they follow are there a nowhere else, but it’s a vicious circle. “I don’t leave because that’s where everyone is” but if that’s how everyone thinks, no one will leave.
I had to leave some nice people behind when I left Twitter, I also don’t get metro shutdown notifications anymore either, but I moved in to Mastodon and it’s sooo much better. I’ve already met many more nice people with the same interests as me, and I got 3 times the following I ever had in Twitter in a mere 3 days.
I keep telling my friends who complain Twitter has gone to shit to just leave and they don’t. At this point I just tell them to stop complaining, it’s like an abusing relationship that you’re happy to stay in.
Hopefully they do. I'm looking forward to the appropriate headline when I wake up one morning.
Ignore him. The more people forget about him, the more worthless he becomes, in any sense of the word.
Don't type his name. Don't seek him out. Don't write fucking articles about him. Delete him.
If history has taught us anything, it’s to NOT ignore the raging antisemite with a curiously large (and growing) support base…
There's a difference between keeping a watchful eye on someone, and actively platforming them.
Writing articles, striking up casual conversations, and actively bringing attention to him are all things that bolster his existence.
So you're saying the premier American car manufacturer/rocket builder is an anti-Semite?
I'm shocked!
tesla is not the premier car manufacturer. Their cars are dogshit with terrible QC... they just got the current gen tech out before the others (by cutting corners).
as for space ex, their success is largely in spite of his meddling. he has no freaking clue what he's doing with an aerospace company.
Yeah, I guess premier only in terms of inflated stock value. I was considering weighing my words more wisely but figured I couldn't be bothered haha
You might not like Tesla, but this comment is a bit against reality. Their cars are consistently rated as 8/10 or 9/10. You don’t get there by terrible QC. Subjectively, the way they designed the interiors is brilliant, compared to other makers who just tried to make more of the same they were doing last year only with an electric motor
Rated...by...whom?
Have you not seen the long list of recalls, making Tesla the most recalled car brand in history? Sure a fair chunk of those are OTA sofware updates...but still there's a reason they got out first- cutting corners. most of those software updates are fixes for things that should have been found in testing.
also a quick google search will turn up a plethora of hits on quality control that just don't ordinarily happen at other carmakers. The kinds of things that would never hit the sales lot.
I think you're living in your own reality, a bit there.
By car reviewers? People who review cars.
That’s a nice non-answer. So, going out on a limb here…. Tesla bros, Muskie FanBois, and paid reviewers.
In short, the kinds of people who would never give an honest review anyhow. Oh and a quick search shows some possibly not-as-biased reviews at only 34% with a five star (9/ and 10/10) and 26% 4 star, (7/ and 8/10.)
There were 20% 1 star reviews, though. Generally I don’t trust reviews online.
What I do trust is a handful of 8+hour road trips I took driving them (company is perfectly happy letting me rent EV for in-region business trips;) 4 trips in a Tesla, and 2 in a Hyundai, 1 in a Nissan and the kia, and I have to say, even the freaking kia was better than the Tesla, and with comparable range.
Subjectively, the way they designed the interiors is brilliant, compared to other makers who just tried to make more of the same they were doing last year only with an electric motor.
Yeah it's so much better to open a door in a Tesla by pressing the handle into the car! I also love opening the door from the inside using a button to open it! It's important to redesign things that worked perfectly fine the old way for millennia just to keep people on their toes. /s
Rated by whom? The schmucks that drive them? Bought and paid for auto reviewers? Their opinion isn't worth dick to me. Have you seen how poorly the panels match up on these things? They look like bad highschool metal shop projects on the outside and prototypes on the inside.
Nevermind the pure smug coming out of the exhaust on these cars.
Yeah, I'm super sure that the thousands of tonnes of raw earth that has to be processed by enormous mining equipment, and then refined through absolutely filthy chemical processes to extract the lithium, cobalt and magnesium required for just a handful of battery cells represents a net good for the planet. Just peachy.
All good though, because all of the raw materials are then only shipped to the other side of the world on ships powered by literal sludge to be manufactured into by batteries by China with zero environmental regulation and all waste products flowing straight into the ocean, before shipping the manufactured cells back across the world on more sludge powered ships.
Eventually, these lean, green, zero emission machines end up zipping around pumping out smug before it goes home to get charged by a power grid that is still 60% fossil fuel based. So, instead of the combustion of fossil fuels occurring under your bonnet, it occurs at the coal fired power plant down the road allowing you to recharge your battery with all the inefficiencies that entails and convince yourself you are somehow saving the planet.
University of Liege researcher Damien Ernst said in 2019 that the typical EV would have to travel nearly 700,000 km before it emitted less CO2 than a comparable gasoline vehicle.
After he accepted a bunch of dirty cash from the auto industry, he later revised his figures down to about 15,000km. That's a fairly major revision and if it smells like bribery that's because it was.
If you genuinely want to reduce carbon emissions, kill yourself. It's the most effective way to save the planet.
You know, I've been always wondering about what exactly is a social media? Is it place where you can post stuff and chat with other people? Isn't that like a forum? What exactly make it a social media? What if it's anonymous? Etc? Seems like the definitions changes all the time.
Tbh I have fb, Instagram, etc mainly for networking purposes but I didn't consider Reddit a social media. And I don't consider Lemmy a social media either. I think I view them more of "front page of the internet" if you will. Maybe because I'm anonymous here compared to FB, Instagram, etc?
Upvote, but yeah, it's all social media. You're socializing with others. This is true even going back to BBS's, and granted the term was popularized with MySpace and Facebook, but I def consider reddit to be social media. Ditto for lemmy, mastodon, and the fediverse.* The divide for me now is firmly the corpo-verse and the fediverse.
* I guess maybe out there is an instance of whatever that's read only that doesn't allow any interaction, but still.
Elon Musk is an antisemite. What can anyone do about it?
Make him take off his pants and sit on a lighted Menorah.
I mean... legally? No, not really.
Extra-legally? He has a security team. They could easily arrange an "accident".
Now, sure, extra-judicial executions are generally bad, but I'm willing to make exceptions for billionaires and nazis. And wouldn't you know, this guy is both.
Someone would have to pay them better than Musk does. I'm guessing he doesn't skimp on security guard paychecks.
I think "killing everyone I don't agree with" as an answer to fascism might be a bit of an ouroboros
Nationalize his companies and ensure he has a glowy career future of mining lithium for the batteries (until he dies in agony).
Everyone in this argument are fucking morons. How about ya'll stop killing each other and figure out how to stop climate change
The crux of the issue is that he has supporters. You can claim don’t give him money as a soln for those who don’t like him but there’s still plenty of morons who still worship at his alter.
People will always think celebs are only ever attacked bc of their status so long as they fit into their own in group.
Part of me wonders if it has anything to do with, and how much, bandwagon feminism and not true feminism. Ik that might sound incel-energy but I really don’t think it is. I’m not convinced that mental health or any of the other underlying systemic issues that men face were ever properly solved or supported. If you go with a political stance of fuck the wrong people into the dirt with no remorse because they’re assholes, you kinda just give them more ammo to breed more assholes because you’re the asshole to them.
I think if we all looked at ourselves first, then looked at how others feel, then look at how we behave when knowing both sides, we’re setting up a stronger and stronger form of empathy the more aware we are.
I really don’t think most people would be such pricks had they not grown up in that sort of environment and had proper support for trying to correct inefficient behaviors, communications and so on. Not yo mention other pressures people might face for a wide variety of things like sex preferences, race, class, living situation, home life, addiction, etc. We barely can behave with people of our own caliber and then you wanna throw minorities in the mix? No shot.
I mean... legally? No, not really.
Extra-legally? He has a security team. They could easily arrange an "accident".
Now, sure, extra-judicial executions are generally bad, but I'm willing to make exceptions for billionaires and nazis. And wouldn't you know, this guy is both.