this post was submitted on 20 Jun 2024
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[–] [email protected] 194 points 6 months ago (6 children)

"I do shoot myself in the foot from time to time, but at least you know it is genuine, not from the PR department," he admitted.

He's been brainwashed by his fans if he thinks that somehow makes it better.

Like, authenticy is good for good things, but it makes shitty things even shittier. It's not a value that's always good in every context. And the worst thing he could be doing is doubling down on his opinions and policy.

If he left the company is the only way this would help, he wouldn't even be a fall guy because most of this is entirely his fault

[–] [email protected] 64 points 6 months ago (3 children)

Like, authenticy is good for good things, but it makes shitty things even shittier.

sounds like he needs that PR department

[–] [email protected] 26 points 6 months ago (1 children)

That's pretty much how he kept the public image of "eccentric genius" for so many years. I once read an article (can't remember where, don't care enough to search) that said that SpaceX had/has a team whose entire purpose was to babysit Musk when he had a temper tantrum. The team formed organically, like a cyst around a foreign object, and minimized damage to PR.

When Twitter was infested, it didn't have this immunity and now the world (or those of us who care) knows how much of a shithead he is.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 6 months ago (2 children)

I'm still trying to figure how anyone (including Musk) ever thought he was a genius? Like ok so he has a lot of money that he throws at interesting problems, and those problems attract actual geniuses to solve, but what has Musk himself ever done except be an employer? It reminds me of all the talk about how Edison was supposed to be a genius, when the reality was that he ran a sweatshop to steal other people's hard work.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 6 months ago (1 children)

No one who knew him probably ever did. This is par for the course with billionaires. People see a walking paycheck, they want their ear and their investments. So they flock to him to get their dream projects done, knowing fully that he will steal and claim any success while throwing them under the bus for any setback. Everyone thinks they can control the dragon. But when he is controlling the actual operations usually shit just goes in flames. That's everything he is ever been.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago (1 children)

but which would you say came first: The Dragon or elon being perceived by others as The Dragon?

i’m sure, as with any big personality, this relationship evolves concurrently and interdependently. I just wish more had seen through him sooner. it was not difficult to predict that he would ultimately undermine himself faster than he would naturally fall out. we will keep seeing more of his type unless we can get a bit faster on the uptake.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago

It's been reported he had babysitters since PayPal days. They knew what a shitty manager he was all along. But he had money and was friends with people with even more money.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago

This happens to anyone rich and/or famous. People flock to them to attempt to ply them with flattery or leach money in some way. Consider how many people say that Trump is a genius.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 6 months ago

That and a set of kneepads.

[–] [email protected] 41 points 6 months ago

Reminds me of the people who say things like "I say it like it is, and most people don't like it"...not knowing that the reason they don't have many friends is because they don't have a filter and don't think they need one, lol

But this looks like Elon Musk admitting that he's genuinely an idiot, lol

[–] [email protected] 30 points 6 months ago

Yeah I robbed that gas station but at least some crime boss didn't make me do it. It was genuine so you should forgive me

[–] [email protected] 15 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Idk, I'd prefer if CEOs were more transparent and why mistakes happened instead of the generic PR nonsense of: "We messed up, and we're sorry. We're taking time to review what happened to make sure it never happens again." That kind of statement only matters if there's some way for the public to know what happened and verify that it actually won't happen again.

That's not what we're getting from Elon, so screw him, but I just figured I'd point out that this particular broken clock could say something close to what we probably all want.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago

Trouble is, their main job is to game public perception

A transparent, honest CEO would win a lot of people over (although they'd also probably be less likely to ignore the horrible decisions that require apologies)

Just remember - generic PR apologies are an attempt at mimickingv leaders actually taking responsibility for a mistake. The transparency will just become as soulless and corporate as the apologies are now

We need to fix the system to remove the incentive to put heartless demons in positions of power

[–] [email protected] 8 points 6 months ago

"Shoot oneself in the foot" is a really charitable description of "inviting all the worst Nazis back on to social media and removing fact checking."

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago

Authenticity only works when you don't jump ships and stay on point. Not for billionaires, tho.