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New Twitter launches, says Musk's X gave up the name (arstechnica.com)
submitted 2 months ago by to c/technology@lemmy.world
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Get your shortnames while the getting's good.

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[–] 199 points 2 months ago (25 children)

Most of what musk does is dumb.

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  • [–] 99 points 2 months ago (19 children)

    He didn't get rich from being smart.

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  • [–] 92 points 2 months ago (14 children)

    I assume he got rich how most people get rich, luck and being a sociopath.

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  • [–] 37 points 2 months ago (4 children)

    And also by being a vaporware scam artist. Thunderf00t on YouTube has a whole collection of videos showcasing Musk's whole repertoire of bullshit.

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  • [–] 30 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (3 children)

    yea..... that's pretty much all Thunderfoot posts about nowadays.... he hella fell off, for multiple reasons. But like, a decade ago he used to talk about scam kickstarters, atheism, interesting science topics, etc. And then in those debunking science videos he would bring the math and receipts that made it fun to watch... But then in the past 5 years it's just been Elon... nearly every video is about Elon. It's obsessive.

    And tbf, that's not the only ick around Thunderfoot. I mean, he did kinda get his start during the Anti-SJW culture war shit doing anti-femisist ragebait videos. Basically occupied the same spaces as Sargon, Bearing and GradeAunderA.... and he's never really "grown" out of that, or addressed it, let alone apologized for it. He harps on Elon, and sometimes Trump/AlexJones/StevenCrowder but he's never really talked about how he and his ilk helped bring them about.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

    His latest video was exploring 'anti-baking soda' as a potential novel way to do CO2 capture at scale.

    https://youtube.com/watch?v=fvxNmStSC3M

    He also 'got his start' before Anti-SJW youtube was a thing. His first series that popped off, back in the day, the day being 2008ish, was "Why do People Laugh at Creationists?'.

    I don't know that he ever ... explicitly collabed with Sargon or any of those guys, but yeah he did exist in roughly the same genre-space, around the GamerGate era of i dunno, 2013 to 2015, ish?

    While he has covered Elon a lot, thats because he started calling bullshit on Elon's nonsense since way, way before that was common... he's been tooting his own horn a bit, following around 10 years of Elon's trolls telling him he doesn't know what he's talking about, and well, it turned out he did.

    He literally has a personal grudge against Elon Musk.

    For all his faults, he is one of the oldest, OG youtubers, since damn near day 1, who is also still around, and hasn't imploded.

    His first vid is 19+ years old, so, 2007ish, and its calling out GWB as a war mongering liar.

    All that being said, if you want a more recent youtube channel thats basically just mostly been tearing Musk to shreds, with science: Common Sense Skeptic.

    By 'more recent' I mean they've only been around for 5 or 6 years, I think.

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  • [+] -6 points 2 months ago (4 children)

    A surprising number of people do not understand how getting rich works. Literally anyone can do it. You simply need to do whatever everyone else refuses to do.

    You take on the risks. You debase yourself you compromise any and all ethics. You whore out for shareholders who will give you endless money to shield them from consequences they directly funded.

    It’s profitable because there is always demand for a new villain and damn near nobody wants to do it. For a good fucking reason.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 months ago

    You seem to be mistakenly conflating getting rich with increasing wealth. Just about nobody gets rich. Many people leverage their existing wealth to gain more. Frequently, that exchange is the start of what is now defined as enshitification.

    Everyone cannot do it. Fundamentally its easy: Have money and pick something to middleman. Waste capital until you 'disrupt' that flow. ????. Maybe profit. Who the fuck cares? You got yours. Repeat.

    Simple: have wealth. Easy.

    Step one is have money to make money. Aside from being the result of two wealthy people fucking... care to detail how so many people are checking that box?

    Certainly - there ARE paths to wealth... but they are rare, risk heavy, and frequently are destined to be prey to a resource rich competitor.

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  • [–] 13 points 2 months ago (3 children)

    A lot of it has to do with over-promising and under-delivering. The rest is marketing.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 months ago (2 children)

    I'm hearing 'once you have money do.....'

    Care to tell me where that gullible userbase is coming from? Pray, tell - what do they come for?

    Before that is even a factor you must either be first - with research and development ... and manufacturing... and distribution... or better. Or cheaper! Or able to undercut the competition.

    Of the things mentioned... I seem to be struggling to find the element lacking a substantial financial investment.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 months ago (1 child)

    Care to tell me where that gullible userbase is coming from?

    They're not all gullible. A lot of VC types are obsessive gamblers, they'll throw money at anything that sounds like it might have a high return.

    Pray, tell - what do they come for?

    That's where the marketing comes in. Elon is pretty good at selling these big ideas, making them sound futuristic and world-changing. He not only sells those ideas to VCs, but also to the government. A lot of his businesses have pulled in substantial government contract money. The public rarely gets any return from those tax dollars.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 months ago*

    VC won't give you the time of day if you lack a product or platform. This isnt go-fund-me or r/wsb. VC appear to bet big but are frequently pretty well informed and diversified. Their big bets aren't much from their prospective... and frequently will be the first to squeeze "their due" from a failing venture.

    I dont see how Elon makes a good example for this. If anything it supports what I said:

    Elon is wealthy. He has a platform. He has shit he's bought and is reselling snake oil from those things. He's not poofing something from nothing.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 months ago (1 child)

    I used to be surprised at how stupid billionaires can be. But, then I remembered they don't actually do anything where they work, and the real employees run behind them and clean up their messes. When they stick their fingers in the works, they fuck it up, Cybertruck being one example.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 months ago

    Third generation curse.

    I personally believe the cybertruck was a designer who was making fun of musk. He submitted a pinewood derby car he made when he was 7.

    Its the literal emperors new clothes.

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