• ravinggerbil@lemm.ee
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      3 hours ago

      I know you’re joking, but it’s really dangerous to assume your enemy is an idiot. He isn’t stupid, he’s evil. If he were stupid he would not be the richest man in the world clawing still more gold into his hoard.

      • Furbag@lemmy.world
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        2 hours ago

        If he were stupid he would not be the richest man in the world

        No, stop.

        You are conflating wealth with intelligence.

        Do you know how easy it is to have money multiply itself in high enough quantities? It’s hard to overstate just how difficult it would be to have the wealth of Elon Musk and somehow not make money. You would have to make several multi-million dollar bad investments per day for decades, and even then, you’re still not likely to run out of cash any time soon. If Elon Musk did absolutely nothing for the rest of his life (and god, we could only hope) the interest and dividends his wealth passively generates for him would be enough for all of his children and grandchildren to live lavishly luxurious lives.

        Elon is not a genius. He’s actually a complete fucking moron who got very, very lucky and has excellent timing. If it were not for the success of PayPal in the early dotcom days, we would never have heard from this guy again.

        • whaleiam@lemm.ee
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          39 minutes ago

          Also has been bailed out by Peter theil more than once. Theil is on the other hand extremely deft and cunning and straight up evil.

        • IamAnonymous@lemmy.world
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          2 hours ago

          I had the same argument with me grandpa. I said Elon is an idiot and he asked me why I hate him and argued that he is smart because he is so rich. I’m sure this is coming from Fox News which also portrays Trump as the best businessman and deal maker.

        • ravinggerbil@lemm.ee
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          2 hours ago

          Still not an Elon apologist, just so we’re clear.

          If it were that easy, why is he the one who’s “done it the best” so far? Definitely speaking loosely here.

          The ability to keep and grow money and businesses is not a trait of a stupid man. He did have seed capital from his family, as all these billionaires do, but it seems Elon has been able to do more with it, to the point that he is now acting Emperor. Whatever you think of the finance violations, fraud or sexual favors he did to get there, he has shown an aptitude for consolidating power. He’s going to fuck everything up for us, yes. But he and his friends are going to achieve their goals doing it. We do ourselves a disservice by writing these people off as stupid when they’re calculating and evil.

          • undrwater@lemmy.world
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            25 minutes ago

            “Don’t underestimate…” may be the language you are looking for.

            There are many types of intelligences. He has a high level in at least one. Quite low in others.

      • Phoenixz@lemmy.ca
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        3 hours ago

        He actually is really quite dumb

        The thing is, he is a really good liar, and does know how to hype people. Those are just about his only two qualities, but that too is where it ends.

        Look at videos from up to a decade ago, it’s all lies and hyping but anytime he actually talks about something technical it really shows just how stupid his brain really is.

        He’s also evil, I won’t contest that, but he really isn’t intelligent

        • Beej Jorgensen@lemmy.sdf.org
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          1 hour ago

          Recall how Boris Johnson would mess up his hair before going to talk to the general public. I think it’s impossible to tell if musk is an idiot or just plays one really effectively.