If we want to give Musk some benefit of doubt the only visionary thing he did was SpaceX. Pretty much every other venture he’s invested in has been either someone else’s vision or something very stupid (like what the Boring Company is doing). I don’t think he deserves to be called a visionary when his contribution isn’t the vision but a fat wallet.
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nomecks@lemmy.wtf 2 days agoHe invested heavily in EVs before everyone else. He got into working satellite internet before everyone else. He built a successful private rocket company before everyone else. How was he not a visionary?
He may have swindled and stole and kicked out orignal founders, but that’s the asshole part to a tee.
Goodeye8@piefed.social 1 day ago
prenatal_confusion@feddit.org 1 day ago
But how did his wallet so fat!?! He lifted himself by his bootstraps from a slump in Cape Town … Oh wait, no. He is part of an elite, literal gemstone miners, group of people that most likely got where they are by by exploiting the non white population.
Saledovil@sh.itjust.works 1 day ago
He got into working satellite internet before everyone else
Satellite internet has existed before Starlink. What’s novel about starlink is that the satellites are much closer to earth, which allows for a low ping, but comes at the cost of needing to replace the satellites every few years, as they’ll deorbit by themselves, and needing a whole lot more of them. It only offers an advantage over cheaper alternatives (terrestrial internet or satellite internet in geostationary orbit) when you’re somewhere without proper infrastructure, and those areas tend to not be wealthy. So, the question is, is there enough demand to pay for replacing the entire constellation of satellites every few years?
TheRagingGeek@lemmy.world 2 days ago
The 1800s would refute the first claim, Hughes for the second, and wasn’t starship supposed to already have landed on the moon by now? His vision is knowing a sucker when he sees one.
FishFace@piefed.social 1 day ago
Sorry, “musk bad” is just a more important vibe than creating the Model S and a charging network at a time when electric cars were Nissan Leafs that could go five miles and then overhead.
None of the people downvoting you had these opinions in 2015. Musk is a nazi cunt but that doesn’t mean he didn’t have vision back then. Unfuck your heads.
BrilliantantTurd4361@sh.itjust.works 1 day ago
He wasnt the visionary, the founders of tesla were. He’s just a capitalist douche.
FishFace@piefed.social 1 day ago
There’s more than one kind of vision. Investing in something important, speaking loudly about it, shows vision, and he did that. You can be a capitalist douche and a visionary at the same time.
BrilliantantTurd4361@sh.itjust.works 1 day ago
EVs and space exploration are/were the natural evolution of existant tech. Musk didnt originate anything and if it wasnt him it would have been someone else. Many people have invested in and trumpted these technologies; it isnt exceptional or visionary.
As far as i am aware none of his achievements amount to anything more than being an opportunistic sociopath that through dubious ethics and exceptional privilege has cornered a broken system. He is a symptom that needs treatment. No one deserves a trillion dollars when half the planet cannot sustain a reasonable standard of living.
empireOfLove2@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 days ago
Every one of those already had an engineering base that was flourishing, he just dumped capital into them and then PR’ed the shit out of his own idiocy to make it seem like each company’s idea was his own.
BillyClark@piefed.social 2 days ago
I’m going to say one good thing about Musk below. It’s probably the only good thing I will ever say about him going forward.
The American car industry is a cesspool led by some of the biggest villains who exist. The existing car manufacturers were not heavily investing in EV. They liked the status quo. Also, the barrier to entry for any new car company is extremely high, as well. For example, a lot of states have laws passed requiring car manufacturers to sell from traditional dealerships, which is specifically to stop new small car companies from succeeding.
Because of this massive corruption in America, I fully expected that any EV developments would start internationally. You’d have to be a complete moron who was also flush with money to try to fight them. And then Elon Musk came onto the scene. He was a complete moron who was flush with money.
I don’t know that Musk pushed the EV industry forward, but he certainly pushed the American EV industry forward. If Musk had been smarter, he’d have tried something more reliable with his money, and he wouldn’t have started an impossible fight. I know Tesla has almost bankrupt at least once since he took over. His luck stat must be off the charts.
clay_pidgin@sh.itjust.works 1 day ago
This is my take as well. Tesla wouldn’t have succeeded without his money and absurd hype, and they have pushed electrification and batteries and solar with them, at least in the U.S.
He’s a horrible person who mostly makes bad decisions, and when he makes good decisions it seems to be for the wrong reasons, but it’s unfair to say he hasn’t had any positive impact.
I just threw up in my mouth a bit.