August 8, 2022

"The question is whether Musk’s attempted jilting of Twitter is just one more sideshow on a general path to business glory or evidence that he’s immolating..."

"... like one of those Starship prototypes. So far, his 2022 has included multiple accusations of racial discrimination from employees; a resurfaced sexual-harassment allegation from a SpaceX flight attendant; the recall of nearly 600,000 Tesla vehicles; animal-cruelty complaints against Neuralink; the discovery of three publicly unacknowledged children; and a Wall Street Journal claim that [blah blah blah].... None of these scandals hung around for long enough to inflict much damage in part because he tweeted right through them, creating an endless diversion. Lately, there seems to be something purposeful about how Musk tweets the news, muscling his way into trending topics like a one-man bot farm. A tag cloud for one of his slower weeks may include climate, COVID, free speech, the 2024 election, abortion, gun control, the Russia-Ukraine war, UFOs, crypto, Elden Ring, the Johnny Depp–Amber Heard trial, and more. He has spread himself through every cultural jurisdiction so that he’s always the top story no matter which news bubble you’re in...."

From "What Is Elon Musk? And how is it possible that he could emerge from his Twitter debacle more culturally dominant than ever?" by Lane Brown (NY Magazine).

I love the illustration, by Cold War Steve. Please click through to see the whole image. I will share only a small part, less than 20% of what's there, but including some of my favorite parts, such as the word "shorts" (part of "Crypto Shorts" in the full image) and Trump in ("sexy" shorts):

 

26 comments:

Joe Smith said...

If Mother Theresa were the richest person in history, they'd be ganging up on her too.

Not saying Musk is a saint, but that much cash brings out the looneys and grifters.

Yancey Ward said...

Musk made the "mistake" of mocking the left-wing echo chamber. That, and that alone, is the source of all of his new "problems". I guarantee you that if Musk had remained silent about Twitter's censorship, none of these new derogatory stories would have come to light. The recall of all the Tesla vehicles would never have occurred at all, and I am somebody who has pointed out in the past that the vehicles' problems were being deliberately ignored by NHTSA because they were the the Left's beloved EVs. All of that changed overnight the minute Musk criticized the Left over its censorship tendencies.

Like Trump before him, Musk's politics has badly damaged his businesses because his political enemies run most of the media operations and the governement departments that regulate his businesses. My next prediction is that SpaceX is cut out of launching anything, and all the business will go to his approved left-wing competitors.

chuck said...

if he anticipated a coding task would take an hour, it would usually take two or three days

That is normal :) The rule of thumb is multiply the estimate by four. If that has already been done, do it again.

gilbar said...

It's Funny! Musk was the MEDIA FAVORITE, Right 'til he stepped off the reservation in 2022..
So far, his 2022 has included multiple accusations of racial discrimination from employees; a resurfaced sexual-harassment allegation from a SpaceX flight attendant; the recall of nearly 600,000 Tesla vehicles; animal-cruelty complaints against Neuralink; the discovery of three publicly unacknowledged children; and a Wall Street Journal claim that [blah blah blah].

Hmmm..
You know, Donald Trump was the MEDIA FAVORITE, Right 'til he stepped off the reservation.
It's Almost, As If; the Media slants things

hombre said...

I wouldn't quarrel with the fact that Musk is newsworthy and "culturally dominant." So is George Soros. The difference is Musk is disrupting leftist icons, mostly by speaking, but he is not damaging the country.

Meanwhile, Soros and the institutional recipients of his largesse are financing the destruction of prosecutorial integrity, unlawful penetration of our borders and rigging of elections by hand picked Secs. of States, all by corrupt or illegal means.

We eagerly await the exposés and hit pieces from the leftmediaswine highlighting Soros' and his consorts' activities.

Leland said...

I find the list of negatives interesting, particularly compared to any alternative.
Critical Race Theory suggests also white people are inherently racists, so Musk is hardly unique as a white male in 2022.
Resurfaced sexual harassment allegation? Why that can be evergreen if allegations can be resurfaced and mentioned again.
Recall of Tesla’s? Ford recalled all their electric vehicle. GM is now offering $6,000 if you promise not to sue them if you buy their EVs.
First I heard of animal cruelty or neuralink. But in 2022, I think what Fauci and NIH did to beagles needs to be discussed.

Perhaps that is why these “scandals” are not a big deal. Musk seems rather normal except for the children, except the left would have just aborted the children.

Musk isn’t really the top news story in any of thing he links to in Twitter. He is the top news story for those that allow him to live rent free in their head. Like Trump before, they now elevate Musk in these stories, because they otherwise would have to report on those other news stories and there narrative version of those stories are even boring to them. Musk’s opinion is more interesting to them.

Krumhorn said...

Intelligencer?

- Krumhorn

MikeR said...

"[Tesla] was a pioneering company with incredible potential. Yet the single biggest accelerant — a factor that, today, explains why an industrialist memelord is the dominant figure in American business and culture — was probably Musk’s tweets." Uh, that's ridiculous. Nor does the author provide any reason to think so. Except, he tweeted more and Tesla stock went up a lot.
"It’s hard to fathom how somebody could make more money faster than anyone ever has by tweeting, yet that’s pretty much what happened" Or not.

Joe Smith said...

'You know, Donald Trump was the MEDIA FAVORITE, Right 'til he stepped off the reservation.
It's Almost, As If; the Media slants things'

Sure...but it was Hilary's media sycophants who built up Trump on her orders.

She (the smartest woman in history) thought he'd be the easiest one to beat.

Lilly, a dog said...

Is the S3XY shorts Trump (not the Iron Man Trump) holding a giant rattlesnake?

Kevin said...

"The question is whether Musk’s attempted jilting of Twitter is just one more sideshow on a general path to business glory or evidence that he’s immolating..."

So we are presented by the media with only two options for consideration: Unprecedented Brilliance or Complete Failure.

In the next article they'll discuss how divided the country is because of Trump.

Saint Croix said...

Kyle Dunnigan, who is maybe the only comedian who is mocking the shit out of Joe Biden, has a mini-Star Trek web series that has Elon in it. Elon hits on Pete Davidson which is funny. Also Ben Shapiro as Spock is priceless.

Star Boat - The Space Blob part 1

Star Boat - The Space Blob part 2

Star Boat - The Space Blob part 3

Will said...

Reminder that Tesla stock is still one of the most shorted stocks in the market. And there are a lot of wealthy, influential people that have these short positions. These wealthy, influential people have connections to, or flat-out own, media companies. It is in their best interest to do anything that they can to make Elon seem like a failure, fraud, etc. See: last weeks WSJ article claiming that Elon broke up a marriage.

Robert Roy said...

I want to know what is up with the "publicly unacknowledged children" line. Was there some rule I missed where you have to put an ad in the newspaper every time you have a child? The same odd phrasing (insult?) has been used about Herschel Walker here in Georgia. Seems to be a new slur the media are trying out?

FIDO said...

Simple: Musk went off narrative and gored some sacred cows of the Left.

They tried to cancel him. No, they didn't invent his children but they certainly ignored them before this. And in this world of hypersensitivity and meeting women who have roundly lied about their sexual assault history (looking right at you CBF!), and yeah, you ladies shot your credibility load and it will be quite a refractory period before you get another one. As far as 'racially offensive', I will refrain from laughing but suffice to say that Woke Science has not yet discovered anything that ISN'T racially insensitive.

Now for the average NY Mag readers, it is sufficient and a source of great befuddlement that the rest of the country does not join them in their hypersensitivies.

Begonia said...

It's Funny! Musk was the MEDIA FAVORITE, Right 'til he stepped off the reservation in 2022..

Huh? Not in the stories I was reading:

(2018)Dr. Elon & Mr. Musk: Life Inside the Gigafactory

(2017-present) Tons of negative articles about his dumb idea for mass transit/Boring Company. Here's an example

(2018) Remember when Musk accused that British diver of being a "pedo" because he rebuffed one of Musk's submarines?

Godot said...

No baby with Amber Heard. Genius!

Ficta said...

Great illustration! I guess that's the surface of Mars, but for a second, I thought it was Caelid.

Jerry said...

He's successful. And he doesn't adhere to each and every changing facet of leftist theology - including the items which haven't been thought up yet - so he's got to be destroyed however possible. He looked at Twitter, realized it's a hollow shell, and declined the purchase.

That gave people pause - maybe the weapons the left has aren't all that... potent?

Actually, the only weapon the media has left at this point is a nerf hammer. It all depends on how much their victims want to playact they're hurt, in order to get the media to stop hitting them. Politicians don't want negative media attention, so they scream loudly.

Elon? He doesn't care. Musk realizes that the hammer has no effect at this point - and the media still thinks they wield a 15 lb sledgehammer that everyone's afraid of. He's shown the world that the media is toothless, and they HATE that with a blinding passion.

Baron Vitelius said...

Speaking as a fan of Japanese Tokusatsu cinema, I approve, as the artist put Elon's head on Jet Jaguar's body! (Jet Jaguar is the superhero robot from the movie "Godzilla Vs. Megalon")

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

Leave the corrupt democrat plantation - they turn on you quickly.

The Vault Dweller said...

Stupid Sexy Trump in his Stupid Sexy Shorts

Earnest Prole said...

Trump in ("sexy" shorts)

No one said “I’m dead sexy” more convincingly than Trump as Fat Bastard in Austin Powers — having a Scottish mother no doubt helped with the accent.

Lindsey said...

@godot Musk and Heard were engaged in a lawsuit about embryos they created together. A lot of people think her kid is his.

MikeD said...

I'm curious, has Twitter yet provided an outside analysis proving bots are a small percentage of "users"? If not then Musk is free to walk away, as will most advertisers.

n.n said...

The first rule of progressive liberal club is that you do not speak of progressive liberal club.