Black holes are cool, they’re majestic and implacable forces of nature. Their gravitational pull draws anything and everything, indiscriminately, even light. They’re mysterious and we don’t fully understand how they work, even after decades of studies and theory.
Elon Musk is a pathetic creature, desperate for attention and approval. His targets for destruction are chosen with petulance and whimsy. His biases and bigotry, his rampant narcissism and lusts for wealth and power, are obvious to anyone with eyes and sense. We know exactly what he’s doing and it’s not cool at all.
Elon Musk is the opposite of a black hole – constantly vomiting garbage in all directions, incapable of taking anything in, and making himself impossible not to notice however much you wish you didn’t have to. It works out that “white hole” goes pretty well with his racism and personality too.
Elon is smart if you buy into the myth that rich people are smart, and the richer you are the smarter you are. The USA has a terrible myth that people are rich because they boot-strap themselves from poverty to great wealth, not because they were born into it.
And I get it. Elno went from $400 Million to $250 Billion through strategic investments and getting out at just the right moment. And taking credit for other people’s inventions and hard work. That takes a certain amount of…
Nevermind.
He’s a mediocre white dude and he knows it, which is why he’s so afraid of DEI and rails against the WMV. His only accomplishment is being born rich and getting richer, which is all but guaranteed at his wealth level.
Does the article make clear whether these were employees of DOGE, or holdovers from it’s former incarnation as the US Digital Service? I’m not sure if there was any overlap between the staff of those departments, but it would make more sense that employees of USDS were reluctant to take part in DOGE.
The staffers who resigned worked for what was once known as the United States Digital Service, an office established during President Barack Obama’s administration.
I don’t know that he’s particular intelligent at all, though. His biographer was on social media recently, responding to the idea that Elon is a genius by saying that he has a “110 IQ at best.” I think Musk is interested in a lot of technical/science fictional subjects that make him seem smart, even though he has only superficial (mis)understandings that he’s gleaned from reading certain (mostly sci-fi) books.
Yeah, that’s obviously a huge part of it - and of course he’s only rich because of intergenerational wealth, forming business networks with other rich white racists with South African connections (e.g. Thiel), some golden parachutes and being very, very lucky. I think everyone trying to rationalize him as a smart/good businessman wildly underestimates the role that sheer, stupid luck played in his career/investments. I used to think he was at least good at self-promotion, but even here stupid luck (and a lot of the press doing the work for him) came into play.
