J KolbMar 9
Astrobach 

The media is such a wiener for Elon Musk.

The dude will say baseless nonsense like "in ten years every one will have telekinesis" and it'll be a headline with no skepticism.

Besides being an actual Nazi, he also has been wrong about everything for a decade. We aren't on mars, the hyperloop is a single-lane tunnel in one city, AI is still broken, and DOGE somehow added cost while reducing services.

He's an idiot. Stop quoting him like anything he says is meaningful.

Mar 9 at 1:00amWeb
Show threadAstrobach Mar 9
I want to note, too, that all of those claims were known absurdities when he said them. Mars was and, at least as he conceived, is never going to happen. The details he ignores are the whole puzzle. Middle management types love the idea that he's just cut through the faff of the overthinkers to get to brass tacks. No, he's ignoring the core logistic impossibility of all of those proposals. He doesn't understand anything and doesn't think he needs to--his opinions are worthless.
Show threadAbram Kedge🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇨🇦 wrylyMar 9
@rorystarr There's a character in Mike Duncan's The Martian Revolution episodes from his Revolutions podcast who is a glorious parody of Musk - and that's after Mike skewers Musk in the first episode with a few well-chosen sentences.
Show threadWeird SocksMar 9
@AbramKedge @rorystarr
The kind of skewered I want is Musk on the street begging for change.
Show threadNachoMar 9
@AbramKedge
Timothy Werner has Musk-level incompetence, but he seemed to be a more decent person than Musk.
@rorystarr
Show threadAbram Kedge🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇨🇦 wrylyMar 10

@nachof possibly, but the series was published at the end of 2024, and it must have taken a year to write at least. TW was probably quite close to the public persona of Musk for that time. I didn't really see anything decent about Werner's treatment of workers as disposable assets.

@rorystarr

Show threadbsmall2Mar 9
@rorystarr sometimes I wonder if he's part of the Alvin Toffler sort of "futurologist" genre. Business media must have an affinity for all sorts of "brightsided" bullshit.. it might be like heaven, keeps the drone workers focused on the next world and not the bullshit(meanjngless destructive work, long hours, low pay...) they have to put up with now.. I think Neil Postman mentioned how Toffler or somebody like that remained a highly paid speaker and guest in spite of being wrong about everything.
Show threadDFYXMar 9

@rorystarr Which makes SpaceX‘s other achievements all the more impressive. Despite being led by a the personified midlife crisis, their engineers have created the Falcon 9 which is the first partially reusable rocket ever and one of the most reliable rockets we currently have.

I still have hope for Starship (though not as part of a Mars mission) but it could probably get done much more efficiently if Elon just learned that his contribution is money, not engineering.

Show threadAstrobach Mar 9

@dfyx there was an article some years ago about how Tesla basically succeeded in spite of Elon. Given how the cybertruck, his personal project, went I think that is probably true. Any success we see from "his" company occurs in spite of him.

I remember a dude was trying to tell me why Elon was so special and he said "there was this exploding clip that cost $30,000 at NASA and he pointed at the engineer and said, 'make it for $1,000'. They did!"

And I was like, "how is that his accomplishment?"

Show threadPaul HouleMar 10
@rorystarr @dfyx when you are up against NASA it would be an accomplishment to just pay $29,999 for the $30,000 clip
Show threadBilly SmithMar 10

@dfyx @rorystarr

There was a story floating around that the reason SpaceX is so successful is that they have a team where their entire job is managing Musk, so he doesn't get in the way of the actual engineers doing the real work.

Show threadDFYXMar 10

@BillySmith I've heard of that story before and if it's true, I could really have used a team like that at my old job.

Boss had a habit of announcing new products to the whole world - including pricing and release date - before he told the R&D team that he even had the idea for that project.

@rorystarr

Show threadJoanne JacobsMar 9
@rorystarr I love that the whole argument in the current legal case is that investors"took him too seriously".
Show threadHerodotus Machiavelli LivyMar 9
@rorystarr
Ah, but that broken AI is now writing almost all the "news" stories. So of course it's going to slavishly quote daddy.
Show threadJoyful JonnyMar 9
@HMLivy so what are you proposing we do with things we've known all along?
Show threadHerodotus Machiavelli LivyMar 9
@Tenor2JT
If you're talking about things like honest journalism by real human beings? Fight like hell to bring them back! What else?
Show threadBrent Guernsey, Artrocity StudioMar 9

@rorystarr

Well, if we can send one neo-Nazi to mars, why not all of them?

Show threadDeterioratedStuccoMar 9

@Brentguernsey
All you really need is to get them out of the atmosphere. No need for all the rest.

@rorystarr

Show threadddurstMar 10
@SoftwareTheron @Brentguernsey @rorystarr I love this idea that a rocket is designed to take them to Mars but it’s really only good enough to break atmosphere and just piddles out in space, a big shiny coffin. I don’t know why that’s so funny to me.
Show threadDeterioratedStuccoMar 10
@ddurst
Mars is a war god... a certain level of casualties is required.
@Brentguernsey @rorystarr
Show threadBrent Guernsey, Artrocity StudioMar 10

@SoftwareTheron @rorystarr

"We, ah...we figured things would sort themselves out..."

Show threadPwassonchat the enby catboyMar 10
@SoftwareTheron @Brentguernsey @rorystarr just *tell* them they're going to Mars
Show threadCharlie StrossMar 9
@rorystarr He's an object lesson in "privileged white man hits middle age, has crisis, gets angry, takes it out on the world around him". I mean, he didn't need to end up this way: he did it to himself.
Show threadrainynight65Mar 9
@rorystarr Not to mention Full Self Driving in Teslas, which has been arriving (checks watch) any minute now for the past five years at least.
Show threadAstrobach Mar 9
@rainynight65 Didn't they give it a major test with their own Waymo-style taxi service in Texas and the result was so catastrophic that the county was like "remove them before we sue you"?
Show threadArgonelMar 10
@rainynight65 @rorystarr it's been just around the corner within the next 1-3 years since 2013. There is a demographic of people who paid for it and no longer have the cars that it would apply to.
Show threadAaronMar 10
@rainynight65 @rorystarr ... to the point there's a Wikipedia "List of" style page about that.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_predictions_for_autonomous_Tesla_vehicles_by_Elon_Musk
List of predictions for autonomous Tesla vehicles by Elon Musk - Wikipedia

Show threadrainynight65Mar 10
@aaron @rorystarr LOL, that's basically just the same prediction repeated ad nauseam with small tweaks and updates...
Show threadOrb 2069Mar 10

@rainynight65

https://electrek.co/2026/03/09/tesla-fsd-drives-through-railroad-crossing-barriers-viral-video/

@rorystarr

Tesla ‘Full Self-Driving’ drives through railroad crossing barriers in viral video

A viral video shows a Tesla Model 3 on 'Full Self-Driving' driving straight through railroad crossing barriers in LA — as NHTSA's data deadline hits today.

Electrek
Show threadPragmaticOneMar 9
@rorystarr I had an ex boss that went to work for Musk. Didn't stay there long as Musk is a twat. 😁
Show threadJ.J.Fux 1660-1741Mar 9
@rorystarr
I find it somewhat troubling you don't understand just how revolutionary a single lane tunnel under Las Vegas is. And I think we can all agree the coloured LEDs along the tunnel are something straight out of the mind of a one-in-a-billion genius.
Show threadAstrobach Mar 9
@missusgumby Hahaha
Show threadLisPiMar 9

@rorystarr Well that accusation with the rescue worker was meaningful.

In the "accusations are a confession/projection" sense. It sure is a nice prelude to Epstein files release.

Show threadfromjason.xyz ❤️ 💻 ✍️ 🥐 🇵🇷Mar 10
@rorystarr such a huge issue with journalism. They've become press release re-posters.
Show threadKhleedrilMar 10
@fromjason @rorystarr It is because there isn't enough news in the world to fill our insatiable appetite for news.
Show threadDr. ObliviousMar 10
@rorystarr It’s likely a symptom of American worship of wealth. Conflating wealth with intellect has always been a problem here.
Show threadploumMar 10

@rorystarr @cstross : He’s not an idiot: he managed to become the richest man on earth by making absurd promises.

The idiots are those who believed him. This includes the media and those who still trust those medas.

Show threadCharlie StrossMar 10

@ploum @rorystarr He made absurd promises AND GOT LUCKY. Lots of other folks made absurd promises and got bankrupt (or worse) at the same time, but we don't remember them.

Do not mistake his success for anything other than sheer blind luck.

Show threadploumMar 10

@cstross @rorystarr : every single billionnaire got very lucky, this goes without saying.

But he would probably be less rich today if he was not a maniacal liar. Same goes for Trump.

They act insanely according our intellectual and ethical framework but, according to their own metric, it f***ing work! So why would they act differently?

Where Musk was trully idiotic is when he thought he could also become a powerful politican. But you need to give him that he understood that quite quickly.

Show threadAstrobach Mar 10
@ploum @cstross he's definitely an idiot. He understands how to manipulate insecure men, sure, but he also is an idiot.
Show threadewhacMar 11
@rorystarr https://youtu.be/zMldvdc_H4E
New Big Picture - ELON MUSK IS STUPID: The Internet Is Stupid - Part III

YouTube