Gentle Reminder: Elon Musk is a dick

Old is gold so they say.

I read this morning in the Guardian that ‘Naming Elon Musk person of the year is Time’s ‘worst choice ever’ – I am not sure if this is right. He’s clearly an egomaniacally a**hole but he’s achieved a lot and maybe his cultlike following is deserved. But there was something deeper that was troubling me…

I have an account on Twitter but haven’t been able to access it since I changed phone. Maybe Musk will cancel my account and I can be free of it for good. Anyway, here’s hoping

Time Magazine made Adolf Hitler (yes, that Hitler) their man of the year in 1938! So, I would imagine that Hitler is a worse choice than Musk – although I’m not criticising the critics, no, no,no (lest I win the award for worst blog 2021).

Even better, Joseph Stalin (yes, that Stalin) won in 1939 and again in 1942.

Nixon won it (yes, that Richard Nixon) in 1971 & 1972 (albeit shared with alleged cuddly war criminal Henry Kissinger).

It seems like being Man of the Year doesn’t necessarily make you the Best Man of the Year.

And my ego was THIS big

My Antipathy Towards Musk

I wrote a badly-timed blog post about Tesla. I called the top in Tesla’s shares at around $700 and they now trade at about $1,000. I did hastily apologise but I was way wrong about it – and so are many people who believe that the valuation of Tesla exceeds all of it’s potential future profits.

BUT, this is the 2020’s where if enough people believe it, it becomes true. Tesla’s success is driven by a cult-like belief in Musk as an Übermensch. He’s got 66 million followers on Twitter and I suspect many of those own shares (or fractions of). He’s a pin-up for swashbuckling capitalism – he’s revolutionised both the space, car and power/battery industries and he’s left an indelible mark on the world. I can’t say any of these things about myself.

He’s maybe the most powerful celebrity in the world and he’s more deserving than say Oprah or some actor or princeling. And for that I have a lot of admiration. I don’t follow him on Twitter but millions do and they hang on his every word. He’s certainly unconventional and marches to the beat of his own drum.

Here is a guy that is absolutely Financially Independent and he’s not taking that lying down by a pool in the Bahamas with a cocktail in his hand.

However, I see through his achievements and I’m not caught up in his aura – I don’t have many heroes and Musk isn’t one of them

The Stink of Musk

A lot of people find reasons to dislike him. He’s said some real needless things about those boys stuck in the Thai cave and courts controversy. He is a ruthless exploiter of tax payers – sucking in more than he gives back and if you pull back the curtain, he’s not actually done a lot of the stuff himself (like he’s didn’t actually invent the electric car, or even found Tesla). In this regard he’s like the conductor, he plays the orchestra – just like another visionary but one who didn’t win Times Magazine Man of the Year, Steve Jobs.

Thanks, GFF