The way he looks at the audience, expecting a positive reaction, it seems to me that the memes have really got into his head and he thinks people still love him for being so edgy and 'funny'. Instead, he comes across as a dangerous lunatic with too much power and money.
No, not since The Tweet(tm). He fell from Nerd Jesus to Nerd Satan in one day, so armchair pathologizing or insulting Musk has been highly encouraged on HN since that day.
Elon has claimed to be slightly autistic, as the parent of an autistic kid I believe him, perhaps we all are to some extent.
He is an extremely busy man, and the same set of skills that lead to his success at engineering don't translate at all to success in the social realm. To simplify his social interaction decision making he looks for huristics, such as the tried and true: woke = bad!
So increasingly in following a simple heuristic he seems to have outsourced much of his personal philosophy to the Joe-Rogan-O-Sphere, and all the anti vax, transphobic, supplement pill pushing, pizzagate conspiracy believing, Jew-baiting quackery that entails.
The macho attitude of doubling then tripling down on unforced blunders works well if you are a contrarian podcast host "just following the questions...", but less so when you are CEO with obligations not to rock the boat, not to become a clown presiding over a circus.
It's worse than I expected. Musk is out of his gourd. I don't know if it's the drugs or actual insanity but I don't just see an asshole but someone losing touch with reality. It's not autism or even "outsourcing his politics", he is barely coherent. This man will likely need institutional help.
I don't think that would be a fair to Howard Hughes - he was a real deal engineer and suffered his illnesses and injuries mostly in private.
I see Musk more on the Tony Hsieh / John McAfee / John DeLorean type trajectory: the drugs, the ego, the need for attention and probably a few indictments as things fall apart.
As an autist myself, I’ve never acted like Musk. My autistic family and friends have not either. Musk may be autistic but he is also extremely narcissistic and egotistical, that much should be clear. Let’s maybe focus on that instead of autism causing his bad behavior.
Yeah I agree, his actions could also be explained by narcissism, or a combination of factors.
A topic that I became aware of at University is how society casts people with disabilities (sorry if that term if that offends anyone) as villains, ie Captain Hook becomes a big old meany because an alligator took his hand. Of course this is a harmful stereotype and should be retired as a crutch for lazy writers, thinkers and society at large.
But I also believe that anyone can be the hero or the villain, or think they are doing good when they are clearly misguided. Wouldn't it be just as weird if neurodivergent people were never actually the bad guy? Isn't never being allowed to think of someone as both autistic and in some way maladjusted also a harmful stricture?
Not saying we neurodivergents can’t be bad people or villains (I think Kingpin is supposed to be autistic), nor that we shouldn’t be called out where appropriate.
But we have enough social stigma going against us. Musk’s antics are on the morning news now, so I’d much rather the word “narcissist” be on people’s mind than “autist”. Because when I tell people I’m autistic, I don’t want them to think that means I’m prone to screaming “go fuck yourself” to a live studio audience.
That’s a good point about Hook. Villains are also frequently queer coded. Hook is an example of this too. So is Jafar, Scar (disfigured), and Ursula (overweight). Probably more examples. This is to draw a contrast to the blonde haired, blue eyed, able bodied, conventionally attractive hero.
trojan13 says >"The way he looks at the audience, expecting a positive reaction, it seems to me that the memes have really got into his head and he thinks people still love him for being so edgy and 'funny'."<
No, it did make an impression on me he does constantly say something edgy or (an attempt at being) funny and then looks around for approval, that isn't there.
This is no surprise. Aside from his Twitter bubble, he's in a bubble even offline. Tesla presentations are full of people profiting off Tesla YouTube videos, selling investment "lessons", crypto bros, and fanboys.
They DO laugh at all his jokes. They DO clap at everything edgy he says. And so he, almost reasonably, believes the rest of the world is like that, and the mass media just hates him for dropping heavy truths with a hammer.
