General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsSome types of ignorance are just inexcusable and into this category I place the assumption
by many of that if a person is rich they must be intelligent.
The obvious proof that this is bogus is, of course, Donald Trump's "performance" since 2015. But, millions apparently ignore that proof and become smiling bobbleheads whenever a wealthy person gives their "expert" opinion about ANY issue.
Some wealthy people ARE intelligent and Elon Musk appears to be an example of that, but that does not mean that he is qualified to debate history with historians, economics with an economist or military strategy with the Joint Chiefs. And, like many of the wealthy elite who start believing their own press releases, Musk appears to fit into the "not a nice person" category and that, in my opinion, means that anything he says should be taken with a grain of salt and his motivation should be questioned.
If I were to post my list of "The Five People I Most Admire", none of them would be billionaires.
alterfurz
(2,467 posts)thucythucy
(7,983 posts)Alexander Pope.
Thanks for this!
world wide wally
(21,718 posts)to being in debt?
CousinIT
(9,151 posts)Online, those things have included:
Claiming in March 2020 that people worried about the coronavirus were dumb
Predicting on March 19, 2020, that the U.S. was going to have close to zero new cases by the end of April
Questioning the safety of the COVID-19 vaccines, and baselessly asserting that there were quite a few negative reactions to getting a second shot
Likening Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau to Hitler
. . .
While off-line, and more consequentially:
Reopening a Tesla factory in violation of public health orders, where 450 cases were subsequently recorded
Running a company (Tesla) that was ordered to pay nearly $137 million to a former Black employee who said the company ignored repeated complaints that he was called the N-word and that his colleagues had drawn swastikas and scratched a racial epithet in a bathroom stall and left drawings of derogatory caricatures of Black children around the factory. (In a message to Tesla employees, a human resources executive downplayed the mans allegations, noting he was a contractor, not a full-time staffer, and that other witnesses had said that while they heard racial slurs, they were used in a friendly manner. The H.R. executive added that the company was not perfect at the time of the incidents, and is still not perfect, but has come a long way.)
Running a company (Tesla), where a female worker said sexual harassment was rampant, alleging nightmarish conditions and a factory that more resembles a crude, archaic construction site or frat house than a cutting-edge company in the heart of the progressive San Francisco Bay area. (The company did not respond to multiple requests for comment from The Washington Post, which noted Tesla does not typically respond to press inquiries.
MORE: https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2022/04/elon-musk-twitter-terrible-things-hes-said-and-done