Elon Musk

Suk Lemon

ahe's kinda like tony stark, so i gather from ten mins research, but without the weapons and with clean energy and space

it's kinda surprising he isn't more well known all things considered

seriously. if wiki is even half-accurate shouldn't he be a fixture on Time mag or something?

His family sound really annoying. Was married to, uh, somebody who was in that St Trinians film, uh, the one with Russell Brand.

You realise that if he was ever to become involved in some sort of scandal and subsequent cover-up, newspapers could use the headline, "Elongate"

if he was caught cheating he'd be THE MUSKRAT

dude owes his company's survival to gov programs but
says it's no big deal if Romney wins and makes good on his promise
to obliterate them all.

lots of companies do well out of govt contracts/programs, i'd imagine.

so hyperloop huh

people on twitter so mad. trying to understand why. i guess it boils down to:

1) shouldn't we fix BART / buses / systems that working class people use before building toys for rich people

2) LA-to-SF only is ridiculous, there's like a whole state in there

3) nobody wants to hear half-baked plans from an arrogant rich dude

still, i mean, it's pretty cool, right?

1) shouldn't we fix BART / buses / systems that working class people use before building toys for rich people

There are lots of problems everywhere all the time. Can't let it stop technology from moving forward.

2) LA-to-SF only is ridiculous, there's like a whole state in there

There's a whole country, even! LA-to-SF sounds like a perfectly fine beta test.

3) nobody wants to hear half-baked plans from an arrogant rich dude

Not all rich dudes are arrogant. Elon Musk has never struck me as anything close to that.

people on twitter so mad.

who do you follow?

i'm not getting that impression from all the tech ppl i follow

unveiling this while CA is deep in the hole with it's bullet-train project (something I support wholeheartedly btw) is pretty arrogant

You might be right, Johnny, dunno. I was just trying to figure out why there was this explosion of contempt all over my twitter feed after the announcement.

markers, here are some of the people that were entertainingly scathing: kalebhorton, quartzcity, tcarmody, mikesonn

i do follow tim but i guess whatever he said didn't stick

cool monorail bro

lol

i have a plan for a train that goes from boston to atlanta in 10mins, its called lasertrain and ill give you some cool drawings of it in a couple weeks, its ridiculous no one is building it btw it only costs $10

im not gonna build it tho cause im kinda busy

even i can afford that

unveiling this while CA is deep in the hole with it's bullet-train project (something I support wholeheartedly btw) is pretty arrogant

isn't his point that hyperloop would be fraction of the cost and twice as fast?

the douchey thing is that he made a big ol deal abt something thats not at all real

Which is how 70% of architecture and urban planning works.

sure 70% that sounds totally realistic too

I meant 94% sorry.

To me, it really sounds like a kickstarter project... but from a billionaire.

i mean who knows maybe its revolutionary technology but its so preliminary its p comical to call a press conference abt it

maybe this is the best way to convince someone else to give it a shot idk

LOL "elon musk"

This should keep us occupied for a while: http://www.spacex.com/hyperloop

markers, here are some of the people that were entertainingly scathing: kalebhorton, quartzcity, tcarmody, mikesonn

I wasn't scathing about Musk (I am about futurism in general) - if anything, he has a good track record on quixotic tech quests. I hope he's successful with this. I also hope there's a state left that can use it.

unveiling this while CA is deep in the hole with it's bullet-train project (something I support wholeheartedly btw) is pretty arrogant

Knowing how CA politics works (and the CA rail projects are amazingly political), how would you expect a non-arrogant to even get traction with this?

I have no doubt that Musk will solve the Hyperloop technical issues. I very much have doubts about him navigating Sacramento.

I was describing this to my wife today and kept calling it Supertube.

Bad connotations...

http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/supertrain-1_7696.jpg

lol @ the "open source" pdf proposal. build a section of the thing and then get back to us when you have it working.

Musk says the Hyperloop is best for distances of 900 miles. Beyond 900 miles, he thinks you're better off in a supersonic jet.

Lol

I never use my supersonic jet anymore as parking is always a total bitch

I have to say I rather like Elon Musk. He's made a massive pile of money and rather than sitting on it or managing it in mundane ways; he's making risky bets on thinks he's passionate about: Cars, Rockets, vacuum tubes.

Hyperloop seems a bit ridiculous to me, vacuum tube powered trains and trains in evacuated tubes are an old chestnut, almost as old as railways themselves. However, he's built a commercially viable private space programme and a car company* in the last ten years so anything is possible.

*Tesla isn't really a car company it's a power train company and if it is still making cars in 5 years I'll be surprised.

ya i'm kinda ll for crackpot genius billionaires actually doing interesting stuff, up until they become str8 up supervillains obv

lol @ the "open source" pdf proposal. build a section of the thing and then get back to us when you have it working.

― wk, Tuesday, August 13, 2013 2:23 AM

he might do this

is this dude one of the crazy silicon valley libertarian types or is he just beloved by them?

iirc he has liberal tendencies mixed in w the libertarianism

xp I heard him speak and he seemed not crazy and to have some kind of social or at least environmental conscience, unlike the usual libertarian types, but maybe he's just better at hiding it

(I like him too fwiw and right now he seems one of the most likely "crackpot genius billionaires" to solve some hard problems which are overdue for solving, so I hope he carries on with that. Also hoping that one day I'll get to see/read his computer game that appeared in some 8-bit micro type-in listings mag in the 80s)

he's not as bad as some of the other silicon valley libtards, I'll give him that.

nonetheless, this is a stupid proposal

do tell

curious to read a critique that amounts to more than 'hyperlol'

I think it's dumb that he's throwing around numbers when he doesn't even have a working prototype. It just seems like he's hoping to derail the other project. I also think the "open source" thing is pretty silly since it's not like code where an individual can make some kind of improvement and test it out to see if it works. I guess an open source design is an interesting idea after the fact if he actually gets it working and other people want to build his design, but it still seems basically irrelevant.

Didn't he make his fortune with Peter thiel?
I don't know if that is "guilt by association" or "looking better by comparison"

Yeah I really see the size difference as a guy constantly pedalling around London streets on e-bikes.

I just watched some of Economist interview, via Pod Save America, and lasted about a minute before no longer being able to handle how he speaks, a nails-on-blackboard parodic upper class English, let alone what he was saying.

PT Cruiser is awful, it is the swing revival of cars.

also i'm just gonna go ahead and point out that we're all a bunch of 70s and 80s kids and so we only remember the japanese econoboxes of the 80s and 90s. american cars have a heritage tradition of being huge and obnoxious, they are just returning to form. see the 60s land yachts.

https://bringatrailer.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/1960_chevrolet_impala_1960_chevrolet_impala_1e24bfc5-075a-4bb0-a7bd-25fb60ae57b8-l5t9cw-20351-20352-scaled.jpg

compared to a modern sedan:

https://i.ibb.co/nsCGypzz/Screenshot-2026-07-25-at-9-50-36-AM.png

PT Cruiser is awful, it is the swing revival of cars.

― Cow_Art, Saturday, July 25, 2026 9:58 AM (four minutes ago)

sorry you are rong, the pt cruiser is small, svelte, seats 5, gets 30 mpg, comes in a drop top if you want, guaranteed to turn heads, fulfills the average ilxor's desire to be a trollish contrarian, what more could you want?

https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQY6UTv2F0GzcYHGXReiKkvfxcX1qZxQz1eNula3Z2ZBhBLb2vKWJNV1J0&s=10

https://itrolls.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/ebay-s-l1600.jpg?w=1024

re: proportions: cars get bigger, people stay more or less the same size, so the proportions are different. also the size increases are bigger in some parts of the car than others.

lol no even when new the pt cruiser was a rolling fedora. also it was on a Dodge Neon chassis so it was also cheaply made.

One reason to hate modern cars is that all of the massive gains in petrol engine efficiency, materials and aerodynamics, since the 90s have been squandered in making cars bigger and stupider (and more dangerous).

Coincidentally Americans ourselves are also getting bigger, stupider and more dangerous. (Tho apparently GLP-1s are driving the first decline in obesity rates in decades.)

a modern polo looks like it’s the same size as my 2010 golf

It does when the wheels stay more or less the same size.

― Kim Kimberly, Saturday, July 25, 2026 9:41 AM (three hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

wheels have actually grown faster than the cars, were i to complain about current car trends big wheels might be on the list, that combined with the short greenhouses makes it look like everyones driving around in a donk these days, which is kinda funny

re: proportions: cars get bigger, people stay more or less the same size, so the proportions are different. also the size increases are bigger in some parts of the car than others.

― Basic Instructions Before Darning Dream (Doctor Casino), Saturday, July 25, 2026 10:24 AM (three hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

so your complaint is people look too small in the cars, i guess i could see it but it seems like a pretty fine point

Cars haven’t gotten that much bigger IMO. The Golf being a half meter longer is not a massive difference. I have a CX-5 and it’s basically the same size as my parents 1997 Mazda 626. Even in full size trucks, the real difference is in height - hoods are super high and the cabin/driver are very disconnected from the road.

Even on non-bro dozers the high window sills for safety have changed the proportions in a way people who remember comfortably riding with an arm out the open window may find disconcerting.

Bro-dozer, I've not heard that one before, it's pretty funny.

One reason to hate modern cars is that all of the massive gains in petrol engine efficiency, materials and aerodynamics, since the 90s have been squandered in making cars bigger and stupider (and more dangerous).

This is in a way true for EVs as well. Yeah, they are electric and don't take gas, but the batteries are heavy and dangerous (to mine, for the earth, to dispose of, etc.), the cars are heavy, too, and literally bad for the roads, and the machines themselves are often so stripped down and cheap looking and feeling. Plus they've driven (ha) the move to touchscreen dashboards, which suck and are stupid and dangerous.

The aspect of the mini-tanks that a lot people drive these days that gives me the most grief isn't length (I mean, it might be if I was competing with them for parking) but width - the street we're off literally can't handle two modern cars passing each other by, if there's also two of them parked.

There are a lot of older parking lots and garages where the painted lines do not accommodate modern vehicles.

The biggest danger I think is height. In collisions these things will just roll right up smaller cars. We had a beloved local sportscaster die here a few months ago because he was backed up in traffic and a mega pickup truck hit him from behind. Instead of being your normal rear-end bumper banger with maybe some whiplash, the truck ran up over the car and crushed the poor guy in his driver's seat.

xpost Where I grew up, relatively rural, we used to be able to walk along the roads and pick berries. We can't do that anymore mostly because of the width of the cars. It could be a tight squeeze before, now at the least you're in danger of being clipped by a mirror.

Cars aren’t even that much wider. The big trucks we all hate are longer and taller but width is basically unchanged because of DOT rules. Crossovers have mostly the same footprint as sedans and you’re talking 6-7 inches width difference from cars of the ‘80s and ‘90s.

agree on height- whether in my car or on my bikes (a lot) i cannot see round em or over em. irritates me more in car than on bike tbh

i feel like this “cars look horrible” conversation took a turn when it turned into “ok modern cars suck but the old ones were nice” nope, just want to draw a line in the sand, that they were all bad, even the good ones, and even the shoes you’re wearing, they all look horrible. cars in particular, the proportions, jesus christ. it’s not about the wheels to the car, or the people to the car, or the car to the wheels ratio. it’s the “car to the landscape” ratio, in which the car is negative 50000 turds and any ratio is irrational. i will take the Strong position on cars, that they all fucking suck, and yes, when you see rich people in a country village showing up with all their cars to dominate, it’s upsetting, but it would be just as upsetting if they showed up in a bunch of cool 60s cars (why? mainly at that point because the owners are rich and they definitely suck badly no matter what their aesthetics), it’s just a bunch of machinery and pavement over something that’s infinitely better, a horrible replacement, just stay home, don’t travel, don’t bring yr cool cars to rural spaces, leave the rest of the world alone

having an awesome car in the year 2026 is very “everyone else in the class got a C but i got a 98, i should tell someone!” energy

just fuck off with your awesome car tbh

my healthcare is amazing!"

yeah sick thanks

:) sorry

i drive a 2016 honda fit hatchback

It's what humans do.

I think cars should look like this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyundai_N_Vision_74
And not like this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chrysler_PT_Cruiser
… it’s about the crisp straight lines vs the bouncy curves here

Holy crap that Vision 74 car looks sick!

the honda fit is a great car, esp for the city

inlaw had a new gtv6 in the era. p sick drive for the 80s.

"that they were all bad, even the good ones, and even the shoes you’re wearing, they all look horrible"

aestheticism so back in style but i'd remind all that cars and shoes are not art.
^joeks maaaan. they're totally art.

inlaw had a new gtv6 in the era. p sick drive for the 80s.

"that they were all bad, even the good ones, and even the shoes you’re wearing, they all look horrible"

aestheticism so back in style but i'd remind all that cars and shoes are not art.
^joeks maaaan. they're totally art.

they’re a disappearing demographic now but the older ladies of the old money area still drive through a neighborhood near me on their way to the bank and a handful of older stores and they all seem to have meticulously maintained luxury sedans of yesteryear, the type that stopped being made. cadillacs and lincoln town cars. just absolute boats. the average car did get smaller before we jumped into bizarre suv/pickup world but americans never stopped loving a huge boat of a sedan

Elon Musk has tweeted that the Economist editor who interviewed him is a "traitor" and then Musk agreed with another x poster that traitors should be killed

https://bsky.app/profile/brandonfriedman.bsky.social/post/3mrknmpbekc2y

maybe being called out by the most staid pro-capital publication will get him thinking about things but probably not lol

he's somehow been at that point Charlie Sheen was at before he was forced into rehab for the last 2 years, he's the most publicly insane man on the planet outside of maybe the President of the United States

The economist may be the most staid pro-capital publication but it is also unremittingly liberal in the classical sense of the word. It’s very utilitarian in its outlook (eg. war is bad, because dead people or people in fear for their lives are unable to buy things and generate profits). It’s pretty consistently anti monopoly/monopsony/oligopoly .

I’m not saying they are good but I’m also not surprised that they got his back up. They are certainly traitors to the idea that Elon should own everything.

y'all seasoned posters should know better and are wasting time

I’m Sonned in a bacon flavouring beef.

needs more salt

anyway, fucking hell, how has no-one assassinated this c*** yet? what an absolutely worthless human being. And how worthless, all the chud in his wake.

love how the right has redefined “traitor”
as “someone I don’t like”

it goes deeper than that though. they're accusing people who stand up fo immigration and free movement as traitors to the race. It's straight-up racism, as it always is with these people.

Yes it's incredibly explicit and increasingly common

well im sure there has been no time in history where this sort of branding of people who disagree with you has caused issues, so its presumably fine

The most telling thing to me about the "first the traitors, then the invaders" framing is that it makes explicit what's always been clear about fascist fucks — the only thing they fantasize more about than ethnic cleansing is ideological cleansing. Yes they hate Black and Brown people, non-English speaking people, etc., but the people they most want to kill are their own neighbors, the ones with blue-haired nose-ringed kids and "In this house we believe" signs on the lawn, the ones with the canvas tote bags at the farmers markets ... the all of us who aren't them, basically. We're the ones they really want to send to the camps.

People on bikes in bike lanes, like that awful road rage killing in Texas.

well, tbf the people I hate most are the ones around me with thin blue line and Punisher bumper stickers and Israeli flags on their big ass trucks.

Cars and shoes both have a similar shape, a cabin (heel where you put your foot) and hood (where toes and engine sit, respectively). So maybe a preternatural distaste for that asymmetry? A distaste for things that touch the ground and allow for movement?

ok now I have “(I Live for) Cars and Girls” by the Dictators stuck in my head but replaces girls with “shoes”.

https://i.ibb.co/vCFnXz8w/2026-07-27-14-43-47-LMo-KXp.png

Jonathan Franzen on cars and shoes, from Strong Motion, 1992.