I think part of the problem is disillusion. Millenials in the west grew up in a period where it looked like tech was going to benefit society, and climate change was going to be addressed, and ethical consumerism was somewhat meaningful, and social mobility would still exist. We are having to downgrade our expectations and it hurts.

There's an interesting psychological analysis about musk on a podcast called Psychology in Seattle. They speculate that he is unconconsiously recreating his childhood bullying on twitter due to a psychological phenomenum called "repetition compulsion". As in, you recreate relationships from childhood to try to have a " corrective experience" to heal the trauma.

Went to an Aussie bush doof as a teenager and had some Americans come smoke bongs with me at my camp site. They were dressed up as ninja turtles. After a while I realised one of them had his plums hanging out his shorts and they were painted green. Americans love taking things too far.

I'm not sure what you mean. I'm not American, and I don't place much value on enormous wealth accumulation. I'm just acknowledging that there is a difference between gaining enormous wealth with a hefty leg up from family wealth versus doing it from scratch, like growing up in poverty for example.

I think he is dedicated, dangerous and awful. I just don't think he is smart. I've known people who achieved wealth, started successful businesses etc. They had domain expertise and ambition. But they also neglected and fucked up other critical aspects of their lives (like their relationships with partners and kids). I didn't consider them to be smart. In my mind, smart implies a well roundedness, and the capacity for self reflection, and empathy. Musk just has the personality traits, and family wealth, to enable him to "succeed" in our current society.

I have to question the judgement of Bill Gates when he calls Musk "super-smart". Maybe if Musk started out with no money, that would be fair in some sense. I think he was just lucky and unencumbered by ethics or self-doubt.

To all these commenters casting judgement, I challenge you to go 12 months without any sex or masturbation and see what that does to your mental health. Now imagine being physically unable to do that for the rest of your life without paid help, which you cannot afford. Otherwise fuck off.

Watch as Australia votes in a corrupt copper next year for prime minister. Making the same bullshit promises.

I don't think you can generalise white collar jobs that way. I've done both, and writing software all day takes way more out of me than when I did manual labour. But some white collar jobs don't require much effort at all. I wish it was easier to balance using your brain and your body for work.

Dude, the last 30 years in Australia have proved that private industry does not handle public services better than the government. Since you do not live in Australia, you cannot claim to be as informed on this as a local. I wish Americans would stop chiming in on the state of Australia as though they are experts. Your country has the worst healthcare system in the developed world.

Taxation is not theft if the money is spent properly on services that benefit tax payers. Poor taxation policy is theft, since public service quality will diminish over time. Like what we are currently seeing with lack of investment in public services, combined with an asset owning class that doesn't pay tax on its passive wealth, using that wealth to purchase more assets, which drives up prices and shrinks the middle class. If these people had better critical thinking they would rebel against that instead.