A poll about Elon Musk

[Hot Rod Hootenanny]

Is Elon Musk a roadgeek?

[Max Rockatansky]

I think way too many Roadgeeks are obsessed with Elon Musk (mostly in a negative light).  I never hear anything about the guy outside the road community.  I seem to be one of the few forum users who doesn't use Twitter or has any desire to.

Can we have an option "who cares about Elon Musk?"   That would be my vote if the option was available.

[Scott5114]

Only if I get dibs on banning him.

[formulanone]

Fuck him and his wishy-washy bullshit, but I also hope he gets the mental help and caring he needs.

[Rothman]

I never hear anything about the guy outside the road community.

The rock you live under is the most impressive I've seen.

[Max Rockatansky]

I never hear anything about the guy outside the road community.

The rock you live under is the most impressive I've seen.

The first time I heard of the guy was related to Space Port America when I had a store I managed security in Truth or Consequences.  It was about during that time I found out Elon Musk was the guy behind the Tesla Roadster.  Probably the last non-road community time I recall Elon Musk being mentioned was during COVID lockdowns in California when Tesla moved their HQ to Austin.  Aside from that, Elon Musk essentially has been a non-factor in my life and nobody in my immediate circle brings him up.  I'd venture a guess my wife doesn't even know who Elon Musk is.

[Scott5114]

The letters in "Elon Musk" can be rearranged to spell "Melon SKU".

[SkyPesos]

He can stay on Twitter

[Billy F 1988]

I'd rather not have his overprotective influence take control of what we do here. It's not his business to know what we're saying, or doing. I'm smirking at the fact that someone even brings up a question about a guy we'd rather just not pay much mind to.

[US 89]

I never hear anything about the guy outside the road community.

The rock you live under is the most impressive I've seen.

Seconded. I hardly consider myself up to date on the latest and greatest pop culture, but the guy has been everywhere the last year or so. To the point where Tesla or SpaceX are no longer the things that come to mind when hearing his name. I miss those days. Remember the Hyperloop?

[Max Rockatansky]

I never hear anything about the guy outside the road community.

The rock you live under is the most impressive I've seen.

Seconded. I hardly consider myself up to date on the latest and greatest pop culture, but the guy has been everywhere the last year or so. To the point where Tesla or SpaceX are no longer the things that come to mind when hearing his name. I miss those days. Remember the Hyperloop?

I can't say that I spend really much if any time consuming current world news outside of sports and maybe infrastructure in California.  In fact, the chat outside this forum that we are both in is where I get most of my current world event news from.  I used to consume a lot more current world news in my earlier adult life until I figured out most of it doesn't affect me in any tangible way.  The conclusion I came to was that getting invested into current world topics largely wasn't worth the time or mental frustration. 

Then again, is it not kind of on brand for someone who focuses mostly writing about things in the past not to have much investment in what is happening now?

[jgb191]

Anybody knows if the Tesla auto brand is named after the electrician Nikola Telsa?

[Road Hog]

Lone Skum

[Rothman]

I never hear anything about the guy outside the road community.

The rock you live under is the most impressive I've seen.

Seconded. I hardly consider myself up to date on the latest and greatest pop culture, but the guy has been everywhere the last year or so. To the point where Tesla or SpaceX are no longer the things that come to mind when hearing his name. I miss those days. Remember the Hyperloop?

I can't say that I spend really much if any time consuming current world news outside of sports and maybe infrastructure in California.

Well, there you have it.  The rock is quite substantial and one you've pulled over yourself.  So, your ignorance of Elon Musk isn't due to the fact that media only mentions him now and then (quite the opposite), but rather your own desire to stay away from news almost altogether.

[SectorZ]

Anybody knows if the Tesla auto brand is named after the electrician Nikola Telsa?

Nope, it was named after the 80's/90's heavy metal band.

[hbelkins]

Anybody knows if the Tesla auto brand is named after the electrician Nikola Telsa?

Nope, it was named after the 80's/90's heavy metal band.

Which was named after him, and they even did a song about him ("Edison's Medicine.")

[JoePCool14]

I'll see myself out now.

[triplemultiplex]

I hope he keeps destroying Twitter the way he has.  Burn that mutherfacka down!
I'm sick of starting to read what I think is a news article, but then it turns out to be just some twitter bullshit that doesn't matter.

[formulanone]

I never hear anything about the guy outside the road community.

The rock you live under is the most impressive I've seen.

Seconded. I hardly consider myself up to date on the latest and greatest pop culture, but the guy has been everywhere the last year or so. To the point where Tesla or SpaceX are no longer the things that come to mind when hearing his name. I miss those days. Remember the Hyperloop?

I can’t say that I spend really much if any time consuming current world news outside of sports and maybe infrastructure in California.

Well, there you have it.  The rock is quite substantial and one you've pulled over yourself.  So, your ignorance of Elon Musk isn't due to the fact that media only mentions him now and then (quite the opposite), but rather your own desire to stay away from news almost altogether.

To be fair, media in last few years is like eating at Golden Corral: it's all you can eat until you're sick, it lacks substance, it goes stale quickly, and very little of it is good for you. And darned if you don't have to take it with more than a grain of salt.

[Max Rockatansky]

I never hear anything about the guy outside the road community.

The rock you live under is the most impressive I've seen.

Seconded. I hardly consider myself up to date on the latest and greatest pop culture, but the guy has been everywhere the last year or so. To the point where Tesla or SpaceX are no longer the things that come to mind when hearing his name. I miss those days. Remember the Hyperloop?

I can't say that I spend really much if any time consuming current world news outside of sports and maybe infrastructure in California.

Well, there you have it.  The rock is quite substantial and one you've pulled over yourself.  So, your ignorance of Elon Musk isn't due to the fact that media only mentions him now and then (quite the opposite), but rather your own desire to stay away from news almost altogether.

To be fair, media in last few years is like eating at Golden Corral: it's all you can eat until you're sick, it lacks substance, it goes stale quickly, and very little of it is good for you. And darned if you don't have to take it with more than a grain of salt.

I've found over the years that if something in world events is actually truly important then I am likely to get a brief on it through work.  I don't see the value in fretting over Elon Musk-like figures when essentially are a non-factor in my day to day life.  To me it just seems like unnecessary mental baggage to get worked up over narcissistic famous people and what they may be up to. 

[Rothman]

I never hear anything about the guy outside the road community.

The rock you live under is the most impressive I've seen.

Seconded. I hardly consider myself up to date on the latest and greatest pop culture, but the guy has been everywhere the last year or so. To the point where Tesla or SpaceX are no longer the things that come to mind when hearing his name. I miss those days. Remember the Hyperloop?

I can't say that I spend really much if any time consuming current world news outside of sports and maybe infrastructure in California.

Well, there you have it.  The rock is quite substantial and one you've pulled over yourself.  So, your ignorance of Elon Musk isn't due to the fact that media only mentions him now and then (quite the opposite), but rather your own desire to stay away from news almost altogether.

To be fair, media in last few years is like eating at Golden Corral: it's all you can eat until you're sick, it lacks substance, it goes stale quickly, and very little of it is good for you. And darned if you don't have to take it with more than a grain of salt.

I've found over the years that if something in world events is actually truly important then I am likely to get a brief on it through work.  I don't see the value in fretting over Elon Musk-like figures when essentially are a non-factor in my day to day life.  To me it just seems like unnecessary mental baggage to get worked up over narcissistic famous people and what they may be up to.

That's all fine and dandy, but when you stated that Elon Musk was only mentioned in narrow slivers of the media, it was based upon the narrow slivers you consume rather than real exposure to anything close to representative.

[Scott5114]

It seems like The Washington Post gives every bit of his Twitter escapades front-page billing. Maybe they're an outlier, but I don't really consider them to to be a particularly obscure or fringe outfit.

[SectorZ]

It seems like The Washington Post gives every bit of his Twitter escapades front-page billing. Maybe they're an outlier, but I don't really consider them to to be a particularly obscure or fringe outfit.

Billionaire on billionaire crime.

[Max Rockatansky]

I never hear anything about the guy outside the road community.

The rock you live under is the most impressive I've seen.

Seconded. I hardly consider myself up to date on the latest and greatest pop culture, but the guy has been everywhere the last year or so. To the point where Tesla or SpaceX are no longer the things that come to mind when hearing his name. I miss those days. Remember the Hyperloop?

I can't say that I spend really much if any time consuming current world news outside of sports and maybe infrastructure in California.

Well, there you have it.  The rock is quite substantial and one you've pulled over yourself.  So, your ignorance of Elon Musk isn't due to the fact that media only mentions him now and then (quite the opposite), but rather your own desire to stay away from news almost altogether.

To be fair, media in last few years is like eating at Golden Corral: it's all you can eat until you're sick, it lacks substance, it goes stale quickly, and very little of it is good for you. And darned if you don't have to take it with more than a grain of salt.

I've found over the years that if something in world events is actually truly important then I am likely to get a brief on it through work.  I don't see the value in fretting over Elon Musk-like figures when essentially are a non-factor in my day to day life.  To me it just seems like unnecessary mental baggage to get worked up over narcissistic famous people and what they may be up to.

That's all fine and dandy, but when you stated that Elon Musk was only mentioned in narrow slivers of the media, it was based upon the narrow slivers you consume rather than real exposure to anything close to representative.

You're missing part of the point I'm going for.  I'm also questioning by proxy how much of this mainstream media consumption so many people are involved in is really necessary?  Mass/mainstream media sure seems to bring a lot of people who are active in this forum a lot of misery.  I recall a great many people on this forum (on and off it) getting wound up about other recent world events also that didn't include Elon Musk. 

Maybe it's just me, but what's the point of consuming a media that actively makes a person consistently unhappy and/or stresses them out?  Seems like Elon Musk and possibly Twitter (which I assume this thread is about) fall into the category. 

It seems like The Washington Post gives every bit of his Twitter escapades front-page billing. Maybe they're an outlier, but I don't really consider them to to be a particularly obscure or fringe outfit.

Perhaps the question I should be asking is what makes Elon Musk and Twitter so noteworthy to begin with?  I'm obviously not seeing something that a lot you guys think has weight to it.  So many road people have brought the guy up as of late I'm curious to find out what his significance is as an outsider.

[brad2971]

All I'm going to say about Twitter and Elon Musk running it is this: If Twitter is going to allow the world's corporations to use their function for customer service and tech support, then Twitter is just as much a common carrier as the Verizon/ATT/TMobile/other cell phone service which a customer used to call that corporation for customer service and tech support. After all, if you can't ban a neo-Nazi from having cell phone service (and the mobile data that comes with that service)...you know the rest.