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Why Do People Hate Elon Musk? (Patreon)

Published:
2022-12-22 16:50:19
Imported:
2026-06
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Content

Hey all, here's the Elon video. This video was an experiment to see how working on a more contemporary/pop-oriented topic would play out. I tried to approach it from a perspective that cut through the noise and got at the underlying dynamics to the polarization around him. Let me know what you think.

My next video is going to be on democracy in both ancient Athens and America, describing and comparing them. It's going to be in the heavier/longer style, and it's something I've been working on in the background while I cranked out this Elon piece.

Also I'm planning on doing one more Patreon video in the near future. I got COVID a few days ago, actually as I was finishing the Elon piece (my voice changes in the last couple minutes, if you listen closely). I want to record it once I feel better.

On that note, enjoy your holidays everyone and thanks as always for your support!

- Ryan

Files

Previews only

Why Do People Hate Elon Musk?

An explanation of the mass wave of antipathy recently directed at Elon Musk. If you want to support the channel, here are the best ways to do it: 1) Watch the full video 2) Subscribe if you haven't 3) Share with a friend 4) Support me with a small donation on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/rchapman 0:00 - Why Do People Hate Elon Musk? 01:39 - Part 1: Polarization 03:39 - Part 2: Equality & Power 06:54 - Outro Sources: Elon Musk - Ashlee Vance On Political Equality - Robert Dahl American Politics And The Promise Of Disharmony - Samuel Huntington Links: https://www.americansurveycenter.org/research/socially-distant-how-our-divided-social-networks-explain-our-politics/ https://www.aei.org/op-eds/the-gop-isnt-too-popular-guess-what-neither-are-democrats/ https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2022/12/elon-musk-twitter-files-documents-bari-weiss/672421/ https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/26/technology/elon-musk-geopolitics-china-ukraine.html?action=click&module=RelatedLinks&pgtype=Article - https://www.cnn.com/videos/business/2022/12/05/elon-musk-popularity-poll-cnntm-contd-vpx.cnn

Comments

Fred Heiser

Elon is a neat guy. I disagree with much of what he says but that doesn't stop him from being neat. He's also an immature guy in many ways and his autistic streak leaves him oblivious to the social consequences of a lot of what he does and says. This doesn't stop him from being a brilliant manager of high tech companies. Elon buys Twitter. Makes some ham handed moves with it. But the people who have gotten used to Twitter being a certain way become upset that it isn't that way anymore. Most people use Twitter to hang out with friends or a special interest group. Nothing that Elon does to Twitter will have the slightest impact on them. If Twitter is your news source, I have doubts as to the wisdom of your news consumption. But if the opinion you want to hear is no longer being expressed, it is because that opinion left Twitter and not because Elon somehow managed to cancel the discussion. Really, the complaint is that Elon allowed certain opinions to be expressed that some people didn't like. Somehow, along the way, the idea that 'the best correction for bad speech is good speech' has become extremely unpopular. The new paradigm is that bad speech needs to be suppressed because it leads people into lives of sin. And so we have two new religions on the far right and far left who are more interested in crushing the infidels than in getting to any compromise a majority can live with. In every religion, compromise is sin.

Fred Heiser
>>98143812

I could point out many celebrities and wealthy people who revel in a kind of bad-boy notoriety. If it is bad-boy notoriety that fits one's political preferences, it is cool and if it does not, then the dude is Satan incarnate. If Elon were reveling in left wing bad-boy notoriety the same people who dis him now would applaud while the right would hate him as fervently as AOC.

Tim Elston
>>98143812

What you say is true as far as it goes, but that totalizing approach is just what I objected to. Judgments of character are not always partisan. Partisans do often pick sides based on partisanship, and everyone is biased in some way in everything they judge. But politics isn't always the sum total of character judgment; not every judgment of bad character is driven by political alignment. I can think of progressives and liberals who have bad character, too. That I don't like them has to do with their character, as demonstrated by their behaviors, not with their politics. I'm not partisan. I have former friends on both left and right whom I no longer consider friends because of their attitudes and behaviors. Character is what matters to me, and I'm not the only one who cares about it. The reason I stopped liking Musk was because I saw his attitudes and behaviors. If it were all about politics I wouldn't view either Barack Obama or Jeff Flake favorably. But because it's primarily about character for me, I esteem both of them favorably and not Elon Musk.

David Horstman
>>98693798

Here's my take: We decided to reject that first type of interaction as "toxic and controlling", in hopes that we could persuade Joe and the coffee drinkers to get along. But it turns out that Joe really hates the smell of coffee. And it makes him angry to be forced to associate with the coffee drinkers, because they carry their smelly coffee around with them. But he doesn't have a good enough understanding of his feelings to express this. He knows that he feels uncomfortable around coffee drinkers - the smell of coffee gives him a headache - but he isn't sufficiently in-tune with his feelings to realize this. So instead of saying "I dislike the smell of coffee", he says "I don't like coffee drinkers". However, the society he lives in has decided that this form of interaction is unacceptable, and Joe is treated as toxic/controlling by everyone other than his fellow dislikers of coffee drinkers, who might also respond negatively to its smell, or perhaps they dislike how people act when they're high on caffeine (in much the same way you might dislike the way people act when they're drunk or stoned). Now Joe lives in a world where whether or not he can be someone's friend depends on whether or not they like coffee. Joe still doesn't like the smell of coffee, but he's learned that saying anything negative about coffee drinkers is considered "toxic", and so he must avoid not only the source of his discomfort (coffee), but also a large percentage of the population that treats his incorrect explanation of his genuine discomfort as tantamount to an attempt to control other peoples' beverage choices. Now we've gone back to the beginning, where we conclude that, so long as Joe doesn't throw coffee at anyone, he's entitled to his opinions. Hence the original behavior is becoming more accepted. I would call this modern day phenomenon a backlash against a culture which has become *too* focused on tolerance, to the point that it isn't sufficient to be polite to everyone, you have to *like* everyone too. As for solutions, we need to become open to the fact that we might not understand our own motivations, and take the time to try to understand what other people are really saying, instead of jumping to conclusions. Joe isn't self-aware enough to figure out the cause of his bad feelings on his own, but if someone took the time to talk to him and tried to understand him better, they might be able to figure out the real problem together, which is the fact that Joe experiences physical discomfort when exposed to coffee particles in the air. Which is honestly, a pretty reasonable reaction, given the fact that caffeine originally evolved to *discourage* animals from eating coffee beans.

Christopher Paul Bettridge

I dunno; everything about American's politics is very intensely debated here in Canada too, and though I think many other Canadians may disagree with me on this, I think it's partly because so many of the social policies instituted by the US Federal government like privatization, the closing of hospitals for the mentally ill, increasingly obdurate ignorance towards how ignoring our country's promises on climate change mitigation will be perceived abroad, particularly outside our neat little imperial core, and even more on the obvious consequences, we even had a Canadian version of the 2008 capitalist fiasco; so it goes. And into the realm of bipartisan bifurcation between those who vote Conservative (GOP light) and those who definitely vote Liberal (Super-nice Democrats-without the hawks). It's never been so...personal, and if like I used to, you dare vote NDP (Bernie Sanders but allied right now with Biden for a house majority-if you're versed in Canadian politics or aren't from the US, my regards-and I have a point. I am sure I do....). It's very pronounced, and I'm not used to it so when everyone really started going at Elon when he bought Twitter (I've never liked him, but for purely subjective reasons and an inclination to antipathy towards the rich I guess) I was strangely fascinated by the whole thing, oddly, as I've never had a Twitter account or even used it. So it was quite striking, R.C., when you agreeably showed a side to the man which seems eminently likable if you're into the other planets stuff, and even that's besides the point. It's too bad you didn't make a bit longer video, I think more could have been said about the power-success dynamic and most people's fascination with loving or hating those whom manage it or however it it's done. Nonetheless, it's a fair conclusion you've drawn about the way perception works. America, The Big One, is one strange place! I live like an hour and a half's drive from the Ambassador Bridge, right up one axis of the probable invasion route when the water starts to run out and it's too hot down south. To the Yukon! My regrets at this reply's length, 'twas unintended. So, thank you for your time.

Nick Maslov

Take care and thanks for everything!

Mark Roberts

I think hypocrisy is more of a motivator for me to dislike someone than someone taking a side in general.

Michael Bracey

i thought people didnt like Elon because he’s a fraud?

Thōmās

Will you make a video about a republic and ancient Rome too? Republicanism, or a mixed constitution, like the politeia that Aristotle mentions, and Rome in general, were much more guiding principles than that of the Greek Democracy. It is worth noting that Greeks like Polybius, a well studied Greek, did not view Rome as a democracy, and I would agree with his assertion. But the institutions of Rome can easily be identified in our own constitution. I apologize for the long comment that only had to do with the end of your video. I just view Rome as much more important for American politics than Greece, and I would argue, that the Founders did as well. To be clear my views are at odds with modern political thought. I do not believe modern political thought to be accurate with regards to a democracy vs a republic.

Tim Elston

I've liked your other content a lot. But this one didn't focus enough on Musk's behavior as a reason for his unpopularity. I used to respect him, but as he increasingly displayed his attitudes on social media and in interviews, my respect gradually fell, and now he seems to be reveling in a kind of bad-boy notoriety that seems suspiciously influenced by the era of a certain ex-president's malevolent behavior. I don't think chalking this one up primarily to partisanship is a complete analysis. This video almost implies there should be no reason to fall out with Musk, given all of his worthy technical aspirations, and people who now dislike him do so for political reasons. But that's not the case with me. I'm not partisan; I voted for both (anti-Trump) Republicans and Democrats as late as the most recent midterms. Musk's problem is his attitude. He's also not averse to unliteral pump-and-dump tactics through his Twitter account. He criticizes SEC pushback against his irresponsible market-moving messaging that causes people to lose money. While some of what he has done is admirable, he seems to be letting his successes go to his head and isn't presenting a very good example of an adult to his children. I think this video pays short shrift to that bahavioral aspect of why his star is falling.

David

For those of you who think Musk is a fraud I would urge you to watch parts of the below interview. Its a very good summary of his motivations for the things he is doing. He seems very genuine to me. https://youtu.be/jvGnw1sHh9M?t=610

Iman Karavan
>>98143812

I actually think that your statement reinforces Ryan's points, that is, people will make judgment of someone character and take position against someone as soon as they express their political believes; of course, given that he is amongst the riches people on the planet, his opinion will inevitably exert it's effect on the economy and people will take position against him because of that also- such judgments may or may not be valid given the moral and ethical context. having said that, I think it's fair to say that someone attitude is very important factor as how people perceive the moral of someone character, but I think in this video Ryan was making the point on why there is a clear divide between the people who are praising him and people who are disparaging him and that on population level there seem to be a correspondence between political affiliation and the judgment on his character- on individual level, all factors can be a plausibility.

rchapman
>>98143812

I don't disagree with anything you're saying (except the part about my video perhaps implying there's no reason to dislike Musk outside of politics), and I do think that's all probably contributing to his falling status. But I don't see that aspect of his behavior generating the widespread hatred that's surfaced over the past 6-12 months (which is the phenomenon that this video tried to explain). I wasn't trying to exhaust all the reasons why people might dislike Musk. I was trying to explain why there's a mass wave of hatred towards him. The hatred seems to be falling down partisan lines. If we're to follow the evidence, that would incline us to believe that the politics are the core driver. I genuinely don't know the argument that would get us out of that conclusion. It might exist but I haven't seen it. Assuming that's correct, I thought going into the non-political side of of Musk (his business practices and recent questionable non-political behavior) would seem unimportant/trivial.

Tim Elston
>>98143812

Understood. What you say in your reply makes sense. You're probably right that Musk's fall from left-wing grace is due to left-wing partisanship. He provided the fuel for their ire by apparently intentionally riling them up, but that doesn't excuse the partisan judgement. On the other side, as you intimate, he's become a darling of the right for the very reason that he has come out this way. The right relishes him now more vigorously precisely for that reason, due to the right's own partisanship in spite of Musk's bad behavior. I learned the right is willing sycophantically to embrace the most brazen moral dysfunction when it championed Trump. That lusty willingness is on display with Musk's raised stature with them, too, insofar as anyone who owns the libs is a champion irrespective of any other disqualifying behavioral patterns he or she may display. But I might have been projecting onto you my frustration with some of my one-time good but now tenuous friends who can't see, or at least won't express concern about, the character flaws of their enemies' enemies. Trump and my family and friends' embrace of him disturbed me so thoroughly I have a political PTSD hair trigger now. Anyway, I look forward to more of your content.

DadBodZod

Ryan- Great video. I picked up on something unintended from it and am hoping you can define it for me. Because I can't. There seems to be a formula at play here; Joe doesn't like coffee and Joe doesn't like anyone who likes coffee. Joe thinks that they're dumb for liking coffee. I think this behavior used to be perceived as toxic and controlling but is becoming more accepted. I'd like to identify this as Level One. Bear with me as I try to describe further. Not only does Joe dislike people who like coffee but he dislikes people who don't share his dislike of coffee. Let's call these people tea drinkers. So, Joe doesn't like tea drinkers because tea drinkers don't share his dislike for coffee. I believe this is called Tribalism and is fairly typical now. I'd like to call this Level Two. This third, and final example (that i'll call Level Three) is what I'm hoping you can define; So, Joe doesn't like coffee and dislikes people that like coffee. Joe also doesn't like tea drinkers due to tea drinkers' neutrality regarding coffee. Now, Joe dislikes anyone who doesn't share his dislike of tea drinkers. When Joe hears someone speaking about tea drinkers, he decides if you're a friend or foe based on your opinion of said tea drinkers. What would be a name for this modern day phenomenon that seems to be gaining momentum?