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Comment by ffggffggj | Hacker News Reader

Maybe this is a good lesson that when you’re the CEO of major companies and publicly speaking with a member of a government engaging a genocidal war of aggression, it’s just not smart to make any of these “le epic trolling” style jokes

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It is when life isn't serious to you, the rest of the world are NPCs in your personal video game and no matter how bad you fuck up you're set for life.

It feels to me that there's something of a Motte-and-Bailey going on in these discussions. It proceeds like this:

Arguer: Musk is a pro-Russian asset who praised a Twitter thread in which a Russian government official predicted the fall of the West!

Respondent: That was trolling/sarcasm which Musk made clear in a subsequent tweet, if it wasn't already obvious.

Arguer: I just don't think CEOs of major companies should engage in trolling, especially about serious political topics!

I never claimed Musk is a Russian asset - the market is signalling how it feels about Musk. I’m just suggesting that the kind of edgy ambiguity that lands with teens doesn’t tend to land with portfolio managers, as we are seeing. Obviously anyone who reads his 4 hour later follow up tweet knows he meant for the original tweets to be read as sarcastic. But it doesn’t change that it signals immaturity and instability in the c suite. You can disagree, but this is just not a motte and bailey situation, since I never made the original grand claim. And, for what it’s worth, I don’t think Musk is an asset at the heart of a big conspiracy. I think the truth is so much more banal than that - he’s just an impulsive guy surrounded by sycophants.

It's also an interesting take on how the 'end of the road' should look like according to different sets of people.

1) Some people believe it should be something akin to Warren Buffett, Bill Gates or the late Queen of England Elizabeth II.

2) Some others believe it should be something like LBJ, Donald Trump, Howard Hughes/Elon Musk.

In reality the 'end of the road' looks different depending on the prevalent personality of the individuals who are being blessed by enormous amounts of luck to get in such high positions.

The amount of conspicuous consumption is approximately the same and cuts across all the different personality types.

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