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Comment by cbeach | Hacker News Reader

God forbid a CEO would express his sincerely-held beliefs.

All my favourite CEOs inauthentically mirror the perceived beliefs of their customers in order to sell more products.

I think part of it is that many of those beliefs are so stupid, they taint whoever holds them. Not all beliefs are created equal, so to speak.

Also, other CEOs who might share those beliefs are at least intelligent / savvy enough not to voice them openly. Being so stupid or arrogant that you would proudly display those beliefs is seen almost as worse by many, so he doesn't do himself any favours with that.

Why do you have favorite CEOs? That seems like a weird hobby.

I think the implication is that many are on this forum have a “least-favourite CEO hobby” and are very proud of it.

Hey, my list is just all of them tied for last until proven otherwise.

There are hundreds of competing CEOs for that title in my book. Musk isn't even at that top of that list.

A lot of people on HN are obsessed with Musk though. There's a post about him every day here.

As opposed to having a favorite sportsball player? In neither case is the favor reciprocated.

Having opinions is weird.

Sounds like sarcasm to me.

God forbid we judge a man on the content of his character.

Sincerely-held beliefs? Have we seen the same twitter posts? For me these look like drug fueled ramblings.

Except some beliefs are objectively stupid.

> Except some beliefs are objectively stupid.

I agree. However, hoi polloi don't evaluate others based on the objective validity of their beliefs, but rather whether they share the same beliefs, however stupid.

you're never going to believe this, but the other side feels the same way

While this is true, it doesn't preclude one side being completely unhinged from reality.

In a scenario where there is a normal side and a stupid side, both sides will also feel that the other side is stupid. So this means absolutely nothing.

Well, there aren't 2 opposing sides, and that feeling doesn't change the fact that some beliefs are indeed stupid.

Well yeah, I think their beliefs are stupid. It would not surprise me at all that they hold other stupid beliefs.

Like, I believe flat earth beliefs are stupid. Do people that hold them believe my beliefs in that area are stupid? maybe, but I'm pretty comfortable with that.

Smart CEOs aren't on the news all the time nor use the hatespreading engines they buy on themselves.

But the not-smart ones are so entertaining that I can support them!

I mean, the man we are talking about have come to dominate two notoriously difficult industries by revolutionising both.

Wouldn’t Elon Musk be the definition of “smart CEO”? Considering his track record?

If Musk is sincere in his tweeting then he has the politics of a 14-year old Reddit Troll (and I would know having been guilty of such behavior myself). There are much better ways to persuade people of your righteousness than posting memes where women are flashing their vaginas at monks in order to tempt them, but of course that takes actual work and lacks the dopamine hit that comes from such subversiveness. And again, I say this as someone who appreciates the occasional 420/69 numerology or naming your car models "S", "3" (E), and "X". To me that's playful, but he's taken it far beyond that and into something much darker.

Tesla customers are the "liberal coastal woke elites" Musk hates so much. What is he mirroring exactly that they would appreciate? It's the complete opposite of what you said.

I buy a company's products. Not a CEO's. CEOs just have to keep their mouths shut and all is well if their products are good. Hell, how many people do you think even know who the CEO of KIA is? Or of BMW? Or of Honda? Or of Stellantis?

Right.

Elon dug his own grave by having severe narcissistic personality disorder, always need to be front and centre of the daily discourse and happens to show his real right wing face now. A face that is anthesis to his customer base.

I'm his customer base. I have solar panels on my roof and a Tesla on my drive.

And I LOVE that Musk defends freedom of expression. I LOVE that he defends free market economics and border control.

I assure you I am MORE likely to buy a Tesla because of Musk.

We can do better than pigeonhole all EV customers into a single political tribe.

Could you please stop posting unsubstantive comments and flamebait? You've unfortunately been doing it repeatedly. It's not what this site is for, and destroys what it is for.

We ban accounts that post like this, so I need to ask you to stop.

If you wouldn't mind reviewing https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and taking the intended spirit of the site more to heart, we'd be grateful.

It’s useful to know how the site moderators view my comments, and how this might influence their behaviour against my user account.

Thank you for admitting this.

I will be more wary of this site than I already was.

> And I LOVE that Musk defends freedom of expression.

As long as that expression is in line with his values and doesn't criticize him? That isn't "free" speech he's defending.

Right, he has definitely removed and shadow-banned reporters who put up things that he didn't like, while Chinese and Russian blue check propaganda accounts spam Twitter with hundreds of tweets and retweets every day PER account.

Yeah when he removes accurate community notes on his own tweets, that's not exactly promoting freedom of expression.

Wouldn't a free market for labor eschew any kind of border control? What do you think Musk cares most about - the nationality of the workers who assemble a Tesla, or the cost of their labor?

I think you can recognize that OP was talking about the 80% of his customers who buy EVs because they are green friendly or tech geeks, and not 20% who buy because they like Musk

Yes, but the problem for Elon is that the people like you in the intersection of all those sets is rather small.

it's wild watching you worship musk relentlessly on him comment after comment. you LOVE him. we get it.

Could you please stop posting unsubstantive comments and flamebait? You've unfortunately been doing it repeatedly. It's not what this site is for, and destroys what it is for.

We ban accounts that post like this, so I need to ask you to stop.

If you wouldn't mind reviewing https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and taking the intended spirit of the site more to heart, we'd be grateful.

> God forbid a CEO would express his sincerely-held beliefs.

Express to who?

Who do you express your sincerely-held beliefs to? To your friends and family or do you often get on a soapbox/roof-top/social media platform and just start yelling?

Musk’s been doing the latter, and CEO or not, it comes with consequences that are directly proportional to the size of the megaphone.

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