Ages ago Elon Musk used to be positively regarded by most people. I missed everything that happened that changed the public opinion, I missed the changes he imposed on Twitter (though I gather it’s the same as it happened with reddit, only earlier) and yeah. I’m out of the loop. If someone can briefly recap the main events I’d be grateful.
For me, things went like this: Pre-pandemic, everybody wants to own a tesla ev, Elon is smoking pot with Joe Rogan and the world is cheering. Then the pandemic hits. Then the pandemic lifts. Then in 2023 all of a sudden everyone online saying he’s awful, a blood emerald hoarder, destroyer of twitter, tesla stinks, etc etc. Did it all happen overnight? Was there a main trigger event or was it a gradual thing? What, exactly happened to twitter after his takeover- is reddit truly a by-the-book carbon copy of his decisions with API changes?
I’ve been living under a rock.
There was a popular tweet that went around for a bit, that said something along the lines of “When Musk started SpaceX and people called him a genius, I believed them because I don’t know anything about how space programs work. When people said he was a genius for his work at Tesla, I believed them because I don’t know anything about cars. Now he owns Twitter, and I know programming and the things he’s doing are the dumbest things I’ve ever seen, which makes me think twice about his space program and cars.”
Basically, he managed to get followers because he focused on niche technology and hey, he’s rich so he must know what he’s doing. But then he started saying things more and more publicly, culminating with the takeover and ruination of Twitter, and people finally saw him for who he actually is, because he was in control of something that affected them directly, and handling it terribly.