this post was submitted on 05 Jul 2023
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[–] LeZero@lemmy.world 52 points 1 year ago (4 children)

I would be so embarassed if I ever was a fanboy of this fucking dunce

Imagine being capable of getting enough loans to buy a company for $44B and not being able to envision basic consequences for your buisness actions

[–] PM_STEAM_KEYS@lemmy.world 29 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

I am loathe to admit I was a fan (though not really a boy about it) in the early days of Tesla and SpaceX. I don't even necessarily think I was wrong at the time, mind you — whether or not he deserved the credit for their achievements, his companies were pushing electric cars and rocketry in the right direction IMO — it's just sad to see that once the curtain was pulled back, there was nothing but a narcissistic and delusional huckster behind it all.

[–] Ducks@ducks.dev 14 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I would say that a lot of people (myself included) fall into this boat. We were fooled a decade+ ago, but the truth is clear now

[–] KluEvo@wirebase.org 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I didnt fan over him, but I definitely respected some of "his" earlier ventures, especially SpaceX. Now I just laugh when I hear his name

[–] Ducks@ducks.dev 8 points 1 year ago

I have the same sentiment, it wasn't necessarily the man I was a fan of, but I was happy to see someone using their wealth to build companies that can push humanity forward. Tesla turned out to be a dud in my opinion and SpaceX prospers seemingly despite Musk.

[–] joelthelion@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

He could also have changed in the meantime.

[–] Ducks@ducks.dev 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Based on what I've read about his time at PayPal, he's always been like this. Probably worse now, but never who I thought he was.

[–] LukeMedia@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

Yeah I certified used to admire the progress his companies made, and admired him by relation. Wasn't a fanboy though. Sad to see what the real picture was.

[–] LeZero@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

Hey, I'm not really blaming them (although his blue check dogs are something else), people are not immune to propaganda and advertising, and billionaires have PR agents for a reason

[–] Kyle@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 year ago

Well said. I'm sad to say I was in the same boat. I'm amazed he not only has people that like him, but superfans as well. Yikes!

[–] Cyna@feddit.uk 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'll admit I was a minor fan of him. He seemed to have his ego pointed in a good direction. It was around the time those kids got stuck in a cave that I realised something was off.

I was never a hyper fan, but I'll admit I was completely taken in by his PR machine, for a time.

[–] SomeoneElse@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago

Oh man, you nailed the turning point. Literally everyone with eyes could look at the cross section map of the cave and immediately see that a rigid vessel was not going to get even half way through. And then the tweet calling the lead rescuer a paedo? I never liked the guy but that’s when I began to really dislike him. What an utter twat.

[–] agressivelyPassive@feddit.de 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It's even more astonishing that the actual consequences are, almost nil.

He's simply not paying anyone. He's a massive fraudster and he's getting away with it. That's baffling. And sad.

Any normal business would have been completely disassembled by debt collectors, but that idiot somehow deflects every legal consequence.

[–] givesomefucks@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The reason he's able to skip so much stuff, is what he skipped on first had escrow accounts to cover missed payments.

Those are pretty much all drained now, so consequences are coming since he was obligated to refund the escrows in x days/months. That's why it seems like he's "getting away with it" for so long.

He's not paying these because the other option is not paying his loans.

If he doesn't pay them, they force him to sell a bunch of Tesla stock, doing so would drop the price and it's already way lower than when he got the loans.

[–] SomeoneElse@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

What’s an escrow account? Your comment is very clear and I understand the gist of it but I don’t actually know what escrow means.

Edit: stupid spelling mistake

[–] givesomefucks@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Let's say you agree to rent my house

My house is baller tho, and the rent is 10k a week, for 520k a year.

So when we sign the lease, we agree that you pay 4 weeks into a bank account that youre not able to touch and I'm not able to touch either.

It's only there because if something happens and you don't pay me 10k each week, the account managers (escrow service) pays me 10k each week.

Once that happens, you're contractually obligated to pay the account (escrow) back within X amount of time. That way if you miss more payments, the buffer is replaced. But since the buffer exists, legally you haven't missed a payment until the fifth week you don't pay me.

Musk has been coasting on that buffer. Now that he's running out of buffer, legal consequences will start piling up.

[–] SomeoneElse@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago
[–] pulaskiwasright@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I think he knew Twitter was a turd and wanted to use it as an excuse to dump Tesla stock without killing Tesla share value. The plan went awry when he couldn’t weasel out of the deal as planned and was forced to actually buy a company that was dead weight.

[–] SaltySalamander@lemmy.fmhy.ml 1 points 1 year ago

Pretty sure he took out loans using his Tesla stock as collateral, rather than dumping the stock outright.