Pedo Guy

[dantana]

The Wrap article -

Author of Upcoming Elon Musk Biography Says ‘There Is No Evidence’ Billionaire Has Any ‘Intellectual Achievements’

Attorney, journalist, and Elon Musk biographer Seth Abramson eviscerated both Elon Musk and his “fanboys” who have attempted to use the billionaire’s IQ as an indication of his intellectual prowess in a series of messages shared on X Thursday evening and into Friday. “You are in a cult,” he wrote in one before he later noted Musk “has zero *personal* intellectual achievements.”

“As an Elon Musk biographer, I would peg his IQ as between 100 and 110,” Abramson tweeted Thursday afternoon. “There’s zero evidence in his biography of anything higher. And I want to repeat that now, lest you think it a typo. There’s zero evidence, from his life history, of Musk having anything higher than a 110 IQ.”

The author then stepped away from the platform (“on the basis of this not being a platform worth spending time on”) only to return Friday morning and find his initial message had gone viral in online MAGA communities — and “because Nate Silver thinks Carlyle’s 1800s theory of history, the Great Man Theory, is still relevant to historians in 2025,” Abramson continued.

What followed was a lengthy series of messages, each designed to decimate Musk’s reputation among some circles as a kind of genius. Musk “was sued for stealing the idea for Zip2—which fired him as soon as investors got involved” and “was going to run PayPal into the ground after his company merged with it—again he was fired.” He then “invested in Tesla when it was distressed and quickly began running it into the ground.”

Musk founded Zip2, described as “a sort of digital Yellowpages” by Belmont Hill School’s The Panel Online, with his brother. The outlet reported that in an attempt to impress investors in the company, Musk “created a large, fake casing around the Zip2 computer to make it seem like an extremely advanced supercomputer” — a move that worked, but investors who put $3 million into the company did so only after Musk agreed to step down so “someone more experienced to take his place.”
The code used by the program, which Musk taught himself, “was soon exposed to be so scrambled that a majority of the program had to be rewritten by more advanced programmers.”

Musk ultimately returned to the company as CEO and benefitted financially when it was sold to COMPAQ in 1999. He used the $22 million his 7% share brought in to an “internet bank” at X.com — the same company he merged with the founders of Paypal. He was named CEO after the merger in April 2000 but was removed from the position six months later.

SpaceX, Abramson continued, is Musk’s only “truly successful and novel company” and a chunk of its success was owed to President Obama, who Musk “successfully lobbied” after “Russians had laughed Musk out of Moscow.”

“I needn’t tell you the Boring Company is a failure that has done no more than produce an illegal flamethrower for fun, one that cannot be legally shipped and has caused lots of people legal issues,” Abramson added. “Neuralink is mired in ethics investigations, and Musk does none of its science.”

“Everything” Musk has said about Twitter/X was “a lie,” he also said, “and business schools will teach how he ran this platform into the ground for 200 years.”

“Feel free to Google all the things Musk did to scam people into thinking he’d made a successful foray into robotics,” Abramson continued. “It does not take intelligence to throw money around and buy a company or buy a politician. Anyone would/could.”

“It does not take intelligence to, having thrown money at a politician, use the clout you accrued from that to advantage your own businesses—businesses you are well aware you have nothing to do with the success of, which is why you mess around with their patents to hide that fact.”

“If you assign intelligence to just spending money, you’re in a cult,” he also added. “If you attach intelligence to simply owning a successful company whose work on a day-to-day basis you have nothing to do with and who you are considerably more of a hindrance to than a help to, you’re in a cult.”

Toward the end of his messages, Abramson noted, “It is also a particularly American disease to confuse wealth with intelligence and corporations with those who own them. In most of the world the conversation we are having would seem utterly preposterous, as again there is no evidence of Musk having *intellectual* achievements.”

“I don’t find IQ to be a valuable measure,” he also clarified. “I introduced the term to this conversation because it’s used by *you fans* as some sort of supposed proof of Musk’s intelligence—though none of you have any proof whatsoever of any IQ test the man’s ever taken.”

Abramson’s entire thread can be read on X, formerly Twitter.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/author-upcom ... 38098.html

[Dr. Shades]

How did Musk obtain his wealth, and why did you title this thread “Pedo Guy?”

[canpakes]

How did Musk obtain his wealth, …

Mostly through Tesla stock.

[dantana]

How did Musk obtain his wealth, and why did you title this thread “Pedo Guy?”

Couple of reasons. A little lighthearted click-bait. I've developed a dislike for him. If he can call someone a pedo-guy with absolutely no evidence, then I should be within my rights to return the favor.

I had nothing against him right up until this incident. Some kids were trapped in a cave when water levels rose, Muks offered a mini sub to rescue them, one of the rescuers explained that that was logistically impossible as it would be akin to driving a pickup through the aisles of Walmart, Muks lost his mind.

And now that he has cozied up to Twump I like him even less.

The article - (link is too old)

Elon Musk came under fire on Sunday after launching an extraordinary attack on a British diver who helped rescue the boys trapped in a flooded cave in Thailand, baselessly calling him a “pedo” on Twitter and then doubling down.

Twelve boys and their football coach were rescued from the Tham Luang cave complex by an international team and after a week of intense drama.

The chief executive of the tech giant Tesla offered to assist the rescue mission by providing a submarine. The request was turned down. Musk lashed out on Sunday, saying he would make a video proving that his “mini-sub” would have been successful and adding: “Sorry pedo guy, you really did ask for it.”

The accusation, presented without evidence or context, was directed at Vern Unsworth, a British cave explorer who recently said Musk’s attempt to help the rescue effort was a “PR stunt”. No evidence has emerged to substantiate Musk’s claim of pedophilia.

“It just had absolutely no chance of working,” Unsworth said in a widely shared interview. “He had no conception of what the cave passage was like. The submarine, I believe, was about 5ft 6in long, rigid, so it wouldn’t have gone round corners or round any obstacles.”

On Sunday, when a Twitter user pointed out that Musk was “calling the guy who found the children a pedo”, the billionaire responded: “Bet ya a signed dollar it’s true.”

Intense criticism followed. Some Twitter users pointed out how “dangerous” and irresponsible it was to make such a serious allegation and to broadcast a potentially libelous insult to his 22 million followers.

Spokesmen for Musk and Tesla did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Later on Sunday, Musk deleted the “pedo” tweet and its follow-up.

Unsworth could not immediately be reached.

Some users reported Musk’s comments to Twitter, one saying he “shouldn’t be allowed to use Twitter to unleash [his] followers on people like this”.

Musk has repeatedly come under fire for his behavior on Twitter and for Tesla’s PR strategy, under which it aggressively attacks critics and journalists. James Anderson, a partner at Baillie Gifford, Tesla’s fourth-largest shareholder, said in a recent Bloomberg interview the company needed a period of “peace and execution”, adding: “It would be good to just concentrate on the core task.”

Asked about the “pedo” tweet, Anderson told the Guardian in an email: “I intend to convey my – predictable I trust – feelings to the company tomorrow.” He declined to elaborate.

Musk had pledged to be less combative on social media, saying earlier this week: “I have made the mistaken assumption – and I will attempt to be better at this – of thinking that because somebody is on Twitter and is attacking me that it is open season. That is my mistake. I will correct it.”

The billionaire attracted controversy for his approach to the Thai rescue after Narongsak Osatanakorn, head of the joint command center, said the mini-submarine would not have been practical.

Musk responded by saying Osatanakorn was “not the subject matter expert” and that he had been “inaccurately described as rescue chief” and should have been labeled the “former Thai provincial governor”. Osatanakorn stepped down as Chiang Rai governor during the rescue, but was still acting as commander.

Musk’s Sunday tweets came in response to a New York Times opinion piece entitled “What Elon Musk Should Learn From the Thailand Cave Rescue”. The Tesla CEO appears to be committed to proving his design would have worked. He wrote: “We will make [a video] of the mini-sub/pod going all the way to Cave 5 no problemo.”

He also responded to one critic who had called the submarine idea “absurd” a week earlier, writing: “Stay tuned jackass.” That tweet too was deleted.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/ ... do-Twitter

[Dr. Shades]

How did Musk obtain his wealth, ...

Mostly through Tesla stock.

Where did he get the money to buy all that stock?

[canpakes]

Mostly through Tesla stock.

Where did he get the money to buy all that stock?

From Wiki:

“In 1995, Musk, his brother Kimbal, and Greg Kouri founded web software company Zip2 with funds borrowed from Musk's father. They housed the venture at a small rented office in Palo Alto. The company developed and marketed an Internet city guide for the newspaper publishing industry, with maps, directions, and yellow pages.
…
The Musk brothers obtained contracts with The New York Times and the Chicago Tribune, and persuaded the board of directors to abandon plans for a merger with CitySearch. Musk's attempts to become CEO were thwarted by the board. Compaq acquired Zip2 for $307 million in cash in February 1999, and Musk received $22 million for his 7-percent share.”

…

“Tesla, Inc., originally Tesla Motors, was incorporated in July 2003 by Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning. Both men played active roles in the company's early development prior to Musk's involvement. Musk led the Series A round of investment in February 2004; he invested $6.35 million, became the majority shareholder, and joined Tesla's board of directors as chairman. Musk took an active role within the company and oversaw Roadster product design, but was not deeply involved in day-to-day business operations. Following a series of escalating conflicts in 2007, and the financial crisis of 2007–2008, Eberhard was ousted from the firm. Musk assumed leadership of the company as CEO and product architect in 2008. A 2009 lawsuit settlement with Eberhard designated Musk as a Tesla co-founder, along with Tarpenning and two others.”