I am a man who values honesty and loyalty in people. They are two excellent traits to have as a human. Honesty turns into trust, which strengthens the bonds through which individuals relate with one another, which benefits communities, groups, and so on and so forth ad nauseum. Loyalty can be a double-edged sword. You want people who will stay by your side through thick and thin, but there can be confusion between loyalty and servitude, when you have an obligation to serve instead of doing so on your own free will.
Wait, McT, what the hell are you yammering on about this time?
Going to create a site where the public can rate the core truth of any article & track the credibility score over time of each journalist, editor & publication. Thinking of calling it Pravda …
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 23, 2018
Erm…wait. What? That was Tweet #1. Here’s the followup: “Even if some of the public doesn’t care about the credibility score, the journalists, editors & publications will. It is how they define themselves.”
Look, I know that the only times BangShift covers Musk with any real note of interest is if someone is racing one, someone made a funny video that sees Grandma swearing after the Ludicrous Mode has done it’s party trick, or when things aren’t looking great for the upcoming Semi. But this is a strange development from Musk…a man who is known for strange developments. He blasted a used car he was done with into space. He wants to ferry people through tubes like some kind of futuristic Disney ride, or those tubes in the cartoon Futurama. And now, out of random on a Wednesday morning, he’s decided that he wants to create a rating scheme based on the credibility and honesty of each journalist, editor, and publication? My gut instinct is to react to this as an exceptionally bad thing…the kind of system that can be manipulated by someone has been hammered in the press for not delivering on their promises, been the subject of scrutiny over their latest and supposedly greatest projects, and who is often on the receiving end of press hell for their hopes, visions and dreams.
But maybe this is an opportunity for me, instead. You want honesty? I’ll give you honesty, Musk. I practice a special form I refer to as “Blunt Force Honesty”…you’ll get the truth and it’s gonna hurt. If what you are selling is good, then sure, I’ll say it’s good. If there is a small issue, I’ll address it. If the panel gaps on a Model 3 are big enough that Danny DeVito can slip in between the front fender and front door at will while blurting out lines, I promise you I’ll put that in there. If another one of your lemming-like followers rams a Model S up the ass end of a city bus because they thought that the Auto Pilot setting meant that they could go to the back seat and have some naughty-naughty time while in traffic, that’s getting front-page press. And if another one of the Falcon rockets becomes a Michael Bay special effect scene because something happened during the landing process, that’ll be a highlight reel!
Be careful what you wish for with your quest for truth in journalism. There are plenty of people who are more than ready to give you what you seek.
Elon Musk is one of the cabal of nerdy insanely wealthy nerds who are intent on creating a new world order free of all governmental control. Zuckerberg reads our thoughts, Musk wants to kill us all in his shittily designed cars and the rest of them probably want to kill us through sheer boredom.
All I can say is thank Ford for fossil fuels, the beautiful cars that are powered by them and BangShift for showing us them!
Shittily designed? I guess you never drove one.
He’s a combination of Lyle Lanley n Hank Scorpio …
I think his real issue are sites like jalopnik and the drive which are heavily liberal in their thinking. All of their articles are negative and I believe that a large portion of that is due to the fact that he is very successful and is also anti union. There is little to no fact checking done these days and nobody is held responsible for shitty “journalism”.
I think Elon’s real issues are based upon the following facts, not bad journalism:
a. Cars that can perform in autonomous mode safely.
b. The lack of transparency by Tesla during an investigation of an accident
involving a car in autonomous mode.
c. The perception that within the company there is ALOT of turmoil due to engineering and management types coming and going at the door faster than a side show at the MIDWAY.
d. Fires
e. Not being able to deliver the Model 3
f. Burning through cash faster than Al Capone to keep the company going.
g. Re-work of 1,000’s of production parts for the Model 3 because they don’t work. Bangshift reported on this themselves.
I would like to see how Tesla sales are without the tax incentive. Let the free market decide whether you and your cars are full of S#%T.
I agree. Let’s pull the tax incentives on ALL of the hybrids and specialty builds and see who survives.
He is full of himself….the cars are cool but when the $ runs out they will be a memory…I give him 2 to maybe 4 more years with this venture.
I have one problem with Musk, and its the same one I have with alternative energy use, and airlines, and railroads, they all rely on federal subsidies, and the government has no business (1) abusing our tax dollars like that, and (2) by doing so, determine who wins in the marketplace.
After that, let the consumer decide who’s car, airfare, or energy system they want to use, when it’s true cost and value are seen in the open.
Too many irons in the fire .Pick one thing so you can devote all your time to it ,and be real good at it.Space ships ,electric cars ,electric trucks and tunnels. That’s a pretty full plate. He is one of those with great ideas ,but. When you put not reachable deadlines for the real world. Things go bad.Parts that have to be reengineered ,that stops production.And your main people will say to hell with this and leave.I think if he doesn’t get a real good grip on things soon.He will be the new Tucker
Well, a lot of us seem to want him to fail, but this CO2 thing won’t end well. He has moved us forward by making desirable EV’s.
Conversely this Mars effort takes our eyes off the ball, no one escapes if this planet is uninhabitable.