I am slow to get to this point, but I arrived.
I had thought Elon Musk was the genius America needed. Now I think he mostly breaks things.
X marks the spot.
I was slow to get here because I liked the idea of a big, bold thinker. I buy Japanese-branded cars now. I was happy some American came in to re-think the auto industry so I could buy American again. I test drove a Tesla about six years ago, and I liked it. That acceleration from a dead start pressing me back in the seat was fun. I admit it.
Tesla cars are nifty. Cool. Sort of like Apple products. I likened Elon Musk to Dick Fosbury, the high-jumper who re-thought how people should go over the bar, doing it back-down. He defied traditions. The 1960's "Question Authority" vibe appealed to me still, even though I have grown old and comfortable.
I was even less irritated than was most of the commentary I read about Musk taking over Twitter and opening it up to Q-Anon crazies and anti-Semites and 2020 election conspiracists. I am mostly a free-speech absolutist. I have long thought Twitter was a dangerous garbage pit. I thought efforts by the old Twitter management to make it safe garbage misunderstood its true character. I have experience with raw unfiltered free speech by my efforts to moderate the comments section of this blog. Crazy, angry people submit garbage. Twitter has always been like eating food that dropped on the floor of public restrooms, so let's not pretend otherwise.
The straw that broke the camel's back for me came in two parts, happening together. Musk announced he wanted his company, X, to be a universal platform for communication, news, and payments. People would have an X app and pay bills with it. We could send money to each other with X. It would be the rule-breaking, out-of-the-box financial company which could do to money what Musk did to the auto industry.
That set off alarm bells. I experienced the catastrophic results from swashbucklers in financial institutions. Their institutions chase opportunities right up until they destroy themselves and their customers. Remember program trading? And junk bonds; derivatives; corrupt research; liar loans collateralized mortgage bonds; too big to fail; bailouts; Non-Fungible Tokens; Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (SPACS)? Remember these institutions? Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, Long Term Capital Management, Countrywide Mortgage, Washington Mutual, Enron, WorldCom, Accenture, Fannie Mae?
Rule-breaking companies get into trouble sooner and worse.
The huge bright X on top of his building -- a sign placed without permits, and which turned the nigh-time neighborhood into daylight -- sent a message to me that was as blindingly clear as the sign's light. Musk is an entitled show-off rule-breaker in all the ways that I have seen end in disaster. It looks good and exciting, until it doesn't. They are bad in every venue, but especially around other people's money. I know this. I experienced this.
The bloom is off the Elon Musk brand. I will probably buy an electric car sooner or later, but it probably won't be a Tesla. He ruined it for me. And I won't be using his financial app.
Love the bumper sticker
I am not understanding the comments of Peter regarding Musk being the genius America needed and he was happy some American came in to rethink the auto industry. Elon Musk was born in South Africa. He gained Canadian citizenship after moving to Canada with his Canadian born mother in 1989. I have never heard anything about him becoming an American citizen.