this post was submitted on 19 Nov 2023
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Elon Musk vows ‘thermonuclear lawsuit’ as advertisers flee X over antisemitism::Tesla founder threatens to take action against media watchdog ‘the split second court opens on Monday’

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[–] [email protected] 254 points 11 months ago (21 children)

What is wrong with him? I think he legit needs psychiatric help.

Maybe the people who get this rich due so at the cost of their mental health. Maybe it’s not healthy for a single person to hold so much wealth.

Deep down, does he know what he is doing is wrong? Is his Twitter behavior an expression of some negative feelings he can’t cope with?

[–] [email protected] 186 points 11 months ago (20 children)

He’s always been a shit head like this. He just got rich enough that he thought he could get away with showing his true colors.

The dude comes from a family of slave owners and was born with a silver spoon up his ass.

[–] [email protected] 32 points 11 months ago

Or, as former Texas governor Ann Richards said of George H. W. Bush in 1988:

'He can't help it, he was born with a silver foot in his mouth!'

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[–] [email protected] 63 points 11 months ago (1 children)

What is wrong with him? I think he legit needs psychiatric help.

He is a Narcissist. Yes, that is a medical condition. He is thoroughly unable to recognize other people as equal. They are mere nuisances.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago (1 children)

They are mere nuisances.

Until they are in power.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 11 months ago (1 children)

No, it makes no difference. The disability is in him. Their power or any other of their features cannot change it.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 11 months ago (2 children)

I thought "narcissist" was legitimately confused with "sociopath" in this thread for a second.

After looking over the definitions again for the distinctions, my immediate thought was "why not both?"

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I don't know, really: is "sociopath" also a condition or just a bad habit?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

It’s also in the DSM, but there’s probably ranges of both and I don’t think either one precludes or excludes the other. Narcissism also shares a lot of symptoms with bipolar disorder, which the recent interviews with the biographer Walter Isaacson about Musk seems pretty clearly to be a problem. (See ‘demon mode’)

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago

"why not both?"

Indeed.

[–] [email protected] 50 points 11 months ago

Eh you spend your whole life getting away with anything because you have the money, you end up starting to believe your own bullshit.

One of the reasons so many people are rich is because they make money off the smart or the hard working. You never do the work yourself because you legitimately aren't the best person for the job.

I think Elon bought in too much during the wave of "I'm a tech genius who put a car in space, make electric cars and spaceships" and I think he actually believes he did that instead of the countless and thankless hours of all the real professionals.

The problem with this thinking, is now he feels like he ^needs to do something. Just like that micromanaging boss who doesn't help at all and just spouts random nonsense thinking it will magically make it go faster. But instead he's just self sabotaging the process.

This is what happens when you start to believe your own bullshit. If he was smart, he should walk away and let the professionals handle it.

[–] [email protected] 37 points 11 months ago (6 children)

He's more and more turning into Trump minus the dementia. In Germany we have the term "Cäsarenwahn", for when someone loses touch with reality from having too much unchallenged power. Haven't found any English equivalent so maybe it's time for another loan word.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Is that derived from caesar as in a Roman emperor? Because that's pretty cool if it is.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Yes. It literally means "lunacy of ceasars". Ancient Rome had plenty of examples.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 11 months ago

I love it. German has some terrific words.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 11 months ago (3 children)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago

Yeah, that is what all of the major dictionaries are translating it as.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago

Cäsarenwahn

Caesar's wank?

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[–] [email protected] 19 points 11 months ago

Excessive wealth definitely leads to bad mental health outcomes for the wealthy.

The wealth and power leads to their becoming detached from the rest of humanity. They start seeing others as objects instead of people.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 11 months ago

What is wrong with him?

He's gone full Howard Hughes.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago

They get this way partly because they’re surrounded by yes men.

To take an example of someone like Harvey Weinstein. They don’t typically come out of the gate asking people to get naked for a movie role.

But they might first just be handsy with people and nobody says anything so it becomes normal, then they start caressing people and this becomes the new normal. Before you know it you’re fucking insane.

To put it simply, people don’t normally notice incremental changes in people and over time these can become pretty outlandish.

With Elon it’s that nobody ever tells him he’s wrong and before you know it you think you know everything.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago

I think he's just stupid and never actually had to run a company. Make insane demands and people had to figure it out

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I'm pretty sure he's high, like, all the time now.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 11 months ago (1 children)

So am I, but I don't act like this.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 11 months ago

Well, yeah, because you haven't been grinding up hundred dollar bills into each bowl.

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