• @[email protected]
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        36 months ago

        are there any other viable domestic rocket companies that launch as often as SpaceX does?

        • @[email protected]
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          236 months ago

          There is absolutely nothing these over-hyped “space” companies can do that the US couldn’t do far better and far cheaper through NASA itself - you know, just like they did when they sent astronauts to the moon?.

          • @[email protected]
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            86 months ago

            that’s a fair point but it was also politically necessary to spend half a billion or more per launch to “show the ruskies who the real superpower was” - and a lot of the tech was still being developed. now, 50 years on, the tech is much more established, materials science has matured, and it’s cheaper for a non-government organization to perform the launches.

            getting nasa involved is just going to involve gratuitous spending and pork barrel politics - look towards the SLS program. vastly over budget with not much to show for it. rounding down, you could buy every single launch SpaceX has made this year and still have a few billion $$$ in spare change left over for the cost of SLS… and it’s flown, what? once?

            • @[email protected]
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              16 months ago

              it was also politically necessary

              There’s absolutely nothing “necessary” about a nationalist pissing contest between two vile empires. I know that’s an irrlevant tangent… but anyway.

              and it’s cheaper for a non-government organization to perform the launches.

              No, it isn’t. The US just did what it has always done… develop technology with public funds and then hand it off to the crony class to exploit for privatized profit at everyone else’s expense. Nothing about it is cheaper or more efficient - those are easily debunked myths.

              getting nasa involved is just going to involve gratuitous spending

              Duh… that’s how space exploration happens - through gratuitous spending. Whose money do you think Phoney Stark is burning through? His own?

              Getting NASA involved is going to lead to results other than merely corporate parasites getting rich off money that could have been far, far better spent - that’s pretty much it.

              • @[email protected]
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                26 months ago

                There’s absolutely nothing “necessary” about a nationalist pissing contest between two vile empires.

                I dunno, I don’t think it was necessary, but I do think we got some pretty cool stuff out of it. Satellites are kind of neat, I like those, I like knowledge about space and radiation and stuff. I would also like healthcare, that’s probably a higher priority, but I would like to have both.

                • @[email protected]
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                  16 months ago

                  We didn’t decide to have a cold war, we just had one. It was natural. It was the way of the world at the time.

                • @[email protected]
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                  16 months ago

                  but I do think we got some pretty cool stuff out of it.

                  Do you know why the US had to create NASA? The US wanted to get into space - but the corporates weren’t interested. There was no profit in it. So Eisenhower had to wait until Sputnik was launched, and then used the media hysteria to push through massive state intervention to actually get it done - same way Roosevelt had to use WW2 to launch the massive state intervention that resulted in the GI Bill (without which the modern-day idea of a “middle-class” wouldn’t even exist). This was no obstacle for the USSR, of course - they just went ahead and did it.

                  Here’s the thing… nobody got any poorer because the US sent a bunch of flyboys to play tic-tac-toe on the moon. But the existence of people like Phony Stark does make us all poorer.

            • @[email protected]
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              16 months ago

              NASA’s first launch of the heavy lift Artemis, vs Space X’s Starship’s disaster of a “successful test” are different paths (and seems largely because the cut costs on protecting the lunch pad with water).

              Falcon and all the previous space x rockets seem much less influenced by Musk than the Starship. Same as the Tesla Truck, I feel the Starship project is more vanity than engineering, and might not succeed the way Falcon etc. did.

        • @[email protected]
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          6 months ago

          He had enough at birth to fail upwards comfortably. Doesn’t matter that he had less at birth.

          • @[email protected]
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            6 months ago

            Exactly. Start every kid with unlimited physical and mental health care, never wanting for any basic need, traveling the world on cool first-class vacations, attending fancy private schools. See if they don’t all turn into “self starters.”

    • @[email protected]
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      6 months ago

      Exactly. In just a few thousand years, he’ll run out of money as long as he keeps buying yachts every day.

      But no, seriously, if we want him to be less relevant it’s pretty simple. Stop going to Twitter (fuck x, i won’t call it that ever) don’t buy tesla, and lobby against SpaceX. At least, until Elon has no control (edit: and financial benefit) over any of those.

    • DessertStorms
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      -26 months ago

      If only he didn’t already have enough to last him several thousand lifetimes… 🙄🤦‍♀️

    • Hal-5700X
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      6 months ago

      Good luck with that. People always say they’re going to leave twitter/X. But they come back. Like they’re addicted to it.

      • @[email protected]
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        26 months ago

        I don’t know what purpose “Like” serves in the last sentence. They’re clearly addicted to it. And not some watered down version of addiction. Some are just as addicted to that form of social media as drug addicts are to opiates or amphetamines. It’s become a chemical addiction but their withdrawal symptoms are only mentally observable.

  • ArugulaZ
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    806 months ago

    Leave X and let it die, like you should have done when the butt-musk bought the site a year ago. Durr.

    I can’t believe people still use that site in light of everything we know about Musk. It should have been a ghost town months ago.

    • @Rediphile
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      126 months ago

      I still can’t believe people even used it before Musk bought it. Literally any other forum is more effective for engaging with others and being able to follow a discussion.

      • @[email protected]
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        76 months ago

        It’s less that Twitter consumed forums and more that it was practically the final nail in the coffin for RSS feeds.

  • @zcd
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    646 months ago

    Why does the worker class, the larger of the two classes, not simply eat the ruling class?

  • @kent_eh
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    626 months ago

    What can anyone do about it?

    Stop buying from companies he owns.

    Stop using services he owns.

      • @[email protected]
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        66 months ago

        Same. Any minute now I’d be taking my daily jaunt around space, but alas, the major players in the space are Bezos and Musk, so because of my principled stance (and nothing else!) I am going to shit post on the fediverse instead and then maybe play some video games.

  • @[email protected]
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    6 months ago

    Ignore him. The more people forget about him, the more worthless he becomes, in any sense of the word.

    Don’t type his name. Don’t seek him out. Don’t write fucking articles about him. Delete him.

    • @[email protected]
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      76 months ago

      If history has taught us anything, it’s to NOT ignore the raging antisemite with a curiously large (and growing) support base…

      • @[email protected]
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        6 months ago

        There’s a difference between keeping a watchful eye on someone, and actively platforming them.

        Writing articles, striking up casual conversations, and actively bringing attention to him are all things that bolster his existence.

  • sab
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    336 months ago

    So you’re saying the premier American car manufacturer/rocket builder is an anti-Semite?

    I’m shocked!

    • FuglyDuck
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      356 months ago

      tesla is not the premier car manufacturer. Their cars are dogshit with terrible QC… they just got the current gen tech out before the others (by cutting corners).

      as for space ex, their success is largely in spite of his meddling. he has no freaking clue what he’s doing with an aerospace company.

      • sab
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        106 months ago

        Yeah, I guess premier only in terms of inflated stock value. I was considering weighing my words more wisely but figured I couldn’t be bothered haha

      • @[email protected]
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        -26 months ago

        Their cars are dogshit with terrible QC…

        You might not like Tesla, but this comment is a bit against reality. Their cars are consistently rated as 8/10 or 9/10. You don’t get there by terrible QC. Subjectively, the way they designed the interiors is brilliant, compared to other makers who just tried to make more of the same they were doing last year only with an electric motor.

        • FuglyDuck
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          116 months ago

          You might not like Tesla, but this comment is a bit against reality. Their cars are consistently rated as 8/10 or 9/10. You don’t get there by terrible QC. Subjectively, the way they designed the interiors is brilliant, compared to other makers who just tried to make more of the same they were doing last year only with an electric motor

          Rated…by…whom?

          Have you not seen the long list of recalls, making Tesla the most recalled car brand in history? Sure a fair chunk of those are OTA sofware updates…but still there’s a reason they got out first- cutting corners. most of those software updates are fixes for things that should have been found in testing.

          also a quick google search will turn up a plethora of hits on quality control that just don’t ordinarily happen at other carmakers. The kinds of things that would never hit the sales lot.

          I think you’re living in your own reality, a bit there.

          • @[email protected]
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            6 months ago

            Rated…by…whom?

            By car reviewers? People who review cars.

            I think you’re living in your own reality, a bit there.

            Don’t we all, though.

            • FuglyDuck
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              96 months ago

              By car reviewers? People who review cars.

              That’s a nice non-answer. So, going out on a limb here…. Tesla bros, Muskie FanBois, and paid reviewers.

              In short, the kinds of people who would never give an honest review anyhow. Oh and a quick search shows some possibly not-as-biased reviews at only 34% with a five star (9/ and 10/10) and 26% 4 star, (7/ and 8/10.)

              There were 20% 1 star reviews, though. Generally I don’t trust reviews online.

              What I do trust is a handful of 8+hour road trips I took driving them (company is perfectly happy letting me rent EV for in-region business trips;) 4 trips in a Tesla, and 2 in a Hyundai, 1 in a Nissan and the kia, and I have to say, even the freaking kia was better than the Tesla, and with comparable range.

              • @[email protected]
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                6 months ago

                Man, you guys let Musk live in your heads rent-free, don’t you? It’s just a car. You’re not a worse person because you’re not able to afford one or if you don’t like them, or if you deny reality. Ok, that last thing makes you a bit worse, but I forgive you.

        • @[email protected]
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          46 months ago

          Subjectively, the way they designed the interiors is brilliant, compared to other makers who just tried to make more of the same they were doing last year only with an electric motor.

          Yeah it’s so much better to open a door in a Tesla by pressing the handle into the car! I also love opening the door from the inside using a button to open it! It’s important to redesign things that worked perfectly fine the old way for millennia just to keep people on their toes. /s

        • Takatakatakatakatak
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          -16 months ago

          Rated by whom? The schmucks that drive them? Bought and paid for auto reviewers? Their opinion isn’t worth dick to me. Have you seen how poorly the panels match up on these things? They look like bad highschool metal shop projects on the outside and prototypes on the inside.

          Nevermind the pure smug coming out of the exhaust on these cars.

          Yeah, I’m super sure that the thousands of tonnes of raw earth that has to be processed by enormous mining equipment, and then refined through absolutely filthy chemical processes to extract the lithium, cobalt and magnesium required for just a handful of battery cells represents a net good for the planet. Just peachy.

          All good though, because all of the raw materials are then only shipped to the other side of the world on ships powered by literal sludge to be manufactured into by batteries by China with zero environmental regulation and all waste products flowing straight into the ocean, before shipping the manufactured cells back across the world on more sludge powered ships.

          Eventually, these lean, green, zero emission machines end up zipping around pumping out smug before it goes home to get charged by a power grid that is still 60% fossil fuel based. So, instead of the combustion of fossil fuels occurring under your bonnet, it occurs at the coal fired power plant down the road allowing you to recharge your battery with all the inefficiencies that entails and convince yourself you are somehow saving the planet.

          University of Liege researcher Damien Ernst said in 2019 that the typical EV would have to travel nearly 700,000 km before it emitted less CO2 than a comparable gasoline vehicle.

          After he accepted a bunch of dirty cash from the auto industry, he later revised his figures down to about 15,000km. That’s a fairly major revision and if it smells like bribery that’s because it was.

          If you genuinely want to reduce carbon emissions, kill yourself. It’s the most effective way to save the planet.

          • @[email protected]
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            -16 months ago

            If you genuinely want to reduce carbon emissions, kill yourself. It’s the most effective way to save the planet.

            That sounds like a great idea. You go first, I’ll follow.

        • @[email protected]
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          46 months ago

          You know, I’ve been always wondering about what exactly is a social media? Is it place where you can post stuff and chat with other people? Isn’t that like a forum? What exactly make it a social media? What if it’s anonymous? Etc? Seems like the definitions changes all the time.

          Tbh I have fb, Instagram, etc mainly for networking purposes but I didn’t consider Reddit a social media. And I don’t consider Lemmy a social media either. I think I view them more of “front page of the internet” if you will. Maybe because I’m anonymous here compared to FB, Instagram, etc?

          • @[email protected]
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            36 months ago

            Upvote, but yeah, it’s all social media. You’re socializing with others. This is true even going back to BBS’s, and granted the term was popularized with MySpace and Facebook, but I def consider reddit to be social media. Ditto for lemmy, mastodon, and the fediverse.* The divide for me now is firmly the corpo-verse and the fediverse.

            * I guess maybe out there is an instance of whatever that’s read only that doesn’t allow any interaction, but still.

  • DeadNinja
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    206 months ago

    Elon Musk is an antisemite. What can anyone do about it?

    Make him take off his pants and sit on a lighted Menorah.

  • @[email protected]
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    96 months ago

    I mean… legally? No, not really.

    Extra-legally? He has a security team. They could easily arrange an “accident”.

    Now, sure, extra-judicial executions are generally bad, but I’m willing to make exceptions for billionaires and nazis. And wouldn’t you know, this guy is both.

    • Flying Squid
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      26 months ago

      Someone would have to pay them better than Musk does. I’m guessing he doesn’t skimp on security guard paychecks.