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Culture War Roundup for the week of October 24, 2022

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and I kind of assume it is bordering on a social contagion.

I suppose sharing your opinion over the internet, and backing it up with arguments is how social contagion works, so I guess you're right on this one.

A fraud in what way?

In the way he presents himself as someone he's not, and promises things he can't deliver.

I have a Tesla model Y. It is by far the best car I’ve ever driven, and I’ve driven many many cars that are substantially more expensive than this one.

That's cool. I never drove one, and I'm not into cars, so I can't judge, but I find it extremely unlikely it's so good that it justifies valuing the company more than all other auto manufacturers combined.

I have a starlink and use it. It works, and when compared to its competitors, absolutely embarrassed them. They aren’t competitors.

How well does it compare to a mid-range fibre-optic connection?

SpaceX is clearly a real company which absolutely revolutionized space launches, and has eviscerated anybody who could reasonably claim to be a competitor. It isn’t even close.

No it hasn't. The Falcon 9 is ok, but not mind blowing. The stuff that would be impressive is still just a promise that hasn't materialized.

As far as self driving: yeah actually my model Y does self drive, and I use it every single day. The “well actually it’s not self driving and it crashes into pedestrians!” YouTube hoaxes are 100% of the time people using autopilot as if it were self driving. It isn’t, and those people shouldn’t be doing that.

Ok, hold up. They're hoaxes, because they're using a product called "Full Self Driving" as if it were capable fully driving he car by itself? You really don't see that as a tiny bit fraudulent?

Also Elon was promising us robotaxis by now. And whatever happened to the Tesla Truck that was supposed to beat rail on costs in a convoy scenario. How doesthe Hyperloop make any goddamn sense at all, and why did he lie about inventing it?

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Wasn't there also something called "Full Self-Driving" way back in 2017?