• Ezergill@lemmy.fmhy.ml
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        1 year ago

        I think they are either refering to child labor in cobalt mines, which was used for Tesla power elements, or to his father’s emerald mines. There’s no evidence of direct people-owning slavery in either case, still a lot of shady and immoral (and probably illegal) practices to earn money in both of them.

      • Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        His parents owned an emerald mine during apartheid where the working conditions for miners (all black, of course) could accurately be described as slavery. He was literally walking around with emeralds in his pockets like some fucked up little prince.

        Anyway, that’s how he got his startup capital.

        • redballooon@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          There’s no need for anyone in the western world to frown upon that. Literally all of us started out with the wealth that our ancestors violently extracted from colonies.

          Just because you didn’t personally inherit millions doesn’t change the structural fact. All our industries jump-started by getting stuff from colonies. It was a big rush among the colonizers, and those who didn’t do successful colonize are not among “first world” countries today.

          Musk is guilty of much, but his sin in benefiting from his parents sins is different from yours only in scale.

          • Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Except I don’t deny my privilege, which is on such another scale as to be in a completely different world.

            Besides, he doesn’t just pretends to be self-made, he downright believes that his success comes from him being a genetically superior genius. He is consciously siring as much offspring as he possibly can (10 so far, 9 surviving, one of which publicly disowned him) to provide the world with future heroes. To call him a regular level narcissist would be akin to call a tiger a slightly oversized house cat.

            Lastly, I refuse to buy Nestlé products because some of them were made using slavery. Musk made his first fortune on the backs of slaves, treats his current employees as similarly to slaves as he can get away with and subjects them to both racist and sexual abuse.

            I may have the privilege of being born a cishet white male in a rich country, but that does NOT mean that I’m the equivalent of Apartheid Emerald Boy. Scale matters and immense differences in scale matter immensely.

    • joneskind@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      You mean we should close our eyes on the dirty deeds of billionaires?

      Feel free to live in a cave.

      I won’t.

      • nyakojiru@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        1 year ago

        Not at all. But internet is overloaded with their shit. Is like watching the sun constantly and burning your eyes. Live goes far beyond of these creepers

  • Paralysah@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I mean there was even a Movie about how Zuck likes to get his business ideas from other people. Elmo should’ve watched it. Not that it hits the wrong person tho.

    • GoodEye8@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      Elmo has his own way of doing things. He throws fat stacks at smart people to make great things, and then take credit by saying it was his idea. The reason Twitter is failing is because there’s no smart guy to throw money at, so the only trick in his book doesn’t work anymore.

      • redballooon@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        He worked hard to get rid of all smart guys who previously worked on Twitter. It was an astonishing move for someone who definitely has managed tech companies before.

  • FloppySlapper@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    Musk is a moron that’s about as smart as any moron that’s a moron that’s been given vast sums for cash from their father’s African emerald mine.

    • Raphael@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      That’s called Liberalism. You defend Musk because one day you might become a super billionaire too.