You're citing an example of high EQ (unless you think he really means it, which is doubtful). It won't hurt him in any way to say that and he gets credit with Elon and his fans.
Reed Hastings knows too much about creativity to believe that. I don't condone this kind of fake praise, but it is easy, costless and will make you a "good guy" to a little demographic that can be troublesome if aimed at you. Even if the public all sees through Elon and associating with him becomes anathema, it won't bite him at all.
I'm reminded of some commercials that kept playing on YouTube a few years ago where John Mayer was calling Kanye the most creative genius he knew. I'm sure he didn't mean it, Kanye is not someone you want to endorse now, and no one cares that Mayer said that.
You don't like Elon and expect people you hold in esteem to agree even when they state the opposite. I know this is mind-blowing but there exist smart, talented people who disagree with you. And not just about this.
Also, the claim that praising Elon is a safer play than condemning him is not obviously true. There are plenty of Elon haters out there who could be "troublsome". Like you and the other guy who lost his shit in this thread.
I don't really dislike Elon. I think he doesn't do things from a bad place but possibly because he's not neurotypical he's been sucked into spending his energy pleasing his craziest fans.
We'll have to disagree on Hastings quotes, to me they seem clearly a way to speak nicely about Musk with a wink to those who don't idolize him.
> You're projecting your opinion onto someone who doesn't share it.
Two things:
1. interfacing with politicians (I'm including both executives and senators in this group from personal experience) has taught me that many are exceptionally diligent with the words they use. "Brave" and "creative" are neutral adjectives politically even if they have positive connotations interpersonally. If a politician doesn't say something exclusively, denotationally positive, it's almost always a deliberate hedge. I'm not saying that's the case with Reed, but I'd bet a dollar that it is, because most people who's impressions he'd likely care about (execs, congress, etc) use and read the same language.
2. Unless you spoke with him and heard otherwise, aren't you likewise projecting?
No, I'm not projecting, I'm taking what he said at face value...
He didn't just say "brave" and "creative". He said more than that, including some semi-negative comments about Elon's general behavior, but the thrust of his comments is very positive.
It's absolutely hilarious to see people who hate Elon react this way. You can't compute someone you respect disageeeing with you.
> It's absolutely hilarious to see people who hate Elon react this way. You can't compute someone you respect disageeeing with you.
The fact that you jumped to this conclusion when I said nothing to indicate how I feel about Elon in my only comment on this entire thread says a lot about where you're coming from.
Anyhow, the fact that his comments were:
"[I am] 100% convinced that he is trying to help the world in all of his endeavors"
"He's trying to help the world on that front because he believes in free speech and its power for democracy,"
and
"how he goes about it is not how I would do it."
should give you a pretty clear read about where he lands right now:
1. Reed at least publicly believes Elon is coming from a good place
2. Reed disagrees with the methods Elon's using.
3. "Brave" and "most creative" contextualized by the statements above are given a neutral tone and meaning.
Tldr: Reed basically said "he's coming from a good place but his approaches are bad"
I read you correctly. Congratulations on looking up the full comments (or at least more of them) but you're still reading it wrong because you can't handle the fact that someone smart disagrees with you.
Hastings added that he is “100% convinced” that Musk is “trying to help the world
in all his endeavors,” and added that he was “excited” about Musk’s Twitter
acquisition. Musk “just spent all this money for democracy and society to have a
more open platform — and I am sympathetic to that,” Hastings said.
I may be in an overly cynical mood, but the word "trying" in that phrase changes the color quite a bit, and frankly, the word didn't need to be there. Carefully parsed, the addition is not a ringing endorsement as it appears on the surface.
What's worse? Hating people you have never met or idolizing people you have never met? Maybe spend your energy elsewhere instead of getting so worked up that you have to start calling people names.
Consider that your perspective on the man is hopelessly warped by the media frenzy surrounding him. Sadly, you are a victim of it just as much as he is.
