And don't forget, the thinly veiled Ayn Rand inspired Objectivist beliefs in "Doers" and "Checkers"... Presumably because using the Randian term "Moochers" would have given the game away too clearly. For those who need a crash course in the kind of literal sociopathy that is behind Rand's writings, here's how she described her "Real Man", William Edward Hickman;
And what did this Atlas amongst men achieve?
I'll put it in spoilers for those who don't feel like loosing their lunch over the act that inspired Rand to gush over Hickman's powerful will, that followed his own lights and ignored community standards.
In December of 1927, Hickman, nineteen years old, showed up at a Los Angeles public school and managed to get custody of a twelve-year-old girl, Marian (sometimes Marion) Parker. He was able to convince Marian's teacher that the girl's father, a well-known banker, had been seriously injured in a car accident and that the girl had to go to the hospital immediately. The story was a lie. Hickman disappeared with Marian, and over the next few days Mr. and Mrs. Parker received a series of ransom notes. The notes were cruel and taunting and were sometimes signed "Death" or "Fate." The sum of $1,500 was demanded for the child's safe release. (Hickman needed this sum, he later claimed, because he wanted to go to Bible college!) The father raised the payment in gold certificates and delivered it to Hickman. As told by the article "Fate, Death and the Fox" in crimelibrary.com,
"At the rendezvous, Mr. Parker handed over the money to a young man who was waiting for him in a parked car. When Mr. Parker paid the ransom, he could see his daughter, Marion, sitting in the passenger seat next to the suspect. As soon as the money was exchanged, the suspect drove off with the victim still in the car. At the end of the street, Marion's corpse was dumped onto the pavement. She was dead. Her legs had been chopped off and her eyes had been wired open to appear as if she was still alive. Her internal organs had been cut out and pieces of her body were later found strewn all over the Los Angeles area."
Off topic? But we're discussing a story about how Musk knew autopilot was going to kill people, but put his goals before public safety. Because that's just what Great Men are supposed to do, and you little people are the necessary sacrifices that must fall under the feet as they trample onwards towards a history they, and not you write.
And how recently Eric Berger ran a story, if you can even deign to call it such a respectable word, literally collapsing into teenage mockery of the people who doubt the worthiness of this Randian hero, Elon Musk; actual facts, like how it was rapidly obvious despite the spin that both parts of Starship had exploded, and thus it still hasn't even achieved the basic flight capabilitys of the SLS system, are not just ignored, but are the reason for that childish piece of pique, trying to spin the Great Man theory of progress again.
It just cannot stand that Government can do anything better, ever!
For those of us who had picked up on his political biases a long time ago, and what the underlying assumptions behind those biases were, the coverage of Space under that byline has been excreble for a very long time. But it's been an obvious bias in much of the Tesla/Musk support elsewhere too; there's a noticeably selfish, immature right wing bent in much of the science/sci-fi/nerd culture as a whole. And, when merely enjoying fictional media, it's relatively harmless; you can believe what you like. But we're at a critical juncture in history right now, where it's up in the air if even democracy itself will survive the next few decades. And the cost of allowing this kind of runaway narcissism and sociopathy are going to be terrible for us all; for certain ethnicities and people with certain beliefs in particular.
It's not an academic question. It's increasingly obvious now that Musk personally is now formenting genocidal hate because he can't stand to hear even the slightest criticism of how his companies work.
Those supporting him seem to think that "checkers", "liberals", "Jews" are all, how shall we phrase it, as life unworthy of life? At least, if they get in the way of these Great Men being "doers", they are being declared unworthy.
That's not something we have the luxury of being politely critical of any more. It's getting very close to being a question of our actual survival.
