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The Hyperloop was never meant to be built. Elon Musk admitted it was all about fueling opposition to California’s high-speed rail project so it would get canceled.
He never planned to improve transportation; he just wants to keep people trapped in cars.
https://newrepublic.com/article/174089/big-tech-watching-drive
#tech #transport #elonmusk #transportation #hyperloop #trains
There was an era when I used to watch basically everything that Thunderfoot, Sargon, TL;DR and Bearing (and I’m sure others I’m forgetting) did and it’s shameful to think back on how gullible I was. Them piledriving on Sarkeesian was part of what drove me away from that alt-right pipeline. Much as I was cheering on their takedowns of her legitimately bad points, I was scratching my head at their inability to give credit to the good ones.
That’s the thing about these people; it’s all or nothing. Every point you can harp on about has to be added to the video. Exactly like the woman they were criticizing, they felt an inescapable urge to argue every possible point or angle, no matter how weak and indefensible, because otherwise there’s less video to monetize. They bounce between relatable and sensible counters, to complete nonsense with the exact same self-righteous “owned” energy. Much as I sympathize with Anita especially today, I don’t give her a pass on some of her boneheaded arguments. Bad reasoning deserves critique. But she got a lot more than critique. These internet bloodsports types went right for the jugular, and none of them had any credit to give on a point well made.
I think out of the lot, Thunderfoot is probably the closest to reasonable because he is legitimately educated and intelligent as far as I can tell, but I would caution anyone watching him to take it with a grain of salt because I can pretty confidently say he’s willing to bend the truth to make a point on a factual basis. I would not trust him even on simple math/science matters if there’s a possible agenda in the way. And that agenda might be as simple as wanting to dunk on someone he knows the algorithm enjoys him dunking on. Be wary of misinformation.
spoiler
Case in point: I recently saw him on my front page tearing down another Musk special: Tesla’s electric big rig. Hadn’t seen him in a while so figured I’d give it a look. Now there’s an easy half-dozen reasons why a battery electric hauling truck probably isn’t the best idea, but a large part of his argument stemmed from the notion that they’re not saying how much it can haul. Sensing an opportunity to get another ‘own’ in, he decided that this means the number must be really embarrassing, so he picked out an image that was posted as proof of how much the Tesla truck can haul, involving a load of concrete Jersey barriers on a flat bed trailer, and proceeded to calculate its weight vs what a regular truck was hauling.
I forget exactly what weird reasons (if any) he gave for it, but he calculated the diesel truck’s barriers as weighing twice as much apiece in spite of the fact that they were clearly a lot smaller, with a lot more of them fitting on the same sort of platform trailer. But his assumption on the weight of the ones on the Tesla truck was insane. He grabbed the value from some website but I couldn’t find any similar number from my own searches - Jersey barriers generally come in a very standardized size and weight, and it was like 4x the figure he managed to scrape together from a product page for something that looks noticeably smaller.
So, he gave some examples, did some ‘research’ to fill in the blanks and did some math, and that math was technically valid, but he did some sleight of hand in the process of filling in the blanks to massage out a clearly bad result for the Tesla truck. All because the Tesla hauling like 15% less than a normal truck is rated for just isn’t as juicy as making it look like an anemic toy for rich kids.
I hate Elon, and Tesla over-sells the capabilities of their tech and their hype cycle should not be trusted, but I would seriously caution watching guys like Thunderfoot without a lot of scrutiny and a good dose of scientific literacy.
There was an era when I used to watch basically everything that Thunderfoot, Sargon, TL;DR and Bearing (and I’m sure others I’m forgetting) did and it’s shameful to think back on how gullible I was. Them piledriving on Sarkeesian was part of what drove me away from that alt-right pipeline. Much as I was cheering on their takedowns of her legitimately bad points, I was scratching my head at their inability to give credit to the good ones.
That’s the thing about these people; it’s all or nothing. Every point you can harp on about has to be added to the video. Exactly like the woman they were criticizing, they felt an inescapable urge to argue every possible point or angle, no matter how weak and indefensible, because otherwise there’s less video to monetize. They bounce between relatable and sensible counters, to complete nonsense with the exact same self-righteous “owned” energy. Much as I sympathize with Anita especially today, I don’t give her a pass on some of her boneheaded arguments. Bad reasoning deserves critique. But she got a lot more than critique. These internet bloodsports types went right for the jugular, and none of them had any credit to give on a point well made.
I think out of the lot, Thunderfoot is probably the closest to reasonable because he is legitimately educated and intelligent as far as I can tell, but I would caution anyone watching him to take it with a grain of salt because I can pretty confidently say he’s willing to bend the truth to make a point on a factual basis. I would not trust him even on simple math/science matters if there’s a possible agenda in the way. And that agenda might be as simple as wanting to dunk on someone he knows the algorithm enjoys him dunking on. Be wary of misinformation.
spoiler
Case in point: I recently saw him on my front page tearing down another Musk special: Tesla’s electric big rig. Hadn’t seen him in a while so figured I’d give it a look. Now there’s an easy half-dozen reasons why a battery electric hauling truck probably isn’t the best idea, but a large part of his argument stemmed from the notion that they’re not saying how much it can haul. Sensing an opportunity to get another ‘own’ in, he decided that this means the number must be really embarrassing, so he picked out an image that was posted as proof of how much the Tesla truck can haul, involving a load of concrete Jersey barriers on a flat bed trailer, and proceeded to calculate its weight vs what a regular truck was hauling.
I forget exactly what weird reasons (if any) he gave for it, but he calculated the diesel truck’s barriers as weighing twice as much apiece in spite of the fact that they were clearly a lot smaller, with a lot more of them fitting on the same sort of platform trailer. But his assumption on the weight of the ones on the Tesla truck was insane. He grabbed the value from some website but I couldn’t find any similar number from my own searches - Jersey barriers generally come in a very standardized size and weight, and it was like 4x the figure he managed to scrape together from a product page for something that looks noticeably smaller.
So, he gave some examples, did some ‘research’ to fill in the blanks and did some math, and that math was technically valid, but he did some sleight of hand in the process of filling in the blanks to massage out a clearly bad result for the Tesla truck. All because the Tesla hauling like 15% less than a normal truck is rated for just isn’t as juicy as making it look like an anemic toy for rich kids.
I hate Elon, and Tesla over-sells the capabilities of their tech and their hype cycle should not be trusted, but I would seriously caution watching guys like Thunderfoot without a lot of scrutiny and a good dose of scientific literacy.