How To Reason with a Demoralized Person (Part 6) - Elon pwns Vinod
Elon's Twitter debate with Vinod Khosla is a prime example of trying to reason with a demoralized person - full text and analysis, plus memes and Notes at the end
Comrades: Elon Musk is wrecking cringe NPC lefty billionaires like Vinod Khosla, Reid Hoffman, and Mark Cuban.
On September 21, Elon had a protracted back and forth with venture capitalist Vinod Khosla. We have all experienced painful conversations like this. Love him or hate him Elon’s defense of free speech and willingness to go on offense is critical to exposing the idiocy, hypocrisy, and ignorance of our elites. For $44 billion, he has revealed many of his fellow billionaires to be buffoons. The most fascinating part is that they never change their minds, even when they get ratio’d into oblivion. Business leaders must adapt to the feedback loop in order to survive, yet that concept doesn’t apply for them on other topics. It makes you wonder how these guys got rich and if they are being blackmailed.
Reid represents the true believers; he funded E Jean Carroll’s lawsuit and is likely compromised by his trips to Epstein Island. Mark represents the strivers; he is jealous of Elon and an attention-seeking narcissist who is openly simping for a position in the Kamala administration. Vinod represents the useful idiots; he is naively regurgitating MSM talking points and has no idea what is actually going on because of his poor information diet. His exchange with Elon illuminates how rich overlords think and resulted in important concessions. I have copied the full text and added spicy commentary.
ELON: How would you feel if someone tried to hurt your daughter with a machete?
VIDEO: Springfield, Ohio, mother tells Vivek Ramaswamy that an immigrant with a machete chased her daughter, and the police didn't respond to her call.
VINOD: What % of the population has had this happen vs. % dealing with hate, bomb threats and bullying by the fictitious Haitian stories and other hate fiction @realDonaldTrump is knowingly lying about and spreading to divide the nation?
Vinod starts the argument with a quote-tweet, brings up Trump unprompted, and heaps on the hoaxes. Ohio Governor Mike DeWine held a press conference saying that none of the bomb threats were real. MSM spread the lies before the truth had a chance to put its pants on. Multiple police reports have documented Springfield residents complaining about animals being eaten. Vinod has never read any reporting outside of MSM that covers these incidents and the hundreds of American citizens who have been killed or raped by illegals. Just last week, 4 illegals were arrested in Nantucket for child sex crimes, one killed a police officer in St. Louis, and another ran over a man in Pittsburgh. In his twisted mind, it’s not happening and you are the problem for saying it’s problematic. He uses the word “hate” 11 times in the entire thread, a weaponized word that he can’t define but is somehow worse than real crime. Hate has no home here!
VINOD: Why are you trying to amplify immigrant hate? Data doesn’t support claim immigrants commit more crimes than US citizens. They likely commit crimes at a lower rate? Did you personally validate that this story is true?
ELON: How many unvetted migrants would you like sent to your neighborhood in Woodside? Last time, I was there, seemed like none. You’re a hypocrite. No problem that some other town has a massive influx, so long as it isn’t yours.
VINOD: I am totally against illegal immigration and Trump is the one who stopped the bipartisan bill to stop illegal immigration even though many conservative republicans supported the bill.
And I don’t live in Woodside. Too fancy for me. But amplifying nonsense is not responsible and more harm than good. I’d think you’d be above that.
Hate likely causes more serious crime than illegal migrants. Agree that is not a reason to go easy on illegal immigration. Can you press on Trump to support it. And also let’s tamp down hate.
Vinod spews more leftist copy pasta and conflates illegal and legal immigrants. All illegal immigrants have committed a crime by crossing the border. The US citizen crime rate is much lower than immigrants if you strip out the ~13% of the population that commits half of the crime and votes ~90% Democrat. He also blames Trump for the Biden-Harris administration opening the border. They never needed new laws to secure the border, all thy had to do was leave Trump’s executive orders in place. “Tamp down hate” is empty virtue signaling. Every limousine liberal I know lives far away from the diversity they vote for. One who physically attacked me for supporting Trump in 2016 chose to live in one of the wealthiest, whitest neighborhoods in the city and suburbs in the metro area. Diversity for thee, but not for me!
ELON: Answer my question: how many unvetted illegal migrants can we send to your town?
VINOD: The mice in Springfield are complaining that there is no reduction in cats because of the Haitians. Maybe too many cat ladies
Vinod dodges the question again with a cringe joke.
ELON: Wow, so crazy that vkhosla put this sign on a public beach. How about we send them to that beach that you tried to stop the public from using? That was such a dick move! Vinod
KhoslaVinod says we should send tens of thousands of unvetted migrants to small towns throughout America, but he didn’t even want to let the public walk on his beach
VINOD: Keeping up with your new mentor @realDonaldTrump in tweeting fictional photographs or atleast not one I have ever seen. There has NEVER been a dispute on access to the beach (which is public ), just accessing it thru private property. Every court ruling and appeal of the Friends of Martin's Beach lawsuit we have won that reasserted acess thru private property is not legal. Separately the commies at California Coastal Commission want us to apply for a permit to close an old paid parking business and yet they have not permitted us to apply for this closure. Get details before you tweet nonsense.
You owe me an apology for spreading falsehoods. I think this post of yours needs a community comment for being a fraudulent photo. I have never put up this sign or anything even remotely like this. I presume it is AI generated but you can verify that. It will help X if we can have rational debate and not get personal (I can throw personal truths at you unlike your false photo) as we agree on many things (illegal immigration, climate, meritocracy mostly but with caring, ...) and disagree on some big things like who can best save democracy and how important values are in picking a President. By the way EVERY court ruling on "is there right of public access" thru the property has supported my claim this is private property with no right of public access thru the property to the public beach. Only court case I have lost is the right to shut the gate for the prior paid parking business that was run by the previous owner with teh state using bureaucracy to not let me apply for a permit to shut it down but requiring a permit. Very California coastal commission.
Elon spergs out and hits Vinod where it hurts. Oligarchs would never let one of their properties or towns bear the brunt of mass migration. Vinod calls the California Coastal Commission commies to try to look cool, but he’s the sucker who voted for them and donates to them. The funniest part is that the tech guru can’t tell that the sign is obviously AI generated.
VINOD: And you are not hypocritical on climate & Trump? And what am I hypocritical on? Very American defense of property rights? Or is it something else I am missing? Remember I am an independent, not a democrat or a republican. There are democrats, independents, republicans and then there are asshole MAGA extremists (test: election denialism). You never answered my previous question on if the election was stolen?
ELON: No, I don’t think 2020 was stolen, as all the independent voters I know, myself included, leaned towards Biden, thinking he would be a milquetoast moderate. Boring, but moderate. Unfortunately, he turned out to be a radical leftist puppet of the machine who loves overreaching bureaucracy, just like Kamala. That’s why I and almost all independent voters I know are supporting Trump this time around. Now, you stop being a damn hypocrite and have some empathy for small towns throughout America getting swamped by 10,000+ poorly vetted migrants. It’s not right.
VINOD: Thank you and respect that. Will add to my respect for your entrepreneurial achievements. Still trying to get a rational answer for which causes MORE crime: illegal immigrant crimes vs. hate, bomb threats and bullying by the fictitious Haitian stories and other anti-immigrant hate fiction is knowingly spreading to divide the nation?
Vinod is not an independent. He has donated millions to Democrats over decades and hosted a Biden fundraiser a few weeks before the debate debacle and Kamala coup. Democrats have disputed every election they lost, yet when Republicans question all of the chicanery around the 2020 Election Vinod smears them as “asshole MAGA extremists”. Elon provides a reasonable response. Vinod keeps repeating the bomb threat hoaxes and false claims that the stories about Haitians are fictitious.
ELON: I am extremely pro immigrant, being one myself. However, just as when hiring for a company, we should confirm that anyone allowed into the country is talented, hardworking and ethical. De facto open borders is as insane as allowing anyone to join one of your companies without even going through an interview.
VINOD: Agree 100% as a fellow immigrant. Also agree legal, vetted immigration is a huge advantage that America has over many other nations and illegal immigration has to be stopped
VINOD: I have to agree that Biden's treatment of Tesla as the EV leader was unfair so I understand your ire towards him
Elon makes some headway here. Vinod concedes that illegal immigration is bad, legal vetted (I would add high-skill, willing to assimilate, and minimal) immigration good. He also recognizes that if the regime conducts warfare against Elon, they will likely go after other entrepreneurs who step out of line.
VINOD: This "meritocratic and promote individual freedoms over the heavy hand of government" I agree with. How much government money does SpaceX get? Could Tesla have survived without EV subsidies? Unfortunately Twitter doesn't get government money I guess. Which of these would you rather the government didn't spend money on and reduce the deficit?
ELON: Do some research before you display your utter ignorance.
SpaceX gets no subsidies and received half as much as Boeing for astronaut transport, but did 100% of the work. As for Tesla, take a minute to read our public filings and you will see that EV incentives represent a minor part of our revenue. On the other hand, oil & gas companies get massive tax breaks that exceed those given to the EV industry by several orders of magnitude. Wake up.
Embarrassing for a successful businessman like Vinod. How would he not know basic facts about how SpaceX, Tesla, and Twitter operate? Vinod is a climate cultist and many of his companies are subsidized by the government.
VINOD: Hard for me to support someone with no values, lies, cheats, rapes, demeans women, hates immigrants like me. He may cut my taxes or reduce some regulation but that is no reason to accept depravity in his personal values. Do you want President who will set back climate by a decade in his first year? Do you want his example for your kids as values?
ELON: He doesn’t hate you. In fact, I think he likes you. Meet him and find out for yourself. How many times have you read something in the media where you know the real story, but what they printed was diabolically false? Well, it’s way worse in politics, which is a blood sport. I’m not suggesting that Trump is without flaws, however we need an administration that is more likely to be meritocratic and promote individual freedoms over the heavy hand of government. Many years ago, that was the Democratic Party, but now the pendulum has swung to the Republican Party.
Vinod went full CNN with the smears. He must have it on 24/7 like many Boomerwaffens. Elon talks him off the ledge again.
VINOD: Agree on not trusting media. Agree on meritocratic and promote individual freedoms. But abandon climate and "drill baby drill? Be MAGA and abandon NATO and American leadership and moral authority? I was a socially liberal registered fiscal Republican till climate made me switch to Independent. Fist used "techno optimist" to describe myself on Twitter but have to add now "with care and caring" to bring along people left behind by the tech driven acceleration and growth we love. Define my optimism & caution in 2016
ELON: Civilization does need oil & gas for quite some time. I don’t think we should demonize an industry that is essential for humanity to function. However, as you know, sustainable energy production and consumption is growing very rapidly and is tracking to exceed use of hydrocarbon fuels. That will happen no matter what Trump does.
As for NATO, the amount contributed by the United States is absurdly higher than other allies. Why are American taxpayers paying for the defense of Europe when Europe is fully capable of doing so itself?
VINOD: GDP depends on energy consumption but that doesn't support climate change denialism. The fossil industry has to acknowledge that. In fact, I was against the recent order to shut down coal plants by 2032 because there are better policies. Let's discuss live on X
Hope they have a discussion on X. Once again, Vinod’s framing of climate change is histrionic and not supported by data. At least he concedes that you can’t always trust the media, meritocracy and freedoms are good, and we need fossil fuels. The Silicon Valley “socially liberal registered fiscal Republican” is a dinosaur in this era. NATO as a moral authority? ROFL!
Andrew Sullivan endorsed Harris alongside Dick Cheney:
The important distinctions between how Twitter handled the Biden laptop and the Iran Vance dossier:
For more pieces on reasoning with demoralized people:
Note to Elon (and maybe Trump). The problem with NATO isn't that the Euros underfund. The problem is that it exists at all. The underfunding issue is a Cold War complaint. The Cold War has been over for 35 years.
“Boomerwaffens” — what a great term! I may know an eldery couple who resemble my parents that fit the term! 😅