> And in the context of SpaceX, how exactly has he been "an asshole"?
Why does it matter whether his actions are in the context of SpaceX? He is associated with his companies (and vice-versa) to a greater extent than probably any other current head of business. Separating Musk from his companies in the minds of the public would be an exercise in futility, and his personal branding and thirst for public attention seem designed to encourage this. Therefore, every public action he takes has an effect on each of his companies, including SpaceX, regardless of whether said action took place "in the context of" those companies.
With that said, here are some of Musk's "greatest hits":
1. The tweet comparing Bill Gates to the pregnant man emoji [1]
2. referring to the guy who rescued the Thai cave divers as a "pedo" [2]
3. committing securities fraud [3]
4. tweeting that he'd start a STEM school called Texas Institute of Technology & Science (aka TITS) in an industry already rife with casual sexism [4]
5. implying that Tesla employees would lose their stock options if they unionized [5]
6. branding Tesla's driver assist technology as "autonomous", implying it requires no human intervention and therefore meets the criteria for full self-driving. [6]
The above actions range from needlessly trollish to outright illegal. One could argue that you don't build multiple billion-dollar companies without being an asshole to some of the people some of the time, but you'd be hard-pressed to argue that these are not the actions of an asshole.
> Why does it matter whether his actions are in the context of SpaceX?
Well it does matter, because these people consciously came to work at HIS company.
It's like people that move into a noisy neighbourhood and then start to complain about the noise.
Elon is eccentric, yes he tweets some things that people don't like, but he's also built friggin SpaceX...
Unless he's specifically done something to the people at SpaceX then I really don't think they've got anything to complain about... it smells of entitlement and the outrage culture that's appeared in recent years.
Why does it matter whether his actions are in the context of SpaceX? He is associated with his companies (and vice-versa) to a greater extent than probably any other current head of business. Separating Musk from his companies in the minds of the public would be an exercise in futility, and his personal branding and thirst for public attention seem designed to encourage this. Therefore, every public action he takes has an effect on each of his companies, including SpaceX, regardless of whether said action took place "in the context of" those companies.
With that said, here are some of Musk's "greatest hits":
1. The tweet comparing Bill Gates to the pregnant man emoji [1]
2. referring to the guy who rescued the Thai cave divers as a "pedo" [2]
3. committing securities fraud [3]
4. tweeting that he'd start a STEM school called Texas Institute of Technology & Science (aka TITS) in an industry already rife with casual sexism [4]
5. implying that Tesla employees would lose their stock options if they unionized [5]
6. branding Tesla's driver assist technology as "autonomous", implying it requires no human intervention and therefore meets the criteria for full self-driving. [6]
The above actions range from needlessly trollish to outright illegal. One could argue that you don't build multiple billion-dollar companies without being an asshole to some of the people some of the time, but you'd be hard-pressed to argue that these are not the actions of an asshole.
1. https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1517707521343082496
2. https://time.com/5339219/elon-musk-diver-thai-soccer-team-pe...
3. https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/technology/elon-mu...
4. https://qz.com/work/2082746/elon-musks-tweet-captures-everyd...
5. https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/998454539941367808
6. https://screenshot-media.com/technology/ai/tesla-autopilot-u...