So you can’t explain or define what genius is, yet judge anyone as an idiot who asks for that context?

Genius and brilliant are synonyms btw. Something pretty obvious.

So unless you want to explain the difference between those two terms, they mean the same thing.

Being pedantic about that doesn’t make you right. It very much implies the opposite. You just look like someone that ate billionaire PR bait, and forgot what reality tastes like.

You are not saving face by refusing to go into the details, you just look like you don’t know what you’re talking about.

Something you could easily disprove if you did. Because Geniuses can go into those details. Idiots can only pretend.

So makes sense why you look up to Musk so much. You can only pretend to be smart like him.

I reject your claim Musk is a genius.

Prove it to me.

You read two of his biographies, so you should know. (Unless those were both fanfiction he paid someone to write about him.)

Musk has indeed been in close proximity to several large companies and their origins.

But genius is not something achievable through osmosis.

What has he, as a person, done with any skill, to suggest he’s a genius? Aside from osmosis.

Let me drop some really basic logical observations your argument will need to overcome to be truthful:

He’s not a productive man:

• As evidenced by his near average of 100 tweets a day. Confirmed by AI. Which is close to 2 hours a day tweeting, not doing anything of value or skill.
• As also evidenced by his character in Path of Exile, one played in hardcore mode, with the best gear available, that would require nearly 10 hours a day of play to achieve.

There is no difference between this behaviour and a jobless NEET or internet troll. They get shit on for this bevavioir due to how unproductive it is.

It’s just as unproductive when Musk does it.

He’s not an accountable father:

• As evidenced hy his 14 children with 4 different women.

This is literally the punchline of a Jeff Foxworthy “You might be a Redneck if…” Joke.

It’s just as unaccountable of Musk to have this many kids with this many people. He would need to spend a lot of time with each to raise them well, and instead he’s playing video games and tweeting almost all day.

Logically, if Musk actually wanted to go to Mars, it would be a 3 step process:

1. Rocket a person to Mars
2. Terraform and settle Mars
3. Migrate to Mars.

He’s focused on 1, and telling you it’s for the good of Humanity.

But if instead he focused on step 2, he would be fighting climate change right now while developing the tech needed to Terraform Mars, as they are the same tech. That’s what a genius would do.

Instead he’s trying to replace NASA with Space X because money.

He doesn’t use his money to improve society. He just uses it to improve himself while lying to you that it’s for the greater good.

It’s not. And it’s never been.

As evidenced by his Hyper loop being a lie to convince legislators in California to cancel plans for a high speed rail. Something California would now benefit from if not for his interference.

All Musk does with his money is use it to buy PR and good will so he can continue to be someone that uses Twitter and play games all day instead of being a good dad. That’s not genius. That’s greed and stupidity.

He could, even now, solve the world’s problems with his wealth. He literally asked for a plan to solve world hunger, and when presented with one that could have done it for like 8 Billion a year, he refused. Then purchased Twitter for 5 times that amount. Because he wanted to be popular.

Yet solving Wolrd hunger would make him worshipped by the people he fed. More popular than anyone. Families would praise his name. And communities would erect statues for him. This is something he certainly wants, yet his way of achieving that goal is to spend even more than 8 billion on PR to convince you he’s a genius.

That’s not very genius like behavior. It’s still just stupid and greedy.

Imagine, for a moment, you’re a Trillionaire. What would you do with that money? Solve the world’s problems? Help your family? Help your friends? That’s what 90% 9f people say when asked.

And Musk does none of that. Just plays games, shit posts on the internet, and convinces you through biographies and large well paid PR teams that he knows what he’s doing and should be worshipped.

His wealth, unquestionably, would be better used if it was in the hands of thousands instead of his. He wants you to think he deserves it, that he’s a genius. When the most casual look at his approaches to problems immediately reveals he’s not. He just a wad of unspent money that wants to use it to take credit for other people’s work instead of fixing the planet.

Time to prove why you think that makes him a genius.

I’ve worked for him by the way. He’s not a genius. He just has good PR to make you think he is.

Dude. You aren’t even talking about Musk. You are entirely talking about what his well paid PR team has made you think of him.

The dude hasn’t done fuck of shit. Just used his money to help others build shit he never bothered to acquire the skills for. Reusable Rockets? That was Tom Mueller you should be thanking. Not the person writing his paycheck. That could be literally anyone.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Mueller

Musk uses his money exclusively to get his name on things to take credit for other people’s work. Tesla, PayPal, Space X, now Twitter / X. All the same. Musk lacks any actual talent or work ethic. He just has money to attach his name to those that do, and money to pay PR teams to make his image appear as someone that has skills to create instead of wealth to take all the credit from those that do.

IF you want to respect someone that has enough wealth to solve almost all of the major problems in the world but uses it instead to purchase a social media platform to shit on others and warp elections, then you go right ahead. But don’t expect anyone else with a sense of reality to agree with you.

You’re not making a bad argument. Just the wrong one.

The system we have is now whatever Trump wants it to be. Going back to the system we had previously would now be just as radical as changing it into one that actually benefits us.

The system we had lead to Trump. Period. Why would you want that again?

Ask yourself: when should we go back to exactly?

Back to before the Patriot Act robbed us of our constitutional right to privacy?

Back before no child left behind made our graduating high schoolers functionally illeterate?

Back before Citizens United allowed corpate power to influence every single election for decades denying you minimum wage, universal Healthcare, or literally anything that would detract from corporate profits over public welfare?

Back before Reaganomics then?

Maybe further back before the business plot of 1933 to overthrow the government in place of business nepotism?

Or maybe before all the Tariffs we passed in the 1920’s that accelerated the great depression?

100 years later we literally have the same problems. Just without the benefit of actually stopping them from destroying our government.

Half the white house is missing. An elected congress person isn’t being sworn in. Our own military is in our cities and it’s to protect masked police deporting some citizens with no due prosses.

This is not a future we reached by mistake. It is a future that was inevitable given the limitations of our existing system, combined with the centuries sociopaths have had to game it. We should not go back to it. It will just lead us here again.

It would be far better to use as a model for a better system. Certainly many other countries already have. But do not let nostalgia blind you to the fact that the problems in the system we have are inherent, and they are not fixable from within using the systems tools. They allow for exploits to grow, and after a hundred years, fail entirely in containing them effectively.

During WW2, a very difficult decision was made to use nuclear weapons. Killing hundreds of thousands to stop millions from dying. If they were not dropped the losses in the south pacific would be well over 8 million dead.

The argument you are currently making, given the WW2 context, is for us not to drop the bomb. Despite us already being at a point where Orange Hitler is about to destroy Snap benefits killing millions more than USAID closing and COVID already have.

There is no more normal course of action given the current situation. And there hasn’t been for quite some time. Just because Democrats haven’t noticed that in decades, doesn’t mean they ever will. This article confirms they won’t, and was written as PR for people like you to believe otherwise.

Just following up from my previous answer: MOST officers only need to pass training on use of firearms once a year. It does vary per department, and some officers use their access to training and ranges to hone their skills. But MOST of them only follow the guidelines, and most guidelines only require recertifying firearm use once a year.

By policy, it’s different per police organization. But overwhelmingly the biggest orgs only force training once a year. And the metrics they use to pass for accuracy and use are lower than most concealed carry courses.

As someone who used to create judgemental use of force firearm training simulators for law enforcement, I can tell you right now you’re likely a better shot than 90% of our police force too.

The problem with that strategy, was that Republicans were not doing that.

So it was a bad strategy. End of argument.

If you are actively strategizing, planning around what your enemies are NOT doing isn’t strategy, it’s stupidity. And it is what Dems have been doing for decades. They just want to blame Republicans for their complete lack of foresight rather than ever be accountable for letting the GOP cuck every single policy of theirs. Now to the point of undoing hundreds of years of legal precedent and progress.

The time for integrity and thoroughness had long since passed before Biden took office, so using it to defeat Trump was about as effective as using a fax machine to share memes. Being anything but aggressive after an active coup attempt that miraculously failed is astronomically naive at best.

But Biden was handed a literal democracy destroying shotgun with one barrel labeled “complete legal immunity” and the other “infinite executive authority” and he looked at that gift from the Supreme Court and decided it was best left to the next president to use. Oops wasnt Kamala. So now instead of Biden expanding the executive branch to control congressional decisions such as how many members of the Supreme Court there are, Trump is doing it to consolidate complete power and authority.

Our Supreme Court built a political Nuclear Bomb, that was 100% going to be used by Trump to destroy this country, and they gifted it to Biden first. His decision to not benevolently use it to destroy the holes in our Democracy MAGA has infested doomed us to be a corpse eaten by those MAGAT’s.

This article is PR for those who failed to protect our country to feel better about it. They failed. They sucked at their job by using clearly outdated strategies, and they did it despite our literal democracy being on the line. I do not blame the unstoppable force that is the MAGA GOP, I blame the Democrats who acted as tin cans for decades when they swore they could be immovable objects. Glad this article clears up the fact they literally never could be.

Yes, absolutley without question we can. And it wouldn’t even take that much resources.

The most recent wide scale study that was done was focused entirely on the world’s “needs” being satisfied in addition to basic resources like food and water.

The conclusion: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2452292924000493

Provisioning decent living standards (DLS) for 8.5 billion people would require only 30% of current global resource and energy use, leaving a substantial surplus for additional consumption, public luxury, scientific advancement, and other social investments.

Strategies for development should not pursue capitalist growth and increased aggregate production as such, but should rather increase the specific forms of production that are necessary to improve capabilities and meet human needs at a high standard, while ensuring universal access to key goods and services through public provisioning and decommodification. At the same time, in high-income countries, less-necessary production should be scaled down to enable faster decarbonization and to help bring resource use back within planetary boundaries.

With this approach, good lives can be achieved for all without requiring large increases in total global throughput and output.

So here’s the thing. They can say whatever they want. Stores are still pulling Xbox hardware from sale. That is the canary in the coal mine. Microsoft isn’t coming back to the market after that. Especially not with an overpriced console that has no exclusives.

Their current trajectory, is almost identical to that of Sega’a post Dreamcast.

Sega did the same with Dreamcasts still on the shelf, had them discounted and removed from sale in stores while announcing they were still working on more hardware.

One year later: just kidding. SEGA now only make software / Sonic games.

Microsoft is absolutley just about to do the same with Halo and Xbox.

Here’s an article from Sega in 2001 about the death of the Dreamcast being overrated because of Segas future hardware plans (that later never materialized).

It reads almost exactly like the one you just posted from Microsoft.

They reviewed our Indie game as “too woke” 6 days before I even had keys to send out. They literally don’t even play the games, just knee jerk to their audience 😂

Can you put capitalism in there too as this describes the same thing?

Find it hilarious that this study is like: “Telling people yes makes them addicted to hearing it”

When it’s literally the reason every billionaire is a sociopath. Everyone tells them yes, because they have all the money, and it makes them think they’re great. So they aquire more money.

So of course they invented AI to work the same way.

It’s honestly funny to watch all these multi-millionaires reach the wrong conclusion with AI. It’s like money turned them all into Howard Hughes, incapable of critical thought. Left only with the ability to double down on dumb decisions while blaming others for the consequences until the wheels come off.

Basically, you point out that no one wants their piss they have been keeping in jars like Howard Hughes did. And their reaction to that is to fill even more jars with piss and hide them everywhere. Just now with AI instead of piss.

Microsoft is going to go under not because it doesn’t have enough jars of piss. It’s going to go under because everything they make now HAS to contain a jar of piss.

It’s baffling to see happen in real time.

They’re all wrong. Xavier is a masterpiece that will give you mind worms that never leave (in the best way possible)

I am by no means an expert, but there has been a significant amount of studies done on the estrogen in our water levels increasing:

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2854760/

Detection of estrogens in the environment has raised concerns in recent years because of the potential of these compounds to affect both wildlife and humans. " The incomplete removal by publicly owned treatment works (POTWs) of excreted endogenous estrogens and prescribed estrogens leads to their introduction into surface waters and potentially into drinking water sources that rely on surface water. Estrogens, specifically estrone (E1), 17β-estradiol (E2), estriol (E3), and ethinyl estradiol (EE2), have been detected in numerous studies of wastewater influents and effluents. (Several links to the studies of the levels of estrogen in waste water are then provided after this quote).

This study in 2009 concluded that kids are exposed to more estrogen in milk and food than water, so it shouldn’t be a problem to worry about. However, at least imo, it never looked at overall levels of estrogen intake increasing from all combined sources as water has certainly added to it at least marginally.

So that’s all to say, I’m not 100% behind this being all true, just that there’s actually quite a bit of valid scientific studies that have proven there’s now more estrogen in our drinking and waste water that seems to be at least corolated to our medical use of it.

So! It’s actually kinda crazy how accurate your professor might be. Because progesterone, the chemical in birth control, does indeed break down into estrogen under the right circumstances. The components of broken down progesterone pass through the body via urine, enter the water system, and - this is the important part - is far too small and difficult to be collected or filtered out of the water.

So people taking birth control have absolutley added an insane amount of estrogen to the water supply. And most tap water now does have low levels of estrogen in it because people have been taking birth control for 60+ years.

In that same time, the average age of puberty has continued to fall.

So, it sounds a bit wild, but that theory is far more feasible than most realize.

You do realize you were adding to that hell right? Just because you hate Mormons doesn’t mean you should be saying that publically 12 times in a day. Twitter is hell because racists are there doing the same, likely about Mormons just as much as Jews.

Just because you aren’t racist doesn’t mean the hate you are spreading needs to be spread. Hate Mormons on your own time, or hate the religion, not those practicing it.

But fuck Charlie Kirk. He’s one guy and his death unquestionable makes the world a better place. But he was a shit head by his own actions, and most Mormons I’ve met are just as gullible as anyone else getting taken advantage of by an organized religion.

Just saying, it’s hard to find places online, and even harder when you go in hot. Don’t go in hot. Maybe Bluesky would treat you better. Their starter packs actually are great ways to find niche communities. The surface level Bluesky is where most of those flurries are. Below that there’s actually quite a bit of righteously enjoyable counter culture. Just don’t go in hatin.

As someone that’s still in AZ, you are correct on all counts. But forgot:

5. They have the cutest babies who follow their parents marching in straight lines.
6. STAY FAR FAR AWAY IF THEY HAVE THOSE CUTE BABIES

I know you’re saying this as a joke, but art theft and related crime has been on the rise since the pandemic. And there has been quite a lot of art recovered from dying old mobsters and conmen.

Here’s the current FBI case list, and it’s WILD:

https://www.fbi.gov/investigate/violent-crime/art-crime/art-crime-news

More Than 50 Years After Theft, Stolen John Opie Painting Recovered and Returned to Rightful Owner

The FBI was contacted in December 2021 by a Washington County, Utah, accounting firm acting as a trustee for a client who died in 2020. [An old mobster] The client had hired the firm to liquidate his residences and personal property. While appraising the painting for auction, it was discovered to likely be an original Opie stolen in 1969 from a private residence of the Wood family in New Jersey.

From a case in February of this year:

According to Acting United States Attorney John C. Gurganus, Dombek, Boland, and Joseph Atsus were part of a larger nine-person conspiracy which lasted over 20 years and whose goal was to break into multiple museums and other institutions and steal priceless works of art, sports memorabilia, and other objects.

Fuck it. Believe me or don’t.

I made a documentary that got C&Dd by Netflix. It was about Orson Welles and the final movie he made in '71 that didn’t get finished until 2021 (by Netflix).

In researching Welles, I discovered a rediculous amount of information about him that is not at all publically known.

His children?

One daughter lives in New York. Another in Sedona.

But there’s also the two he had out of wedlock in secret. (Both of which have documentaries about them)

And then I discovered his fifth child.

Sasha Welles. Who he had with his mistress Oja Kodar during the making of his last film. The kid is almost 100% his, but might not be Kodar’s as he basically had sex with her whole family.

But that’s not what this comment is about.

It’s about the movie he filmed but never finished editing, “The Otherside of the Wind” and starred Oja Kodar.

It’s now on Netflix, and while it did receive some nice critical reviews. Very few people came to look at it as close as I have. (And the others that have kinda sorta agree with what I’m about to say).

The closest (for the most part) was Peter Bogdonavich, who said the movie was a perfect book end for Welles career - a movie that matched his creativity with Citizen Kane.

But, the movie was actually much more than that. Much much more. (At least imo.)

Orson wanted this film to be finished more than anything. He even begged Peter Bognonovich to finish it in case he died. Something Bogdonavich actually tried to do well into the 2000’s!

The reason he wanted it finished? No one knows. But I have a theory, and that’s what my doc was about.

The theory:

Orson Welles created The Otherside of the Wind as a sequel / spiritual successor to Citizen Kane. Except instead of a story about a media magnate based off William Randolph Hearst, The Otherside of the Wind is about a filmmaker based off of Orson Welles.

Basically, Orson Welles made an autobiography of himself and his struggles to be the first Independant filmmaker in the style of his masterpiece Citizen Kane, and then died before telling anyone.

You can watch it on Netflix right now too. The Otherside of the Wind.

So. Every interview he gives about the movie. Literally every single one (I’ve seen 13 or so) he lies about the meaning of what the “Wind” in the title of the film means. In one interview, it’s about the duality of Men and Women. In another, it’s about art and commerce. In another, it just sounds good.

He was an artistic guy. And was known to tell lies and grandiose stories for attention. But at the end of his career, Orson was literally operating on another level. Want to know who coined the term “visual essay?” It was Orson Welles in his documentary F is for Fake. Where he basically makes the first YouTube video (in 1974) about art forgery and art. Which is what F is for Fake is about: faking art.

He has a monologue in that movie. One about a beautiful Church in England built in the old eclesiastic style. And one built by an anonymous architect over 20 years. He wonders at the thought of making something so grand, and never putting your name on it. Something those who appreciate architecture would love, even if they’re biased against the architect.

At this point in his career, Orson was making commercials and getting drunk while doing it. All to raise funds to finish his films. But despite being THE GUY who made Citizen Kane, Othello, Chimes at Midnight, etc, he just got an endless raft of shit from Hollywood for being in these commercials. In one of his many lunches with Bogdanovich, he muses about removing his name from his next movie, so Hollywood might appreciate it as a film instead of crapping on it because of his name.

So he makes Wind. People point out the story of the filmmaker in it kinda resembles him. He denies it. Eventually saying it’s inspired by him. And being a Welles movie, it also has a unique meta narrative. A movie within a movie. As it’s literally about a filmmaker trying to finish his last film, but he tragically passes before it’s completed. Which is what ended up literally happening to Welles and this movie. He died before he could make it. So his unfinished film due to his passing was about a filmmaker having an unfinished film due to his passing.

Great coincidence. And one that attracted me to this story. But it COULD just be a coincidence right? Maybe Otherside just HAPPENS to parralel Welles life through Kanes narrative structure.

Except what I discovered about the title of the film. He never gave a straight answer about it. And that bothered me. Anytime he played coy, it was for a reason.

And it got me looking at the name “The Otherside of the Wind” in a new way. What if the name wasn’t a metaphor at all? He was certainly known for them. (Cough Chimes at Midnight) But, what if this name that really sounded like a metaphor was just a literal, practical name?

The Otherside of the Wind has a movie within a movie. As you watch the film, the filmmaker in it screens his new movie to friends and execs to different results. Eventually you see parts of that movie. The ending to The Otherside of the Wind is also the ending of that movie.

It ends with a woman walking onto a dusty Hollywood set built in the desert. Props of flimsy buildings sway in the wind, as she wanders through them. Eventually the wind picks up and knocks over all the props.

“The Otherside of the Wind” ENDS with a strong WIND blowing down props in a dusty storm.

So if that’s the WIND part of the title, what would the OTHERSIDE of that BE?

Well, the very FIRST shot of Citizen Kane has a cold wind in a snow storm opening up the gates to Kanes mansion.

The otherside of that wind, is the wind in the final shot of “The Otherside of the Wind.”

The movie is named after the first shot in Citizen Kane. And is about literally being the final shot of Welles career.

One that will likely never be noticed, as he made sure to tell no one. Just to make sure they would watch that movie without a bias towards him. Instead the whole point of the movie basically got lost. Because by the time it was finished 50 years later, not many were left who could fit the pieces together.

In the interviews I did, I talked with many people who worked with him as part of VISTOW. A group that thanklessly helped Orson make his movies. Many who went on to have large careers in Hollywood or Academia.

VISTOW stands for “Volunteers in Service to Orson Welles.”

And I’ll be damned if I didn’t say I’m envious of those in that group. Despite the horror stories.

Consider this very condensed rant about this topic that probably only 5 other people on the planet know my service to Orson Welles.

The Otherside of the Wind needs to be looked at as follow up to Citizen Kane, not as the final movie in Welles career.

If you watch the movie on Netflix, I encourage you to do so through this lense. (But be warned, the first 10 minutes are rough, as intended).