[ExI] Gender-Neutral Side Note

[John Clark]

On Sat, Nov 8, 2025 at 11:32 AM <spike at rainier66.com> wrote:

>…there are those (even in the USA)
>

*Even? Especially in the USA!*

*> who do not like Musk, but it isn’t clear to me why. *
>

*What isn't clear to me is why you are not just as outraged over the antics
of He Who Must Not Be Named as I am, I've been trying to figure that out
since 2016. As for Musk, I think it's just a fact of reality that the
richest man in the world is never going to be universally loved. But it's
more than just that. Elon Musk's popularity took a dramatic hit when he
gave $277 million to get a 34 time convicted felon, a man who had staged a
coup d'état which if successful would've made him a dictator, get back into
power through an election in 2024. *

*By the way, there was a fellow in Germany, whose name escapes me at the
moment, who had a similar history, he too had staged an unsuccessful coup
d'état and he too got back into power by winning an election; the only
difference was the election happened in 1933 not 2024. *

*> Because of him we have Tesla, Space X*
>

*Yes, and the world is a better place because of those two companies, so I
have to give the devil his due and give Musk a +2 *

*> and TwitterX*
>

*And the world would be a better place if that company did NOT exist,
without Twitter He Who Must Not Be Named would have never won the 2016
election, and without TwitterX (and the richest man in the world's money of
course) he would've never won the 2024 election. So for that company Musk
gets a  -1 *

*> And StarLink! How could I forget that one?*


*That one is more complicated to judge. It has improved our ability to
communicate and has even helped the people of Ukraine defend themselves
from Vladimir Putin, but it has also degraded our ability to understand the
universe. Starink currently has 8,800 satellites in low earth orbit (more
are planned) and are creating havoc for optical astronomers because the
satellites reflect sunlight, creating bright streaks in images taken by
telescopes; by using expensive and time consuming additional data
processing the streaks can be identified and subtracted, but they still
cause the loss of valuable pixels in an image. And those 8,800 satellites
are also causing havoc for radio astronomers because of unintentionally
leaking radio frequencies. Taking all that into consideration I'd give
Starlink a zero.*

You didn't mention another of Musk's companies but I will, xAI, it's his AI
Company in the creators of Grok. I think the world is better off because of
its existence, thus I give it a *+1*.

*So now I'm in a position to give Musk a final grade, let's see, 2-1+0+1 =
2. So unlike You Know Who, Musk is still in the plus column. But I don't
like the trend he's on. *

*John K Clark*
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