I know I'm not going to win any popularity contests with what I'm about to say, but I'll play the part of captain contrarian. Hold tight and prepare for liftoff, because I'm about to humanize the devil.
Human memory is a very malleable thing. It's soft, pliant, plastic. The things that we remember aren't necessarily what actually happened. One of my favorite sayings is "history isn't the past", one just needs to read Herodotus to know that. Our memories are particularly bad during a traumatic event. The survivors of the Titanic have entirely different accounts of what actually happened. Allegedly, some witnessed a suicide of a deck officer, something depicted in the James Cameron movie, but nobody agrees on the details. Also, it never happened. 50% of survivors remember the ship breaking into two, the other half have no recollection of that event. Part of that may be due to weather conditions, still it's difficult to miss a gigantic ship torn asunder, but most folks were in survival mode.
Losing a new born child I think qualifies as a traumatic incident. It's entirely possible that Elon and his ex-wife have completely different memories of what transpired, neither is lying, they simply remember it differently. I'm sure they both held him during his final moments, the details are likely foggy. Sure, one of them could by lying, but that's not certain, and I tend to think they both see it as one of the worst, if not the worst, moments of their lives.
Also, they both have motive to portray themselves in a better light. My own parents had an ugly divorce, said horrible things about each other that weren't factually true, and our family never really recovered. Justine and Elon are probably not on the best of terms.
I have a hard time relating to Elon Musk. He thinks differently than most people; he's mercurial, impulsive, very rich, and extremely successful (recent Twitter escapades aside). I've heard a lot of negative things about him recently, but I don't think most of his detractors think that he is unintelligent. You can't be responsible for building fancy electric automobiles or fabulous rocket ships if you aren't smart. My point isn't to make him into some super genius. As I've said previously, I really don't have strong feelings about him, I just don't think that he is a super villain, either.
Now, I'm about to bring up somebody else who is probably not popular around these parts, Joe Rogan. No, I'm not attempting to make excuses for this fellow. I used to casually listen to Rogan before he went off into moonbat territory. He seemed to be making progress, before COVID denial and the the New York Times article on the UAP (UFO) phenomenon. Level-headed folks like Neil deGrasse Tyson were molding him into a more reasonable person. Then he started having Travis Walton and Bob Lazar on, and he went back into conspiracy land. I don't listen to Joe Rogan anymore, for obvious reasons.
Anyway, I just wanted to clarify my stance on Rogan. Honestly, I think he's far more damaging than Musk, but that's a different topic entirely. The thing about Joe Rogan is that I don't think he lies about his beliefs, fanciful and childlike as they are, and he has no reason to lie about his interaction with Elon Musk. I'm sure most of us are aware of the interview that he did with Musk, it's become a meme with Elon toking on some suspicious plant material. Like a lot of folks, I watched it back in the day, just out of curiosity. (The only thing I remember was Musk summarily dismissing Rogan's UFO nonsense, which I appreciated.)
After the interview, Joe Rogan was asked about Musk behind the scenes. According to Rogan, Musk's demeanor shifted once the interview started. He was friendly and personable, but once the camera and microphone were on, he became guarded and distant. This doesn't surprise me, many people act different in a highly public interview. Other than Rogan making comments about how happy Musk seemed while showing him the flamethrower that he brought with him backstage, I don't recall much else.
However, the one time I found Elon Musk to be relatable, as a living, breathing, human being, was when Joe Rogan recounted an interaction after a simple question. When the cameras were off, and he was alone with Musk, he simply asked him if he enjoyed his life, his money, his success, his talent, his fame, was Elon happy? Musk's response was simple, when he flatly responded with "you wouldn't want to be me".
It's a documented fact that mental illness affects people that are higher on the IQ scale than the average person. This includes depression, anxiety, bi-polar disorder, ADHD, and schizophrenia, among many others. Just as an example, here's a partial except from
the journal Intelligence:
"The results showed that highly intelligent people are 20% more likely to be diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), 80% more likely to be diagnosed with ADHD, 83% more likely to be diagnosed with anxiety, and 182% more likely to develop at least one mood disorder."
I wouldn't be surprised if Musk suffers from one or more such maladies. I'm not a mental health professional, and not diagnosing him via Joe Rogan's words. I'm just pointing out that you really don't know what is inside someone's head at any given moment. Unless Elon is one of Rogan's little green men in disguise, chances are he's more like the rest of us on the inside than we might like to admit.
Whether you believe Joe Rogan's account of Elon Musk's opinion of his life is up to you. I'm not making excuses for any real or perceived behavior. I've already made my thoughts on their public personas clear. What I do know is that when Musk apparently said "you wouldn't want to be me", I can relate to him, which I haven't been able to do, otherwise.
. There will be companies in the Bay Area that benefit greatly from Musk's recklessness.
9to5mac.com
