Everyone references Idiocracy when talking about what’s happening now, but I think with respect to Elon and co., we should actually throw it back to Real Genius
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Andi, thank you. John Gries, who played Lazlo, has been on WHITE LOTUS (as you likely know), and I have been thinking about the ethics of that movie and our now times constantly.
The movie came out in 1985, in roughly the same time frame as various movies that featured permutations of jocks-vs.-nerds animosity (e.g. Sixteen Candles, Revenge of the Nerds, Weird Science). But Real Genius was about what happens when nerds lean into bullying *other* nerds
Real Genius is set in what should be a utopia of nerddom—a school (based on Cal Tech) that’s a haven for all manner of brilliant, neurotic, on-the-spectrum people. And also where a small group of nerds decide that their intelligence grants them power over others
In the opening scene, Professor Hathaway tells his 15-year-old protégé, Mitch, “Compared to you, most people have the IQ of a carrot. We’re different than most people. Better.”
Later, he snaps at the men working on his house remodel: “What are you looking at? You’re laborers, you’re supposed to be laboring. That’s what you get for not having an education.”
These are brain jocks, and they’re every bit as arrogant as the standard-issue athletic model
Sad but true. People are pretty damn stupid. That’s what most PhDs think and most of them are pretty damn stupid, too.
You can’t polish a turd. 💩 Garbage in Garbage out
Elon and Thiel and Vance and the other SV bros have jock software running on dork hardware. They can’t stop competing even when they’ve won. Their brainpower got them this far; shouldn’t that be infinitely transferable to any situation, any sphere?
They retain the formative sting of having been laughed at or ostracized or stuffed in lockers or whatever, but instead of making them empathetic to other forms of marginalization it’s made then hell-bent on proving that they should have been respected all along
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He’s Kent.
Musk is Hathaway, taking credit for other people's work and enriching himself on the federal dime.
"Fraud is a crime, Jerry"... would that it were so.
These are brain jocks, and they’re every bit as arrogant as the standard-issue athletic model
You can’t polish a turd. 💩 Garbage in Garbage out