• bulwark@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    So you’re saying he invented the electric car right? jk. Edison, probably would have creamed his pants for an opportunity to create a government position to eliminate his competitors.

    • meeeeetch@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      Remember when the ADL complimented him as ‘the Henry Ford of our day’, and then walked it back as organization members pointed out that side of Ford’s legacy and then he spent the next few years proving those folks extremely right?

  • owenfromcanada@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    If I see a headline that Elon is driving other companies’ cars into elephants to try to show how dangerous other cars are, I’ll have to check to see if it’s an onion article.

    It probably won’t be.

    • turmacar@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      Topsy was electrocuted at the request of the ASPCA because they deemed it more humane than just giving her a bunch of cyanide and hanging her.

      Edison Studios, which has about as much relation to the man as Tesla Motors Inc. does their namesake, filmed the event.

      The War of the Currents was a decade previous and between Edison and Westinghouse.

      Edison and Tesla wrote each other friendly letters and spoke well of each other in public.

      Tesla has such a weird reputation. Entertainment is not history.

    • frayedpickles@lemmy.cafe
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      1 month ago

      As much as I enjoy the song it’s important to remember that the Tesla vs Edison story is 60% bullshit.

    • thefartographer@lemm.ee
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      1 month ago

      No, PT Barnum was at least entertaining. Sure, he just wanted to take your money, but he didn’t kill people in the process and you got a pretty reasonable value for paying admission.

      • ✺roguetrick✺@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        He was mostly lucky in that regard. The amount of fires Barnum had with only animals dying and not people is pretty impressive. He had at least five buildings burn down alone. One of his fires at the American museum had a nice effect due to the cold weather in New York at the time.

        It took a while after his death before one of the big top shows really went up in smoke with significant loss of life.

        https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hartford_circus_fire

        • thefartographer@lemm.ee
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          1 month ago

          If I’ve learned anything from your elaboration, it’s that I should vote for an arsonist, but only if they burn things for insurance money rather than murder.

          On a more serious note, the first fire alarm boxes weren’t invented until Barnum was 42, and still took some time to spread from Boston. Places weren’t super-well equipped to deal with normal fires, much less ones that started in places filled with hay, dust, paint, paper, and dyed cloth.

  • BoxOfFeet@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    Imagine what kind of Topsy level shenanigans he can get up to under the coming administration.

  • OceanSoap@lemmy.ml
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    1 month ago

    Wow, the coping on Lemmy over Elon Musk is wild.

    Like it or not, he’s going to be in the history books, for generations to come. If you think he’s just riding along on some sort of wave you’re very wrong, if you listen to any of the people who work with him, he’s very involved, very focused, and the driver of every project he starts.

    • Hackworth@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      I’m confused. The post equates him with Thomas Edison. Thomas Edison is very much in the history books. They’re not saying Elon won’t be in the history books. I only see one comment here disagreeing.

      • OceanSoap@lemmy.ml
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        1 month ago

        Yeah, it’s just very clear that no one wants Elon in the history books, by the way they try very hard to downplay his life involvement with everything

    • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      Lmao. Yes, super involved, with hot takes the entire time because he doesn’t have the experience or academic knowledge. Truly a Thomas Edison. I can believe he has a lot of ideas, I can believe a reasonable number of them are good business ideas. I have a very hard time believing he knows more about car engineering than people who have done it for their entire career.

      • OceanSoap@lemmy.ml
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        1 month ago

        Hot takes aren’t inherently wrong, they’re just unpopular in the current climate. Hot takes don’t mean uneducated, especially today when academic doesn’t always = truth.

        • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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          1 month ago

          Not inherently no, but when the engineers at the company have to conspire to get around your hot takes then they are more of a problem than a vision.

    • Zoz@lemmy.today
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      1 month ago

      But don’t you understand? The point of websites like this one is to have your incorrect opinions validated!!

      • OceanSoap@lemmy.ml
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        1 month ago

        The good thing about Lemmy is my comment isn’t buried by thousands of bot accounts. When I’m downvoted for my wrong-think, everyone still sees it!