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toobulkeh | on: Starlink Mini 2
Why does market standard practice “whattaboutism” need to defend the despicable? This is hacker news, is it not? Let’s celebrate the bold and call out the lies. Not pander to the mediocre.
afavour | parent | next
I did not say it in defense of Musk, rather to damn terrestrial internet providers along with him.
wallst07 | parent | next
"musked" isn't a thing, reply is spot on in my opinion.
thih9 | root | parent
I think it might be, Tesla, Cursor, Twitter/X have also been notably user hostile.
gadders | parent | next
It's purely because of his politics. Everyone loved Teslas before he moved to the right.
slowin | root | parent | next
I feel like this is a false narrative I hear a lot. “Everyone” didn’t love Teslas, it was a niche product and then Musk exposed himself as one of the worst people on earth, and the market shrank even more. It’s a strawman to claim Teslas were loved by “everyone” (implicitly or explicitly often stated as people with a left wing bent).
LoganDark | root | parent | next
Nobody said "everyone" meant everyone ever. In all statements like that, there is an implied "everyone with feelings on Tesla"
leereeves | root | parent
As I remember things, a lot of people turned on Musk (or were already against him) in 2018 when he called the diver who rescued children trapped in a cave in Thailand (and "stole" a moment of glory from Musk and his mini-sub) a "pedophile".

Long before he announced he intended to vote Republican in 2022.

oblio | root | parent
> he moved to the right

If by "moved to the right" you mean "he fell off the far end and if he were a politician his politics would be considered radical extremism", sure.

gadders | root | parent
Yeah, only to the chronically online left.
jesseendahl | root | parent | next
It's not only chronically online folks who have a strong distaste for Elon. For one thing, everyone knows what an epic and highly visible failure DOGE was. That's widely acknowledged and not even controversial as far as I'm aware.
gadders | root | parent
>>widely acknowledged and not even controversial as far as I'm aware.

In the New York Times, maybe. Everyone seems pretty pleased that USAID isn't wasting taxpayer money.

ethbr1 | root | parent | next
Ah yes, the $30b (FY2024) a year that funded things like the World Bank, UN World Food Programme, Catholic Relief Services, Family Health International, and Gavi the Vaccine Alliance.

Do you know what soft power is?

oblio | root | parent
Yeah, USAID was the real problem. 0.3 - 0.5% of federal spending.

1. Evolution of Musk promised cuts to federal expenses:

- October 2024 - $2 trillion per year

- March 2025 - $1 trillion per year

- April 2025 - $150 billion per year

Independent sources put the savings around $10 billion per year (the target shrunk 200-fold!).

2. Very important example of conflict of interest AND harm to the government: independent sources expect IRS workforce cuts to <<reduce>> federal revenue by <<$198 billion over a decade>>.

3. To your direct point

- most of USAID’s money was spent through American organisations, not sent abroad directly (>80% of companies holding USAID contracts were American)

- in practice USAID ran important early-warning systems: famine warnings and perhaps even more importantly disease surveillance (ever heard of... pandemics?)

Cut the nose to spite the face.

Did Musk/DOGE cut military spending (13% of budget; Musk's sponsored admin wants to double it)? Healthcare spending (27%)? Social security (23%)?

He went after politically convenient, and even worse, personally convenient targets.

It's like that joke about looking for the wallet not where you lost it in the dark, but where the light is better...

You'd think the average well educated HN commenter wouldn't fall for such easy to sport propaganda (and also spot obvious conflicts of interest). But I guess ideology beats everything and it's more important to win against "the other team".

Timon3 | root | parent | next
I see you posting this same opinion again and again, week after week. People keep explaining their issues with Musk which go far beyond "he votes differently!", yet you keep insisting there's literally no good reason to dislike him.

Have you ever considered that you might just be part of the terminally online right?

oblio | root | parent
I think we're past that point and these kinds of comments should just be flagged.
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abhinavk | root | parent | next
It's so funny seeing American left derided as some radical ideology.
oblio | root | parent | next
> chronically online

We are witnessing the death of irony: https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=gadders

slowin | root | parent
I’m quite sure his overt white supremacy and fascism is considered far-right extremism by everyone who is also not on the far-right. Ironic since he’s quite possibly the biggest welfare recipient of all time.
gadders | root | parent
>>overt white supremacy and fascism

Lol.

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arcanemachiner | parent | next
So it's not OK to compare things in relative terms, but we should only compare them in an absolute sense? Pretty lofty ideal. (The appeal to emotion is very inspiring though, not gonna lie.)

What does the competition even offer here?

tjwebbnorfolk | root | parent
This is HN, where anything less than the commenter's idea of perfect is a crime against humanity
Gareth321 | root | parent
Especially when it's Elon Musk.
phoghed | parent | next
Sib will certainly switch to the first good alternative when it becomes available, any day now surely
slowin | root | parent | next
That’s the thing about kleptocracy, Musk has artificial barriers constructed by the government, making competition nearly, if not literally, impossible.
sirtaj | root | parent
If one appears, one of the reasons will be that people complained about the existing one, signalling the market.

This "just eat your gruel and be grateful" attitude on Hacker News is becoming very common now but remains surprising. This is the attitude of serfs, not hackers.

dotancohen | parent
Musk's ambition enables GGP to post on HN from Western Mongolia, but he is derided because his company used to offer an even better option once.
rexpop | root | parent | next
> Musk's ambition enables

It's so weird to me the attribution of collective efforts to a single individual.

> his company used to offer an even better option

Yes, it's a degradation in service not unlike a bait-and-switch.

I just don't understand how you can hold your mental model of the world.

gadders | root | parent | next
>>It's so weird to me the attribution of collective efforts to a single individual

Yeah, totally never happened with Steve Jobs and Apple.

phs318u | root | parent
Yes, and that was weird too, to anyone not a blind fanboi.
zenithirl | root | parent
>It's so weird to me the attribution of collective efforts to a single individual.

Why didn't you reply to the guy blaming Musk personally for the plan changes?

Dylan16807 | root | parent
Enables it for 30 days. Such a massive cut in usability on top of tripling in price for existing users does deserve derision.
wallst07 | root | parent
This is what happens when there is no competition. There is no better alternative, and if demand goes up...
tjwebbnorfolk | root | parent
Before starlink existed, there was also no competition.

So what, nobody is allowed to launch any product unless it also has a competitor?

Dylan16807 | root | parent | next
I don't know how you got there but no that's not the implication.
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wallst07 | root | parent
What? I'm confused by your reply.

I meant that Starlink adjusting prices shouldn't be surprising, if anything it is still cheap (IOM).

I got a mini on sale at HD for ~200, paid 0/mo -> 5/mo now $10/mo to keep online as a backup. Amazing tech IMO and cheap.

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