Sorry? I frankly don't know if the frequency of these is high enough I should not even repeat this anymore. Anyhow...
I grew up in a middle-class family in Italy. It's a common story, you might be familiar with it even if you have a different background.
Post-war, rapid change, studying, ideals and their struggles, graduating into good jobs. My father was a doctor, three specializations, head of cardiology. My mother is a now long-retired teacher.
Intellectuals, more books than space to keep them, dinners with friends talking (often screaming) about politics, always. Goes without saying, left-wing.
Communists - even if the word probably will be misunderstood as worldwide some have a rational fear of it, having lived through regimes, and some others an irrational fear, having been on the side of a relentless opposition and propaganda. If it helps, picture some approximation of today's Bernie Sanders, rather than the idea of abolishing free markets.
We always had a big table in the house, always ready to feed, somehow, an unspecified number of people at the last minute.The point.
I spent most of my teenage years among smart, accomplished thinkers, with what (at least I thought) was a sharp intellect of my own. Mostly sitting in silence, to the point that when I chose to debate, people could be surprised that the quiet kid actually could articulate himself and not back down - even causing a few times people to just leave, in anger.
In retrospect, today's internet flames IRL.
The point!
I was arrogant, not shy, but most of all, I was frustrated at how smart, intelligent people could be often so dumb. I fought through half of my life among people who were more likely to be able to speak fluent Latin and ancient Greek than know about probability, logic, or have opinions on the debate between Platonism and formalism as the origin of mathematical ideas.
People who studied Marx and yet barely knew enough about the economy to understand their baking accounts.
This is not surprising. In context, this was a time when classical studies were "the" way forward. The "liceo classico" would allow you to enter any university, whist the "scientifico" would be considered too technical and specialized for that.
When I was already toying with basic on my Commodore 64, thanks to my parents and cousins, I knew nobody else my age who even owned a computer. Even to this day (frustratingly) Computer Science is not considered foundational for the development of kids, for the education of a fully capable, rational, enlightened human being.
And in general, we know very well that intelligence often has blindfolds. Google how many Nobel prize winners have wildly idiotic beliefs.
Enter the Silicon Valley
In an unfair turn of events, the second half of my life has been, thus far, among the polar opposite crowd. "My people" know about complex algorithms, can design their own hardware, know about how markets work, and are well, in general, nerds, geeks.
Unfair, because instead of finding solace in this environment, I am cursed now to see how partial that kind of brilliance can be. It is a religion, and idealism, of the opposite kind, but the same nonetheless.
Probably should have put a photo of the Juicero somewhere in there...As it was that someone could be considered smart back then without knowing a lot of what matters in the world, so it is now.
Musk is iron-man, and until recently, when his tantrums have started to be so public and hyperbolic to enter the realm of mainstream mockery, it was not an adoration limited to the wet dreams of infinite wealth of socially awkward engineers.
We elevated this new type as the very definition of "genius". That's how even worse characters, the Sam Bankman-Fried, the Elizabeth Holmes of the world, could fool so many by appropriating the mask of this new idea of success. Ok, also helped by a particular phase of the economy where money was so available that forced investors towards much higher risks, but still...
Where I see a difference - between my fights then, and now, it's for the worse.
See, the crowd at the dinner table of my childhood was, mostly, without a lot of power. Some were poor, some were, as I said, middle-class. Turns out that for all the studies needed for the role, public hospitals in Italy don't pay that much to become rich. And communists don't want to be rich anyway, thinking about social good and inequalities and all these things.
So. I know that Moron Musk is, in many ways, outstandingly smart. I know that anyone who makes a successful, large-scale, legit new company, cannot be a total Moron, by any stretch of imagination. Even if they had seed money from emerald mines, even if they bought existing companies to start.
"before it was cool" - last post refers to the "pedo guy" oopsie...I have even some level of empathy for a person who seems to have, to some degree I am not competent nor interested in diagnosing, a divergent mind.
I even know that crypto, for example, is in many ways interesting, and perhaps one day I will write about the positive lessons and inspirations we should take from NTFs or the web3 movement.
And yes, I have been fascinated by VR from the moment I experienced the early Valve prototypes, I always like the idea of real-time raytracing, even co-wrote this chapter of RTR about it! More often than not, I criticize what I like, and know. And there is always something to learn even from the most overhyped ideas or personalities.
But I don't think that nuance is interesting while the hype is on. That is the rational(ization?) to the contrarian. It is of the biggest utility to denounce, to try to open the eyes to the problems, especially when dealing with power.
I draw the line at lying, at being intentionally deceiving, intellectually dishonest. Legitimizing such Machiavellian tactics is short-sighted: in the long run, there will always be better, more evil bullshitters than you.
Conclusions.
I write this because sometimes - not often - but it happens, people do note that X,Y or Z is not all bad, or not even that bad at all. That someone, even with some pretty terrible misgivings, is otherwise very talented and deserving.
Fair. But their talent is a reward on its own, isn't it? It celebrates itself through power and wealth. Does not need a mecenate.
Still, I know it can be annoying to see someone relentlessly posting any negative news about this or that person, and for that, I apologize. I ease off the gas when I see I'm not needed anymore, albeit, I am aware that if the community shifts, it's not due to my influence, but alas, I don't think I will soon grow wise enough just to not engage. Likely, one day.
Lastly, I want to share one last thing I learned, a positive thing, from these old communist intellectuals, that I think it is healthy to practice more.
Look at you, and your own, first. Not "after" - which is also good - but "at".
It's easy to be angry at others - at people in camps far removed from your tribe. Self-flagellation, ironically unites left-wing and Christianity, even if for other (not very rational) reasons, they generally don't mix together much (few seem to grasp that Jesus was a socialist).
Having a bigger degree of scrutiny of people close to yourself, and having a bigger degree of understanding for people far - when done right - counterbalances our natural biases.
Speaking Italian, if your favorite soccer team cheats, there's no redemption in the fact that many others did, because these others did not wear your same colors, did not have your loyalty, your passion.
That is why it annoys me even more to see my kind of smart being dumb, than others.
I was taught that way.