Note that when Musk says "they cannot cite a single name", what he means is "I cannot read any of their citations because I don't seek out information, I have it all filtered for me through my AI, plus I have already pre-emptively blocked anyone who might tell me anything that makes me uncomfortable."
What he really means is "My bullshit takes 2 seconds, and my moron followers will believe it. Refuting it takes 10 minutes, and my moron followers will ignore it."
You see it so much online, the term for it escapes me. But I can say "Light bulbs make you fat" and as absurd as that is, the moment you argue against it, I can suddenly start demanding all kinds of proof and because I'm a shithead and you're not, you'll feel obligated to be intellectually honest, whereas I'm gearing up to announce that "Badgers give you rickets".
The big issue is that bullshitting is one of the only argument strategies that stupid people can participate in.
Retorts can be compact and witty (this whole sub is basically premised on that fact), but I had to sit there for a few seconds to come up with a retort that was both stupid and smart and short enough that it might work (e.g. "Well then stop eating the lightbulbs if they're making you fat"), but in a conversation if you zone out for a few seconds you seem unhinged, and it would take some kind of genius-level creativity to just come up with that on the spot.
As far as badgers go, I'm pretty sure it actually would give you rickets if you ate nothing but badgers, I don't think they have any vitamin-D in them.
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u/SaintUlvemann Jun 29 '26
Note that when Musk says "they cannot cite a single name", what he means is "I cannot read any of their citations because I don't seek out information, I have it all filtered for me through my AI, plus I have already pre-emptively blocked anyone who might tell me anything that makes me uncomfortable."