this post was submitted on 26 Aug 2026
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He didn't get rich from being smart.
I assume he got rich how most people get rich, luck and being a sociopath.
also having a lot of money to start out with helps
And an apartheid era emerald mine
aka luck
And also by being a vaporware scam artist. Thunderf00t on YouTube has a whole collection of videos showcasing Musk's whole repertoire of bullshit.
yea..... that's pretty much all Thunderfoot posts about nowadays.... he hella fell off, for multiple reasons. But like, a decade ago he used to talk about scam kickstarters, atheism, interesting science topics, etc. And then in those debunking science videos he would bring the math and receipts that made it fun to watch... But then in the past 5 years it's just been Elon... nearly every video is about Elon. It's obsessive.
And tbf, that's not the only ick around Thunderfoot. I mean, he did kinda get his start during the Anti-SJW culture war shit doing anti-femisist ragebait videos. Basically occupied the same spaces as Sargon, Bearing and GradeAunderA.... and he's never really "grown" out of that, or addressed it, let alone apologized for it. He harps on Elon, and sometimes Trump/AlexJones/StevenCrowder but he's never really talked about how he and his ilk helped bring them about.
Not to mention that he milks this content to extreme, he can say things which would take 1 minute in 10
His latest video was exploring 'anti-baking soda' as a potential novel way to do CO2 capture at scale.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=fvxNmStSC3M
He also 'got his start' before Anti-SJW youtube was a thing. His first series that popped off, back in the day, the day being 2008ish, was "Why do People Laugh at Creationists?'.
I don't know that he ever ... explicitly collabed with Sargon or any of those guys, but yeah he did exist in roughly the same genre-space, around the GamerGate era of i dunno, 2013 to 2015, ish?
While he has covered Elon a lot, thats because he started calling bullshit on Elon's nonsense since way, way before that was common... he's been tooting his own horn a bit, following around 10 years of Elon's trolls telling him he doesn't know what he's talking about, and well, it turned out he did.
He literally has a personal grudge against Elon Musk.
For all his faults, he is one of the oldest, OG youtubers, since damn near day 1, who is also still around, and hasn't imploded.
His first vid is 19+ years old, so, 2007ish, and its calling out GWB as a war mongering liar.
All that being said, if you want a more recent youtube channel thats basically just mostly been tearing Musk to shreds, with science: Common Sense Skeptic.
By 'more recent' I mean they've only been around for 5 or 6 years, I think.
Was unaware of much of that; how disappointing. That being said, what I've watched about Musk was informative.
Mostly inherited wealth, but also those things.
A surprising number of people do not understand how getting rich works. Literally anyone can do it. You simply need to do whatever everyone else refuses to do.
You take on the risks. You debase yourself you compromise any and all ethics. You whore out for shareholders who will give you endless money to shield them from consequences they directly funded.
It’s profitable because there is always demand for a new villain and damn near nobody wants to do it. For a good fucking reason.
Are you rich? Where's your Bugatti?
It’s in the shop. In Canada. But totally real. You just can’t see it right now because it’s in the shop. In Canada.
It's easier to take on the risks when you're already rich from inherited wealth.
You seem to be mistakenly conflating getting rich with increasing wealth. Just about nobody gets rich. Many people leverage their existing wealth to gain more. Frequently, that exchange is the start of what is now defined as enshitification.
Everyone cannot do it. Fundamentally its easy: Have money and pick something to middleman. Waste capital until you 'disrupt' that flow. ????. Maybe profit. Who the fuck cares? You got yours. Repeat.
Simple: have wealth. Easy.
Step one is have money to make money. Aside from being the result of two wealthy people fucking... care to detail how so many people are checking that box?
Certainly - there ARE paths to wealth... but they are rare, risk heavy, and frequently are destined to be prey to a resource rich competitor.
A lot of it has to do with over-promising and under-delivering. The rest is marketing.
I'm hearing 'once you have money do.....'
Care to tell me where that gullible userbase is coming from? Pray, tell - what do they come for?
Before that is even a factor you must either be first - with research and development ... and manufacturing... and distribution... or better. Or cheaper! Or able to undercut the competition.
Of the things mentioned... I seem to be struggling to find the element lacking a substantial financial investment.
They're not all gullible. A lot of VC types are obsessive gamblers, they'll throw money at anything that sounds like it might have a high return.
That's where the marketing comes in. Elon is pretty good at selling these big ideas, making them sound futuristic and world-changing. He not only sells those ideas to VCs, but also to the government. A lot of his businesses have pulled in substantial government contract money. The public rarely gets any return from those tax dollars.
VC won't give you the time of day if you lack a product or platform. This isnt go-fund-me or r/wsb. VC appear to bet big but are frequently pretty well informed and diversified. Their big bets aren't much from their prospective... and frequently will be the first to squeeze "their due" from a failing venture.
I dont see how Elon makes a good example for this. If anything it supports what I said:
Elon is wealthy. He has a platform. He has shit he's bought and is reselling snake oil from those things. He's not poofing something from nothing.