Well he was doing a good job at buying popularity until he fired his PR team so..

Elon Musk has never had a PR team... Which is maybe the better point. (Or if he did, he hasn't had one in the 15+ years I've been watching him.)

After the taking Tesla private tweet that got him in trouble with the SEC he hired some people, but that didn't last long. Tesla had a PR team until a few years ago but he probably did not listen to them very much.

His companies have certainly had PR teams a various points in time. Tesla even does advertising now. But the topic is specifically about the man himself which is independent of his companies. Most very rich but (un)popular people have personal PR teams.

Sadly, I suspect he's reasonably successful at being popular amongst the people he wants to be popular with.

Taylor Swift is super popular in the demographic she plays to, while being unpopular with, say, techno or metal fans.

Musk is super popular in the outspoken nazi demographic. (And has fallen way way out of popularity with huge parts of demographics that he used to be popular in, like electric car people, home solar/battery people, and spaceflight fans.)

> Musk is super popular in the outspoken nazi demographic.

It's sad seeing such poor misinformed takes like this on hacker news. I guess Marc Andreessen and the President/Co-Founder of Stripe, among many others, are nazis now. It's well known that among the group that I would call "pro-America technologists" that he's highly appreciated and many want to figure out how to replicate him.

> and spaceflight fans.

As a spaceflight fan who was a fan of Musk all the way back in ~2012, I'm still a fan of him today, even if I have more issues with him today than I did back then. I can confidently say that many spaceflight fans feel the same as I on this. People overstate his controversial opinions (and being a nazi is not one of them) and understate his past achievements (and continued achievements).

> It's well known that among the group that I would call "pro-America technologists" that he's highly appreciated and many want to figure out how to replicate him.

> As a spaceflight fan who was a fan of Musk all the way back in ~2012, I'm still a fan of him today

Elon is a rare human being.

He is pretty much what his haters think of him (a political/social troll/child).

And he is also what his worshipers think (a generationally incredible technical and business visionary).

Most people, whether ordinary or extraordinary themselves, have trouble with dissonance. Elon is dissonance. They see a joke or a god.

A small segment sees both sides clearly. I find it a painful experience. Overlapping extremes of inspiration and damage. But reality isn't all bubblegum and glitter go pops.

is your idea of "pro-America" being a white supremacist state by chance? that hitler salute not subtle enough?

Yes this is what people like you do, go around calling everyone nazis and making up hitler salutes.

> It's well known that among the group that I would call "pro-America technologists"

You should start calling them “pro-India technologists”

What he can’t buy is being at peace and content with the popularity he already has

He’s an example. He has to burn massive amounts of money to counteract the fact that he wants to be the town asshole in public constantly.

If someone who had 5 dollars to their name acted like Elon Musk no one on this forum would question hating the fucker, but he’s got cash so some set of people think he might be right

Yeah, giving Nazi salutes is a great way to buy popularity.

It’s certainly a good way to get people like you to talk about him.

It's effective for buying popularity with a crowd that likes nazi salutes.