• captainlezbian@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    I think there are some people who just exist in our communities and lives that can shed some light here.

    The father who’s generally progressive in public, because he never really cared about it when it doesn’t affect him. But he was cruel to his “son” for displaying failure of masculinity growing up, and later when that “son” came out as a trans woman he became a vocal transphobe.

    The business owner who always tried to focus on businesses that addressed new and futuristic ideas. Always tried to keep things as cool as possible, especially in presenting the business to the public. But while he was willing to put in irresponsible amounts of work, he expected the same of his employees. When they started discussing collective bargaining, his facade of being different and socially responsible fell to the wayside as he began fighting tooth and nail against unions, and employees increasingly felt comfortable talking about his bad behavior in all manner of topics as well as the public began listening about it.

    The man who in college falls for a woman, and has a family with her. But he strikes it rich and becomes famous and files for divorce leaving her with the kids and screwed by a prenup.

    The individual who consistently alienates those around themselves, who refuses to build community, instead believing themselves different, better. They may be chasing fame, wealth, and power, but they may not be. Getting it is irrelevant. But regardless in their alienation they find Internet communities. Them develop a sense of communal identity without connection, friendship, camaraderie, or comfortable belonging. A crude facsimile of community that fails to provide for interpersonal needs. And while they’re in these places they begin flowing down the pipeline to radicalization.

    An individual with a strained relationship with a parent understands their parents flaws and swears they’re not going to be like that. They succeed somewhat but not completely.

    Each of these things we can see Elon fall into. He’s all of them in the extreme. He is human, deeply so. Each of these involved him making choices that got him here