[다큐] 일론 머스크의 실체 by The Infographics Show
* 머스크는 자신이 포장하는 것처럼 자수성가 부자가 아니다.
아버지는 1980년대 남아공 광산을 운영했던 금수저. 머스크의 첫 사업 Zip2도 아버지로부터 창업자금 지원을 받았다.
* 원래는 캐나다 퀸스대학에 진학했으나, 자신의 기업가적 야심을 실현하기 위해 미국의 유펜으로 편입.
* 스탠퍼드 대학원을 입학한 적이 없는데 진학한 것처럼 거짓말.
To my knowledge there is no record of him ever being accepted to Stanford. In fact he did not have his undergraduate degree at the time and there is some pretty reasonable speculation that he lied on his visa application to enter the US as a student while Greg Kouri (a friend of his mothers and angel investor to Musk for Zip2) leaned on friends to arrange for UPenn to give him a degree even though he had not finished coursework there.
* 첫 사업 Zip2는 거대한 컴퓨터 하드웨어를 보여주며 마치 첨단사업을 하는 것처럼 투자자들 을 속였다. 회사운영을 다른 사람에게 위임하는 조건으로 3million dollar 투자를 받았다. 회사운영을 위해 외부에서 영입된 사람들의 증언으로는 머스크의 코딩 수준은 아마추어 레벨이었다고 한다.
* 언론에서 선전하는 것과 달리 그는 페이팔 창업자가 아니다. 자신이 만든 회사 X가 페이팔과 합쳐졌고, 페이팔의 CEO가 되었는데, 운영을 제대로 못하자 쿠데타로 인해 물러나고 후임 자리를 피터 틸에게 주어야 했다. 그러나 페이팔과의 계약서 내용 때문에 자신을 페이팔 창업자로 행세할 수 있게 되었다.
* 마찬가지로, 그는 테슬라의 창업자도 아니다. 중간에 인수하여 창업자들을 내쫓았는데, 계약서 내용 때문에 자신을 테슬라 창업자로 내세울 수 있게 되었다.
* 그가 테슬라 인수 당시 유일하게 특허를 갖고 있던 기술은 전기차 충전소에서 테슬라 자동차에게만 충전이 가능하도록 설계된 특정한 모양의 배터리 충전 포트; 기술적으로는 전혀 새로울 것이 없고, 오로지 그의 시장독점을 위해 안배된 특허였다. 충전 포트가 다른 전기차 자동차들과 상호호환이 불가능하게 설계한 것은 이 때문.
* 테슬라 자동차를 충전하는 리튬 배터리는 채굴방식이 결코 친환경적이지 않다. 테슬라의 eco-friendly한 이미지는 이미지 메이킹, 즉 조작.
Its a pretty good point, everything we use - everywhere is something that was once mined or extracted. it is worth pointing out though, that lithium extraction is considerably worse for the local environment than most minerals, like iron or bauxite mining though, Lithium processing takes a LOT of water, creates a lot of unusable toxic brine, and posses water table contamination risks. this is not unique to lithium mining, but because of the sheer volume of lithium needed, it is the most impactful.
* 머스크는 트위터를 통해 테슬라 자동차의 위험성 및 사망률을 분석한 비영리 단체 Reveal의 보고서를 영리단체의 프로파간다라는 이유로 공격했으나 이후 비영리 단체라는 사실을 알게되자 해당 트윗을 삭제. Reveal에 고소 협박 남발함.
* 일론 머스크의 자율주행차 거짓말
자율주행차 2014년에 나온다
2017년 말
2020년 등 말을 계속 바꿔온다.
그러다 자기들 자율주행차가 레벨2라고 한다.
레벨3은 완전자동화가 가능한 레벨.
아직 예측불가능한 장애물을 인식하지 못하는 자율주행차
학습된 것에만 반응한다.
* 테슬라는 돈 아낀다고,
레이저 센스 안 쓰고
카메라를 통해서만 인식 중.
* 코로나 기간 동안 직원들이 테슬라 현장에 복귀하지 않으면 자르겠다고 협박. 2021년에는 450명의 직원들이 코로나에 감염되었다.
* 테슬라 업무현장에서 흑인들에 대한 차별이 만연했다는 내부증언이 있다. (머스크가 남아공 출신인 것과 관련이 있을까?)
* 테슬라를 private company로 만들 것이라고 트위터에서 거짓말.
* 테슬라 내부폭로자 입을 막기 위해 167milllion dollar의 소송을 검.
On June 20, the company sued Tripp for $167 million. Later that day, Tripp heard from the sheriff's department in Storey County, Nev. Tesla's security department had passed a tip to police. An anonymous caller had contacted the company to say Tripp was planning a mass shooting at the Gigafactory.
* 10년 전 트위터에서 스페이스 X를 통해 10년 뒤면 화상에 갈 수 있을 것이라고 허세성 발언.
* 스페이스 X에서 폭군으로 군림. 주말에도 수시로 직원들 호출하여 하루종일 일하게 하고, 폭언을 한다고 한다.
* 도지코인 트위터를 통해 사기쳐서 시세조종
* 러시아의 우크라이나 침략 전쟁에서 러시아에 우호적인, 또는 중립적인 스탠스를 취해 푸틴의 칭찬을 받았다.
우크라이나 측 주장: "We were denied internet access from Starlink sateglites."
* Boring Company를 통해 하는 Hyperloop는 전기차 홍보에만 도움이 되고, 수많은 사망을 초래할 수 있는 death trap이라는 비판이 있다. Stuck in tight space without air.
* 그의 또다른 프로젝트인 뉴럴링크 역시 업계 최초도 아니고, 이미 기존에 하던 사업의 재탕이라는 비판이 있다.
* 트위터 인수 후 도널드 트럼프의 트위터 계정을 복구시키고, 자신의 제트기 이동 동선을 추적하는 19세 Jack Sweeney의 트위터 계정도 그대로 두겠다고 공언하며, 표현의 자유를 중시 여기는 이미지를 만들었으나, (머스크는 이런 이미지를 위해 트위터에서 투표도 자주 한다) 얼마 지나지 않아 Jack Sweeney의 트위터를 폐쇄. (이 사건은 아래에 자세히 후술).
* 트위터 인수 후, 공인들에게만 인증되던 트위터 blue mark 뱃지를 돈을 받고 주는 등 수익화.
* 머스크가 꿈꾸는 X의 최종적인 형태는 중국의 WeChat처럼 하나의 앱 속에 인류에게 필요한 모든 서비스가 들어간 독점적 플랫폼. 그의 독재적 면모를 엿볼 수 있다.
* 트위터 인수 후 대규모 인력 구조조정을 감행했을 뿐 아니라, "안드로이드에서 왜 트위터 접속이 느리냐?"는 일론 머스크의 트윗에 "당신이 쓰는 브라우저의 캐쉬 때문에 그런 것일 뿐, 트위터의 문제가 아니다"는 답글을 단 트위터 직원을 해고함. 감히 자신에게 지적질을 했기 때문.
* 자신이 소유한 프라이빗 제트기에서 여성 승무원들에게 마사지를 의무화하고, 어느 날은 한 여성 승무원에게 성기가 발기된 나체 상태로 같이 잠을 자면 돈을 주겠다고 제안하기도 함. (아래 후술.) 입막음 비용으로 250,000 USD를 제공.
...
결론: 머스크는 양면적인 인간이다
1) 일론 머스크는 어린시절 아버지로부터 아동학대를 당하고 학교에서 왕따를 당해 인간에 대한 불신감이 강하고 니편 내편 피아 구분을 하는 경향이 강하지만,
그나마 그동안 방파제가 되어준 어머니를 통해 완전히 인간에 대한 애정의 끈을 완전히 놓지는 않게 된 것으로 보인다.
그러나 머스크는 극도로 자기중심적이고 사이코패스적인 기질이 있다.
머스크 역시 자신의 성격상의 하자를 알고 있지만, 자신이 천재적인 인간이라는 사실을 자각하기 때문에 면죄부를 받을 수 있다고 생각하는 것 같다:
"혹시 저 때문에 감정이 상한 사람이 있다면, 그저 이렇게 말하고 싶군요. 저는 전기차를 재창조했고, 지금은 사람들을 로켓에 태워 화성으로 보내려 하고 있습니다. 그런 제가 차분하고 정상적인 친구일 거라고 생각하셨나요?"
2) 남들보다 능력이 압도적으로 뛰어난 거의 모든 인간이 그렇듯, 머스크 역시 다른 사람들을 자기 밑으로 보는 경향이 있고, (하등한 인간이라고 인식된 부류가 자신에게) 대드는 것을 좋아하지 않는다. (이는 아로 역시 마찬가지다.)
재능이 뛰어난 직원은 우대하지만, 그렇지 못한 직원은 멸시한다.
5) 위기에 대한 resilience가 강하다는 것 역시 머스크의 훌륭한 장점이다. 페이팔 매각으로 그가 얻은 수익 1억 8천 중 SpaceX에 1억 달러, Tesla에 7천만 달러, 솔라 시티에 1천만 달러를 투자하여, 집세를 내기 위해 돈을 빌려야 했던 것은 그가 돈 자체보다는 시장 장악과 제품 혁신에 더 신경쓴다는 사실을 보여준다.
6) 하지만 무엇보다 머스크의 최대 장점은 그의 거대한 포부와 배포다. '다행성종족화'라는 매우 낯선 개념을 인류가 직면한 매우 당연한 미래인 것처럼 묘사하는 것은 평범한 군중들과 다른 그의 '생각의 스케일', '생각의 크기'를 보여준다.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Sweeney
In November 2022, after Musk bought Twitter, he said: "My commitment to free speech extends even to not banning the account following my plane, even though that is a direct personal safety risk".[13] On December 14, 2022, Twitter suspended Sweeney's airplane-tracking accounts for Musk, Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg and Russian oligarchs, as well as Sweeney's personal Twitter account.[13] Sweeney reacted to the suspension, stating: "I mean, this looks horrible. He literally said he was keeping my account up for free speech".[14] On December 15, a number of high-profile journalists were banned after covering Twitter's removal of the ElonJet account.[15][16]
Legal threats from Elon Musk
Musk also announced that he would be taking legal action against Sweeney.[13][18] In relation to the legal action, Musk alleged that in Los Angeles, a car carrying his 2-year-old son was followed by a "crazy stalker" who thought Musk was inside, "blocked [the] car from moving" and "climbed onto [the] hood."[19] A Los Angeles Police detective in the stalking investigations unit said they had no evidence indicating that the alleged stalker had used ElonJet.[20] Regarding the incident, South Pasadena police said that they were investigating "an assault with a deadly weapon involving a vehicle", and labelled a member of Musk's security team as a "suspect".[21]
Sweeney has posted publicly available information about Musk's flights and airports used, but Sweeney did not share information about Musk's cars or family members.[14] Sweeney denied being involved in the alleged stalking incident, stating that the ElonJet account had no posts in the 24 hours prior to the incident, and that the location of the alleged stalking incident was far from any airport; Sweeney also told the media that he believed Musk's legal threat against him was a bluff.[22]
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https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-paid-250000-to-a-flight-attendant-who-accused-elon-musk-of-sexual-misconduct-2022-5
- A flight attendant for SpaceX said Elon Musk asked her to "do more" during a massage, documents show.
- The billionaire founder exposed his penis to her and offered to buy her a horse, according to claims in a declaration.
- After she reported the incident to SpaceX, Musk's company paid her $250,000 as part of a severance agreement.
SpaceX, the aerospace firm founded by Elon Musk, the world's wealthiest man, paid a flight attendant $250,000 to settle a sexual misconduct claim against Musk in 2018, Insider has learned.
The attendant worked as a member of the cabin crew on a contract basis for SpaceX's corporate jet fleet. She accused Musk of exposing his erect penis to her, rubbing her leg without consent, and offering to buy her a horse in exchange for an erotic massage, according to interviews and documents obtained by Insider.
The incident, which took place in 2016, is alleged in a declaration signed by a friend of the attendant and prepared in support of her claim. The details in this story are drawn from the declaration as well as other documents, including email correspondence and other records shared with Insider by the friend.
According to the declaration, the attendant confided to the friend that after taking the flight attendant job, she was encouraged to get licensed as a masseuse so that she could give Musk massages. It was during one such massage in a private cabin on Musk's Gulfstream G650ER, she told the friend, that Musk propositioned her.
After Insider contacted Musk for comment, he emailed to ask for more time to respond and said there is "a lot more to this story."
"If I were inclined to engage in sexual harassment, this is unlikely to be the first time in my entire 30-year career that it comes to light," he wrote, calling the story a "politically motivated hit piece."
Insider extended the deadline and reiterated the offer to Musk to comment on the claims. He did not respond.
Reached via cell phone, SpaceX vice president of legal Christopher Cardaci said, "I'm not going to comment on any settlement agreements." SpaceX did not respond to requests for comment to its general media contact email address.
An allegation that Musk offered a horse in exchange for an erotic massage
The flight attendant told her friend that the billionaire SpaceX and Tesla founder asked her to come to his room during a flight in late 2016 "for a full body massage," the declaration says. When she arrived, the attendant found that Musk "was completely naked except for a sheet covering the lower half of his body." During the massage, the declaration says, Musk "exposed his genitals" and then "touched her and offered to buy her a horse if she would 'do more,' referring to the performance of sex acts."
The attendant, who rides horses, declined and continued with the massage without engaging in any sexual conduct. The attendant "is not for sale," the friend's declaration said. "She is not going to perform sexual favors for money or gifts." The incident occurred during a flight to London.
In an interview with Insider, the friend described the attendant's allegations in more detail. She spoke on the condition of anonymity, citing fears for her personal safety, but Insider is aware of her identity. Insider is also aware of the flight attendant's identity, but is not naming her because she has claimed to be a victim of sexual misconduct. She declined to comment for this story.
"He whipped out his penis, it was erect," the friend said, describing the allegations. "And he started propositioning her, like he touched her thigh and told her he would buy her a horse. And he basically tried to bribe her to perform some sort of sexual favor."
"Punished for refusing to prostitute herself"
The friend said that the attendant told her about the misconduct while they were on a hike together shortly after the London trip. The friend described the attendant as distraught and visibly shaken. "She was really upset," the friend said. "She didn't know what to do."
The flight attendant told her friend that work began to dry up after she refused Musk's advances. "Before the incident, she regarded Mr. Musk as a person to look up to," the declaration says. "But after he exposed himself, touched her without permission, and offered to pay her for sex, she was full of anxiety."
"She figured things could just go back to normal and she would pretend like nothing happened," the friend told Insider. "However, she started to feel as if she was receiving some sort of retaliation where her shifts were cut back, and she was starting to feel really stressed."
Eventually, the declaration says, the attendant felt "she was being pushed out and punished for refusing to prostitute herself."
Massages on demand
SpaceX places a special emphasis on massages, going so far as to employ in-house massage therapists as a perk for executives. According to the friend, the flight attendant was encouraged by her superiors to purchase her own professional massage training for her sessions with Musk.
"They encouraged her to get licensed as a masseuse, but on her own time, on her own dime," the friend said. "They implied that she would get to fly more often if she were to do this because she'd be able to give Elon proper massages. I thought that was kind of strange because — you weren't hired to be a masseuse. You were hired to be a flight attendant. And if Elon likes massages, then he should be paying for you to go to masseuse school. But she was just so happy and eager to have the job and be able to travel."
A $250,000 severance payment
In 2018, after becoming convinced that her refusal to accept Musk's proposal had diminished her opportunities at SpaceX, the attendant hired a California employment lawyer and sent a complaint to the company's human resources department detailing the episode. Around that time, the attorney's firm contacted the friend and asked her to prepare the declaration corroborating the claims.
The attendant's complaint was resolved quickly after a session with a mediator that Musk personally attended. The matter never reached a court of law or an arbitration proceeding. In November 2018, Musk, SpaceX and the flight attendant entered into a severance agreement granting the attendant a $250,000 payment in exchange for a promise not to sue over the claims.
The agreement also included restrictive non-disclosure and non-disparagement clauses that bar the attendant from ever discussing the severance payment or disclosing any information of any kind about Musk and his businesses, including SpaceX and Tesla.
Musk is currently engaged in a bid to purchase Twitter driven by his professed belief that "free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy." Earlier this month, he wrote on Twitter that "sunlight is the best disinfectant."
Twitter did not respond to a request for comment.
"When you choose to remain silent, you become part of that system"
The friend told Insider that she decided to come forward without consulting the flight attendant because, as a survivor of sexual assault, she felt an obligation to share what she has been told about Musk. Unlike the flight attendant, her friend is not bound by any non-disclosure agreement.
"I absolutely felt a responsibility to come forward with it, especially now," she said. "He is the richest man in the world. Someone with that level of power causing that kind of harm and then throwing some money at the situation, that's not accountability. There are predators all over the world. But when someone is particularly wealthy and powerful, they literally have systems that are like a machine working for them, to set them up to be able to do whatever they want."
Remaining silent, the friend said, would make her complicit. "When you choose to remain silent, yeah, you do become a part of that system," she said. "You do become a part of that machine that allows someone like Elon Musk to continue to do the horrible things that he's done."
Non-disclosure agreements are crucial components of that machine. The friend said that before she reached out to Insider, she called the attorney who represented the victim. The attorney told her that, although she was free to speak to the press, sharing any documents from the case — including her own declaration — could put the flight attendant at risk.
"Her primary concern was clearly her client," the friend said. She recalled the attorney saying that confidentiality provisions are "bullshit" and that if any other women have been victimized by Musk, they ought to come forward. But when it came to her client, the attorney urged the friend not to share the declaration. "That would be a massive problem," she told the friend.
California, where SpaceX is headquartered, no longer permits companies to require non-disclosure clauses in agreements like the one the attendant signed. Just months after her settlement in 2018, then-Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law the "Stand Against Non-Disclosure Act," which bars the use of NDAs going forward in settlements involving sexual harassment, discrimination, or assault unless they are requested by the plaintiff.
The attorney did not respond to requests for comment.
"If there were a way for [her] to come forward without putting herself at risk, without jeopardizing her life in any way, I believe she would," the friend of the attendant told Insider. "I hope she feels like I did the right thing. I hope she feels I said the things that she didn't feel safe enough to say."
"I would like for the truth to be revealed"
This is the only known allegation and settlement for sexual misconduct tied personally to Musk.
Two of his companies, however, have faced allegations of sexual harassment in the past. In December 2021, the same week he was named Time's Person of the Year, four women who worked at SpaceX spoke out about sexual harassment they said they faced at the company, where Musk is the CEO. One, Ashley Kosak, published an essay recounting being groped and touched inappropriately by male employees while she was an intern. Three others — one of whom said she was bound by a non-disclosure agreement — recounted similar treatment to the New York Times.
In response to the reports, SpaceX president and chief operating officer Gwynne Shotwell sent a company-wide email saying that "timely reporting of harassment is key to our maintaining SpaceX as a great place to work; we can't fix what we don't know," the Times reported. She added that SpaceX will "rigorously investigate all harassment or discrimination claims and take rapid and appropriate action when we find our policy is violated."
And at least six women have sued Tesla, where Musk is the CEO, alleging sexual harassment at a Tesla factory. Men at the factory ogled women and remarked on their clothes, the complaints said, leading some women to wear baggy outfits and use stacks of boxes to obstruct the views of leering co-workers. Some of the women claimed they were retaliated against when they came forward.
The friend told Insider that if anyone else was mistreated by Musk, she hopes they will publicly tell their story. If there are other victims, she said, "I would like for them to come forward. I would like for the truth to be revealed."
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