I would expect this of the harridans who bloviate on The View--I believe they have done this shtick. AOC I know has made the claim that Elon Musk is stupid. 

But a Dartmouth-educated law professor? You would think it would be too embarrassing an argument to make. Stick to "evil" or "Nazi" or some other ridiculous slur. 

Seth Abramson is a left-wing conspiracy theorist who still believes, contra actual evidence, that Donald Trump colluded with Vlad the Mad Putin to win the 2016 election. 

That's OK, I suppose. Everybody needs a hobby, and if you have an Ivy League education and a platform spewing fiction for which there is an endless market is not a bad gig. 

But making outrageous claims about the richest man in the world who runs some of the most successful companies in the world and who is literally catching rockets out of thin air in a manner that cannot be duplicated by ANYONE ANYWHERE seems like a good way to crater your credibility anywhere outside the fever swamps of Bluesky, where Abramson apparently likes to hang out. 

Bluesky is the Blue-anon version of X, where calling for Trump to be murdered is done for fun and profit. You can hobnob with brilliant luminaries like Jennifer Rubin and do your ideological Toobining with the best of the best. 

“Starship is the key to making life multiplanetary and protecting the light of consciousness.
Elon Musk
pic.twitter.com/1P6rchGVRC

— Tesla Owners Silicon Valley (@teslaownersSV) February 21, 2025

It is commonplace now for everybody who hates Elon--and I can understand why they do--to point out that Musk does not literally design every piece on any of his rockets, although his engineers claim he understands them inside and out and makes suggestions all the time that improve things. 

But so what? Boeing can't make a space capsule anymore; the Space Launch System is a boondoggle, and Starlink and SpaceX are indispensable to the world. Musk did that. Tesla and SpaceX did not appear out of thin air, everybody said that their success was impossible and they have never been duplicated, and Blue Origin began with the same advantages as SpaceX--more, really--and has accomplished next to nothing. 

Everybody goes gaga over Nikola Tesla, rightly so, but he doesn't hold a candle to Elon Musk. The world's space industry would be 1/20th the size it is without Musk. 

Yet we have the next "as a historian...," in this case "as a biographer..." claim that Elon is nothing special.

OK. You go do it. 

Even if Elon never did a single bit of engineering, his genius is obvious. You may not like what he does with it, but you don't build all these companies without being smart. I asked Grok about Elon's companies--Grok is ELON'S AI, and here is what it said:

Elon Musk is associated with several notable companies, primarily as a founder or co-founder. Here’s a rundown of his key ventures:

• Tesla, Inc. - A leading electric vehicle and clean energy company, focused on cars, batteries, and solar energy solutions. Musk is the CEO and a major driving force behind its innovations.
• SpaceX (Space Exploration Technologies Corp.) - An aerospace company working on space travel and satellite deployment, with goals like colonizing Mars. Musk founded it and serves as CEO.
• xAI - A company developing artificial intelligence to accelerate human scientific discovery. Musk co-founded it, and I’m a product of their work!
• Neuralink Corporation - A neurotechnology company aiming to merge human brains with AI through brain-computer interfaces. Musk is a co-founder.
• The Boring Company - An infrastructure and tunnel construction company focused on reducing traffic congestion through underground transportation systems. Musk founded this one too.
• X Corp - Formerly known as Twitter, Inc., this social media platform was acquired by Musk in 2022. He’s heavily involved in its direction and rebranding.

He’s also had past ventures like:

Zip2 - A web software company he co-founded, sold to Compaq in 1999.

X.com/PayPal - An online payment company he co-founded, which merged with Confinity and later became PayPal, sold to eBay in 2002.

SolarCity - A solar energy company he co-founded, later merged into Tesla.

Solar City is sort of a flop. Otherwise? Not a bad record. In fact, an unmatched record. 

Elon is a midwit? Of all the things you can say about him, that is not one of them. 

BREAKING: SpaceX is targeting NET February 26th for Starship Flight 8.pic.twitter.com/DhgAS2EYUF

— Tesla Owners Silicon Valley (@teslaownersSV) February 20, 2025