r/AskReddit 12h ago

Who’s the best real-life example of “you either die a hero, or live long enough to see yourself become the villain,” and what happened?

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u/Oriflamme 8h ago edited 7h ago

If you cared about labor law and that kind of things, you knew he was already a POS at the time, but no worse than most billionaires. I think he was already denounced for taking credit for everything like he invented/founded it, but these voices against him were few and far between.

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u/wcg66 5h ago

He forced the real founders of Tesla to name him a cofounder as part of a settlement from a lawsuit from one of the real founders. Musk is not the founder or cofounder of Tesla.

https://old.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/gdx3yr/til_that_elon_musk_was_not_an_original_founder_of/

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u/GrantGorewood 1h ago

Don’t forget that the Muskrat took the founder series VIN – 002, the historic Tesla roadster that was supposed to be given to one of the original Tesla founders Martin Eberhard as a part of the deal that actually made the Muskrat one of the founders of Tesla retroactively; and gave it to one of his “Close Friends” instead. Eberhard was later given a replacement roadster, either number three or four ever produced; but he had to sue Tesla and Musk to get it.

Also, the reason that Eberhard had to settle for the VIN – 002 (and eventually 004) is because Musk demanded and insisted that he get VIN – 001.

There was actually a lawsuit filed related to this, it’s Wild to read that even back in 2009 it was obvious that the Muskrat was kind of a jerk. Apparently Musk and Tesla even let the person who test drove the car drive it into the back of a pick up truck, and then they didn’t repair it before shipping it to Eberhard.

You can read about the whole situation here, it’s actually kind of insane that they got away with it.

u/Familiar-Cheetah-422 22m ago

So, the ONLY thing he really did was founding Space X ?

That dude is one of the most impressive impostor in the world.

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u/Honest-Weight338 7h ago

I remember my dad loved him, and would talk about the working conditions at his companies as a good thing. How he would tell his workers that if they weren't willing to basically live at work, they could leave. I couldn't figure out why that was good.

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u/RedNewzz 7h ago

Sounds like your dad read “Atlas Shrugged” and drank the Kool-Aid.

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u/sirspidermonkey 5h ago

Other billionaire have the courtesy to lie about it, pretend to be shamed when called out on it, and offer (meaningless) changes when challenged.