The Hyperloop was never meant to be built. Elon Musk admitted it was all about fueling opposition to California’s high-speed rail project so it would get canceled.

  • Zeppo@sh.itjust.works
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    1 year ago

    Obviously, disgusting behavior without a shred of ethics. My only question is why or how it worked… Hyperloop is one of the absolute stupidest ideas I’ve ever heard of. It’s literally something I imagined when I was 6 years old. When I was going to sleep, I’d imagine that I could drop down under my bed into a tunnel with a wooden car that would take me to my friends’ houses. Just like Elron Musk, I never pondered safety, as in what would happen if my magic car broke down or started on fire.

    • Rottcodd@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      My only question is why or how it worked…

      Because “without a shred of ethics” describes most politicians too.

      Most of the “work” of politics, at least once one is in office, is figuring out ways to justify doing whatever it is that one has been bribed to do.

      So in this particular case, some number of politicians wre bribed to kill the high-speed rail project, so they needed some excuse to do it, then the hyperloop came along and gave them one.

      It didn’t need to be compelling or even reasonable - it just needed to be sufficient. And it was.

      • Zeppo@sh.itjust.works
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        1 year ago

        I guess i was wondering whether anyone believed it, as far as, did it have an impact on public opinion?

        • Rottcodd@kbin.social
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          1 year ago

          I assume a fair number of people believed it.

          Really though, I think that a lot of people don’t technically “believe” things like that, because they don’t even consider it that much. They just hear some public figure they trust for whatever reason make mouth noises that seem to have something to do with the matter at hand, and that’s good enough for them.

    • MisterMoo@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      When I was five, I imagined that there was such a thing as a unicorn. And this is before I had even heard of one or seen one. I just drew a picture of a horse that could fly over rainbows and had a huge spike in its head. I was five. Five years old! Couldn’t even talk yet.