Flying cars reveal a cultural divide

Flying cars reveal a cultural divide. By Glenn Reynolds.

 

“A flying car is what men do when they are free. A wealth tax is what politicians do to the men who built it. One of them needs the other to survive, and it isn’t Musk.”

Well said. As Elon Musk has noted, our society is divided into Makers and Takers. Elon is our preeminent Maker. The Takers don’t like it when he does things. There’s more to that than trying to steal his money, though God knows stealing is a major part of being a Taker. But there’s also jealousy.

Elon’s flying car — the Tesla Roadster Rocket — is amazing. … The upside down driving, and that ultra-precise flip, are in some ways more impressive than the rockets. (This demonstration was fully autonomous, with no human on board. Quoth Elon: “Well, it is technically autonomous for this demo to make sure we don’t kill anyone!”). …

With rocket assistance, it can do zero to sixty in .81 seconds, a truly absurd acceleration. With the suction fans holding it down it can corner in ways that appear to defy the laws of physics.

But it’s the flying that catches everyone’s attention. Musk said he decided to build it when Peter Thiel complained that here we were, well into the 21st Century, without flying cars. It can only fly for a few seconds (Grok tells me a max of 7-11 seconds in level flight, best-case.) It’s roughly as capable, flying-wise, as the Wright Brothers’ first plane. It’s not a Jetsons flying car that will take a family on a vacation to the Moon. But hey, The Jetsons was set in 2062. …

I stand by this take. I also like this response:

 

 

A problem with our left:

The thing about the left is, it’s made up largely of people who aren’t great at doing things. They don’t get rich by building things or doing things. They get rich, when they do, by declaring problems, getting the government to throw money at them, and then stealing some (sometimes pretty much all) of that money for themselves and their NGOs. There’s nothing for them in flying cars.

But there’s more than that going on here. Because getting rich to them is secondary to self-importance. When Elon does something cool, they’re offended because they feel diminished by that.

As Norman Mailer wrote about why the hippies turned against the space program, the hippies spent years going around talking about how they were going to change the world, then a bunch of guys with flattop haircuts and pocket protectors and slide rules went and actually did it. Unforgivable.

Interestingly, people on the right — and most Americans generally — don’t feel diminished by other people doing cool stuff. They feel spiritually and culturally enriched by it. …

If it was up to the left, Elon would be in jail and his money would be fed to corrupt NGOs.

Larry Correia:

All the comments from terminally online liberals are crying about Elon’s politics. All they can do is focus on one dude disagreeing with them. They can’t get past it. All they can do is minimize. They have no imagination. No excitement. It’s just so sad. They’re so SMALL.

So the conversations are like —
“Wow, they just did some Matchbox stuff with an actual car.”
“That’s nothing. You’re stupid. Elon supports Germany’s AfD party. I am offended. You should have more critical thinking like me.”

And sadly that’s a paraphrase not an exaggeration.

Democrats today are all like “So what Elon made car that does flying kick flips? That’s lame and dumb! When it goes upside down my drink will fall out of the cup holder! Did you even think of that stupid MAGA idiots!?!”

What did AOC ever build?


Two ways of life:

 

Finally, imagine:

Ok, the laws of physics take a beating in some parts of that video, but it’s fun.

UPDATE: Coming soon: