Thunderf00t has lost last of his marbles and remaining bits of credibility - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: wraper
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: November 12, 2024, 03:14:16 pm
content: Many members still watch Thunderf00t and even respect him as reasonable sceptic, but it seems he has lost last of his marbles after suffering chronic Musk derangement syndrome for years. If you didn't know, Starlink is satellite internet owned by Musk's SpaceX, somehow it must have stolen US election. He posted unhinged political videos and many posts on X lately, but this batshit crazy level cringe tops it all:

author: tom66
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 12, 2024, 03:27:32 pm
content: TF will need to explain how encrypted transmissions - everything over the modern Internet is encrypted, including email - were intercepted by Musk. Because if Musk has secretly broken ECDSA or even RSA encryption, he is not a billionaire but a trillionaire just because of the shear amount of theft possible from such a fundamental exploit.

author: Siwastaja
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 12, 2024, 03:27:53 pm
content: It is interesting how some clearly sensible-appearing and pretty intelligent (at least definitely not stupid) people fall for some of the stupidest tinfoil hat stuff and extreme black&white thinking, hate, and identity politics (us vs. them) , and it's like a spiral which leads deeper and deeper in that shit.I mean, I understand how mediocre talented "no one"s fall for such expression, it's easy to adopt something from the media and recite that in fear of not being accepted, but I don't think people like Thunderf00t have to do that to stay relevant.

author: nctnico
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 12, 2024, 06:56:23 pm
content: To me none of Thunderf00t's videos made any sense. Most of his 'technical' claims are easely identified as opinionated nonsense and hyperbool. So this doesn't surprise me.

author: SiliconWizard
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 12, 2024, 07:48:20 pm
content: Ouch.Well, yes, he's always been pretty opinionated and with a clear obsession with Musk, but I wouldn't have called his videos about other topics nonsense either.At least, obssessed as he is against Musk, he still uses X and posts political content accusing him and the posts remain, being an ironical use of the relative freedom of expression on X that Musk's opponents have been fighting with a vengeance.But beyond the politics and his obsession, the really aggravating point here is IMO someone claiming to be a "scientific debunker" and relaying dubious information with zero evidence to back it up. Yes, that instantly kills all credibility, whatever the topic actually is.

author: coppice
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 12, 2024, 07:52:07 pm
content: Quote from: Siwastaja on November 12, 2024, 03:27:53 pmYou are ignoring the partitioning of the human mind. The kind of thing that allows an evolutionary biologist to be a creationist outside work. Whatever you think of evolution and creationism, they are clearly incompatible. This doesn't only apply to science/engineering vs religious views. Political and other aspects of someone's mind can be just as partitioned.

author: Siwastaja
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 12, 2024, 07:55:04 pm
content: Quote from: coppice on November 12, 2024, 07:52:07 pmThat's a good point, and this partitioning is a verygoodmechanism, it's there for a reason. What I mean by my "spiraling" comment is that once beyond a certain point, the political agenda starts to mix into everything and blur any logical thinking. Generally the quality of the contributions go down at that point too.This does not happen to everyone.

author: coppice
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 12, 2024, 08:04:31 pm
content: Quote from: Siwastaja on November 12, 2024, 07:55:04 pmIt happens to a lot of people if their income starts to depend on it. "You can't convince someone of something if their livelihood depends on them not believing it" is a notion so widely realised in so many spheres that I don't think we have any idea of who said it first.

author: Smokey
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 12, 2024, 08:05:45 pm
content: plain old audience capture maybe?If you have a revenue source that relies on a steady stream of vomiting "content" onto the internet, itisin your best interest to vomit in the direction of the most people that are willing to watch/click/comment/etc.(ha! coppice beat me to it by like 10 seconds)

author: jonovid
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 12, 2024, 08:19:12 pm
content: Thunderf00t has outed himself. lost my respect particularly if we get 4 yrs of salty _ BS from the channel.his Hyperloop vacuum transportation concept debunking was his best work IMO as this showed the limitations of the vacuum tube train concept for all to see.

author: nctnico
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 12, 2024, 08:25:14 pm
content: Quote from: jonovid on November 12, 2024, 08:19:12 pmActually that was the most BS I've seen from him. Cringeworthy. Nothing in there is actually backed by verifiable facts or numbers. It is 100% FUD and hyperbool. If you want to debunk something, do it based on facts & calculations.

author: Buriedcode
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 12, 2024, 10:20:46 pm
content: Quote from: coppice on November 12, 2024, 07:52:07 pmBeing knowledgable/talented in a field can work against someone. It seems to be especially prevalent amongst.. engineers. And yes, its most glaring when the "woo" is in someones speciality (anti vax doctors, cell phone causing cancer believed by RF engineers and coppice's example above). When the instinctive opinion drives what is seen as evidence, its backward and can't really be countered or challenged. It also gets worse with age since people tend to remember the times they were "right" about something, but try to forget all the times they were wrong leaving one with a skewed sense of triumph and the assumption that - well this view must have some weight, because its my view, and I'm old an experienced. It's fascinating, but also worrying because knowing about such things doesn't provide any protection against it.edit: typos

author: wraper
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: November 12, 2024, 10:46:13 pm
content: Quote from: Smokey on November 12, 2024, 08:05:45 pmDoubt that, only if he tries to gather flat-earth type of audience with no brain of their own. Although comments of support under his YouTube videos and X posts feel like you got into gathering of some reality-defying cult, so maybe you're right.

author: coppice
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 12, 2024, 10:48:55 pm
content: Quote from: Buriedcode on November 12, 2024, 10:20:46 pmI think you might be referring to a different effect. People high on IQ, but low on common sense or wisdom, can reason their way to the dumbest of conclusions. This is often a motivated reasoning effect. However, a related effect from the same type of person, when they have no stake in the conclusion, is you ask them to analyse a problem. They come up with several neat ideas for dealing with the problem. Great so far. Then you ask them to pick the one they would go with, and they pick the one that seems to have been included for humorous effect.

author: thm_w
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 12, 2024, 11:41:45 pm
content: Quote from: nctnico on November 12, 2024, 08:25:14 pmI'm not a fan of the guys videos, but taking a look he does cover a lot of calculations in thatvideo:- vacuum volume size- steel quantity- expansion distance and joints required, etc.There is quite a bit of hyperbole as you say based on the existing prototype photos he has, but, I think thats fair if you clearly say "how its shown and explained now doesn't work".

author: mikeselectricstuff
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 13, 2024, 12:15:11 am
content: The guy's just jealous that he'll never achieve in his whole life what Elon has done in a few years

author: nctnico
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 13, 2024, 12:24:08 am
content: Quote from: mikeselectricstuff on November 13, 2024, 12:15:11 amI don't think you want to achieve that. IMHO Elon is suffering from a severe burn-out, sleep deprivation and probably other mental health issues caused by the stress he must be under constantly. There is a documentary about Robbie Williams on Netflix. Being under relentless pressure to keep performing sucks massively.

author: wraper
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: November 13, 2024, 12:58:18 am
content: ^Dude's got some crazy schedule. Managing multiple advanced tech companies, 12 kids, shitposts on X with no end, and is #19 in Diablo 4 worldwide rating somehow (dominated by Chinese), LMAO.

author: coppercone2
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 13, 2024, 01:02:41 am
content: Quote from: mikeselectricstuff on November 13, 2024, 12:15:11 amjust taking a second to remind people that he was born with a silver spoon in his hand, so this is true if you were also born with a silver spoon in your hand and failed to be as successful as muskWhen they say he learned to code at ten, its important to remember these people had a family computer in 1981 and it was expendable enough to let a ten year old use it.

author: wraper
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: November 13, 2024, 01:07:27 am
content: Quote from: coppercone2 on November 13, 2024, 01:02:41 amDunno if family with decent income that fell apart due to abusive father counts as silver spoon. Emerald mine story is fake nonsense.

author: nctnico
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 13, 2024, 01:10:30 am
content: Quote from: coppercone2 on November 13, 2024, 01:02:41 amYou mean a home computer like Commodore 64, MSX, ZX-Spectrum, etc. These where intended to be used by kids.

author: Smokey
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 13, 2024, 01:14:01 am
content: Quote from: wraper on November 12, 2024, 10:46:13 pmProblem here is that a tiny tiny tiny number of people actually care about flat earth enough to click on thatvomitcontent. Some non-negligible percentage of about 50% of the country HATES Elon Musk..

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: November 13, 2024, 02:05:07 am
content: Quote from: Siwastaja on November 12, 2024, 07:55:04 pmSince 2016 I have watched the immense growth in Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS) with a lot of bemusement, particually in our engineering space, it seemed very wide spread. So much so that people with that proclivity have tried to cancel me and industry friends of mine, fueled by the "woke" "mind virus" (and excellent descriptive label of what's happening). (Trump of course was considered anti-woke, and if you weren't against him then you were also branded anti-woke, especially if you were a high profile person in an industry)After Musk bought Twitter, the protections for the woke came to swift end, and Elon Derangement Syndrone (EDS) set in very quickly. A huge part of the engineering community in particular fled to Mastodon as a result.Thunderf00t isn't the only one to get caught up in EDS content, Common Sense Skeptic is another one with severe EDS, and also Barnaclues Nerdgasm (TDS+EDS). Unfortunately to the point where it dominates their content and social media posts. Even though I'm still good friends with them all, I did have to temporarily unfollow CSS and Barnaclues on X because my timeline was just flooded with Elon posts. Thunderf00t hasn't been nearly as bad in that respect.Thunderf00t really copped a lot of flack in the industry for the bit where he laughed at all the engineers in the SpaceX mission control during a (successful) Starship flight. That was poor form.The latest one I've seen was Jeri Ellsworth who has moved to Bluesky after Trump won and she deleted her X account. Now she has stated she wants nothing to do anyone who voted for Trump. She was also very anti-Elon.Personally, when it comes to Elon (and Trump), I just call balls and strikes. I get called an Elon fanboy and Elon arse licker even though I've done videos and posts and podcasts critical of him and things he's doing. It only takes one positive post to get branded that BTW.Same with Trump. EDS (and TDS) seems to be a very binary thing, a lot of people lose all ability to see any shades of grey.A lot of people have said they do it for views, I'm pretty sure that's not the case. Elon seems to have put a real bee in their bonnet for some reason, and it's shame they can't bring themselves to even play devil's advocate just a bit and at least acknowledge some great things he's done. If not just tone it down a tad, there is penty of other stuff out there to debunk. But each to their own.

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: November 13, 2024, 02:16:49 am
content: Quote from: nctnico on November 12, 2024, 08:25:14 pmA lot of critics of debunkers like Thunderf00t like to nit-pick various calculations or assumptions etc, but they easily forget the most important thing, is hedirectionally correct?Sometimes even being out by an order of magntiude on a calculation or an assumption makes no difference to the directionality of the argument.

author: wraper
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: November 13, 2024, 02:19:49 am
content: Quote from: EEVblog on November 13, 2024, 02:05:07 amWow, what a what a pity. I really don't understand really smart people completely rejecting others (in this case 1/4 of the country) over some political views. And in this case it's not like Trump was not a president already, everyone survived, no death camps were build.