For me it's not funny so much as shocking, and sad. He had a hand, of some sort, in at least a few great things, and it's upsetting to watch it falling apart. I often think of the quote:
"You either die a hero, or live to see yourself become a villain."
Far too many icons outlive their hero phase, and it's kind of depressing.
Edit: Or rather, the hero phase fails to live long enough to outlive the person.
He’s produced a lot of value for a lot of people over the years, and many things some of us see every day (like Teslas) are only the way they are/have been successful the way they are because of his influence.
It’s always been more as a promoter and image seller, but he has also been willing to make big calls and take risks others won’t which has allowed them to grow. That is valuable. And he has been hands on in some areas sometimes in ways that have been instrumental in shaping things. For better or worse.
He’s far from perfect. But no one is, and honesty is important.
I suspect the big issue here is something typical of narcissists - he’s gotten older, and he can’t keep up his game convincingly enough anymore to fool a large enough percentage of the public, so he’s downward spiraling. And internally he can feel it, which makes it worse.
It would explain a lot, especially the often bizarre and destructive attacks on anyone who says anything he doesn’t like. The over the top edgy/controversial behavior to get reactions, etc.
"You either die a hero, or live to see yourself become a villain."
Far too many icons outlive their hero phase, and it's kind of depressing.
Edit: Or rather, the hero phase fails to live long enough to outlive the person.