601
South African diamond miner being x-rayed at the end of his shift to prevent theft, 1954
(lemmy.world)
this post was submitted on 29 Oct 2023
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According to the article, the "rumor" started in 2014 when Elon went on an interview tour and SAID that his dad had an emerald mine to multiple publications. He told an elaborate story to one about riding in his dad's plane full of emeralds and ak-47s
The research couldn't find financial proof of any claimed debt, since Elon won't provide any. But "hand shake" deals about illegal emerald smuggling tends not to have a paper trail.
Then, a year after this article came out, Elon tweeted "I'll give a million doge to anyone who can prove it existed" and his dad replied that it existed and that Elon had been there.
Errol also went on an interview tour (after this article was posted) and told multiple publications that he did own a share of an emerald mining business. But Elon wasn't lying because it technically wasn't in a hole, but an outcropping!
Since changing his mind on the subject, Elon had since only admitted that his start up was supported by selling his own PC for 2k, a 5k gift from his "bro" and 8k from some other guy. But later a SmAaLL LoAn (as they like to say) of 200k from his dad and others. But that was later, you guys.
Got any links for this? Would love to read more on it.
Everything I said was noted in the original source (including getting money from his dad, his own claims of being extremely wealthy, etc) but Elon's subsequent tweet offering money for evidence and his dad replying to confirm that he owned one was great hilarity that I first saw on Reddit directly linking to Twitter.
Here's a good breakdown, including interview with Errol describing the mine: https://www.thedailybeast.com/elon-musks-dad-errol-shares-deadly-secrets-of-the-fabled-emerald-mine-in-zambia
This might have been his first interview calling out Elon on the tweet: https://www.the-sun.com/news/7911051/elon-musks-dad-errol-emerald-business/
I don't get why people focus on the emerald mine aspect. Turning 200k into billions would be impressive regardless of where the initial cash came from, if he wasn't just some lucky schmuck who's shitty website got bought out in the Dotcom bubble.
Edit: Yikes, goes to show that Lemmy users can't finish reading a comment lol
Where is this goalpost exactly?
What?
Welp we had "Elon used emerald money" then "no evidence of that!" To "Here's evidence" and your thought "Well is wasn't much!"
Very apologist.
It's never surprising to me when billionaires had wealthy parents. Hiding money is their jam.
I'm not the person you replied to initially, I never said he didn't have emerald money. Lol did you think it's just you and one other person on the internet?
And apologist? The fuck are you talking about, my point is that Elon Musk is a fucking loser that won the lottery in the Dotcom bubble. Websites aren't expensive, he didn't need capital. He's a narcissist who got lucky and mistook it for genius.
But seriously, can you people really not read two sentences before deciding someone is a "billionaire apologist"? Jesus dude.
Hey Mr. "Everyone is stupid but me",
"I don't get why people focus on the emerald mine" and "Turning 200k into billions would be impressive no matter where the money came from" -- both are things you said, both excuse the things we were talking about. Yes you called him a dip shit too. But apparently an impressive one.
I know you weren't the initial comment, but this is a thread, which means you're continuing a conversation. Away from the cruel exploitation of emeralds mines to who cares and he's an impressive dip shit.
We'll never know if 200k to billions is impressive because nobody else gets to have a 200k loan from their dad except wealthy people
Nope, just you.
I actually didn't call him impressive. My quote: "would be impressive [...], if he wasn't [...]". But it is impressive that Elon Musk triggers so much rage in you that you can't even read a comment that's agreeing with you on what a fuck he is.
Have you ever actually had a conversation or do you just argue back and forth? This is how it works, you thread to related topics. This is a related topic.
Business loans don't only come from a parent lol. Obviously the wealthy are born with a privilege that no bank loan can match, but there are wealthy entrepreneurs that didn't start off with rich parents. There are also plenty of entrepreneurs that didn't turn 200k into billions. I think we can pretty safely deduce that an ROI of 6 orders of magnitude is not standard practice, regardless of who your parents are. But again, you're missing my point, that this "impressive feat" was actually all just dumb fucking luck.
"Nope just you" -- You accused a dozen people who voted you down of not being able to read. You specifically said Lemmy users can't read, so maybe the entire user base? By the way I didn't vote down anything. You also tossed in a "you people" for good measure.
The "..." part dismisses the important bit of "regardless of where it came from. So it's not read as "would be ... if" but instead "would be ... regardless" which might be everyone's confusion by your comment?
Which doesn't continue the conversation, but dismisses it.
I'm sure there are plenty of people getting 200k dollar loans out there. Vast vast majority? Nah. That's the "we" I'm talking about. It at least seems like each billionaire came from rich families, even though it's trendy to pretend they're self made, but we can't prove anything either way because it's all hidden. Self made with Harvard connections for the win!
Oh, and yes I hate Elon Musk, like anyone who is using their power/influence to cause harm to others. Dude's attacking Wikipedia right now for fucks sake.
Have fun out there and stay safe
People pile on downvotes before they finish reading a comment, welcome to the internet. If you think downvotes mean anything then you must be real new around here. But the bizarre part is that you're still arguing like I'm disagreeing with you lol. You pretty much just expanded on what I said about wealth privilege in #4 in an argumentative strawmaney way to make an entirely different point than where we started, so who's moving goalposts?
Got it, downvotes are random from stupid people who don't read I guess. Except that time it was "just me" then it went back to the others, too, again.
Instead of arguing that you disagreed, I offered a suggestion of why (now 22 people) thought you were being dismissive or apologist or otherwise didn't like your comment (unless they're all just stupid and can't read).
And replying to your thought on "plenty of entrepreneurs" is a strawman? You brought it up. I was talking about getting money from family. The ones who had college paid for and got family loans and pretend to be self made. Then you brought up bank loans and entrepreneurs. So I did what you said and continued the thread. Websites like to make lists of handfuls of people who didn't do it with connections.