David Copperfield (the magician)
Hulk Hogan…
Yup! Mick Foley and John Tenta are my only childhood favorites that I can still look back on with adult eyes, and think they are/were genuinely decent human beings.
Not really “heroes” but several pastors / youth leaders from when I was young got caught in sex scandals and embezzling. My childhood bully became a youth paster and got convicted of sex crimes against minors.
Back when I started getting an interest in tech back in middle school I looked up to Bill Gates
In high school I used to think highly of Elon because of all the promises he was making with Tesla, space X, etc
I think it’s safe to say those opinions aged like milk
Bill Gates is probably the only one on the list I have a positive bias for cuz he’s spent sooooooo much money buying goodwill.
He owns Goodwill?! That probably explains why their prices have become exorbitant, no longer thrifty. And all the best donated items aren’t even available for in-store customers to buy. The best items get set aside to be posted to eBay for maximum profiteering.
You serious rn? I’m talking about the Melinda Gates foundation and I’m using the meaning of “good will” that Good Will based their name on fyi
All of them, and I haven’t even looked. If anyone is horrible, we all are horrible. My enjoyment of something they did does not change that.
Not so much a hero but I admired
his workthe projects he is associated with: Elon regarding Tesla & Space X.I had heard that he was a bit of a nightmare to work with but I just chalked that up to the usual tech CEO being a bit of an arsehole but still delivering the vision. So admired the projects but wouldn’t personally work for him.
The first time I came across something that gave me the impression something was off with him was when he called one of the Thai cave divers a pedo after the diver rejected using an unproven single person extraction canister Elon proposed.
It was just so uncalled for. Then the more I read and saw stories about him my opinion of him wained further down to a spoilt nepo-baby cosplaying as a design engineer who’d do best to get out of the way of the actual engineers trying to do the work.
Now I think the world would be better off without him and I hope the talented engineers currently work for him leave to find fulfilling employment elsewhere in the space and electrification industries as soon as possible.
when he called one of the Thai cave divers a pedo
I think that was when he exposed himself widely to be a garbage human.
He actually won a court case saying he didn’t defame that guy by calling him a pedo, so I’ve been calling him pedo elon for awhile. But then it turns out he’s all over the Epstein files, so he was actually a real pedo all along. Guess I have to start calling him a double pedo or something.
Same with Musk. I was teaching engineering courses at the time of the first falcon heavy launch. I actually stopped my class so we could watch the launch. When those boosters landed in a perfect synchronous ballet, I told my class it was “engineering as poetry.”
Why couldn’t Musk just stay the fuck out of politics?
$$$$
He felt big buying a president.
Bill fucking Cosby. That guy was a generational idol.
Back in the '00s, he used to give speeches down at college campuses around the country that supposedly promoted ethics and social values for young men. The most famous of these, the Pound Cake Speech, was given out during the 50th anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision at an NAACP Legal Defense dinner, ffs.
He was this pinnacle of Respectibility Politics. This Model Minority. The quintessential American father figure. An intellectual. A charismatic icon. A pillar of the community.
Oops. Fuck. Oh well…
Oof that speech did not age well. Basically a ignore systemic racism and just pull your bootstraps extra hard coming from a wealthy person is about as hollow as you can get.
None of them, really. Mr. Rogers was genuinely as awesome as he seemed. As a young adult, John Von Neumann, Grace Hopper, and Claude Shannon became my heroes. None have anything particularly bad that I’ve seen.
There are some people whose work I admire whom I don’t like, e.g. Harlan Ellison was famously an asshat. But they’re not my heroes, and the work is not the creator.
Keanu Reeves, I used to really like the guy when the matrix trilogy came out but then he said and did all these super nice things like saying “I don’t want to be part of a world where kindness is perceived as weakness”.
Nah just fucking with you. The dude is solid!
Oof, got me panicky for a moment.
Geordi LaForge and Wile E. Coyote.
Neither have disappointed me.
Never had heroes because basically this. Almost all people in a spotlight let you down eventually. Something about being rich makes people into depraved cunts.
Maybe not Dolly Parton. She’s been consistently good. Mr Roger’s too. But still, not many people on the list.
Bruce willis never steered me wrong.
Can I say Dr Oz, sort of? Seriously, many of the women in my Moms generation were huge Oprah fans, and really loved Dr Oz. While his expertise was always questionable, his advice seemed relatively harmless and wholesome. For conservative folk with no interest in following medical science, they watched listened, and learned, including some actual good advice.
Now I just can’t even answer with some of the shit those same relatives bring up
I think we have that with dr Mike on youtube now. He’s still in the pre-enshittification stage where he’s responsibly saying “I know things but I’m a YouTuber. Please ask your actual doctor.”
But pressures change people over time so I have no doubt he’ll be shilling supplements eventually.
Grant Harding, the pharmacist in 3 or 4 states, seems like a solid guy with a fun angle.
Yes, I’m a big fan of his so far
Marilyn manson
Oof. Lot to unpack there.
Somewhat related but I had to stop listening to Lostprophets once I found how shitty the lead singer was.
I never really had heroes. I did see some people are more trustworthy or credible but never another I ever gave hero status to. The entire idea seemed strange to me.
I will say I was right about Elon Musk. There was just something about him I couldn’t put my finger on that screamed monster and nobody believed me. I just had a weird ick feeling about him.
I remember having to write a paper in elementary school about my “hero”, instead wrote about how I don’t have one and why.
I think I still got a passing grade at least.
