Shannon Stirone is a freelance writer based out of the Bay Area who apparently covers the Science/Space/NASA beat for a fair number of pubs and also has
her own Medium page. Recently she felt the need to go off on Musk for his ideas regarding colonizing Mars.
"Musk is not from Mars, but he and Sagan do seem to come from different worlds. Like Sagan, Musk exhibits a religious-like devotion to space, a fervent desire to go there, but their purposes are entirely divergent. Sagan inspired generations of writers, scientists, and engineers who felt compelled to chase the awe that he dug up from the depths of their heart. Everyone who references Sagan as a reason they are in their field connects to the wonder of being human, and marvels at the luck of having grown up and evolved on such a beautiful, rare planet.
The influence Musk is having on a generation of people could not be more different. Musk has used the medium of dreaming and exploration to wrap up a package of entitlement, greed, and ego. He has no longing for scientific discovery, no desire to understand what makes Earth so different from Mars, how we all fit together and relate. Musk is no explorer; he is a flag planter."
Wow. Maybe she's personally mad at Elon for bogarting a joint at a Bay Area party or something?
Putting aside her patronizing 'splaining to Elon that it's impossible to live on Mars without some sort of artificial habitat, which I'm sure he knew already but could have figured out from nearly any random sci-fi movie or TV show of the last fifty years, her shriveled and joyless view of humanity's future in space is gobsmacking.
Apparently other planets aren't places for us normies to settle and live on, just for specially-selected government astronauts to occasionally visit and bring back rocks.
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