This is not running it as root (i.e. privileged userland, still ring 3), this is running it as ring 0 (i.e. the level that the kernel runs at, with no restrictions on access to memory and hardware at all). A tiny bug in ring 0 code can take down the system or open security vulnerabilities, where the kernel can provide more hardening to protect applications to an extent.

You could say this is the inner circle of hell.

Yep, and if you’re a real techbro, you start off by making the offering great. But then, you gradually enshittify it. Popups start coming up that ask her to consent to things she doesn’t really want forever, on unconscionable terms, but at first there is a ‘Yes’ or ‘Not now’ option. Behind the scenes, there are terms saying you can change the terms any time you like, and her only option is to leave within 14 days, and it is her responsibility to monitor the terms and stop using it if she doesn’t agree. You start silently changing the terms to allow you to opt her in by default to consent to things she doesn’t want. She opts out, so you change the terms again so she has no choice. All the while the service gets worse - but what’s she going to do, she’s locked in.

And that sort of thing is why working for companies known for doing the equivalent of the above but to the public is not going to get a good reaction.

But I also think he did really believe in electric cars and solar power

Musk is very good at separating wealthy investors from their money. Said investors are not entirely stupid - but Musk has historically been very skilled at cultivating a perception that he’s going to do something revolutionary that will change the world and make his investors rich, if only investors would give him money. You know, that he can colonise mars, build fully self-driving (on motorways) cars by 2015, and build a practical LA to SF hyperloop.

To con investors he was an amazing futurist, there needed to be a grain of truth mixed in there, even if there were other significant logical gaps in his claims. I don’t believe he genuinely cared about the planet or other people, but he did see (as many people were, in fact, already screaming) that change was coming and decide he could sell it to investors and enrich himself.

Pretending to be an amazing engineer and to care was his modus operandi for a long time - perhaps the most notable incident was in the 2018 Tham Luang cave incident in Thailand; Musk pledged to put engineers on inventing a submarine to rescue them. When Tesla’s design was unlikely to work, but a heroic team of divers rescued the children, instead of expressing relief the children were safe, Musk labelled the rescuer a ‘pedo’, showing that he never really cared and it was just a stunt.