American Author Bell Hooks once said that "within a capitalist consumer society, the cult of personality has the power to subsume ideas, to make the person, the personality into the product and not the work itself."
On Thursday, Apple (AAPL) co-founder Steve Wozniak aimed a similar critique not at late-stage capitalism, but rather at Tesla (TSLA) CEO Elon Musk, comparing him to his good friend and the leader of the Silicon Valley tech revolution, Steve Jobs.
"I put them in the category of having the ability to communicate and want to be seen as the important person and being like the cult leader," Wozniak said.
"A lot of people will follow them no matter what they say and they get beyond the point of being judged. A lot of cults are like that."
Wozniak juxtaposed himself against that archetype, saying that he likes to live and exist in honesty. This is a trait he sees lacking in Musk, who, according to Wozniak, has repeatedly overpromised and underdelivered on the potential for his electric vehicle company.
"A lot of honesty disappears when you look at Elon Musk and Tesla. They have robbed my family, myself and my wife, of so much money... with things they said that we really believed would be real," Wozniak said.
Elon's Sins According to Woz
Wozniak was a former booster of Tesla, dating back to 2016 when he says he spent a lot of money to upgrade his vehicle.
The upgrade placed a camera and a radar in the vehicle with Musk promising that the car would be able to drive itself across the country by the end of 2016.
Musk then said, according to Woz, that a new vehicle upgrade with eight cameras and even more sensors would allow the car to drive itself cross-country by the end of 2017.
"OK..." Wozniak said while pointing to his wrist, miming the action of looking at his watch incredulously.
So what's the difference between Musk, who he seems to dislike, and his good friend, the late Steve Jobs?
"Steve Jobs really wasn't so dishonest. But he would say things in ways... he just had a way of grabbing you," Wozniak said. "But it wasn't really that untruthful. You didn't buy something thinking you were going to get 'A' but didn't get it."
