5 ms·

Goes to show this was all about ego for Musk. Instead of being happy that all the children were rescued, his ego got bruised since they didn't use his submarine

by erokar 8y ago

Goes to show this was all about ego for Musk. Instead of being happy that all the children were rescued, his ego got bruised since they didn't use his submarine -- and he attacks the real heroes. Text book narcissistic behavior.

happertiger 8y ago
That’s really the thought that went through my head exactly.
Double_a_92 8y ago
I assume he must have been heavily intoxicated at that point. Not trying to defend him or anything... I just can't imagine how any public person could go that low. He must have known how hard that would backlash.
postmeta 8y ago
Well the British diver guy, Vernon Unsworth, did start with the innuendo attacks first, telling Musk "he can stick it where it hurts", referring to the sub. That's what Musk was responding to I think. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-07-15/thai-cave-rescue-diver-says-elon-musk-mini-submarine-pr-stunt/9995624 http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-07-15/thai-cave-rescue-diver...
- icebraining 8y ago
  "Pedo guy" is not an innuendo. Plus Unsworth's words may have been crass, but they weren't an accusation of anything. There's really no comparison.
  - agumonkey 8y ago
    Lucky for Elon he has the technology to run as far away as possible from the shame
  - obituary_latte 8y ago
    >Unsworth's words may have been crass, but they weren't an accusation of anything To be fair, he accused Elon’s effort of being a pr stunt. Doesn’t justify the response but it was an attack of sorts.
- TheSpiceIsLife 8y ago
  Yeah but... To jump to calling someone a pedophile is reprehensible. And some of Musk's calibre should ... know better. And frankly, I have zero tolerance for this sort of thing. Sling around accusations of illegal actions against children isn't something we should take lightly. As far as I'm concerned Musk doesn't deserve anything, other than destitution.
  - TeMPOraL 8y ago
    > As far as I'm concerned Musk doesn't deserve anything, other than destitution. So two angry men shout invectives at each other, and you believe one of them deserves to have their life completely destroyed as a consequence? That sounds a little disproportionate.
    - TheSpiceIsLife 8y ago
      Yes. Calling someone a pedophile is what you do when you want to destroy someones life. And I'll continue to believe Musk deserves the worst of all possible worlds until he makes a public apology, streamed live. Zero tolerance cuts both ways.
      - TeMPOraL 8y ago
        I see your point, but personally I'd prefer if people were less willing to entertain destroying each other over spoken words. As it is now, the diver's life seems unaffected, so the negative consequences failed to materialize. I definitely believe that for such unfounded, public accusation from a de-facto celebrity, a very public apology and some meaningful monetary damages are warranted. I feel this would suffice as a deterrent.
        TheSpiceIsLife 8y ago
        I agree, that's what I'm saying. If he's prepared to go around slinging that accusation, then I have no respect for him at all. The best possible outcome would be if he makes a public apology, and approaches the guy in an attempt to make reparations. Just a simple: "Yeah, look, that was out of line. I'm seeing an anger management psychologist in an effort to curb my behaviour, and I'll donate a million to a children's charity of your choice."
- xvf22 8y ago
  Calling it a publicity stunt and getting called a pedo in return is way out of line. Musk looks like he's lashing out and it makes you wonder if he does this regularly. As with his questionable donations[1], this risks shifting people's opinions. [1] https://thinkprogress.org/elon-musk-house-gop-contributions-ed4cfe71c22c/ https://thinkprogress.org/elon-musk-house-gop-contributions-...
  - TeMPOraL 8y ago
    > it makes you wonder if he does this regularly Probably not, as otherwise you'd see news like this frequently. After all, Twitter is public. So let's not generalize this incident too much.
    - thraway180306 8y ago
      But I see that frequently. There was all the kerfuffle around head of Tesla Autopilot quitting over Musk behaviour that also descended to namecalling. That painter guy who took issue with Musk stealing his artwork that ended up the same. That earnings conference call which felt like it could go there. Not on Twitter there are lots of stories of management by yelling.
- curiousgal 8y ago
  I found it quite dishonest by The Guardian to not mention that.
  - _Codemonkeyism 8y ago
    The Guardian did https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/jul/15/elon-musk-british-diver-thai-cave-rescue-pedo-twitter https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/jul/15/elon-musk...
- KozmoNau7 8y ago
  Those two things are on completely different scales. The diver had personally seen the cave and knew the obstacles, and was simply telling a jumped-up billionaire playboy to please go away with his silly counterproductive and possibly dangerous toys, in a manner fitting a tense and dramatic situation. Musk then goes flying off the handle with a completely baseless and and frankly insane accusation, because his ego got hurt.
- ddalex 8y ago
  That's like ten orders of magnitude lighter than calling somebody a pedo...
- masklinn 8y ago
  Calling somebody a pedophile is not even remotely in the same galaxy as hinting that somebody should take their stupid idea and shove it up their ass.
smcl 8y ago
Also the fanboyism behind Musk is a bit unsettling. I made the mistake of viewing the replies to various tweets surrounding this controversy and there's a worrything amount of enthusiastic fans ready to jump in and defend him by sniping at anyone talking negatively about him. Why anyone would feel the need to "white knight" a billionaire is beyond me.
- Brotkrumen 8y ago
  Also the hate for Musk is a bit unsettling. I made the mistake of viewing the replies to various tweets surrounding this controversy and there's a worrything amount of unreasonable haters ready to jump in and attack him by sniping at anyone talking positively about him. Why anyone would feel the need to attack a helpful narcissist is beyond me.
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- sergiosgc 8y ago
  > Why anyone would feel the need to "white knight" a billionaire is beyond me. Being a billionaire shouldn't be a negative trait. Yet, it is, because so many of the 1% show lack of empathy and disregard for the common man and a single focus on generating wealth for wealth's sake. Musk does not seem to be in it for the cash, and thus looks different. Musk is, very transparently, an engineer at heart. He tinkers and creates and takes absolute joy in the creation process and in the result. It just so happens he's also a billionaire. Combine the hacker mentality with lots of cash and you get crazy creations like SpaceX, Tesla or The Boring Company. Musk's tweets about the sub, if viewed from the perspective of a hacker bragging about a hack, are perfectly natural. As is throwing a car up into orbit. That the Internet at large jumps to reading these fun, creative actions as "marketing" or "self-promotion" or "billionaire arrogance" is a sign that we, as a collective, lost our innocence long ago, and are unable to take pleasure in creating stuff. It is a shame.
agumonkey 8y ago
Reminds me I need a few book about narcissistic traits.
ofrzeta 8y ago
Quite obviously. Also "the Tesla CEO appears to be committed to proving his design would have worked. He wrote: 'We will make [a video] of the mini-sub/pod going all the way to Cave 5 no problemo.'" I mean, come on, that's not that great a "design" that you (or your engineers for that matter) made up but a stopgap solution. Nothing wrong with that, thanks for helping. But just let go now.

by erokar 8y ago

happertiger 8y ago

That’s really the thought that went through my head exactly.

Double_a_92 8y ago

I assume he must have been heavily intoxicated at that point. Not trying to defend him or anything... I just can't imagine how any public person could go that low. He must have known how hard that would backlash.

postmeta 8y ago

Well the British diver guy, Vernon Unsworth, did start with the innuendo attacks first, telling Musk "he can stick it where it hurts", referring to the sub. That's what Musk was responding to I think. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-07-15/thai-cave-rescue-diver-says-elon-musk-mini-submarine-pr-stunt/9995624 http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-07-15/thai-cave-rescue-diver...

icebraining 8y ago
"Pedo guy" is not an innuendo. Plus Unsworth's words may have been crass, but they weren't an accusation of anything. There's really no comparison.
- agumonkey 8y ago
  Lucky for Elon he has the technology to run as far away as possible from the shame
- obituary_latte 8y ago
  >Unsworth's words may have been crass, but they weren't an accusation of anything To be fair, he accused Elon’s effort of being a pr stunt. Doesn’t justify the response but it was an attack of sorts.
TheSpiceIsLife 8y ago
Yeah but... To jump to calling someone a pedophile is reprehensible. And some of Musk's calibre should ... know better. And frankly, I have zero tolerance for this sort of thing. Sling around accusations of illegal actions against children isn't something we should take lightly. As far as I'm concerned Musk doesn't deserve anything, other than destitution.
- TeMPOraL 8y ago
  > As far as I'm concerned Musk doesn't deserve anything, other than destitution. So two angry men shout invectives at each other, and you believe one of them deserves to have their life completely destroyed as a consequence? That sounds a little disproportionate.
  - TheSpiceIsLife 8y ago
    Yes. Calling someone a pedophile is what you do when you want to destroy someones life. And I'll continue to believe Musk deserves the worst of all possible worlds until he makes a public apology, streamed live. Zero tolerance cuts both ways.
    - TeMPOraL 8y ago
      I see your point, but personally I'd prefer if people were less willing to entertain destroying each other over spoken words. As it is now, the diver's life seems unaffected, so the negative consequences failed to materialize. I definitely believe that for such unfounded, public accusation from a de-facto celebrity, a very public apology and some meaningful monetary damages are warranted. I feel this would suffice as a deterrent.
      - TheSpiceIsLife 8y ago
        I agree, that's what I'm saying. If he's prepared to go around slinging that accusation, then I have no respect for him at all. The best possible outcome would be if he makes a public apology, and approaches the guy in an attempt to make reparations. Just a simple: "Yeah, look, that was out of line. I'm seeing an anger management psychologist in an effort to curb my behaviour, and I'll donate a million to a children's charity of your choice."
xvf22 8y ago
Calling it a publicity stunt and getting called a pedo in return is way out of line. Musk looks like he's lashing out and it makes you wonder if he does this regularly. As with his questionable donations[1], this risks shifting people's opinions. [1] https://thinkprogress.org/elon-musk-house-gop-contributions-ed4cfe71c22c/ https://thinkprogress.org/elon-musk-house-gop-contributions-...
- TeMPOraL 8y ago
  > it makes you wonder if he does this regularly Probably not, as otherwise you'd see news like this frequently. After all, Twitter is public. So let's not generalize this incident too much.
  - thraway180306 8y ago
    But I see that frequently. There was all the kerfuffle around head of Tesla Autopilot quitting over Musk behaviour that also descended to namecalling. That painter guy who took issue with Musk stealing his artwork that ended up the same. That earnings conference call which felt like it could go there. Not on Twitter there are lots of stories of management by yelling.
curiousgal 8y ago
I found it quite dishonest by The Guardian to not mention that.
- _Codemonkeyism 8y ago
  The Guardian did https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/jul/15/elon-musk-british-diver-thai-cave-rescue-pedo-twitter https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/jul/15/elon-musk...
KozmoNau7 8y ago
Those two things are on completely different scales. The diver had personally seen the cave and knew the obstacles, and was simply telling a jumped-up billionaire playboy to please go away with his silly counterproductive and possibly dangerous toys, in a manner fitting a tense and dramatic situation. Musk then goes flying off the handle with a completely baseless and and frankly insane accusation, because his ego got hurt.
ddalex 8y ago
That's like ten orders of magnitude lighter than calling somebody a pedo...
masklinn 8y ago
Calling somebody a pedophile is not even remotely in the same galaxy as hinting that somebody should take their stupid idea and shove it up their ass.

smcl 8y ago

Also the fanboyism behind Musk is a bit unsettling. I made the mistake of viewing the replies to various tweets surrounding this controversy and there's a worrything amount of enthusiastic fans ready to jump in and defend him by sniping at anyone talking negatively about him. Why anyone would feel the need to "white knight" a billionaire is beyond me.

Brotkrumen 8y ago
Also the hate for Musk is a bit unsettling. I made the mistake of viewing the replies to various tweets surrounding this controversy and there's a worrything amount of unreasonable haters ready to jump in and attack him by sniping at anyone talking positively about him. Why anyone would feel the need to attack a helpful narcissist is beyond me.
- deleted 8y ago
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deleted 8y ago
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sergiosgc 8y ago
> Why anyone would feel the need to "white knight" a billionaire is beyond me. Being a billionaire shouldn't be a negative trait. Yet, it is, because so many of the 1% show lack of empathy and disregard for the common man and a single focus on generating wealth for wealth's sake. Musk does not seem to be in it for the cash, and thus looks different. Musk is, very transparently, an engineer at heart. He tinkers and creates and takes absolute joy in the creation process and in the result. It just so happens he's also a billionaire. Combine the hacker mentality with lots of cash and you get crazy creations like SpaceX, Tesla or The Boring Company. Musk's tweets about the sub, if viewed from the perspective of a hacker bragging about a hack, are perfectly natural. As is throwing a car up into orbit. That the Internet at large jumps to reading these fun, creative actions as "marketing" or "self-promotion" or "billionaire arrogance" is a sign that we, as a collective, lost our innocence long ago, and are unable to take pleasure in creating stuff. It is a shame.

agumonkey 8y ago

Reminds me I need a few book about narcissistic traits.

ofrzeta 8y ago

Quite obviously. Also "the Tesla CEO appears to be committed to proving his design would have worked. He wrote: 'We will make [a video] of the mini-sub/pod going all the way to Cave 5 no problemo.'" I mean, come on, that's not that great a "design" that you (or your engineers for that matter) made up but a stopgap solution. Nothing wrong with that, thanks for helping. But just let go now.