Elon Musk‘s erratic posting on X, formerly Twitter, has come back to haunt him once again as a 22-year-old Jewish man pursues a defamation case over tweets in which the tech mogul baselessly suggested the recent college graduate was an undercover federal agent posing as a neo-Nazi during a street fight between far-right groups. Musk’s excruciating March 27 deposition in the matter, which a judge ordered released to the public over the objections of the CEO’s lawyer, reveals the extent to which he has continually sabotaged both himself and the social media platform he owns.

  • Ragdoll X@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    142
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    edit-2
    6 months ago

    An entertaining read that further cements Musk as an honest-to-god unhinged idiot. I’ve seen a lot of people speculate that him buying Twitter and tanking its value was some kind of genius plot, but the simpler explanation is that he’s just unironically stupid and a bad businessman.

    The fact that he has another burner account which he uses to get around blocks and hurl insults at others is both really funny and completely expected. I’m willing to bet a signed dollar that he has yet another alt that he uses to lean even further right and say the N-word on a regular basis.

        • CatOnTheChainWax@lemmy.today
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          3
          ·
          6 months ago

          Another old rich white guy identifying as a gay black man online?.. curious…🤣💯… interesting…true… concerning…WE MUST RECLAIM RHODESIA’S INDEPENDENCE…uhh sorry that was the AI making a post on my account, now as I was saying about population collapse…

    • xantoxis@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      16
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      6 months ago

      There’s a third explanation: He’s a fairly bad businessman but Twitter was always expected to lose money, and the purpose of owning it is to use it as a cost center for massive political influence.

      I’m not necessarily espousing this theory, I have no real evidence either way, but lots of billionaires buy media outlets so they can direct public sentiment. Twitter, managed correctly, could have been a pretty good way to do that, but even within that lens it has been managed very badly, so IDK

    • BruceTwarzen@kbin.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      14
      ·
      6 months ago

      The fact that people think that he didn’t buy twitter because he thought he could print more money is frightening

      • die444die@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        6
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        6 months ago

        Umm, some things are more important than money, namely, power. He bought twitter because it allows him to silence critics and break up a social media platform that was allowing citizens globally to communicate and take stands against governments.

    • LillyPip@lemmy.ca
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      11
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      6 months ago

      He is an actual idiot.

      When his name first became popular, I was like others thinking, hey, this guy sounds like a genius, maybe I should pay attention. Then I did pay attention and he ventured into my industry: comp sci and user experience. That’s when I realised he was an utter moron. When you know more about what he’s talking about than he does, it becomes obvious.

    • pissedatyall@lemmynsfw.com
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      4
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      6 months ago

      …the simpler explanation is that he’s just unironically stupid and a bad businessman.

      Occam’s Razor.

    • oce 🐆@jlai.lu
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      3
      arrow-down
      47
      ·
      edit-2
      6 months ago

      It does seem like he’s ignorant on many subjects, but if he is a complete idiot, how did he manage to make the right investments to become among the richest of the world?
      Because of dad’s money (it seems there’s no clear information about the money from the mine https://www.snopes.com/news/2022/11/17/elon-musk-emerald-mine/)? That’s a good start, sure, but many smart people, with a similar good start or more, try to become richer and don’t reach this level. So what’s the additional element?
      Is it really not an acceptable explanation that he had good guts at detecting the bubbles and did multiple smart investments at the right times (early internet website, internet payment, electric cars, low cost space)?
      Let’s try to have an opinion of a higher quality than what Musk usually writes on his media, that is to say, not solely based on some strong feelings.

      • pivot_root@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        25
        ·
        6 months ago

        I believe a combination of inertia and “throwing shit at the wall to see what sticks” may be applicable here.

        If his recent ventures are anything to go by, he’s an “idea guy” that makes a convincing case of sounding smart enough to succeed. He makes big promises about revolutionizing something, and because of his persona as a successful inventor, investors and fans buy into those ideas.

        With support behind him, he’s free to burn other people’s money in the hopes that one of his fantastical projects actually succeeds. And if it doesn’t, just sweep it under the rug like the Hyperloop.

        Or, you know, he could always use his capital to fund others’ ideas and then take credit as though they were his original idea, like with Tesla.

          • Promethiel@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            16
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            6 months ago

            Yes. Cunning =/= intelligence. A rat can reach the center of the maze off the smell of the cheese, not an understanding of geometry or topography.

            • oce 🐆@jlai.lu
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              0
              arrow-down
              1
              ·
              6 months ago

              Aren’t there thousands of rich born cunning “rats” that didn’t make as much?

              • Promethiel@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                0
                ·
                6 months ago

                As much

                Did I fucking stutter? It’s a function of mass of capital + opportunity (Peter Thiel wants your booty hole) = Inertia which breeds either people like you spending time on the defense of the morally reprehensible. Assuming you’re not the man himself, fucker has the right amount of time.

                One again, mass of capital + opportunity (luck) = Inertia persistent enough for fucks like you to eat off perpetuity in the hope of scraps.

                • oce 🐆@jlai.lu
                  link
                  fedilink
                  arrow-up
                  0
                  arrow-down
                  1
                  ·
                  edit-2
                  6 months ago

                  Please refrain from personal attacks. I understand your point otherwise.
                  I’m not defending him, I even negatively criticized him two times in my initial comment. I’m defending having a rational opinion about him, but it’s very hard, as you can observe by your own reaction to my questioning.

      • Fedizen@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        11
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        edit-2
        6 months ago

        He frequently picked markets where he was bought out for hefty sums and the rest is government contracts. Tesla was the first thing bought that shipped a somewhat usable product and you can see what he’s done to it.

        He could have ruled the EV market but he had to ship inferior products, waste money crushing unions, overstate its capabilities, and now Tesla has a bunch of cars they can’t sell.

      • Traister101@lemmy.today
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        8
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        6 months ago

        What right investments? He was born into money and failed into getting anything from his X.com (banking!) website which was bought out by PayPal long after he was fired. The only reason he got anything out of that at all was he’d kept the stocks around.

        He “invested” in Tesla so that he could get a cool car (he royally fucked over the actual founders in the process).

        Low cost space? Low cost space? Do you live on Mars or some shit? Every one of those “Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly” events cost over one Billion. That ain’t cheap buddy.

        • oce 🐆@jlai.lu
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          0
          ·
          6 months ago

          That’s quite the opposite of the nuanced discussion I stupidly tried to have, but I guess your comment was not serious.

            • oce 🐆@jlai.lu
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              0
              ·
              edit-2
              6 months ago

              My point is becoming that rich does mean some skills and cannot be achieved by a total idiot as stated in the top comment.

                • oce 🐆@jlai.lu
                  link
                  fedilink
                  arrow-up
                  0
                  ·
                  6 months ago

                  I think mostly communication, since his multiple frauds cases show he’s not actually good at business, and having some instinctive understanding of what he should say to appeal to the poor uneducated white people who are afraid of falling lower. I feel like in the case of Trump, it’s even more important to not use his populist and hate based tactics.

  • Margot Robbie@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    37
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    6 months ago

    Having private accounts isn’t that unusual for public figures, sometimes people just want to soapbox and vent in public a little but not attract too much attention to themselves.

    Roleplaying your own infant son on one of your private account, however, is super, super weird.

  • Bizzle@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    33
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    6 months ago

    X is “the most accurate, timely, and truthful place on the internet,” Musk said during his questioning about a false statement he made on the site that has been viewed by over a million users and has yet to be retracted or deleted almost a year later.

    Hilarious.

    • Zimited@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      3
      arrow-down
      35
      ·
      edit-2
      6 months ago

      Truth in this case, comes from the ability to be proven wrong. If they removed it, the truth wouldn’t have a chance to be relevant and challenge the wrong statement. I assume that is what Elon has in mind when he considers his site to be more truthful. Much on the common internet these days gets shut down and removed before even being able to be challenged. Like on Reddit. Which ironically leads to less truth, since less people have their opinions challenged and are instead removed, or the challenge is removed.

        • Zimited@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          2
          arrow-down
          23
          ·
          edit-2
          6 months ago

          So you are basically saying to mute the opposition to the agenda of power?

            • Zimited@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              2
              arrow-down
              21
              ·
              edit-2
              6 months ago

              If in this case the power allows democracy to function better through clearer and less muted digital freedom of speech, thats a better power than anything else. If thats what it takes to make the averages of society think a more unified, less biased and obscured thought again and regain its control over the real power that is greedy money to the few, then fuck it so be it.

      • ReluctantMuskrat@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        12
        ·
        6 months ago

        Give an example of where it’s led to less truth. When X perpetuates lies, truth and the world’s welfare is harmed. Look at the number of people that died thinking covid was a lie and people that think vaccines are somebkind of conspiracy to harm them.

        • Zimited@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          1
          arrow-down
          12
          ·
          edit-2
          6 months ago

          If X perpetuates a lie and doesn’t have the facilitation to allow a variety of perspectives and opinions to hold the lie accountable, that is an echo chamber and I’d agree it would be a huge problem. Elon said every person should be allowed to speak for the most part on X. If that saying holds any merit, I assume X lives up to that eventually. If it doesn’t I’m on you guys’ side about X.

          I feel if Elon Musk said covid was a lie and people took only his word for it, that is on them. Its another story entirely if there was no other trustworthy source of information or data. USA seems to struggle with that these days, so I understand how it went so wrong with Covid in some places. But yeah, a person in this case would win the game of natural selection by not only going off of what one dude/source says (probably in a casual, low effort manner at that).

  • xantoxis@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    40
    arrow-down
    13
    ·
    6 months ago

    Are we just going to ignore the fact that an account can’t be a “burner” account if you keep reusing it? This abuse of language doesn’t fly with me

  • Jimmycakes@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    22
    ·
    6 months ago

    What a sad pathetic little man. Proof that money is no substitution for a parents love if you want your kids to grow up normal.

    • Eldritch@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      6
      ·
      6 months ago

      I’m sure he had a relatively normal upbringing. After all his father’s current wife is his step sister. Who among us has not lived through something like that.

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    19
    ·
    6 months ago

    You don’t need to fact check yourself when you’re always right.

    And the richer you are, the smarter you are, so he is always right.

  • HeavyDogFeet@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    19
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    6 months ago

    I’m gonna guess he has way more than two burners. The dude is an addict, tweeting is all he has.

  • profdc9@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    2
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    6 months ago

    When you’re rich enough, you can fight and settle all of the slander cases you want.