Elon Tweeting about Thailand and Reputation

[Unpilot]

Has anything good come from Twitter....really?

 

[SteveG3]

fwiw, here’s a video with Vern Unsworth comments. I took the comments somewhat differently with the additional cues in the video vs. when I read written accounts of them yesterday. I don’t remember what was written well enough to say whether the video had all the comments Elon reacted to or just some of them.

'He can stick his submarine where it hurts': British cave diver rejects Elon Musk's design - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

 

[UnknownSoldier]

Has anything good come from Twitter....really?

No, which is why I don't get why everyone on Earth is shouting for him to get his ass off Twitter but he adamantly refuses.

Delete your goddamned account, Elon. Post an apology, wait 24 hours, and then delete it.

 

[BETA1019]

I've been an investor in Tesla for over 5 years. I've been reading the Electrek site since the very first article Seth published. As my investment in Tesla grew (in both absolute and relative terms), so did my interest in Elon Musk and all the industries he's involved in / is looking to disrupt. After 5 years, I can safely say my interest in all things Elon Musk has turned into what is a bonafide obsession. I don't comment much, I'm more of a lurker, but I've pretty much consumed all available information from the sites most of us here probably also read (to varying degrees).

Over the last 18 months, I have definitely noticed an enormous ratcheting up of anti-Tesla / anti-Elon Musk sentiment. From someone who has been watching this space very closely, I would say that any TSLA longs need to take the following a bit more seriously...

I’m starting to get a little concerned that the thousands of fake twitter accounts and the few actually real accounts who have their facts twisted by all the fud are taking a toll on Elon. I kinda wish he would just stop replying. I’m new to the forum so not sure if this is the best place to make this comment, if not point me in the right direction. Seems obvious to me they are trying to get him to crack. I actually fear for his safety. Is this crazy? Seems like big oil and the other automakers are getting extremely threatened by him and the crap is really ramping up.

...I personally know one young kid maybe 23 who was in control of over 15,000 fake twitter accounts and he would use them all to help promote his events. and they would be connected to fake FB accounts swell. This is one kid with very little money. Just imagine what some billionaires who have a legit agenda against Musk can do or ARE in fact doing right now. It's pretty scary.

...because this is definitely what is happening. And it's happening everywhere, and by a huge magnitude. Comments sections of Electrek, GTM, InsideEVs, Teslarati, Green Car Reports, Facebook groups, Instagram, hell - even on this very forum, are being peppered with harshly negative anti-Elon / anti-Tesla bias. But one in particular which has seen the most massive uptick is on Twitter. Whoever is engineering this knows that it's Musk's preferred choice of social media.

You can call me crazy, but this isn't just some conspiracy theory. If anyone out there has the capability to do so, I would challenge them to look back from 18 months up to this point and aggregate the data. I can guarantee you there has been a huge surge over the last 12 months. It's not like suddenly the world started hating Elon Musk. I'm sure there are tons of retail investors out there who are following the short story, but I don't think their numbers and fervor have increased organically at the rate I've noticed the uptick. Anyone who is going to be impacted by Elon knows that he has won the hearts and the minds of the masses. And there is a cyber-war being waged in front of our very eyes. It reminds me of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, only it has (seemingly) less sophistication and more volume / brute-force.

Our problem as investors: Elon has been watching his Twitter feed more and more actively, especially whilst sleeping at the factory and going through production hell. (He has to watch it, there's no other way he can so readily engage with his fans / followers). These attacks have seriously ramped up and unfortunately, he let the pressure get the better of him.

And let's face it... he did exactly what 'they' wanted him to do. He snapped and said something stupid. The tweets are real. I was literally watching them ping up on my notifications one-by-one.

It really disgusts me so much that the media just loves it. They're all over it. Seems like most journalists only care about clicks. Drive traffic and you've done a good job. This twitter drama gives them exactly that- more fodder, more clicks. Ugh.

Side note - I'm less concerned about his personal safety as part of all of this, but if I did put on my tin-foil hat I guess you could argue if 'they' manage to turn public opinion on him it will be less of an issue to do something truly nefarious.

 

[FalconFour]

This isn't a good hill to die on or even defend. Best to let it go through to the keeper and focus on tomorrow.

I'm referring in general to the entire scope of clean energy, EVs, space exploration, and MuskCo in general. We're waist-deep in "then they fight us" territory - you know, the old saying, "first they ignore us, then they laugh at us, then they fight us, then Twitter happens, then you win". I've been watching MuskCo (from the sidelines, as far as this forum is concerned ) for what seems like forever - and the EV industry for even longer. This is very scary "then they fight us" territory, when oil interests have so much thought-power control. He's going up against the biggest industries in the country - in oil with Tesla and with military/government industry with SpaceX.

It still seems impossible for Elon to have messed-up this bad on his own. There isn't a single soul in this thread or anywhere else on the internet that thinks the content of the tweet passes as "OK". You really think he wouldn't see it as awful as well?

As for Twitter itself, give me a break. Plenty of amazing things have come out of Elon's Twitter. It's actually this that's the first thing I think has ever been a huge blunder. We've had features, real-life jokes, announcements, hints... practically our entire connection to Elon's mind and hints as to what's upcoming have come from Twitter. Don't even play like "Elon delet dis" is the answer to everything.

 

[SPadival]

How is nobody seeing that the tweets were a fake? Nobody anywhere seems to have actually seen the tweets. They were deleted as soon as they existed, and everyone's rolling on screenshots.

They are real. I got up in the middle of the night and saw them.. and they were up for some time.

No excuse for Elon saying what he did. He should apologize.

However, I am seeing some mitigating circumstances.. the Vern CNN interview itself was incendiary. And then there is this article from before the whole s storm.

Timeline: The full story of the Thai cave rescue

They turned to Vern Unsworth, 63, a British caver who lived nearby, and who described the cave network as his "second home" after years of exploring and mapping it.

..and the cave is a magnet for curious children.

 

[Causalien]

Breathe through it. As a yoga teacher, it is my duty to remind us all to breathe. The Tao te Ching advises one to accept disgrace willingly. A hasty attempt to fight disgrace leads to making matters worse. So we let this settle down. The only vindication that is needed is to keep building great cars. In time, all this will be forgotten. So breathe. Be prepared for the stock to sink to $250 or whatever, but vindication will come in time. In the meantime, breathe.

We believe in you, Elon.

Ha. Never thought we'd have a yoga teacher.

I seriously think it is time I take Elon to a 10 day intense Vipassana meditation camp.

 

[BETA1019]

This is the sort of news event that gets cut through to normal people, causing untold damage to Elon’s reputation. And because he has quite deliberately blurred the line between Tesla and himself, this damages the company, everyone that works there and all it’s financial investors.

The media coverage of the Thai rescue received blanket coverage globally. In the Uk there has even been talk about awarding the divers the George Cross, the highest civilian award for bravery. Publicly calling one of these people a peadophile and then doubling down on that? Superficially it’s too easy to portray as him getting angry because someone else got to be the hero.

Been an investor a long time, this is the first time I find myself hesitating about whether Tesla really is the right home for such a significant percentage of my retirement savings. Without its brand and it’s customers’ and employees’ zeal for the mission, in the long term it’s just another car company.

Have to agree with this point. The coverage of the cave story is global. This goes far beyond just the Elon/Tesla/Space-X bubble most of us live in, and it has the potential to have a long-term impact.

Can someone tell me why Musk's comment is not libel?

Another valid concern. There are likely thousands of lawyers begging to take this case.

This is very well-said and bears repeating. We, as investors, expect responsible uses for the money we are investing in a company. I'm not giving Elon money to call people pedophiles apropos of nothing. That is a level of beyond the pale which would make our President blush. Elon deliberately makes himself the face of Tesla, and he should probably consider that being the face of Tesla is not unlike how Steve Jobs was the face of Apple for many years and maybe conduct himself a little more like Jobs and a little less like Trump.

Fair point and agreed.

Have to say I agree. There really is no excuse for that behavior. So many people look up to him as an inspiration for making the world a better place, and here you have him calling one of the publicly perceived heroes a "pedo." Completely disappointed. This is going to hurt tomorrow I'm sure of it. Hope this storm blows over one way or another soon.

Just think for a second what you’re saying. A man with a family and people who love him is subject to a libellous attack from someone with 22 million Twitter followers, in the week that should be the proudest of his life. And your response is to want to stoke up a witch hunt.

Perhaps you don’t appreciate the climate in the UK but in the public mind, paedophiles have a place in hell below serial killers. There have been cases of people mistakenly misidentified as child abusers being subject to violent attacks and even killed. Given how widely reported this has already been, this slur will never leave this man. He is forever the man that Elon Musk called a paedophile.

Musk should be publicly apologizing, not ducking the issue by deleting his tweets. He should be making a generous financial offer to this man and a charity of his choice (professionally, not through Twitter). And he should shut his Twitter account and get on with running the company that so many of us have generously and patiently funded.

I don't even think it's worth entertaining the notion that the guy actually is a Pedo (sex tourist... perhaps. but pedo is over the top. either way, he shouldn't have said what he did).

I do think this is definitely going to hurt at market open. But there is a way for this to blow over, and that is for Musk to reach out and publicly apologize. He doesn't really have a choice. He needs to either do that + pay him off, or if the guy isn't feeling greedy (unlikely) apologise and then agree to donate a huge sum to charity of his choice in Thailand (or something).

Then he needs to go on a media tour (Oprah would be a great start, Joe Rogan would be a good one to follow, and a few more if possible). and remind the world about his grand vision and WHY he is doing what he is doing. Talk about his personal struggle, his personal sacrifices, give his take on how the media is attacking him, talk about the stress of keeping the company alive, talk about production hell, reiterate why he slept at the factory, talk about all the great people who work at Tesla and how unified they are behind the mission, etc., etc. You get the point. He needs to lay everything out.

(Edit - separated into 3 posts)

 

[BETA1019]

Think about how seriously messed up this whole cave/tweet thing is and what it really says about life at Tesla:
- Elon thinks that he is so smart that he can design a useful cave extraction sub while he is in a swimming pool in LA. Despite the fact that he knows nothing about the cave, the currents, the dimensions, the time requirements, etc.
- Elon flies out to Thailand, inserts himself if the middle of a huge operation - and asks for a tour and to show off his (soon to be proven) useless sub. He demands time, logistics support, and generally gets in the way of the people who are doing real work.
- His efforts are obviously misguided, as anyone who has been in tight cave passages (I have) can tell you and as the expert in the situation in Thailand pointed out.
- His efforts are obviously too late since some of the boys were already out. But, Elon can't just chalk it up to "I tried" and move on.
- Instead, his ego is so fragile, that he goes to PR war with not one, but two of the people who actually rescued the boys.
- Then, days later, when the most experienced person in the situation calls him out on it, Elon not only goes to war with him, but then he promises to go back to the cave and show off his cave/sub prowess. Then, just to make sure everyone knows how crazy he is, - Elon accuses the rescue her of being a pedophile in a public forum. He shows no restraint and no dignity.

Can you imagine what it must be like to work for Musk? No wonder anyone who can leaves. No wonder their manufacturing lines are screwed up; the design of the M3 has problems, and quality is a frequent issue. I am sure no one ever crosses him at the company, even when his ideas are completely and obviously stupid. And no wonder when Musk makes promises that are totally at odds with reality, none of his employees call him out on it.

If this is your take on the situation, then it is truly misguided. You obviously don't know all the facts. Nevertheless, this is the narrative that the general public is likely to take on. And it's pretty much why Elon should apologize. Even so, the second part of your post is crap and you're just trying to conflate the issue.

He's definitely on radio silence until him, his PR team, and the board have agreed the path forward. You can bet your ass that major investors and board personally called him and they are working on a strategy right now.

(Edit - separated into 3 posts)

 

[Matias]

Don't worry guys, Twitter is like Las Vegas. What happen in Vegas, stays in Vegas.

This is all over mainstream media.

 

[SteveG3]

I've been an investor in Tesla for over 5 years. I've been reading the Electrek site since the very first article Seth published. As my investment in Tesla grew (in both absolute and relative terms), so did my interest in Elon Musk and all the industries he's involved in / is looking to disrupt. After 5 years, I can safely say my interest in all things Elon Musk has turned into what is a bonafide obsession. I don't comment much, I'm more of a lurker, but I've pretty much consumed all available information from the sites most of us here probably also read (to varying degrees).

Over the last 18 months, I have definitely noticed an enormous ratcheting up of anti-Tesla / anti-Elon Musk sentiment. From someone who has been watching this space very closely, I would say that any TSLA longs need to take the following a bit more seriously...





...because this is definitely what is happening. And it's happening everywhere, and by a huge magnitude. Comments sections of Electrek, GTM, InsideEVs, Teslarati, Green Car Reports, Facebook groups, Instagram, hell - even on this very forum, are being peppered with harshly negative anti-Elon / anti-Tesla bias. But one in particular which has seen the most massive uptick is on Twitter. Whoever is engineering this knows that it's Musk's preferred choice of social media.

You can call me crazy, but this isn't just some conspiracy theory. If anyone out there has the capability to do so, I would challenge them to look back from 18 months up to this point and aggregate the data. I can guarantee you there has been a huge surge over the last 12 months. It's not like suddenly the world started hating Elon Musk. I'm sure there are tons of retail investors out there who are following the short story, but I don't think their numbers and fervor have increased organically at the rate I've noticed the uptick. Anyone who is going to be impacted by Elon knows that he has won the hearts and the minds of the masses. And there is a cyber-war being waged in front of our very eyes. It reminds me of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, only it has (seemingly) less sophistication and more volume / brute-force.

Our problem as investors: Elon has been watching his Twitter feed more and more actively, especially whilst sleeping at the factory and going through production hell. (He has to watch it, there's no other way he can so readily engage with his fans / followers). These attacks have seriously ramped up and unfortunately, he let the pressure get the better of him.

And let's face it... he did exactly what 'they' wanted him to do. He snapped and said something stupid. The tweets are real. I was literally watching them ping up on my notifications one-by-one.

It really disgusts me so much that the media just loves it. They're all over it. Seems like most journalists only care about clicks. Drive traffic and you've done a good job. This twitter drama gives them exactly that- more fodder, more clicks. Ugh.

Side note - I'm less concerned about his personal safety as part of all of this, but if I did put on my tin-foil hat I guess you could argue if 'they' manage to turn public opinion on him it will be less of an issue to do something truly nefarious.



Have to agree with this point. The coverage of the cave story is global. This goes far beyond just the Elon/Tesla/Space-X bubble most of us live in, and it has the potential to have a long-term impact.



Another valid concern. There are likely thousands of lawyers begging to take this case.



Fair point and agreed.





I don't even think it's worth entertaining the notion that the guy actually is a Pedo (sex tourist... perhaps. but pedo is over the top. either way, he shouldn't have said what he did).

I do think this is definitely going to hurt at market open. But there is a way for this to blow over, and that is for Musk to reach out and publicly apologize. He doesn't really have a choice. He needs to either do that + pay him off, or if the guy isn't feeling greedy (unlikely) apologise and then agree to donate a huge sum to charity of his choice in Thailand (or something).

Then he needs to go on a media tour (Oprah would be a great start, Joe Rogan would be a good one to follow, and a few more if possible). and remind the world about his grand vision and WHY he is doing what he is doing. Talk about his personal struggle, his personal sacrifices, give his take on how the media is attacking him, talk about the stress of keeping the company alive, talk about production hell, reiterate why he slept at the factory, talk about all the great people who work at Tesla and how unified they are behind the mission, etc., etc. You get the point. He needs to lay everything out.



If this is your take on the situation, then it is truly misguided. You obviously don't know all the facts. Nevertheless, this is the narrative that the general public is likely to take on. And it's pretty much why Elon should apologize. Even so, the second part of your post is crap and you're just trying to conflate the issue.

He's definitely on radio silence until him, his PR team, and the board have agreed the path forward. You can bet your ass that major investors and board personally called him and they are working on a strategy right now.

wish list:

apology

live, one hour prime time one-on-one with Oprah on 60 Minutes (where she is currently a part time correspondent) this week.

strategy going forward to address rampant misinformation re Tesla, products, and Elon, & Elon’s need for support keeping this effort toward responsive rather than reactive communication. Tesla perspective needs to be heard way more, but, someone collaborating with Elon/taking much of the response off Elon’s plate would be a great help. From the outside of Tesla, Deepak A, Andrea J, or, Bonnie N, look like good candidates to me.

 

[Canuck]

Our problem as investors: Elon has been watching his Twitter feed more and more actively, especially whilst sleeping at the factory and going through production hell. (He has to watch it, there's no other way he can so readily engage with his fans / followers).

This is where you lost me -- but great informative post.

He could easily hire someone, or a whole dept., to do his twitter and to only advise him of relevant posts so he can "readily engage with his fans / followers". Heck, I don't even agree that he needs to engage them -- since he engages his true fans by doing his work and not twitter, but if he wants to have a twitter account it should be carefully managed -- and that goes for any CEO but especially one of a publicly traded company.

 

[Shock-On-T]

Yeah Thailand is popular with expats as the weather and food is beautiful and there are loads of natural attractions - hence cave divers running businesses and/or living there.

People can retire on their smallish British or European pensions/investments and live very well there due to the low cost of living.

True, but there’s also plenty of sleaze bags who go to Thailand for other reasons.
I have no idea about this guy though, and I doubt Elon has either. Very unwise to put that particular opinion into print.

 

[BETA1019]

7 News Sydney (@7NewsSydney) | Twitter

Ok, wow. I just watched the follow-up interview with Vern. He looks VERY, VERY uneasy about these allegations. I would be very surprised if he does any further interviews. Suspect he'll stay out of the limelight and look for some kind of quick settlement.

 

[schonelucht]

He could easily hire someone, or a whole dept., to do his twitter and to only advise him of relevant posts so he can "readily engage with his fans / followers". Heck, I don't even agree that he needs to engage them -- since he engages his true fans by doing his work and not twitter, but if he wants to have a twitter account it should be carefully managed -- and that goes for any CEO but especially one of a publicly traded company.

Correct, nearly all professional soccer players participating in the world cup have a team to handle their twitter pre and post game. It's still their actions and words but it gets filtered, layered and reworded just that little funnier. Fan engagement intact and no big PR blunders.

 

[Shock-On-T]

I've been an investor in Tesla for over 5 years. I've been reading the Electrek site since the very first article Seth published. As my investment in Tesla grew (in both absolute and relative terms), so did my interest in Elon Musk and all the industries he's involved in / is looking to disrupt. After 5 years, I can safely say my interest in all things Elon Musk has turned into what is a bonafide obsession. I don't comment much, I'm more of a lurker, but I've pretty much consumed all available information from the sites most of us here probably also read (to varying degrees).

Over the last 18 months, I have definitely noticed an enormous ratcheting up of anti-Tesla / anti-Elon Musk sentiment. From someone who has been watching this space very closely, I would say that any TSLA longs need to take the following a bit more seriously...





...because this is definitely what is happening. And it's happening everywhere, and by a huge magnitude. Comments sections of Electrek, GTM, InsideEVs, Teslarati, Green Car Reports, Facebook groups, Instagram, hell - even on this very forum, are being peppered with harshly negative anti-Elon / anti-Tesla bias. But one in particular which has seen the most massive uptick is on Twitter. Whoever is engineering this knows that it's Musk's preferred choice of social media.

You can call me crazy, but this isn't just some conspiracy theory. If anyone out there has the capability to do so, I would challenge them to look back from 18 months up to this point and aggregate the data. I can guarantee you there has been a huge surge over the last 12 months. It's not like suddenly the world started hating Elon Musk. I'm sure there are tons of retail investors out there who are following the short story, but I don't think their numbers and fervor have increased organically at the rate I've noticed the uptick. Anyone who is going to be impacted by Elon knows that he has won the hearts and the minds of the masses. And there is a cyber-war being waged in front of our very eyes. It reminds me of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, only it has (seemingly) less sophistication and more volume / brute-force.

Our problem as investors: Elon has been watching his Twitter feed more and more actively, especially whilst sleeping at the factory and going through production hell. (He has to watch it, there's no other way he can so readily engage with his fans / followers). These attacks have seriously ramped up and unfortunately, he let the pressure get the better of him.

And let's face it... he did exactly what 'they' wanted him to do. He snapped and said something stupid. The tweets are real. I was literally watching them ping up on my notifications one-by-one.

It really disgusts me so much that the media just loves it. They're all over it. Seems like most journalists only care about clicks. Drive traffic and you've done a good job. This twitter drama gives them exactly that- more fodder, more clicks. Ugh.

Side note - I'm less concerned about his personal safety as part of all of this, but if I did put on my tin-foil hat I guess you could argue if 'they' manage to turn public opinion on him it will be less of an issue to do something truly nefarious.

It’s all driven by humanity’s fear of utopia.

It’s the reason people resist sustainable energy. Can you imagine the psychology of someone who is opposed to clean, sustainable energy?

 

[Canuck]

Can you imagine the psychology of someone who is opposed to clean, sustainable energy?

Yes, he's in office. The problem is that Elon's psychology is looking erringly similar and that makes no sense, or is sad at least.

 

[BETA1019]

...because this is definitely what is happening. And it's happening everywhere, and by a huge magnitude. Comments sections of Electrek, GTM, InsideEVs, Teslarati, Green Car Reports, Facebook groups, Instagram, hell - even on this very forum, are being peppered with harshly negative anti-Elon / anti-Tesla bias. But one in particular which has seen the most massive uptick is on Twitter. Whoever is engineering this knows that it's Musk's preferred choice of social media.

You can call me crazy, but this isn't just some conspiracy theory. If anyone out there has the capability to do so, I would challenge them to look back from 18 months up to this point and aggregate the data. I can guarantee you there has been a huge surge over the last 12 months. It's not like suddenly the world started hating Elon Musk. I'm sure there are tons of retail investors out there who are following the short story, but I don't think their numbers and fervor have increased organically at the rate I've noticed the uptick. Anyone who is going to be impacted by Elon knows that he has won the hearts and the minds of the masses. And there is a cyber-war being waged in front of our very eyes. It reminds me of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, only it has (seemingly) less sophistication and more volume / brute-force.

Case in point. Check out this random account tweeting hardcore abuse @elonmusk out of nowhere. And there are thousands more like it that are hitting the @tesla @ElonMusk twitter newsfeed every few minutes.

 

[brianman]

7 News Sydney (@7NewsSydney) | Twitter

Ok, wow. I just watched the follow-up interview with Vern. He looks VERY, VERY uneasy about these allegations. I would be very surprised if he does any further interviews. Suspect he'll stay out of the limelight and look for some kind of quick settlement.

Direct link to the one I think you're talking about:
7 News Sydney on Twitter

 

[Canuck]

Case in point. Check out this random account tweeting hardcore abuse @elonmusk out of nowhere. And there are thousands more like it that are hitting the @tesla @ElonMusk twitter newsfeed every few minutes.

So if there's thousands why is he even reading one of them? And even if he did read them, and it did drive him off the deep end, that's still no excuse for the extremely low blow.