-
Want to remove ads? Register an account and login to see fewer ads, and become a Supporting Member to remove almost all ads.
Elon Tweeting about Thailand and Reputation
- Thread starter $Billyall
- Start date
Elon Musk tweets he’ll “bet ya a signed dollar” that Thai cave rescuer is a “pedo”
I’m not a native english speaker, but perhaps this “British expat guy who lives in Thailand (sus)”
means, that it is suspective per se.
Canuck
Well-Known Member
And thanks for that. I wasn't aware it was going on -- or at least to that extent -- since of course he's been ridiculed for years. Unfortunately, I don't see him getting the last laugh on this one.
It is very incendiary to call some one a pedophile and should never be taken lightly especially from such a person of high esteem as Elon.
We obviously don’t know everything about this situation, but once again, perception is reality and if you google “Vern Unsworth” or even “Thailand Cave” literally all results come back with articles headlined as Elon calling Vern a pedo or attacking a rescuer. It’s literally every search result down the line.
Maybe the tweet context was in relation to an article recently published about “European retirees” accused of living in Thailand for the purpose of having sexual relations with underage boys. Maybe Elon was given certain information about this certain type of activity while there at the caves. Being a father of five boys, it may have touched a nerve or two.
We may never know and it is fairly irrelevant at this point—absent some shocking revelation on mr. Unsworth— to the impression being projected on google search and the broader media around the world.
It was a soccer team trapped in a cave during the World Cup soccer championship so the global press was a magnet to this story. Elon gave of his company’s talent and time which the lead rescue personnel requested and insisted upon. He followed through and delivered. As with the rest of the world, he only wanted those kids to get home safely, as did all those involved in the efforts. That should’ve been the end of the story.
But it didn’t. It turned into a bash fest on Elon and co.’s efforts as a pr stunt and not helpful to the efforts. And then for mr. Unsworth to tell him to shove the submarine up his *** this boiled Elon’s craw, which just was another bad faith attack on everything he stands for.... all amidst working extremely hard to hitting production goals for Model 3. Twitter is so tempting, just a couple thumb pecks away and here we are.
We also have to consider Elon has pretty much always defended himself against unjust press. I remember he called a times reporter a “huge douche bag” saying Elon took 2008 bailout money. Elon called out the mad money guy. He’s called out the la times. He called out short traders for a while now and we all know about the recent stuff with linette Lopez and Martin Tripp.
Elon gets sharp elbows, but he returns them also.
So, long time investors understand his personality and how he “fights back.”
As we’ve seen in that time period, Tesla has gone from a company of a few hundred employees producing a few thousand cars, to 50,000+ employees and has now produced over 200,000 (not to mention reusable rockets and working its way rapidly toward the 100th commercial launch mark)
So, I think he’ll make it through this media perception turbulence as well, and grind another day toward the goal of achieving sustainable consumption and production.
If he overreacted in his tweet, he should figure out a mea culpa strategy since he will be bombarded with this question on the conference call until he addresses it. If he knows something about Vern we don’t, he should say nothing and give no apologies and drive on. Hypothetically, his silence could indicate he stands by his statement and in this possible scenario if a curious press digs any deeper, they could discover something unseemly and that is not for Elon to disclose or get further involved with.
Either way, however this cookie crumbles, this too shall pass and Elon (and the rest of us) will move forward.
Completly agree. It's crazy how the media here in Europe or Switzerland is against Tesla in the last months. They shared every story which is negative in the two biggest daily newspaper here. They even turned good news in to neutral or bad ones. A lot of people ask me why i would buy such a car in the last months which never happened before. You also see it in the comment sections. A year ago it was mostly positive, now people really start to dislike or hate Tesla.
This story is also on the first page on their online section and further moves Tesla and Elon into a bad light.
It's Trump-level madness to me, but Elon has a lot of redeeming qualities. I can't defend him on this one though. In fact, I have been contacted by 2 people about this and while I can usually explain away the FUD they have picked up about Tesla somewhere, this time I have nothing to reply other than "yeah, that's a terrible thing to say and I hope they find a way to shut him up".
I wonder if after this, and the "alien dreadnought" failure, and the "Model X hubris" failure, maybe it's time for Elon to move to a position where he is more concerned about possible future Tesla products and the Tesla mission / vision, which is his forte, and less concerned about running the company. I have grown increasingly doubtful about the CEO.
Even if Elon has this guy on tape saying he's a pedophile, posting it on twitter is just despicable. Contact authorities, sure, but don't tweet about it.
I wonder if after this, and the "alien dreadnought" failure, and the "Model X hubris" failure, maybe it's time for Elon to move to a position where he is more concerned about possible future Tesla products and the Tesla mission / vision, which is his forte, and less concerned about running the company. I have grown increasingly doubtful about the CEO.
Even if Elon has this guy on tape saying he's a pedophile, posting it on twitter is just despicable. Contact authorities, sure, but don't tweet about it.
Brit cave hero Vern Unsworth reveals he is considering legal action after tech tycoon Elon Musk dubbed him a ‘paedo’
The more times I watch this, the more I think he's actually guilty of something.
The more times I watch this, the more I think he's actually guilty of something.
Lesson #1 - don’t ever talk to the media unless you’re willing to let all your skeletons out of the closet. The attention is (rightly so) on Elon right now, but you can bet the media will pounce on Vernon for anything in his past that is clickworthy.
Musk for whatever his brilliance is too distracted by all his endeavors (presumably) to see the long macro game.. and has fallen victim recently to that of the shorts. He is playing everything on a micro level, and if he really wants to react productively to whatever level shorts and or others with ulterior agendas are willing to stoop to, he needs to delegate it to experts, i.e. lawyers, PR folks and corporate espionage consultants - NOT himself. And I don’t blame him; he’s used to getting things done himself. But this is different. I would also add therapist/psychiatrist to the list. Mental health is key when you’re CEO.
Right because so many conservatives have an abundance of both
For those conservatives whom I think you’re referring too and in the context of my original shortsighted comment, I would say naïveté fits better.
I apologize for the broad descriptor. I really meant millenials and those with stubborn souls
AustinPowers
Total Smeghead
This.
People around me know that I have a Model 3 reservation. Other than frequently making fun of my decision to stick with it, even though the delivery estimate gets pushed back and back, they now start to ask me why I still want to buy from a company whose CEO behaves like that.
In their minds it is clear who the bad guy is. And it's certainly not that diver. This twitter *sugar* really damages the reputation of EM (in the eyes of everyone I know he is seen as kind of a looney anyway) even further, but especially hurts the brand. A brand that already has a hard time over here image-wise, even without EM's twitter lapses.
Similar here. It seems the tide started to turn about at the time when Elon announced he would work with Trump. Even though he later didn't go through with it, this has stuck with many people. And as no American is hated more over here than that madman in the White House, EM got caught in that. Add to that the fact that Tesla stuck a big F.U. up at Europeans by pushing the Model 3 launch here back in favor of US deliveries (which is also seen as wanting to please Trump), feelings have soured quite a bit.
Perhaps EM's proposal to build a future Gigafactory in Europe, Germany in particular, might have been an attempt at easing tensions a little, but the effect of this remains to be seen.
Last edited:
Sean Wagner
Member
Absolutely. Though relating to the second part of your post, I don't think people in Europe associate Elon Musk with Trump in any way at all.
It's just sad that I remember biker [aka motorcycle] days during the previous administration where the Stars and Stripes flew from countless American two wheelers - there was not a one such pennant this year.
I have not read Elon Musk's latest tweets, and it does not matter on which side of the truth he's situated if the measuring stick is the impact on Tesla. He should stop immediately or risk serious and long lasting damage to the brand.
Lay off tweeting for three days, and solicit honest advice from people he trusts.
If this gets further out of hand, the only way to save Tesla from possibly existential damage will be for Elon Musk to relinquish his position at the company, which I trust few people on this board would relish.
It would also be good to find someone analogous to Gwynne Shotwell to run the company day to day.
This whole situation is such a shame. Clearly the negative press that attaches to everything Musk does was out in full force throughout the Thailand rescue escapade. Add to that the fact that the SpaceX solution wasn't used, and as a cherry on top toss in that this British dude takes it to 11 by insulting Elon personally.
I can see how that would tee off Musk to the point where he responds on Twitter. It'd certainly piss me off, and I'm not a billionaire who's put my all, both financially and personally, into the Tesla mission over the course of more than a decade, all the while dealing with endless negativity from all corners, much of it presented in bad faith. That he eventually snapped is understandable. Perhaps it was inevitable.
The problem is that Musk then responded with the indefensible: calling the guy a pedophile. That's a serious allegation and one that even if he has evidence for, should be made to the proper authorities and not to the public via Twitter. If he doesn't have evidence, it's clear libel and given the relative net worth and popularity involved will certainly involve significant sums of cash being transferred from Musk to the diver.
I'm glad Elon deleted the tweets, as it shows that at least he realized he made a mistake. Hopefully he realized this on his own, and he knows he actually screwed up rather than having just reacted to the negative press.
To my mind, the lasting impact, and shame, of this situation is that it reveals that Musk is an asshole, and not in the way we already knew he was an asshole. Typically that's come out in the way he has treated employees less committed to the mission than he, and while on some level that's regrettable, it's also understandable and something that comes with the territory of working with/for Musk on the important/difficult/surviving on the razor's edge missions that his companies engage in.
This is something else entirely. It reminds me of a situation with a video game streamer awhile back. While in a streaming session, he called an opponent the n-word. It was uncalled for and inexcusable, but his apology involved suggesting that while under the stress of focusing on the game and being in a situation where all eyes were on him, he used words he typically wouldn't, or something to similar effect. The problem is that when the chips are down and stress removes a person's normally-engaged filter, what comes out tends to be what they really are thinking.
The stress is high, the chips are down, and Musk called a guy a pedophile, then doubled down on the allegation. The backlash has been large and he's deleted the tweets, but has not apologized or provided further evidence or context for the allegation.
This is a terrible situation, and it says bad things about Musk. I think less of him today than I did yesterday, and that's a shame.
It's a shame not just because it suggests that Musk is less deserving of the respect most of us here give him, but also because we are at a point where the focus should be shifting to the incredible success that the many thousands of Tesla employees are demonstrating as the Model 3 starts to hit actual, profitable mass production. It's a shame because just at the point where Tesla the company begins to serve up actual, delicious prime-cut steak, we're ten pages into a thread discussing just how bad it is that the CEO called a rescue diver a pedophile.
It's a shame. I hope that Musk not only follows up with a sincere apology but that he takes the lesson to heart and comes out of this a wiser person than he was a day ago.
I can see how that would tee off Musk to the point where he responds on Twitter. It'd certainly piss me off, and I'm not a billionaire who's put my all, both financially and personally, into the Tesla mission over the course of more than a decade, all the while dealing with endless negativity from all corners, much of it presented in bad faith. That he eventually snapped is understandable. Perhaps it was inevitable.
The problem is that Musk then responded with the indefensible: calling the guy a pedophile. That's a serious allegation and one that even if he has evidence for, should be made to the proper authorities and not to the public via Twitter. If he doesn't have evidence, it's clear libel and given the relative net worth and popularity involved will certainly involve significant sums of cash being transferred from Musk to the diver.
I'm glad Elon deleted the tweets, as it shows that at least he realized he made a mistake. Hopefully he realized this on his own, and he knows he actually screwed up rather than having just reacted to the negative press.
To my mind, the lasting impact, and shame, of this situation is that it reveals that Musk is an asshole, and not in the way we already knew he was an asshole. Typically that's come out in the way he has treated employees less committed to the mission than he, and while on some level that's regrettable, it's also understandable and something that comes with the territory of working with/for Musk on the important/difficult/surviving on the razor's edge missions that his companies engage in.
This is something else entirely. It reminds me of a situation with a video game streamer awhile back. While in a streaming session, he called an opponent the n-word. It was uncalled for and inexcusable, but his apology involved suggesting that while under the stress of focusing on the game and being in a situation where all eyes were on him, he used words he typically wouldn't, or something to similar effect. The problem is that when the chips are down and stress removes a person's normally-engaged filter, what comes out tends to be what they really are thinking.
The stress is high, the chips are down, and Musk called a guy a pedophile, then doubled down on the allegation. The backlash has been large and he's deleted the tweets, but has not apologized or provided further evidence or context for the allegation.
This is a terrible situation, and it says bad things about Musk. I think less of him today than I did yesterday, and that's a shame.
It's a shame not just because it suggests that Musk is less deserving of the respect most of us here give him, but also because we are at a point where the focus should be shifting to the incredible success that the many thousands of Tesla employees are demonstrating as the Model 3 starts to hit actual, profitable mass production. It's a shame because just at the point where Tesla the company begins to serve up actual, delicious prime-cut steak, we're ten pages into a thread discussing just how bad it is that the CEO called a rescue diver a pedophile.
It's a shame. I hope that Musk not only follows up with a sincere apology but that he takes the lesson to heart and comes out of this a wiser person than he was a day ago.
jhm
Well-Known Member
Yes, any sort of quiet, personal retreat could be helpful.
I could tell my friends I love going to the circus, and of course everyone knows the circus attracts loads of young children. Does that make me a pedophile?
dc_h
Active Member
Looking at stock price and the viral nature of this event, this is the new market section. We’re not supposed to talk about the tweet there, but this is driving down the stock $5.60 premarket
Even Howard dean chumed in that tsla is a zero if Elon losses it. If it turns out this guy is a pedo, Elon should have handled it through back channels. Associating yourself with pedo’ even as an accuser hurts your branding. Not just of Tesla, but your human personal brand.
With 1000+ cars a day the stock should be cranking and the shorts should be running, instead they are energized and think Elon in in full Howard Hughes mode. I’m not sure who is his voice of reason, but if he needs to, he should bring Gwynn Shotwell over as acting COO to get him to focus on his job, engineering and cutting deals like the Chicago boring tunnel.
And someone to carry his phone and give it to him when he needs to make a call or send a personal text message.
Even Howard dean chumed in that tsla is a zero if Elon losses it. If it turns out this guy is a pedo, Elon should have handled it through back channels. Associating yourself with pedo’ even as an accuser hurts your branding. Not just of Tesla, but your human personal brand.
With 1000+ cars a day the stock should be cranking and the shorts should be running, instead they are energized and think Elon in in full Howard Hughes mode. I’m not sure who is his voice of reason, but if he needs to, he should bring Gwynn Shotwell over as acting COO to get him to focus on his job, engineering and cutting deals like the Chicago boring tunnel.
And someone to carry his phone and give it to him when he needs to make a call or send a personal text message.
People asked Elon to help, he initially refused. People asked again. He tried as hard as he and his team could. Then people criticized him. I know what that is like. His response was not the best.
Rather than reading rehash news stories, I'd suggest reading the whole Twitter thread of the attempt with replies turned on...
Elon
July 7
July 8
July 9
July 10
July 11
...many days later this report...
Rather than reading rehash news stories, I'd suggest reading the whole Twitter thread of the attempt with replies turned on...
Elon
July 7
July 8
July 9
July 10
July 11
...many days later this report...
Similar threads
