Elon Musk appeared to get himself into some pretty hot water on Sunday, when he called one of the divers involved in the Thailand cave rescue a “pedo guy” on Twitter, and then proceeded to delete the tweet with no acknowledgement that it had ever been posted. At pixel, an apology had not been forthcoming.
Unfortunately for Elon, the world's press had already spotted the tweet. Here's a screengrab of his increasingly awful thread, captured by a user on Reddit :
Or was it unfortunate? Surely Elon knows he can't just delete a tweet and expect to get away with it?
What if this was all part of a cunning ploy to distract everyone from what they had been talking about before the offensive tweet? Namely, Elon's $38,900 donation to a committee dedicated to preserving the Grand Old Party's majority in the US House of Representatives.
That's the suggestion of Twitter user Keubiko , who illustrated his point with a lovely GIF from Trailer Park Boys, which you can enjoy below:
Perhaps the “engineer” in him calculated that his base would more upset about the GOP donations than calling a hero a pedo and needed to change the focus in a hurry">pic.twitter.com/rh8dBJfzjr
— Keubiko (@Keubiko) July 15, 2018
(The “romantic” in him might also have wagered his indie popstar girlfriend might care more about his donations to the Republican Party, given her political leanings .)
Elon's last tweet before the “pedo guy” one was this (although he's now pinned a nice one on climate change from earlier at the top of his feed).
Reports that I am a top donor to GOP are categorically false. I am not a top donor to any political party.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 15, 2018
We've written before about Elon's unusual tactical maneuvering and what some observers reckon are double- and triple-bluffing techniques. Could we be seeing the same approach here?
The tweet might end up being an expensive one. The British diver he offended is reportedly considering legal action .
But if it was just a distraction technique, though, it does seem to have been successful. Google “Elon Musk” and you will find lots of articles about the offensive tweet; reports about the GOP donations are harder to find.
Is Musk some kind of a Machiavellian genius, is he losing the plot, or what's going on?? Please give us your verdict in the only section that counts, below the grey line.
(And a bonus one, for fun: how many days/weeks do we now give Grelon ?)
Related links: Eight-dimensional chess with Elon Musk - FT Alphaville Elon Musk attacks Thai cave rescuer in angry tweet - FT A brief history of Tesla and the number 500,000 - FT Alphaville Elon Musk plays to human fantasy, and the world plays along - FT Alphaville