While I appreciate all the things Musk did to push forward acceptance of electric cars I gotta say.
I really hope Mr Unsworth drags Musk over the coals for that.
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None of this matters. Unsworth jumped right into the trap. Now Musk’s lawyers can just keep the ball bouncing until Unsworth is bankrupt.
Welcome to blind justice.
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Meanwhile, Musk continues to do and say crazy shit, and gets tried in the court of public opinion.
Additionally one thing most people seem to be overlooking is that before all this stupidity escalated, Musk initially apologized (Ie, admitted his claim was false)… and then doubled down on the accusation when someone else made him mad by bringing it up.
That makes me think this might not play out as you so cynically envision.
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Actually, it turns out that it might not be for just $75k:
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Suing a ruper-rich person is very expensive but also potentially very lucrative. I’m not surprised the diver was able to find a law firm that thought it was worth a shot.
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I read somewhere that Elon had been abused as a child, so he may be better able to spot them, and he would have more of a reason to strike out at them as well.
Careful not to sprain something with that reach there…
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Multiple citations required.
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Why is he wasting time making batteries if he has this super power?
Note to Elon: Next time your pedo-sense tingles, call the police rather than tweeting about it, as that will be more effective at saving a life.
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Understatement there.
I’ve been waiting for this since the first incident. Making unsubstantiated claims like this against someone who has obvious standing to sue in an English court, is a good way to be taken to the cleaners. Unless you can back up everything you’ve said, you can be in for a lot of expensive trouble.
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The suit was filed in California where laws aren’t as plaintiff-friendly as the UK. But I’m betting that this already rises to libel per se and should be a pretty easy case to win. From a quick look at the docs it seems he’s asking for $75K minimum plus punitive damages which gives some wiggle room.
Musk will pay more than that in legal fees before the case goes to trial, so the smart thing would be to write a check and sign an agreement not to say that shit again. But that would be a problem for his ego.
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I assume punitive damages are no small sum when you’re talking about a fine big enough to dissuade a billionaire from doing something like that again.
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He filed both in the US and in the UK.
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You don’t need omniscience to follow the chain of:
- fragile egomaniac gets butthurt
- fragile egomaniac spouts nonsensical, unsubstantiated claims in a public tantrum
- fragile egomaniac refuses to say sorry
Now we get to see step 4:
- fragile egomaniac apologises and admits claims were nonsense when his shareholders threaten to bail
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searches PLOSOne for studies demonstrating link between suffering sexual abuse as a child and supernatural ability to detect paedophiles
I’m coning up with nothing here. Anyone else find anything? Bueller…?
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Aw come one, mods, that was a good question! 
If I were on the jury, I’d look at that 22 million twitter followers number and then assign an amount - say a dollar per follower. Per defamatory tweet.
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For some reason pedophile seems to be the new random insult to level at those who you want to defame. Continuing with this could result in making real accusations of pedophilia have less impact.
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Assuming that’s true, it could also mean sometimes he has a hair-trigger response to distress. Know that’s more how it worked with me… but I’m average enough that I don’t get the kind of response from others that some one like him would. Meh… no telling really. Even if he was right it’d be a damned weird way to react.
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For values of “some reason” which include “popularity of PizzaGate and QAnon among conspiratorial-ideation fucksticks” (evidently including Elon Musk).
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