Musk didn’t just shit-tweet once.
It was multiple instances culminating in basically daring the guy to sue him because if he didn’t sue the defaming speech would be presumed true.
Elon Musk is, de facto, a public figure with a gigantic bullhorn. The man he defamed… a private citizen doing the real thing that Musk’s toys were unsuited to, namely rescuing living human beings.
Let Mr. Musk pay the price for his indiscretion, and make it a price that will remind him he’s not above the rule of law.
If he doen’t pony up the winning side can have the Sherrif put locks on his assets & hold an auction.
Through the nose, if possible. (I don’t actually expect it to happen.)
Maybe it is easy for you to say that because you are not the one being called a pedophile on the world’s stage? This can absolutely have ramifications for the rest of his life. Sure, how do we quantify the damages is a great question, but it doesn’t absolve Elon from being a shit weasel and messing with this guy’s life.
Libel is not a technicality, it’s a law.
This is a weird thing for him to be arguing. Basically it can only serve as a warning to the plaintiff that they’ll have a hard time collecting (which is absurd with an asset like stock) and to force the insurer to come into play. But if they’re fighting the plaintiff’s effort to find out if there is coverage, I don’t know what they think they’re doing.
Is this not just a shit weasel shit weaseling?
Probably, but it’s an odd strategy that doesn’t seem to be calculated to accomplish anything that benefits Musk. It’s not so unusual for a defendant in a civil case to try and convince a plaintiff that they’re broke and there’s no point in continuing the litigation or getting a judgment. But that can’t be what’s happening here, because as others have pointed out, not wanting to sell stock means nothing if/when there’s an enforceable judgment.
But even if he was actually broke / illiquid, that would serve to make the insurance coverage directly relevant, but they’re fighting those disclosures.
It’s weird.
Elon repeatedly insisted that this guy was a pedophile, then hired a (fake) private detective to investigate him and made his fake investigation discoveries public as “proof” that the guy was a pedophile. That’s not just a little social-media mockery, it’s an attempt to destroy the guy’s life.
You wrote: “Honestly I doubt a single human being even thought Elon calling him a pedo was true”
I actually thought the guy must have been a pedo because Musk wouldn’t have been dumb enough to sling that around in public without being sure that the guy wouldn’t dare challenge it in a libel suit, because it was true.
I’m impressed with his accomplishments, but in many ways he is a child. He is just being petulant. He needs a spanking.
This isn’t a legal strategy for Elon, it is an F you thrown around by a man baby. He would rather mock everyone and waste their time than admit he was wrong.
Rich, my way or the highway guys are never wrong.
it’s a bit like saying “i don’t have that much on me at the moment and i have no intention of going to the bank to make a withdrawl”.
how can that possibly be a valid response to a lawsuit?
That, and the email he sent to a journalist saying that the other guy had moved to Chiang Rai to marry a 12-year-old.
(Vernon Unsworth’s partner is Thai, and is significantly younger than him. She’s 41. They’ve been together for eight years.)
Of all the times he’s decided to self-disclose that he’s an asshole, this one takes the cake for me. Only the most egotistical turd would think sending their trash into space is some glorious achievement.
Plus, as much as I love the Model S, that Roadster was ass-ugly. Do we really want that to be the first design aliens encounter?
Just ignoring them won’t make anything different or make them change the way they behave.
If it was more symmetrical, ignoring might work, but with a power imbalance the silence become a tacit approval.
It is not just dumb, it is also malicious.
And even without a bad intention speech has consequences.
If he’s illiquid, then I guess that he can’t afford any lawyers to filter the stupid that spills out of his mouth and into legal communications.
His pride may have been hurt, but it’s a little worrisome that he’s overriding the (presumably) top-notch lawyers working for him.
Does he ever do the same with his engineers?
Think for a moment how it would feel if every Google search for your name came up with the words “alleged pedophile”, with no refuting links. Imagine how long it would take before you were doxxed and the harassment started. People have had to move and go into hiding to escape the abuse and threats in situations like that.
Paypal credit.
Jokes on them. Musk fired his car into the asteroid belt.
No. Prior restraint isn’t legal. But damages for slander is. So I guess we’ll just have to settle for that.
