Elon Musk, business genius … not.
Elon Musk, tech entrepreneur-marketed-as-deity phenomenon, came forward in an arduously extended conversation at The DealBook Summit this Wednesday to not only apologize for his antisemitic post on X but also to tell advertisers to ‘fuck themselves’
In a typical Musk manner, he unveiled his apology using all the grace of an elephant on a unicycle. Labelling the comment as perhaps “the worst” and “dumbest” he’s ever executed. But of course, just when one would expect a modicum of humbleness, Musk decided he was in no mood for it. Addressing the advertisers, who are intelligently choosing to distance themselves due to increasing antisemitic posts on X, Musk essentially told them, ‘go fuck yourself’. His verbosity makes one feel for a moment as if they were in a gritty gangster flick.
Musk’s loud and clear nonchalance was, predictably, extended towards Disney CEO Bob Iger. Musk couldn’t resist sneaking a delightful jab, saying, “Hey Bob, if you’re in the audience, that’s how I feel.” Any writer worth their salt would be really scraping the barrel to call it a civil discussion.
Strikingly, Musk seemed to relish in his solitary stance against the advertising giants as fundamentally reflective of his maverick spirit or what he perhaps likes to carefully frame as his anti-capitalist, rebel yell. Figures, isn’t that what billionaires do?
With his array of prominent brands bidding adieu in droves, Musk felt compelled to add more zing to his high-noon showdown moments. Wryly noting that he sometimes says “the wrong thing.” No kidding, Sherlock! You think maybe the 1.05% fall in Tesla’s share price following your words of wisdom had something to do with that eureka moment?
“Hate away”
In a wildly off-script chat lasting over an hour, Musk interestingly revealed his comfort with the notion of being universally despised. He quipped, “Hate away, there’s a real weakness to wanting to be liked.” While most of us might see wisdom in that statement, given the situation, it does come across as what rhymes with pit.
Still, Musk’s outlandish performance didn’t end there. Could it? What’s a Musk show without him chiming about our very impending doom due to artificial intelligence? Speaking about OpenAI, Musk left us pondering whether it’s the AI, him, or his tweets that we should be more terrified of. Not to mention his suggestion that the non-profit AI research lab should change its name because it’s “no longer open source” – rather being “super closed source for maximum profit AI.”
So there you have it, folks. Tesla shares might drop, advertisers can take a hike, and AI might obliterate us, but at least you’ve got an apology from an all-too-candid Musk. On the bright side, that might be worth more than Tesla’s stocks in the coming years. Who knows? With Musk around, it’s as unpredictable as a raccoon in a transformer box.
We just report it, dear readers; we can’t make this up!