This is not insult. It is malicious intent.

Weeks later someone talked to musk about it, and he replied "Bet ya signed dollar it's true".

Elon also hired private investigator to dig dirt on the diver but found nothing.

https://techcrunch.com/2018/07/15/elon-musk-tweets-hell-bet-...

Musk also emailed BuzzFeed reporter suggesting that the diver was a child rapist. Source: https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/ryanmac/elon-musk-cant-...

Some of my friends even said that musk was this confident, maybe musk knew something we didn't.

His excuse in court saying that "pedo guy" is just a common insult in Africa. Nobody in Africa uses this term.

The BuzzFeed email wasn't included in court because it wasn't public communication. Okay, dude, great justice system.

Please stop simping for musk. This person tried to destroy innocent lives with false pedophile accusation.

I think you again have missed the point that it was not an unprovoked comment. It was in response to another insult. I don't know how betting money on an insult makes it not an insult. It's one thing to attack someone because they dislike you or it's not provoked at all. It's another to respond to an ad hominem with another. Nobody is disputing he went far overboard than he needed to, and that his position gives him dangerous influence (as with many celebrities). In the end he deleted the tweets and apologized. Unless you have reason to believe that it's insincere, I'm not holding weight on a war of words.

What it emphasises is the need for self-moderation especially when your state of mind is in fight mode. The mistake here is Elon's stream of consciousness doesn't stay off of twitter for his own determent. That is not an inherently malicious thing. People get into arguments all the time and say stupid regrettable things in the moment. Playing out on the internet--especially with a big power dynamic at play no doubt is bad. But let's not forget we're not robots here--hence we're not sending people to jail after arguments.

"bet dollar" happened weeks later. This is not "in the moment" stuff.

He sent email to BuzzFeed report trying to get them to write about the child rapist.

He hired PI to dig dirt on the diver.

This is not a response to an insult.

Musk intended to destroy the diver's life with a false child rapist accusation.

Nah, he didn't apologize. He said in court that insisting somebody is a pedo is a common playground insult in Africa.

Yes Elon is known for manic states, it's not a new detail. The legal discovery process is basically also "digging up dirt", and both sides do it before a trial to bolster their cases. That doesn't imply malice (as in, wanting to harm someone aside from mocking them), which is also something for a jury to determine. And a jury decided, unanimously after viewing the totality of the case, that the comments did not amount to defamation.

> he didn't apologize > He said in court that insisting somebody is a pedo is a common playground insult in Africa.

Apologizing and making this clarification are not mutually exclusive things.

> The legal discovery process is basically also "digging up dirt"

Except that Elon hired a PI to do that way before he got sued.

Also, if child rapist is a common insult (this is elon's main defense in court), why would he need to dig up dirt on the diver?

Because Elon wanted to figure out if the diver had some history related to sexual assault.

> Yes Elon is known for manic states, it's not a new detail.

Are you implying it is okay for Elon to make false child rapist accusation?

I have no idea how his general trait is relevant with this specific event.

> Apologizing and making this clarification are not mutually exclusive things.

Nobody said they were mutually exclusive.

I am saying that he didn't apologize.

> And a jury decided, unanimously after viewing the totality of the case

First of all because BuzzFeed email wasn't included in the case

Second the diver had to prove damage, which was hard to do.

This is like Donald trump never commits sexual assault because he is not convicted.

Stepping back, are you normally calling your friends and families child rapists as a fun insult? Are those normal insults to you?

Let's keep emotion away to understand what's happening. You emphasise the alleged hate and are regurgitating the private investigator points. He made an accusation as an insult. And dug in on it, on his own FU money, to not lose the argument. It's not right, but missing the crucial context before and after: he was not the instigator, and he apologized for it after.

> Are you implying it is okay for Elon to make false child rapist accusation?

People say much worse than "pedo guy" in arguments, although this is subjective. In a response to another insult, I'll mark "Sorry pedo guy..." as an informal childish remark, not a sober threat with the intent to harm someone.

> Nobody said they were mutually exclusive. > I am saying that he didn't apologize.

I don't understand what you're saying here. This means he can apologize for and also clarify the context behind the insult. So far, his last words on the topic in sworn statements are that he didn't mean the comments to be a statement of fact and apologized.

> Second the diver had to prove damage, which was hard to do.

They had to prove if a reasonable person would take the statement as a fact of matter. Whatever dirt he dug up with an investigator is something that happened after the fact, and private comments he made digging in are self-inflicted collateral damage, not preceding the comments in question.

> I have no idea how his general trait is relevant with this specific event.

The totality of the case also needs to mention the context that he was trying to help, on his own dime, children who were trapped underground. It doesn't make his comments right, but taking statements at face value lacks human context.

Oh no you are right. I am in so much pain right now lmao.