Maybe you missed the part where Musk hired a private investigator to prove that the guy was a pedophile. The investigator lied about the evidence, and Musk did no due diligence but directed his PR team to leak those lies to the media, and then threw a hissy fit when the media didn't reprint those lies uncritically.

The whole "pedo guy is just a generic insult" is a laughable lie that Musk tried to float in court. The evidence is that Musk tried to ruin a guy because he had the audacity to call out his publicity stunt when directly asked during an interview. You need to stop defending Musk on this because what he did was incredibly dick-headed and vindictive.

The investigator lying about evidence is news to me, but hiring an investigator when someone sues you seems perfectly fair game? I mean, if you sued me over something frivolous and I had the resources for it, I'd tear your life apart too. Exchanging insults on twitter is one thing, filing lawsuits is something completely different.

Nobody comes across looking pretty here, sure. But it's a real struggle to care one way or another about it. Sounds like that's exactly what the jury thought.

Musk hired the investigator before the diver sued. The diver sued because Musk basically said "No it wasn't just an insult, I really believe he's a pedophile and I have evidence" to multiple parties. Musk tried to ruin a guys life because he said that Musk's submarine was a publicity stunt. In no way, shape, or form are what they did equivalent and you have a serious moral deficiency if you think they are. Its incredible to me that anyone would try to draw a moral equivalency here.

> Nobody comes across looking pretty here, sure. But it's a real struggle to care one way or another about it. Sounds like that's exactly what the jury thought.

The jury found for Musk because Musk didn't name the guy in his tweets. Thats why the diver lost. I don't think you can extrapolate from that verdict to "actually they were both equally bad."

> I'm guessing you've never spent time with Australians, they call everyone cunts. Who cares?

Being called a cunt by some jackass Australian and being called a pedophile by a wealthy influential individual are probably going to have wildly different effects on your life and how people see you. being a cunt alone is not a serious offense that ruins the lives of everyone involved.

> Of all the things to complain about Musk, this seems like the weakest.

I would argue it's the strongest.

"Pedo" is one of those accusations that sticks around associated with your name, often even when it's false.

Knowing that, Elon Musk, one of the best known people on the planet at this stage, called this to a real person. This can ruin a person's life. Did he have any evidence, even circumstantial? Nope. Did he have a reason for this attack? Only that he felt slighted.

So Elon Musk is ok with potentially ruining someone's life if he even as much as feels slighted.

I think even is the strongest hint of what his character is like. And character is, you could argue, the most important predictor of future behavior. I took this hint of character at face value, and after that I've never been surprised when I've since heard accusations of fraud or sexual harassment. No surprise whatsoever.

So if your reaction to this is Elon Must has potty mouth, you're either breathtakingly stupid or dishonest.