I've never seen a human being who more obviously "sought the approval of others." He has this weird negative charisma; like there are some people who light up the room by being in it. It's not that he darkens the room -- but it's that he needs the light from others. It just felt like he needed everyone to really like him, and I could so easily see how someone could take advantage of that.
That said, most presidents have had qualifications other than narcissism.
Same situation.
Can't a rich dude buy a company without goofy rumors being spread (scammed into buying Parler)?
Having a celebrity owner increases the value.
And Elon is just a completely normal guy?
In the midst of an uncontrolled manic episode? Often they are not.
Now, responsibility on the larger scale is indeed murky. We societally at once say addicts are and aren't responsible for their behavior (depending upon one's point of view and what acts took place): a drunk driver is treated differently than a homeless addict living under a bridge. Is Kanye 'addicted' to manic states? Should we look down upon him because he won't take his meds? I'm not sure.
Twitter clearly took full advantage of his irrational hard on to get a signed deal. Not “being scammed” in that Twitter very nuch did not seek out the deal, but they certainly fully leveraged his willingness to toss out preconditions any sane purchaser would demand.
> Having a celebrity owner increases the value.
As a mascot, maybe, unless they are polarizing and their area of negative appeal overlaps with the product’s market and their positve appeal doesn’t; but owners are also decision makers, and celebrity’s are going to be all over the map in that role.
(I have no particular reason to believe Musk is in anything less than full control of his faculties.)
This is no where near the same situation. When Elon originally put is offer to buy Twitter, Twitter didn't even want to sell. Then the market crashed and all the sudden Elon's own offer was almost double of the "fair market price" for Twitter.
Elon would be insane if he made the same offer today.
> 6 DE Code § 2705 (2019): Any person who has attained 18 years of age shall have full capacity to contract; provided such person has not been declared legally incompetent to contract for reasons other than age. Any person who has attained the age of 18 years shall become fully responsible for that person’s own contracts.
So I'd presume it would come down to what Delaware's Court of Chancery expects for someone to be "declared legally incompetent to contract." I'd imagine that's not something done lightly.
(IANAL)