The Elon Musk Controversy

The frequently rising name in controversies, Elon Musk now seems to be popular enough (okay, notorious enough) for his short temper and outspoken nature witnessed multiple times. To all the readers still unaware of this eccentric billionaire, though it’s almost impossible, Elon Reeve Musk or Elon Musk is the CEO of Tesla Motors, The Boring Company, SpaceX aaaand more, it doesn't stop here. With a series of his non-boring activities on Twitter so far, comes in the most recorded and hyped story of his apology to the famous diver Vern Unsworth.

Well giving a brief overview of all the scenario, it all began when 12-16-year-old soccer players with their coach aged 25 went missing in the Chang Rai’s cave in Tham Luang, Thailand. When the matter grabbed attention and it took almost two weeks to rescue the children, the SpaceX CEO jumped in with his team and ingenious ideas for the rescue. Elon was also requested by a number of Twitter users if there is any way he can help out in the rescue mission. Presenting the ideas of “air tunnel underwater” and “inflatable tube with airlocks”, he finally found the idea of mini-submarine named as "Wild Boar" to rescue the children, preventing the need of the children to swim, what they were unaware of. But the plan took much longer to get implemented.

Although [Musk’s] technology is good and sophisticated, it’s not practical for this mission.

One of the Rescue Operation Coordinators told the Guardian. 

That's a rational comment even though there is lesser detail on why the technology is not practical for the mission. And this is where things start to get ugly.

To every reader, the story seems pretty simple and easy to digest. On the same lines, it seems incapable of causing an exponential drop of $2 billion to Tesla’s market value. But the reason lies here. We are pretty much aware of how the billionaires show up on social media, boasting off their stuff and abilities. Elon didn’t appear to be an exception to this. His tweets during the rescue and even after it, though without using his “boar” continued in full spring. Elon also visited the cave system too but was asked to leave quickly. Vern Unsworth called his submarine car a "PR stunt" in an interview and told him to stick his submarine "where it hurts."

Offended by the comment and compelled by his unpredictable nature, Elon reacted in a rude manner, calling him a “pedo guy”, a term extremely informal and aggressive to be used by him. Though realizing the mistake and once again displaying his fluctuating personality, Elon deleted the tweets and apologized to Vern and his companies. Though removed, still it’s not easy to forget all that happened, when under consideration personality is the billionaire, Elon Musk.

Well going through the entire situation, it seems that the real fault may be on Elon considering he is a respected personality, he should have opted for a more rational statement. Moreover, instead of losing temper and realizing his mistake, a burning reply added fuel to the fire. Then, to shift the media attention, he made some even more silly statements on twitter getting him entangled in the fake data tracking controversy. It was on him to realize his position, his grace and the audience he deals with. Being so easily triggered and reacting such boldly doesn’t suit the apparently successful entrepreneur. But all this doesn’t deprive Unsworth of the part-shared fault for his offensive remarks

Well, this was all I came up with, whether u agree or got some conflicting views, do let me know in the comments below.

Image Credit: By Maurizio Pesce from Milan, Italia (Elon Musk, Tesla Factory, Fremont (CA, USA)) [CC BY 2.0  (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons