r/technology • u/lidama31 • Mar 08 '23
Elon Musk apologises to sacked Twitter worker over online row Business
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-648842874.3k
u/yParticle Mar 08 '23
"Oh, this might end up actually costing money. Perhaps I shall listen this once, but only in private. Don't want to risk a precedent."
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u/IHM00 Mar 08 '23
“(Even though he’s independently wealthy)” How many times was he gonna point that out? “Oh if I point out he’s not “a poor” then maybe the poor and common peasants won’t won’t take his side?”
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u/kingdead42 Mar 08 '23
Hey Elon, you know who else in this exchange isn't poor?
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u/IHM00 Mar 08 '23
Idk why every time I saw an article about this situation I kept seeing him say that and it stuck. Just another point on the detachment from reality scale for the spoiled boy.
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u/taws34 Mar 08 '23
Halli sold his company to Twitter for a salary. There were, likely, stipulations for a guaranteed employment length. Halli took they payment for his company as a salary to maximize his tax burden for Iceland.
Halli is also disabled, and Musk stated that as a contributing factor in his termination...
If Halli sued in Iceland, he'd probably get his company back, get Twitter for breach of contract, and a fat settlement check for discrimination.
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u/vitey15 Mar 08 '23
This Halli guy seems like a pretty decent dude
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u/Nago_Jolokio Mar 08 '23
He's basically the reason Iceland has an equivalent to the ADA laws we have in the US. Part of the money he was making went into putting wheelchair ramps into places.
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u/TheIcelandicDictator Mar 08 '23
Man of the year 2022, and an absolute kind soul, was also in the "áramótaskaup" jokes year review 2022 being the lad he is.
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u/viber_in_training Mar 08 '23
Which he should do. Fuck Elon and Twitter and let em burn
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u/DazeLost Mar 08 '23
Assuming that Twitter outlives his lawsuit. My assumption is that Musk is going to sit on the (many) mounting lawsuits against Twitter until it becomes someone else's problem or there's a bankruptcy solution.
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u/jsdod Mar 08 '23
"Should I call the guy a pedo or send him a weak apology blaming others for my mistakes? I'll just start typing and it's 50/50 what comes out"
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u/Black_Otter
Mar 08 '23
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Don’t use twitter to communicate! - Elon Musk
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u/breakupbydefault Mar 08 '23
The funny thing is Halli actually wanted to take it private but Elon and admin never answered any of his emails and told him he has legal permission to take it online. Now he's acting like Halli was the one airing dirty laundry for all to see.
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u/j4ym3rry Mar 08 '23
Thank you! I've been thinking this ever since Musk said that twitter wasn't the best way to communicate.
The guy only did it because Musk wouldn't communicate with him any other way! The original tweet from Halli sounded like a hail mary because he couldn't get any contact through formal channels.
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u/Stockpile_Tom_Remake Mar 08 '23
He also specifically asked musk to ask his lawyers if he could break his NDA and talk about his job to musk on Twitter and musk said yes.
Very quickly his lawyers likely told him to STFU
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u/IchWerfNebels Mar 08 '23
I LoLed when Musk publicly and in writing allowed an employee to violate signed NDAs by fucking tweeting internal company information. It must take active effort to be this stupid.
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u/TomTomMan93 Mar 08 '23
This was the tweet that blew me away more than any other. Came off more like a mad lord of an imaginary fief than a business person.
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u/Sisyphuslivinlife Mar 08 '23
Its surreal to see the reality of privilege and fanaticism in a single being so prominent and proudly displayed daily.
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u/Riaayo Mar 08 '23
Musk really is a window into the world of billionaire privilege, he just airs it in the open while the other parasites keep their shittiness and ignorance much more private.
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u/MeppaTheWaterbearer Mar 08 '23
It must take active effort to be this stupid
Or there has just never really been any, and never will be any consequences for the things he does.
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Mar 08 '23
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u/Iohet Mar 08 '23
He for sure has a personal lawyer on retainer to try to clean up his messes, much like Trump had Michael Cohen
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u/bendybiznatch Mar 08 '23
And didn’t ok his private medical information (accommodations through hr) to be blasted on Twitter.
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Mar 08 '23
Considering the amount of time Musk spends on Twitter it was probably easier than going through what's left of H.R. at Twitter.
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u/BloodlustyGummybear Mar 08 '23
It's already common knowledge consumers need to take problems to social media. Now employees have to get confirmation they've been fired that way.
Whoever's writing the story of humanity needs to cool it. It's not even believable anymore. Stick to the plot!
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u/s00perguy Mar 08 '23
Man, employers can't even have the fucking decency to tell you you're being considered for employment. I once had a guy call me a year and a half after I left a resume asking if I could start that weekend. They don't even have it in them to tell you not to wait up, or that you missed this hiring window. Just fucking nothing. Searching for work is so degrading.
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u/TheMurv Mar 08 '23
The generations above look at me like I'm fool for not calling jobs back to tell them when I am not interested. Please. Employers make it clear we don't even exist unless they are interested in exploiting us, then the second those employers decide they aren't interested in you anymore, you no longer exist again.
I'll treat them the same way, it's only fair. And I'll leverage every inch I have to exploit the most money per hour I can out of them.
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u/TheSheetSlinger Mar 08 '23
I always see LinkedIn recruiters complaining about being ghosted by candidates saying it's ruining g the candidates reputation in the industry and blaming it on the rise of social media, generational differences, etc but they never seem to blame the recruiting industry as a whole and how they ghosted candidates for years before candidates started doing it.
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u/sirbissel Mar 08 '23
My parents seem incredibly surprised when I tell them that, no, places I've applied to typically don't send rejection letters or calls or anything anymore (though I am pleasantly surprised when some of them do)
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u/unresolved_m Mar 08 '23
Twitter's customer service was not available for a comment.
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u/chrismamo1 Mar 08 '23
Really really weird to watch. Elon is like a terminally petty small-town floor manager of a chain restaurant, he gets off on publicly humiliating his subordinates. He thought he smelled blood in the water when the guy @'ed him.
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u/Philo_T_Farnsworth Mar 08 '23
I don't know why it was so easy to imagine Musk in a Chili's polo giving a waitress just out of high school a dressing down over screwing up the order at Table Six.
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u/topgun_ivar Mar 08 '23
It’s approved. Go ahead. Elon literally approved that conversation to happen
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u/explorer_76 Mar 08 '23
Something something de facto town square or something.
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u/NosCardiologist Mar 08 '23
Before a member of his optics team informs him, Elon is unaware of his actual hues.
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u/GeekFurious Mar 08 '23
"I'm so sorry I didn't look into the really well written & lawful termination contract you got Twitter executives to agree to when they acquired your company that I'm bound to and can't get out of, please don't exercise the termination clause and make me look even dumber." -- Elon Musk translator
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u/primus202 Mar 08 '23
Looks like one of Musk’s lawyers finally got a word in to try and reverse this whole mess. I don’t know why someone would go back to an employer after such a public insult though.
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u/CongruentInfluence Mar 08 '23 edited Mar 08 '23
I don’t know why someone would go back to an employer after such a public insult though.
1) As a "fuck you".
2) A person reinstated to a job as the consequence of a wrongful termination is legally protected from the employer taking any 'retaliatory action' against them. This is basically winning the lottery as a worker because the legal standard for an employer to prove something ISN'T a retaliatory action is virtually impossible to meet. (As it should be, considering the massive power disparity between the employer/employee)
EDIT: I'm not at all saying he should go back in this specific instance. Personally I would just take the termination clause money and then as a 'fuck you' let every lawyer in the world know that I want to pursue a lawsuit and lmao as the sharks do what they do best.
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u/Captain-i0 Mar 08 '23
With how Musk is handling things, I would be concerned that keeping my job at twitter means I’m only employed for a year or two anyway, because Twitter is going to be gone.
I would take the money for sure.
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u/Thomas_Schmall Mar 08 '23
Also, Musk wrote that he apologizes for someone giving him wrong 'or unimportant' information. The typical narcissist apology-non-apology.
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Mar 08 '23
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/taws34 Mar 08 '23
Halli sold his company, Ueno, to Twitter for a salary. There were likely stipulations for him to be employed at Twitter.
Terminating Halli's employment is likely a breach of contract for Twitter's acquisition, and probably has very stiff penalties.
Musk also used Halli's disability as a reason for his termination.
Twitter would be screwed in any court proceedings.
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u/drhunny Mar 08 '23 edited Mar 08 '23 •
GOLDEN HANDCUFFS!
So many people ragging on this guy for "starting a cafe" and "building wheelchair ramps" instead of earning his pay at twitter. Or detailed discussions about typing speed. None of that matters. His pay was golden handcuffs.
If you buy a guys tech company for $100M (EDIT: Someone else says that's only a guesstimate) , the last thing you want is him starting a new company. So you add a clause to the purchase that he has to be your employee and not work for any other tech company.
The best you can get is him reading internal proposals, listening in video conferences, etc., and coming up with ideas for you. Cause the last idea he had you were willing to pay him $100M. If he also arranges for wheelchair ramps or starts a ridiculous tunnel-digging company, that's fine. Even if he blows off the videoconferences and spends every day golfing it's OK, because at least he's not competing with you and that's what you're really paying him for.
That guys lawyer no doubt advised him to document reasonable and escalating attempts to clarify his employment. Ending up with a tweet to Elon.
And then Elon stepped directly on the land mine. "I don't know who you are so you're fired!" Turns out, apparently the sales contract was structured to pay this guy the $100M over the course of his employment. Which means that Elon now has to write out a $100M check to a guy who's email is flooded with offers to join ever other tech company on the planet, listening to their internal ideas and advising their CEOs.
EDIT: According to u/Lashay_Sombra Halli was getting about $700K per month in salary! How do you buy a company and not know the names of the top few earners? Or why you're paying some guy you've never met $10M a year? Here's a lesson, kids. Don't skip "due diligence".
And Elon doesn't have $100M in cash to hand over. It would be epically ironic if this new short-term debt forces another Tesla stock sale which triggers the leveraged debt clauses. Not likely but it's fun to think about.
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u/BiZzles14 Mar 08 '23
So you add a clause to the purchase that he has to be your employee and not work for any other tech company
It's not even that, Halli literally wanted to work at Twitter and wanted it added himself. He structured the deal as a long term salaried pay out as well so that he would pay more taxes to Iceland considering all the support he has received from Icelandic healthcare and wanted to pay it back. Which, for a second could we ever imagine Elon doing anything like that?
Which means that Elon now has to write out a $100M check
And likely not just that, Elon basically indicated he was being fired for being disabled. He also publicly disclosed medical information about Halli which is, IANAL, possibly a GDPR violation according to some lawyers I've seen talking about it. Twitter isn't going to have to payout just his remaining amount owed, but likely wrongful dismissal, wrongful character attacks against a former employee (saying he's horrible to work with or whatever it was exactly), and privacy violations. If, assuming Halli takes legal action around this, Twitter ends up paying out only the remainder of his contract owed then they're extremely lucky
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u/oszlopkaktusz Mar 08 '23
It's both a GDPR and an ADA breach. Musk's efficacy for violating laws is unmatched.
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u/RabidGuineaPig007 Mar 08 '23
Because he has yet to see a single repercussion for his narcissism. How he is still CEO of Tesla is incredible.
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u/AITHASNTEEN Mar 08 '23
And in the process, he admitted that Twitter made no accommodations for an employee who could talk but not type.
Even in America, which had terrible worker protections, this would be considered unacceptable.
Voice to text software suitable for many functions is free. Specialized voice to text for specific environments is still pretty affordable.
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u/Bakkster Mar 08 '23
It sounds like they had indeed made accommodations, his ability to type being limited they gave him a suitable senior advisory role. Halli's only complaint with the situation seemed to be that in better circumstances he wouldn't have sold to Twitter, but it was a better result than he'd have gotten running things himself.
It's only Musk who later swooped in, decided senior advisory positions for "independently wealthy" individuals should be exclusive to him, and doubted Halli's disability because he could type on Twitter (as Halli put it, it's strenuous after about 2 hours, making a full day of software development infeasible, versus short bursts of swipe trying on a phone with one finger).
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u/Objective-Gear-600 Mar 08 '23
Yeah and Elon is a tech guy but he didn’t know anything about assistive technology. The way he mocked the guy for posting but doesn’t even understand that the guy could be typing with speech to text!
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u/mnemy Mar 08 '23
Accessibility isn't sexy though. I'm 100% sure Elon has rolled his eyes and left the meetings every time the meetings turn to such boring topics.
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u/redfriskies Mar 08 '23
Musk has fired the accessibility team at Twitter.
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u/jredmond Mar 08 '23
The entire accessibility team. In the first round of layoffs, one week after he let that sink in.
IIRC most of the a11y team got snatched up quickly by other companies. I hope they got big raises, because they were damned good.
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u/Kichigai Mar 08 '23 edited Mar 08 '23
Tesla factories infamously have no bright yellow warning lines on the floor because Elon doesn't like the color yellow. 0% chance he has any interest in accessibility.
Edit: Added link.
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u/Quirky-Ad5417 Mar 08 '23
Elons true colors until someone from his optics team tells him.
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u/player_493 Mar 08 '23
Optics team gave up a while ago. This looks more like the legal team.
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u/fckiforgotmypassword Mar 08 '23
Yep, and he only cares because it’s going to cost him a shit ton of money
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u/sjhesketh Mar 08 '23
He doesn't have an optics team at Twitter. He fired everyone there who might reign him in. Tesla and SpaceX have people there to keep him from destroying those businesses. Twitter is Elno alone.
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u/fizzlefist Mar 08 '23
Pretty sure he laid off the optics team. As Ars Technica’s writers like to note in Twitter articles “Twitter no longer has a communications department to respond to questions.”
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u/Spiritual_Navigator Mar 08 '23 edited Mar 08 '23
Halli is known in Iceland as one of the nicest guys on our Island.
When he sold his company to twitter he said in an interview that if anyone is having financial/health difficulties then he was willling to support them financially.
The same year he was the so called tax king of Iceland, nobody came close to how much tax he paid.
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u/Smegmaliciousss Mar 08 '23
Also in the article it says he has been named person of the year by 4 different Icelandic media organizations. Elon really chose the wrong person to pick on.
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u/Skeptix_907 Mar 08 '23
Now it makes sense why Elon hates him. Halli is something he will never be and can never be, no matter how much his stock goes up.
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u/Hay_Fever_at_3_AM
Mar 08 '23
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I wouldn't consider this an apology
"I would like to apologise to Halli for my misunderstanding of his situation. It was based on things I was told that were untrue or, in some cases, true, but not meaningful."
this is a narcissistic asshole's idea of an apology, it absolves him of any actual fault.
It didn't matter what information Elon had or didn't have, his behavior was unacceptable and shitty.
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u/Cucumbers-are-snakes Mar 08 '23 edited Mar 08 '23
Exactly. He didn't "apologize". I kinda hate the fact people report this as an apology.
"I am sorry! I should not have acted the way I did" is an apology.
"I would like to apologize, I was not told I shouldn't be a dick to this person in particular" is an arrogant corporate ass-coverage.
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u/Im_bad_at_commenting Mar 08 '23
He is apologize cause he just found out he has to pay him 100mil for the deal he had with Twitter when they bought this guy's company. Not to mention the millions he will make from taking Twitter to the court.
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u/Cycleguy57 Mar 08 '23
Help me out here: considering the circumstances and the benefits of leaving, why would anyone even consider for a millisecond staying employed by Elon Musk?
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u/Cobaltjedi117 Mar 08 '23 edited Mar 08 '23
Purely speculation and extrapolating from what is known about the kind gentleman. He took the job instead of a buyout so he could pay MORE in taxes to give back to the community that got him to where he is now. Dude lives in Iceland which has labor laws saying elon can't just demand you work 80 hour weeks. So for him not much may have actually changed and he still wants to pay taxes.
EDIT: To everyone telling me he should take the firing and the money, yes, thank you. I agree that's what he should have done since if there's no twitter there's no job.
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u/neon_overload Mar 08 '23
A competent ceo might, you know, be aware of a $100mil liability on the balance sheet and what it's for.
Or at least look the dude up in the hr system
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u/Pluto_P Mar 08 '23
The weird thing: elon knew about his handicap... So he did figure that part out?
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u/haskell_rules Mar 08 '23
My company decided to pull the records of badge swipe access, and then had a low level employee put together a spreadsheet to subtract swipe in time from swipe out time. Then they targeted everyone that was in the office for under a certain amount of time.
There was no discrimination in the process - this forced directors, traveling sales people, etc to answer why weren't in the office in accusatory meetings under threat of being terminated immediately. High performing engineers that worked in a lab across the street had to sit with HR reps and explain to them that they actually were working 60+ hours a week.
In other words, I 100% believe a company would do something stupid like fire 100's of people in a sweeping, blanket action after looking at a keystroke logger report.
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u/valdocs_user Mar 08 '23
At a previous company I left, I was regularly getting such accusatory meetings asking why I hadn't made progress on project metrics and to justify what I had done with my hours.
I later found out the dashboard and report this manager was looking at, that had him so incensed, was based on data updated manually by someone else who was busy and only got to it about a weeks backlog. So it always looked like our development team was weeks behind where we projected and claimed in our stand-ups. It was because THE REPORT was weeks behind, not us. And it didn't even show all our projects, so we were working >50 hour weeks and looking like we were working <30.
I tried telling him this but somehow he kept forgetting or wouldn't believe me. I tried asking for access to update the data ourselves but was denied. Finally I got tired of being yelled at to justify and try to remember and prove everything I did each month so left for another job.
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Mar 08 '23
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So...
This guy's computer access got wiped, but HR couldn't tell him if he was laid off or not.
He tweeted at Elon, and Elon made fun of his disability and wouldn't answer if he's still hired or not.
Then people started writing articles about this, because not only was it a dick move, but this guy had sold his business to Twitter a couple years ago and has a giant golden parachute that kicks in if he's laid off.
So now Musk is trying to get him to stay on. And his excuse is that Tweets aren't good for communication...
Mr Musk replied: "Based on your comment, I just did a video call with Halli to figure out what's real vs what I was told. It's a long story. Better to talk to people than communicate via tweet."
Just constantly making the wrong choice
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u/dracovich Mar 08 '23 •
He honestly couldn't have picked a person easier to sympathise with, like how was he going to make him look bad?
The guy has muscular dystrophy, and been in a wheelchair slowly deteriorating for over 20 yeras. Despite this he (coming from nothing) starts up a successful design company, and decides to sell it to Twitter because his body is failing him.
He specifically chooses his payout as salary rather than other payment forms, and effectively doubles his tax payout (to roughly 50%) because he wants to pay back to the social welfare system that helped him when he was young.
He then uses a lot of his remaining money to build 1,500 ramps in Iceland to make the country more wheelchair accessible for future generations.
He's also very smart and eloquent, his scathing thread shitting on Elon was something to behold:
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u/spock_block Mar 08 '23
Closest thing I've seen to digital murder.
My family is the best. I have two kids. I see them every day. I recommend that.
We grew fast and made money. I think that's what you are referring to when you say independently wealthy? That I independently made my money, as opposed to say, inherited an emerald mine.
But like you I made a bet on Twitter having a lot more potential than it has had.
Is there something beyond 3rd degree burns?
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u/foggy-sunrise Mar 08 '23
My favorite line:
There was a lot going on. The company had a fair amount of issues, but then again, most bigger companies do.
Or even small companies, like Twitter today.
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u/Immediate-Yogurt-558 Mar 08 '23
this one is my favorite: "Oh! I forgot to mention that I read you can't go to the toilet on your own either @elonmusk I'm sorry to hear about that. I know the feeling. The only difference is I can't do it because of a physical disability and you're afraid someone you hurt will attack you while you poop."
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u/Zanta647 Mar 08 '23
What a fucking roast of the most divorced man alive. 💀
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u/Ill-Poet-3298 Mar 08 '23
He also has like 10 kids which I'm sure he never sees.
Unrelated, but his father had two kids with his own stepdaughter. So that's fun. It's a pretty fucked up family.
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u/unresolved_m Mar 08 '23
Elon's mom also defended him on Twitter. So much for all the jokes about poor people living in mom's basement.
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u/Expensive-Ad-4508 Mar 08 '23
“I joined at a time when the company was growing fast. You kind of did the opposite.
There was a lot going on. The company had a fair amount of issues, but then again, most bigger companies do.
Or even small companies, like Twitter today.”
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u/martinap Mar 08 '23
Halli is a legend in the design industry, and his way of writing (and slight digs like this) are always so so tonally impactful.
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u/Shaper_pmp Mar 08 '23
They're not slight digs.
They're fucking stiletto knives precisely slotted into every sensitive nerve cluster in Musk's life - his wealth, his failings as a father and husband, his self-made image - while Musk crassly thrashes around acting like a vulgar moron, criticising people for being disabled, making himself look even dumber and implicating himself in hundreds of millions of dollars of wrongful termination and breach of contract lawsuits.
Just because they're elegant and refined, don't confuse them with gentleness. Musk makes a lot of noise and tries to smash his opponent with a sledgehammer with very little success or tangible effect, and meanwhile this guy very quietly and effortlessly dissects Musk's entire life with a fucking letter-opener.
This is like a masterclass in the art of taking someone apart in a way that Musk's bluster and army of online fanboys just have no answer to.
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u/anima173 Mar 08 '23
He even gave Musk a chance to opt out of the convo and take it private. But I think he knew Elon can’t resist the bait. It just makes Elon look so much dumber choosing to double down and get into it with him. And it makes it so clear that Elon doesn’t even bother to actually check his own company records. He could have easily found out every piece of information said in the conversation before it happened just by having an assistant look into it before he starts bloviating on Twitter. But just like Trump, Elon chases narcissistic supply rabidly without regard to warnings or the cornucopia of information at his disposal.
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u/Burian0 Mar 08 '23
The irony on Elon not knowing who the guy is, is that I knew right away that the guy might not be a Joe nobody just by noticing he had a verified Twitter account.
Elon's attempt to sell the legitimacy of the blue checkmark fooled even himself, unsurprisingly.
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u/grammerwithanA Mar 08 '23
Oh boy. He then went on:
I joined at a time when the company was growing fast. You kind of did the opposite. There was a lot going on. The company had a fair amount of issues, but then again, most bigger companies do. Or even small companies, like Twitter today.
Anyway, I digress, are you still reading? Or is the bathroom break over? What was I saying? Ah yes, and then you bought the company and told employees you weren't firing 75% of them. Which you then did. …
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u/fadeux Mar 08 '23
He spoke to Elon Musk as a peer would, not as someone who thought of themself "lesser than". His self assurance comes off the words as I read them. We would hope Elon is smart enough to know he has been had, or that his lawyers made that clear to him lol.
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u/LizzyKitten Mar 08 '23
I guarantee that Musk's legal team dedicate a paralegal solely to monitoring his Twitter so that they can alert the lawyers. His little tirade came to an abrupt end as soon as one of those lawyers looked up who Halli is, realized the 100M golden parachute he was under, and immediately contacted Musk lmao
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u/Particular_Ad_9531 Mar 08 '23
Musk is literally under an order from the SEC that requires any tweets related to Tesla be pre-vetted by a company lawyer as he got caught lying in a blatant (and successful) attempt to manipulate share prices. He’s repeatedly tried to have the order vacated but as far as I know it’s still in place.
Dude is a pure grifter.
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u/antsam9 Mar 08 '23
190 million I believe
also, he revealed his former employee's disability in a public forum
he also said he fired said employee over the disability
He owes the golden parachute, violation of personal medical information, wrongful firing and disability discrimination.
Elon was raked over coals over how the hard the roasts are. And he had to publicly apologize.
I don't think there's room for any more L's in this situation unless Elon as a long piece up his ass so he can clear a tetris.
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u/Time2kill Mar 08 '23
He was chosen as Iceland's Person of the Year in 2022!
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u/KFJ943 Mar 08 '23
For a good reason - The guy basically got a shitload of money when he sold his company, Ueno, to Twitter - He went out of his way to make the sale happen in Iceland so he could pay taxes on the sale. He also started a nonprofit dedicated to improving wheelchair accessibility in Reykjavík, which has been going phenomenally - He's given a lot of his own money to that.
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u/micktorious Mar 08 '23
Elon Musk: "Someone as worthless as $100 million gets NOTHING from me!"
He really tried to play the wealth card too, like this dude has a good chunk of his wealth from his company.
But no, Elon can't be bothered to know to deeply about anyone below X amount of wealth.
Really showing your true colors Elon. Fuck Elon Musk.
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u/RandyDinglefart Mar 08 '23
"I would like to apologise to Halli for my misunderstanding of his situation. It was based on things I was told that were untrue or, in some cases, true, but not meaningful."
Notice how he still doesn't really accept any blame. I couldn't help it, I was misled! Yeah it was just bad intel that made you publicly mock someone's career and disability. Really you just thought he was another worthless prole you could shit on for bro points.
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u/nowake Mar 08 '23
"bad intel"
Like bro, Halli was Iceland's person of the year, just last year. Warrants further research, at the very least. Any damn fucker could have found this out and told you.
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u/PM_YOUR_ISSUES Mar 08 '23
I really love the hedge of "true but not meaningful." Ahh, yes, just in case the people I am throwing under the bus by saying that they lied to me come back and say they told the truth; I'm already saying that any truth they told was worthless.
It's just straight to throwing everyone under the bus. Oh? You told Elon the truth and responded to what he asked you for? Too bad, it was meaningless and you are terrible at your job.
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u/bigfatfurrytexan Mar 08 '23
This is crass, but a saying goes that you don't pick a fight with a disabled person because you cannot win, no matter the outcome. This is a perfect example of how karma kicks your ass when you pull that shit.
The dude is disabled, and took his payment from Twitter at a time that it would maximize his tax charge....so he could repay Iceland (and its people) for supporting him while on disability. I mean....the dudes fucking halo is blinding me at this point to a point I can't even see if Elon had a point beyond being a dick.
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u/drhunny Mar 08 '23 edited Mar 08 '23
Wrong theme. This guy may be physically disabled, but he's a frigging genius.
He maneuvered Elon into ending their relationship at exactly the right time for him and the wrong time for Elon.
His pay at Twitter was golden handcuffs. The sales contract apparently had a clause that he had to stay there and take his $100M payoff (EDIT: In another pose someone says that's only an estimate) in the form of a paycheck. It really didn't matter to Twitter's end goals if he did any actual work, though they probably valued his advice (i mean, he did create a $100M tech company from scratch).
What he did here was carefully document a series of appropriate steps to clarify his employment. Numerous attempts through his boss and HR. No doubt also numerous private internal emails, voicemails, etc that his lawyers have records of.Finally the public question. And Elon fired him. So now Elon has to pay out the entire contract this year instead of over the next decade. And now he's free to be a strategy advisor to some other tech company not run by a narcissist.
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u/bigfatfurrytexan Mar 08 '23
It is pretty fucking sweet when you put it that way, huh?
Every time I revisit this story I get to see another perspective that makes it just a little better.
I don't cheer for Elon's demise or anything. But when someone acts an ass I do enjoy seeing that the world around me hasn't lost its mind or spine.
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u/phormix Mar 08 '23
Elon fired him AND released him from NDA in a public forum, then mentioned confidential info that Elon himself was likely not literally allowed to disclose.
Talk about slitting your own throat
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u/himswim28 Mar 08 '23
So now Elon has to pay out the entire contract this year
That way he gets paid before Twitter declares bankruptcy.
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u/SpacecaseCat Mar 08 '23 edited Mar 08 '23
Elon: "So how do we lay this useless chud off?"
*5 weeks later*
Elon: "Does anyone know who did the designs for the support page? We need them to fix this bug ASAP. No one knows? UGH. You, the guy with the blinky eye. You're fired next!"
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u/Aikidi Mar 08 '23
You can even tell he gets how these conversations go. First bullet point "I saved us $500k this year just on SaaS spend" and Elon still has the balls to ask what he does.
Dude if I did a single thing that saved the company more than my salary is worth, that's the only bullet point you need this year.
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u/FeloniousDrunk101 Mar 08 '23
Also a great example of why we should tax the rich instead of relying on the whims of eccentric billionaires and their pet charities or psychopathic causes.
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u/DividedState Mar 08 '23
The last part makes it so hilarious.
~+~+~
"Better to talk to people than communicate via tweet."
- Elon Musk, CEO of Twitter (bought with $USD 44 bln.)
~+~+~
The joke writes itself.
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u/dcrico20 Mar 08 '23
“Based on your comment…” AKA “I just got off the phone with legal” lmao
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u/MrLivefromthe215 Mar 08 '23
I could only imagine the billable hours being a Musk lawyer.
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u/dbcspace Mar 08 '23
How many hours have you billed elon since he took over twitter?
Musk Lawyer: LOL All of them
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u/gertigigglesOSS Mar 08 '23
Wasn’t one of the worker’a comments literally “i would prefer to speak about this in private so i don’t breach contract” - Musk was literally given the option to keep it quiet and ignored it because of his ego. What a clown.
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u/SgtDoughnut Mar 08 '23 •
Yep he even asked for permission in writing to talk about these things, which elon gave him.
Elon is proving to everyone, that the rich are in no way smarter or higher skilled than the rest of us, and if anything they tend to be just dumber and lucky.
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u/FlipskiZ Mar 08 '23
Elon is doing a great job right now of showing everyone just how much you can fail upwards by just being a walking bag of money.
Because that's all he really is. With the actual competent people just trying to placate the bag of money so they can get the actual work done. Too bad they rarely see an equivalent level of success, because all they have is "skill" and "being competent", and not money and ownership which is what's actually favored in society.
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Mar 08 '23
Described pretty well here in "The Glass Floor" : https://www.huffpost.com/entry/the-glass-floor-is-keeping-americas-richest-idiots-at-the-top_n_5d9fb1c9e4b06ddfc516e076
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u/taliawut Mar 08 '23
For my money, he demonstrated that adequately enough by calling that British diver a pedo. At the same time, it seemed to me that they had both engaged in back and forth insults, but I recall that later Musk said to a reporter who was asking about it to stop listening to child rapists.
I'm not clear on the latter detail, and will certainly stand corrected as necessary. I was fairly angry with him though, a man with extraordinary wealth and influence, for calling that diver a pedo when he was in the midst of a cave rescue involving boys.
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u/spottyrx Mar 08 '23
he demonstrated that adequately enough by calling that British diver a pedo.
So very true. A guy who is actually there and willing to put his life on the line in a cave dive to save others is getting zinged with high school taunts by a millionaire asshole flying around in a private jet. This recent event is just par for the course.
Make no mistake, his change of heart is a business decision. Elon fires and slams a guy in a wheelchair who intentionally structured the sale of his company so he'd pay a high tax rate to his home country, and who is an advocate for accessibility. Elon is then told there's no way to spin this into "Elon being Elon" along with pointing out how many investors and world leaders are either disabled or sympathize with the cause, so he has to backtrack. Has nothing to do with his conscience.
Elon is a fucking asshole, end to end.
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u/Richeh Mar 08 '23
I think "business decision" is putting it too grandiosely. I would say that describes a decision to axe an unprofitable project, or donate to a charity for the optics.
This is a panic-stricken child attempting to undo what he did on a cruel whim before the actual consequences come due. It's as much a business decision as it is medical attention when a child drops the BB gun and tells his baby brother "shh, you're okay, stop crying, don't tell mom" through their bloodied wailings. And it should be noted that the baby brother here is taking this like a champ, doing literally everything he can to do this right.
Musk just thought he could act like a prick with no repercussions, or that he could tank the consequences because he's rich as fuck. Then someone came into his office with Thorleiffson's contract and explained carefully that the consequences for being a prick to this one particular person might be more than you expected, Mister Elon sir, and Musk's frantically trying to take it back.
He's still a prick to plenty of other people. He laid off thousands of directors and demanded that the remainder made up the shortfall. As hilarious as it is that he's losing money hand over fist, these are real peoples' jobs he's destroying.
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u/reliseak Mar 08 '23
Don’t forget that Elon then hired a PI to “investigate” the diver to try to come up with some evidence that he had engaged in pedophilia (which was, of course, unsuccessful). But it’s really scary that one of the world’s richest men can publicly smear you and have you stalked/harassed just for disagreeing with him publicly.
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u/neospartan646 Mar 08 '23
Years ago while this was happening, my coworker talked about awesome Elon was for doing that. The coworker asked me if I thought it would e great if I could do that and I replied "what, be a bully with no consequences?" He did not like that.
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u/absentmindedjwc Mar 08 '23
I heard a story from Elon's childhood earlier - elon made fun of a schoolmate about his father recently committing suicide (which.. you know.. tracks), the kid pushed musk down the stairs putting him in the hospital. Musk's dad actually defended the other kid instead of his own. That tells me everything you need to know about musk...
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u/fulento42 Mar 08 '23
His ego is such because he can always behave like this with zero repercussions. Just like every other billionaire in America.
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u/whateverisok Mar 08 '23
Not just write articles about him, but mentioned all the amazing things he did in Iceland: when Twitter acquired his company, he structured it so that he paid the highest tax rate in Iceland (so he's helping out everyone in Iceland); he successfully campaigned for better wheelchair access (for people with disabilities); and he was voted Person of the Year in Iceland.
Halli is noteworthy and seems like an amazing & very generous person, and that should be mentioned more often
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u/Voroxpete Mar 08 '23
This is the part that's absolutely hilarious to me. Like, not only did Musk very obviously admit to actual crimes but firing this guy, as well as some very expensive contract violations, but just the fact that he sat down and thought "Eh, I'll just trash this guy on the internet, everyone will think I'm the lovable rascally hero after I tell them all what a piece of shit he is", and then it turns out the guy he's picking on is just the nicest human being on Earth. Like, comicly, cartoonishly altruistic; a caricature of a decent human being.
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u/Foervarjegfacer Mar 08 '23
Halli is so well-liked that I heard about him before this kerfuffle. No specifics, but the story of his generosity, grace and kindness. And I'm not from Iceland.
Finding out that this was the guy Elon went for is... Even with all the extremely stupid and obvious dumb idiocy Musk gets up to, I was flabbergasted.
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u/TheHappyMask93 Mar 08 '23
"Communicating with my social communication app fucking sucks"
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u/EnoughAwake Mar 08 '23
Can I still say roflcopter
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u/Makaidi39 Mar 08 '23
The roflcopter will never die as long as you and me keeps it alive!
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u/somegridplayer Mar 08 '23
He tweeted at Elon, and Elon made fun of his disability and wouldn't answer if he's still hired or not.
Not only did he make fun of him for his disability but pretty much flat out said he was fired due to his disability.
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u/neon_overload Mar 08 '23 edited Mar 09 '23
Worth mentioning that he only tweeted Elon after repeatedly trying to contact him for over a week, including formally in writing, and had simply been ghosted.
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u/DoomTay Mar 08 '23
He asked HR and they didn't know what to answer
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u/JoeMcDingleDongle Mar 08 '23
HR probably is like one person at Twitter now since he fired everyone.
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u/pipboy_warrior Mar 08 '23
If I understand Thorleifsson was taking salary instead of a lump payout when he sold his business. He took the salaried option specifically because it would pay a high rate of tax to the Icelandic government.
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u/jokl66 Mar 08 '23
Yes, and IFUC provision was that, upon termination, the rest would be payed out in one sum - millons of dollars. Thus the Muskrat's backpedalling :)
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u/rhunter99 Mar 08 '23 edited Mar 08 '23
And he was given an award in Iceland for being one of the good guys
edit: "Haraldur Þorleifsson, known as Halli, has garnered multiple Person of the Year Awards from various Icelandic media outlets, including from national broadcaster RÚV, Morgunblaðið, and Vísir."
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u/whateverisok Mar 08 '23
Person of the Year in Iceland (by multiple news outlets)
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u/FabulousWhelp Mar 08 '23
Building 1500 wheelchair-accessible ramps within Iceland. & many other stuff, even featured in the United Nations.
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Mar 08 '23
[deleted]
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u/Y-Bob Mar 08 '23
Pretty sure this guy's butter slipped off his toast.
Like that one
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u/NikkoE82 Mar 08 '23
Elon hits pedestrian.
“Oops. Better to take the bus than drive.”
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u/Dance_Retard Mar 08 '23
Also, after Elon was telling him to prove his worth in front of the masses, all of Elons buttlickers mocked the guy about his disability, saying he's useless etc.
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u/mitchmoomoo Mar 08 '23
This was undoubtedly the worst part of it.
Like, I really want to meet one of these tools. What motivates them to pile on in support of Musk?
What do they like about him bullying people and trying to embarrass them publicly?
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u/Dance_Retard Mar 08 '23
Elon is rich and has power from that, they get to line up behind him and live out their power fantasies through him. They feel powerless over many things in their lives but in their little cult-like group they get to be "above" someone else.
I think they also desperately look up to him as a father figure as that's what they are lacking.
The ridiculous thing is that they are often mocking people who are far more competent than themselves, but I suppose that adds to it for them, gives them a kick.
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u/Quantius Mar 08 '23
Insecurity and lack of control in their owns lives. People like Musk allow them to feel powerful, even if only momentarily. And Musk thought this would be an easy layup where he would dunk on some dude he thought he had the dirt on (he doesn't do any work, because all the things he listed are fake work), and all his buttsniffers would pile on and cheer for Musk so they could all point and laugh.
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u/drgngd Mar 08 '23
I straight wouldn't have answered musk's call and told him "please speak with my legal counsel"
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u/neon_overload Mar 08 '23
I'm 100% confident this is what's happening there's like tens or hundreds of millions twitter owes this guy
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u/ragnarocknroll Mar 08 '23
Lol, “we blocked your ability to talk to us via established channels, but it is your fault I was a duck to you when you finally got me to notice.”
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u/RichysRedditName Mar 08 '23
Lawyers told him to apologize. Let's be real. Elon lacks empathy
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u/weegeeboltz Mar 08 '23
I ended up going down a rabbit hole last night reading about Halli Thorleifsson and learned a little bit about him as absolutely amazing citizen of Iceland, dynamic tech leader, disability advocate and all around solid human being.
The difference between Halli and Musk and how they operate not only as captains of industry, but overall human beings is a very stark contrast. I truly enjoyed the way he was able to expose Elon's questionable leadership by opening a door for him put his worst impulses on display. The kid who got thrown down a flight of stairs for making a low blow about someones Fathers suicide, apparently never learned anything.
I really hope the PR Halli got from this helps his new restaurant become a smash hit in Iceland. https://annajona.is/
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u/orionsfyre
Mar 08 '23
edited Mar 08 '23
•
Here's the short of it...
Elon is a not a good guy. He's an aggressive jerk who happened to be born on third base who got lucky with the right investment in the right technology at the right time.
He is not capable of respecting other people. He's lucky because he's essentially never had to. When you have that much money, most people are either afraid of you, or they want to be your best friend. It leads him to constantly have a sense of entitlement, and a complete lack of empathy for what his actions cause to others.
Even his long time defenders often will admit that their idol is just not a person who cares about others. Sadly, this is why many of them idolize him, they want to be able to have that same "non-caring attitude" but lack the resources to be able to be insulated from their non-caring.
He is a highly functional sociopath with more money then sense.
This entire "row" was caused by him speaking before he knew the situation, and then doubling down because He feels he is constantly a victim, while he's actually the villain.
Think about this... dude is in his 50's and is just now realizing that Twitter is a terrible way to communicate complicated employment matters with millions of people? Really?
(in his 50s!)
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u/SrGhSrGh Mar 08 '23
"I would like to apologise to Halli for my misunderstanding of his situation. It was based on things I was told that were untrue or, in some cases, true, but not meaningful." "He is considering remaining at Twitter," he added.
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u/maraca101 Mar 08 '23
What a non apology. Not taking responsibility for his own actions in this whole thing. Reminds me of some narcissists I know who cannot apologize to save their lives.
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u/codition Mar 08 '23
"true, but not meaningful" is such a funny little insecure man clause to include lol. he could have easily left it at "things I was told that were untrue"
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u/TRBigStick
Mar 08 '23
•
Halli if you’re reading this, please force Elon to pay you your $100M immediately (plus whatever you’d get from a discrimination/sensitive medical information lawsuit). I’ve read up on your philanthropy efforts, and that money would be better off in your hands.
Elon thinks that people are pavement to be walked on. Show him that you’re a fucking land mine.
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u/trainsaw Mar 08 '23
If he goes back then any sliver of possibility that Elon wouldn’t treat the next guy like shit is gone. If he’s ever going to learn it’s going to be through his wallet
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u/Marcusafrenz Mar 08 '23
Elon doesn't just have fuck you money, he has fuck my lawyers advice money, fuck learning a lesson money, fuck you I'll spend billions to buy an online megaphone so you can't ignore me money.
So in other words I sincerely doubt a settlement is going to teach him anything. He didn't even write the apology tweet himself.
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u/trainsaw Mar 08 '23
If money wasn’t an issue he would have never even followed up, he obviously cares about some aspect of it. He didn’t walk that back out of the goodness of his heart
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u/GreatBigJerk Mar 08 '23
Money isn't an issue for him personally, but Twitter is ripping the copper out of the walls and giving handies in the alley in order to survive.
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u/QiyanasStoriesYT Mar 08 '23
There is this meme:
'Instead of saying to people: "Have a nice day"
I will start saying: "Have a day you deserve.
You know, let the Karma sort things out.'
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u/Marcusafrenz Mar 08 '23
Correction Elon Musk's lawyer writes an apology tweet. I mean honestly compare his apology tweet to anything he's written before it's so obvious he didn't write that shit.
I knew the moment I saw the full back and forth as well as the 9 tweet response by the worker that Elon's lawyer was absolutely face palming and trying to reach him to shut the fuck up.
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u/ThatScottishGuy91 Mar 08 '23
I cant stand Elon Musk, Im so glad hes been exposed as the brainless, heartless and nutless fraud that he truly is. Complete loser. Imagine inheriting Daddys Emerald mine, buying the ideas of far smarter people than he was, becoming the richest man in the world and deluding people into thinking you are a genius..
Yet losing it all because you are so impossibly fucking stupid and never matured beyond the age of 12. Absolute loser. Billionaires are truly scum
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u/enjoy_it_all_chi Mar 08 '23
Somebody deleted a comment saying Elon’s contractual payout to this guy would be fractions of a percentage of his net worth. But it’s gone far beyond that. We’re not only talking about his contractual obligations here. Elon’s comments and actions are not only a breach of contract, but defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress, which cracks the door on general compensatory damages. And given how much actual malice Elon exhibited toward a private individual, punitive damages would be an easy sell to a jury.
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u/dantevonlocke Mar 08 '23
Also. Elon worth is not liquid. It's massive amounts of stocks in things like Tesla. His value is subjective at best.
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u/RoguePilot_43 Mar 08 '23
I wish Halli was a role model for all rich people.
Instead of claiming triumphantly;
'This is how much tax I've managed to avoid, look at all of this money I've managed to keep, suck it losers'
how about;
'This is how much more money I'm able to give up in taxes than you, hoping to get the number one spot next year'.
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u/CornCobKnobGobbler Mar 08 '23
Better headline: "Musk's lawyers reminded him that he needs to walk that shit back before he gets btfo in court"
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u/SilentRidge Mar 08 '23
Some of Mr Thorleifsson's former colleagues could not understand why he had been singled out for such public criticism.
Maybe because Musk is a thin skinned little loser who lashes out like an angry child when he faces any criticism or questioning? Or maybe because he thinks attacking people on twitter is "cool" and "funny" and will earn him brownie points with his sociopath right wing fans?
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u/neuronexmachina Mar 08 '23
Halli's thread describing his condition and situation is pretty striking: https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1633082707835080705.html