The serial entrepreneur and one of the most controversial billionaires of our times, Elon Musk turned 49 today. His total net worth was approximated to be around $24.6 billion in April earlier this year. From self-driving cars to space missions, Musk’s entrepreneurial ventures have been nothing short of extraordinary. However, Elon Musk consistently stays in the news not only for his business ideas but also equally (if not more) for his notorious tweets.
So, as his age equals 7 square, here’s a list of 7 most outrageous tweets from Elon Musk –
Controversial Remarks Against COVID Lockdown
Elon Musk had earlier this year tweeted against the lockdown imposed in the United States to curb the spread of COVID-19. While many of his tweets simply keep the Twitterati amused and entertained, Musk seemed to go too far with this one. The billionaire CEO voiced his anti-lockdown sentiments with the tweet, “Free America now.”
Calling the ‘British diver’ a paedophile
Elon had called the British diver Vernon Unsworth who was a part of the Thailand cave rescue team a paedophile in a tweet in 2018. The rescue operation had been undertaken to save a group of stranded boys in Thailand. The British diver had alleged that the miniature submarine sent by Tesla to facilitate the rescue operation was simply a publicity stunt. However, Musk later apologised to the diver and the tweet was later deleted.
Criticising his critics
Elon Musk reportedly remarked, “I think public transport is painful. It sucks. Why do you want to get on something with a lot of other people, that doesn’t leave where you want it to leave doesn’t start where you want it to start, doesn’t end where you want it to end.”
Jarrett Walker, a Public transit consultant had criticised Musk for his remark calling out his dislike for public transport a luxury or rather a pathology of the rich. Not the one known to take kindly to his criticisms, Musk called the consultant an “An idiot.”
Voicing his disdain for short-sellers
Sharing his particular dislike for people betting on the fall of a firm’s stock prices, the short-sellers, Musk made reference to the flamethrowers in a tweet in 2018. Notably, his tunnel-digging firm called The Boring Company also makes flamethrowers (a particular weapon which sprays out burning fuel). He tweeted, “Oh and uh short burn of the century comin soon. Flamethrowers should arrive just in time (sic.)”
Lashing out on News Professionals
In yet another 2018 tweet, Musk called out the news industry and proposed to create a website to score the credibility of media professionals. He added that he may name the website, “Pravda” and even went ahead to include a poll in the thread in which over 88% of the users who took the poll voted in favour of the idea of creating the credibility scoring website.
Wiping off value of his own firm
Earlier in May this year, Elon Musk tweeted, “Tesla stock price is too high imo.” Notably, as he almost seemed to be bragging about the overly high prices of his automobile company, his tweet led to wiping off almost $14 billion from Tesla’s value. A twitter user even responded, “Dude…I just lost $10k because of this tweet. Wtf is wrong with u.”
Although Musk nearly lost $3 billion in his own stakes in the firm, his bizarre tweets didn’t stop there. In his usual humour, he further tweeted in a few hours, “I am selling almost all physical possessions. Will own no house,” adding on that his girlfriend is mad at him.
Elon Musk’s plans for nuking Mars
Going by his tweets, the idea of throwing nuclear bombs on Mars seems to be very much on the wish list of SpaceX Founder and CEO. Some years back, Elon Musk had first floated the idea during his appearance on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert while sharing a possible strategy for making the Mars habitable for humans.
In August 2019, Musk again floated the idea as he tweeted, “Nuke Mars!” Interestingly, he even posted images of t-shirts with the quote, and captioned it, “T-shirt soon”.
We hope you enjoyed reading and recollecting these tweets from Elon Musk as he turns 49. You can also write to us at editorial@techthirsty.com
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