After Vern Unsworth, a British diver who helped rescue the trapped Thai soccer team, called Elon Musk's attempt at a submarine rescue "just a PR stunt" that had 'absolutely no chance of working," Musk has chosen to be angry online.
Surprise!
In a series of tweets Sunday morning, Musk referred to Unsworth as a "pedo," requested video of the cave rescue, retracted that request, then promised proof that his submarine could have, in fact, performed the rescue.
It's a lot.
Never saw this British expat guy who lives in Thailand (sus) at any point when we were in the caves. Only people in sight were the Thai navy/army guys, who were great. Thai navy seals escorted us in — total opposite of wanting us to leave.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 15, 2018
Water level was actually very low & still (not flowing) — you could literally have swum to Cave 5 with no gear, which is obv how the kids got in. If not true, then I challenge this dude to show final rescue video. Huge credit to pump & generator team. Unsung heroes here.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 15, 2018
You know what, don’t bother showing the video. We will make one of the mini-sub/pod going all the way to Cave 5 no problemo. Sorry pedo guy, you really did ask for it.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 15, 2018
The tweetstorm was in response to a tweet from professor and New York Times writer Zeynep Tufekci, who wrote an op-ed arguing that Musk could learn a lesson about Silicon Valley hubris from the incident. (Her thread on celebrity intervention in rescue efforts is a great read.)
Never has a man so desperately needed to log off.