• Buddahriffic@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    That’s why the pedophile tweet in 2018 so thoroughly shattered the illusion for me. It wasn’t just incredibly petty, it was also easily avoidable. Like not only did he reveal who he was, it was easy to see how he could have been that person all along and the world could have never known about it if he just knew when to swallow his pride. And “the cave is too tight and twisty for your submarine to fit, even if you could develop and confirm its safety in time to save the kids, when we can just get them out without that tech” was such a dumb moment to decide to be petty.

    I don’t have much of a mind for PR stuff but it was even obvious to me that he could have still walked away looking great if he had financed some catering for the rescue team and families. Just show he was comfortable with sharing the spotlight and having an idea that was made in good faith shot down.

    But nooooo, he had to be the saviour and since he couldn’t do that, he needed to turn the one that hurt his feelings into a villain. With a comment that caught anyone who goes to Thailand for non-child sex tourist reasons in the blast radius (and maybe even told on himself a bit?).

    And then he’s just been spiraling since, at least as far as public image goes.

    • m0darn@lemmy.ca
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      2 months ago

      It was about one day before that for me. I was like

      oh that’s so cool, he’s got amazing engineers working to repurpose a pressure vessel from SpaceX to act as a rescue pod to save those kids.

      Then actual cave divers were like:

      any cave diver will tell you that this will never work

      What kind of cave diving rescue plan doesn’t talk to any cave divers before drawing any attention to itself? The kind designed solely to draw attention and stroke ego. He tried to make those boys’ struggles about himself because he thinks he’s the most capable man alive.

      • Buddahriffic@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        Yeah, that all played into the dynamic, though I didn’t catch that aspect until after his tantrum.

        My guess is that he’s a shitty boss that is quick to punish mistakes and ideas that seem good early on but turn out to be bad after more attention was given to them or an attempt was made. So getting shot down became more than just about the sub, I’d bet part of it was not wanting to deserve a chewing out he’s given many times so he tried to make it about something else.