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Elon Musk can never escape the drama. The Tesla CEO has been tangled up in a court disposition with 22-year-old Ben Brody, which was made publicly available by a transcript obtained by the Huffington Post.
The lawsuit, filed by Brody, relates to a since-deleted tweet on June 27 of last year. In the thread, Musk claims a brawl that broke out (between the far-right groups the Proud Boys and a local neo-Nazi organization called Rose City Nationalists) during Pride Night Fest in Oregon City, June 24, as being a “probable false flag situation,” PC Gamer reports.
Musk’s Comments Led to Brody Being Falsely Identified
Musk theorised that two members in the footage looked like “a college student (who wants to join the government” and “maybe an Antifa (left-wing anti-fascist and anti-racist political movement) member.” This analogy led to Brody being accused of working as a federal agent undercover in the Rose City Nationalists.
After another X user falsely identified Brody as the above, Musk responded: “Always remove their masks.”
In retaliation, Brody is seeking $1 million in damages, saying he has faced harassment following Musk’s remarks, which have forced his family to uproot.
Musk Denies Any “Serious Harm” Caused
Musk maintains that his words have caused Brody no serious harm, merely exposure. When asked if he comprehends how the amount of views his tweet received equal “all 30 major league baseball stadiums filled to capacity,” Musk had this to say:
“That may seem like a large number, but it is not compared to the fact—I believe there are something on the order of five to eight trillion views per year, so a million is really—” Bankston butts in with “not a big deal?” and Musk replies, “Hit or miss, yeah.”
As for the ‘damages’ Brody is seeking, Musk argues that “people are attacked all the time in the media, online media, social media, but it is rare that that actually has a meaningful negative impact on their life.”
If you find yourself so inclined, you can sift through the entire exchange right here, and decide for yourself whose side you’re on.
