Haha yeah it does have a strong “hurr durr jokes on you I was only pretending to be retarded” vibe. And I was never even on the anti-Elon bandwagon.
Maybe earlier in his life people could tell him to sit down and behave. But at a certain point of fame, you’ll have a set of loyal yes men in your circle independent of your actions who religiously validate everything you do and say. It’s a dream for narcissists, but also their demise. The danger of yes men is they lower the signal-to-noise ratio making it really difficult to orient yourself accurately in the outside world.
Maybe earlier in his life people could tell him to sit down and behave. But at a certain point of fame, you’ll have a set of loyal yes men in your circle independent of your actions who religiously validate everything you do and say. It’s a dream for narcissists, but also their demise. The danger of yes men is they lower the signal-to-noise ratio making it really difficult to orient yourself accurately in the outside world.