Elon Musk and Joyce Carol Oates are engaged in a heated online spat, with the billionaire entrepreneur clashing with the acclaimed author on his own platform, X. The feud began when Oates responded to one of Musk's tweets criticizing his Tesla pay package, delivering a scathing takedown that pointed out the lack of posts from Musk about the joys of life.
Oates wrote: "So curious that such a wealthy man never posts anything that indicates that he enjoys or is even aware of what virtually everyone appreciates—scenes from nature, pet dog or cat, praise for a movie, music, a book (but doubt that he reads); pride in a friend’s or relative’s accomplishment; condolences for someone who has died; pleasure in sports, acclaim for a favorite team; references to history. In fact, he seems totally uneducated, uncultured. The poorest persons on Twitter may have access to more beauty & meaning in life than the 'most wealthy person in the world.'"
Musk responded defensively, calling Oates a "lazy liar" and accusing her of being mean-spirited. He also attempted to insult her writing style, saying that reading her work would be "vastly more enjoyable than eating a bag of sawdust." However, Musk's attempts at humor fell flat, and he soon shifted direction, proposing that Oates must be a "real downer at parties."
The exchange continued with Musk recommending the audiobook of Homer's The Iliad (at 1.25 speed) but including a link to The Odyssey by mistake. He later deleted the tweet but not before it went viral.
Oates countered with another scathing post, writing: "Whatever club he's invited to join has been devalued by the invitation." She also complimented Vivian Wilson, Musk's estranged daughter, saying that a normal parent would be very proud.
The feud highlights the challenges of maintaining a personal brand on social media. While Musk can buy and shape his own platform, he cannot force users to like or respect him. Oates' commentary about Musk's appreciation of art echoes critical comments made after Musk was suspected of pretending to be good at video games.
In the end, Musk resumed his usual activity on X, posting positive commentary about Tesla and Grok. However, thanks to Oates, we may see more literary and film recommendations from the world's richest man in the future.
Oates wrote: "So curious that such a wealthy man never posts anything that indicates that he enjoys or is even aware of what virtually everyone appreciates—scenes from nature, pet dog or cat, praise for a movie, music, a book (but doubt that he reads); pride in a friend’s or relative’s accomplishment; condolences for someone who has died; pleasure in sports, acclaim for a favorite team; references to history. In fact, he seems totally uneducated, uncultured. The poorest persons on Twitter may have access to more beauty & meaning in life than the 'most wealthy person in the world.'"
Musk responded defensively, calling Oates a "lazy liar" and accusing her of being mean-spirited. He also attempted to insult her writing style, saying that reading her work would be "vastly more enjoyable than eating a bag of sawdust." However, Musk's attempts at humor fell flat, and he soon shifted direction, proposing that Oates must be a "real downer at parties."
The exchange continued with Musk recommending the audiobook of Homer's The Iliad (at 1.25 speed) but including a link to The Odyssey by mistake. He later deleted the tweet but not before it went viral.
Oates countered with another scathing post, writing: "Whatever club he's invited to join has been devalued by the invitation." She also complimented Vivian Wilson, Musk's estranged daughter, saying that a normal parent would be very proud.
The feud highlights the challenges of maintaining a personal brand on social media. While Musk can buy and shape his own platform, he cannot force users to like or respect him. Oates' commentary about Musk's appreciation of art echoes critical comments made after Musk was suspected of pretending to be good at video games.
In the end, Musk resumed his usual activity on X, posting positive commentary about Tesla and Grok. However, thanks to Oates, we may see more literary and film recommendations from the world's richest man in the future.
Elon Musk's ego needs to chill, tbh 
. I mean, who does he think he is, clashing with Joyce Carol Oates over Twitter? 
The woman has been writing books for decades, and she's not afraid to speak her mind, #LiteraryLegend 
. And btw, calling someone a "lazy liar" is low, don't @ me 
. Musk thinks he can just insult Oates' writing style and get away with it? 
Please, boo, you need some book smarts to take on the likes of Oates, #Bookworm 
. And btw, trying to diss her by saying reading her work is like eating sawdust? 
That's just rich coming from someone who's been caught pretending to be good at video games 
. Oates is serving up some real tea here, and I'm HERE. FOR. IT 
.
oates is totally calling him out for being a fake and not actually interested in the arts. and can we talk about how extra musk is trying to insult her writing style like that? "more enjoyable than eating a bag of sawdust" ?? really? 
Elon Musk is just too extra for my taste. I mean, he thinks he can just troll a famous author like Joyce Carol Oates and expect everyone to laugh along? 
His tweets are always so... try-hard. And that insult about eating a bag of sawdust? 
That was just embarrassing.
And who knows? Maybe we'll see more book recommendations from the billionaire entrepreneur in the future. 
Musk's attempts at humor are just cringeworthy, dude 
and that bag of sawdust comment was low 
. But you know what? I kinda appreciate Joyce Carol Oates for calling him out - maybe he can take a page from her book and actually engage with his audience instead of just promoting Tesla 
.
Only time will tell! 
. On one hand, you've got Musk, a billionaire with a platform to share his thoughts, but it seems like he only cares about spewing out whatever comes to mind, without putting in the effort to engage with others or show some human side. That's gotta be frustrating for people who actually want to have meaningful conversations.
. I mean, we get it, Musk's tweets can come across as pretty shallow and pretentious at times. And honestly, his attempt at humor was cringeworthy 
. You can buy your way onto the platform, but you can't force people to like or respect you. And sometimes, it takes someone like Oates to point out Musk's shortcomings and make him look bad 
. He can try to shape his brand all he wants, but at the end of the day, people are gonna call him out when he's not being authentic 
. Maybe this whole thing will lead to some cool literary recommendations from him in the future 
. And honestly, who tries to insult someone's writing style? 
like, he's got the whole world at his feet, but still can't even be bothered to post about something as simple as watching a movie or playing video games 
. Oates just called him out for being all pretentious and snobby, and I am HERE. FOR. IT