[WalterBright]

If I was the judge I'd award Musk his legal fees and bill the plaintiff court costs. It was nothing more than a few back and forth schoolyard insults, and had no place being in court.

It shouldn't have gone beyond - "Now both of you boys apologize to each other and shake hands."

[happytoexplain]

I'm glad you're not a judge. It would be awful for a judge to express such emotion and absolutism in the dismissal of even the possibility of harm caused by one of the most famous people on Earth very publicly calling a person a pedophile.

[WalterBright]

> I'm glad you're not a judge.

I'm glad I'm not, either. I would take no pleasure in punishing people, even those who richly deserve it. I would also be uninterested in hearing a case from two silly people who really should settle it with a mutual apology and a handshake.

[eropple]

Mutual apologies don’t rectify one of the most influential people on earth slandering someone who is decidedly not.

[WalterBright]

The world would be a lot better off if people settled their differences with a mutual apology and handshake rather than attempting mutual destruction.

[eropple]

Sure. And it’s literally impossible to do so when one of those people is effectively beyond any consequence for anything that they do.

Peasants don’t get to shake hands with barons. Ours have a legal system to (sometimes, not always) even things out just a little, though.