"I didn't set out to become an enemy of the world's richest man, but I seem to have managed it all the same." That's the start of a new Substack essay by noted atheist and podcaster Sam Harris, who details his falling-out with billionaire, SpaceX/Tesla/X owner, and now former friend Elon Musk, whom he's known for years.
- Feud's origins: Harris says their friendship went over the cliff in March 2020, when COVID had just taken hold. Musk dismissed the contagion at the time, tweeting, "The coronavirus panic is dumb," and Harris responded with a private message to Musk that noted, in part: "Hey, brother—I really think you need to walk back your coronavirus tweet. ... You have an enormous platform, and much of the world looks to you as an authority on all things technical." Harris added in his message: "Coronavirus is a very big deal, and if we don't get our act together, we're going to look just like Italy very soon."
- A bet: Harris says Musk responded with a curt "Sam, you of all people should not be concerned about this," and that the two of them then made a friendly wager, with Musk betting the US wouldn't even see 35,000 cases of COVID in the US before it fizzled.
- Wager's results: Just a few weeks later, when the CDC offered some dismaying stats, with 35,000 deaths (not just cases) logged, Harris messaged Musk with the following: "Is (35,000 deaths + 600,000 cases) > 35,000 cases?" "This text appears to have ended our friendship," Harris writes, adding that Musk never wrote back and soon after started attacking him online "for a variety of imaginary offenses." Harris says he pushed back on Musk as well, "complaining about the startling erosion of his integrity on my podcast."
- Ongoing hostilities: Their feud has continued to this day (including as recently as Thursday), with Musk calling Harris a "pompous hypocrite" over the summer. Harris, meanwhile, in November accused Musk of "snorting ketamine and tweeting at all hours of the day and night," calling his ex-pal "visibly deranged," per the Daily Beast. Harris referenced Musk last week on Bill Maher's Club Random podcast, per Mediaite. "I will email him and say, 'Elon, you are being gamed by right-wing trolls who gave us PizzaGate,'" Harris told Maher. "And he will tell me to go f--- myself. ... And this is why we're no longer friends."
- A shift: In his essay, Harris adds, "I have been quite amazed at Elon's evolution, both as a man and as an avatar of chaos. The friend I remember did not seem to hunger for public attention. But his engagement with Twitter/X transformed him—to a degree seldom seen outside of Marvel movies or Greek mythology."
Read Harris' essay in full
here, including how Musk was "on the brink of bankruptcy" when Harris knew him way back when. (More
Elon Musk stories.)
,
uBlock 
,
and
Ghostery 
)
