According to some that knew him, he’s been broken long before that. Notably his first wife basically described exactly the man we are seeing long before that incident, but no one really took that in at the time. Even before they split up, saw a video about him taking delivery of one of his first rich person cars and on the video she already clearly thought this was some stupid bullshit.
Before folks were able to curate his public image and moderate his “creative input”. He was seen as a crucial brand to maintain and powerful folks were eager to maintain the “real life Tony Stark” concept. Those are the guardrails that have worn out.
Yeah I remember reading her article about him before he was widely disliked and coming to the conclusion he was a scumbag, but even then I didn’t expect him to get as bad as he did
I call the rescue diver incident his public Mask Off moment. Everything before that could be considered harmless shitposts or trolling other rich people.
Yeah, he’s always been this person. Pretty much everyone who’s ever worked with him has always described him as a contrarian twat. I think his public image started to shift soon after firing his longtime secretary/mommy Mary Beth Brown, who used to control all his public engagement.
He’s also always been self aggrandizing. He occasionally brags about how he was one of the best Quake players in the world. Turns out he just had access to a corporate T1 line which gave him a major advantage in online tournaments. When someone else with similar access soundly trounced him, he accused that person of cheating for doing exactly what he himself was doing.
According to some that knew him, he’s been broken long before that. Notably his first wife basically described exactly the man we are seeing long before that incident, but no one really took that in at the time. Even before they split up, saw a video about him taking delivery of one of his first rich person cars and on the video she already clearly thought this was some stupid bullshit.
Before folks were able to curate his public image and moderate his “creative input”. He was seen as a crucial brand to maintain and powerful folks were eager to maintain the “real life Tony Stark” concept. Those are the guardrails that have worn out.
Yeah I remember reading her article about him before he was widely disliked and coming to the conclusion he was a scumbag, but even then I didn’t expect him to get as bad as he did
I call the rescue diver incident his public Mask Off moment. Everything before that could be considered harmless shitposts or trolling other rich people.
That’s when I realized something was seriously wrong with him, and he wasn’t just an autistic, eccentric genius.
Yeah, he’s always been this person. Pretty much everyone who’s ever worked with him has always described him as a contrarian twat. I think his public image started to shift soon after firing his longtime secretary/mommy Mary Beth Brown, who used to control all his public engagement.
He’s also always been self aggrandizing. He occasionally brags about how he was one of the best Quake players in the world. Turns out he just had access to a corporate T1 line which gave him a major advantage in online tournaments. When someone else with similar access soundly trounced him, he accused that person of cheating for doing exactly what he himself was doing.