Amidst the mass exodus of celebrities following Elon Musk's takeover of Twitter, Trent Reznor is another big name that wanted out. Reznor's not a frequent tweeter, but the Nine Inch Nails frontman did speak out in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter. Not one to mince words, Reznor called the takeover an "embarrassment."
"I'm about to depart," he said. "We don't need the arrogance of the billionaire class to feel like they can just come in and solve everything."
"Even without him involved, I just find that it has become such a toxic environment," he added. "For my mental health, I need to tune out. I don't feel good being there anymore."
And Musk, ever of fragile fortitude, clapped back, calling Reznor a "crybaby." He sure chose a confounding occasion to fire that shot, though: a thread on Donald Trump's return to the platform, courtesy of its new owner.
"Breaking... 48 hours since @elonmusk reinstated President Trump's Twitter account and the world still hasn't ended," tweeted user @catturd2, a right wing troll account who inexplicably has over a million followers and seemingly has Musk on speed dial.
"And it turns out Trent 'nine inch nails' Reznor is actually a crybaby," Musk responded, appending his trademark rolling on the floor laughing emoji.
Nine Inch Nail fans weren't going to let the Reznor slander stand.
"You are [a] stupid idiot," wrote one fan. "Trent is one of the best musicians ever."
In response, Elon "Disowned By My Daughter" Musk gave his final two cents on the influential artist.
"I like his music tbh, but maybe Etsy is more his style," he replied.
Even if he's playing this whole thing for laughs, Musk doesn't seem to be handling the personal backlash from celebrities well.
Musk is ostensibly the everyman's billionaire. He chats and shitposts with us, the masses, and loves our adoration. But he also seems to want to be liked by the celebrities and artists he admired.
Take his exchange with Stephen King. On Halloween, the legendary horror author took a wrecking ball to Musk's plans to charge $20 a month for verification, writing in a viral tweet, "Fuck that, they should pay me."
After desperately trying to appease King, who simply ignored him, Musk replied to another tweet of King's, admitting "I'm still a fan of you tbh." The tweet has since been deleted.
Getting ghosted by a favorite author of yours has gotta sting, so it's no surprise to see him react in the same way to Reznor, who didn't just ghost Musk but bludgeoned him on the way out. Considering Musk's taste in music, and the fact he dated Claire "Grimes" Boucher, a musician who's clearly inspired by NIN, well, we're guessing Musk didn't just like Reznor.
So dissing your musical idol in the replies of some anonymous, popular troll's account is probably the lamest way to go about it, but what matters is that Musk gets his likes, a guaranteed 100,000 from his ardent followers on any reply, most probably not even familiar with Reznor and his indispensable contributions to music and film. But now Musk's opinion of him is now their own.
We can't blame Musk using his clout as a salve to his brutalized ego. Getting regularly trashed by your heroes sure must suck.
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