The pedo comment wasn’t really a blip for me - and I assume most people. I remember seeing a headline at the time about him calling someone in Thailand a “pedo guy” because the guy called Musk out for turning some trapped kids into an attempt publicity stunt.

At the time, I probably thought “huh, that was a dumb thing to say” but then didn’t spend more than 20 seconds thinking about it. I vaguely remember seeing some lawsuits about it later, but couldn’t tell you one way or the other about how they went.

It really wasn’t until Musk started doing crazy shit that affected me that I started paying attention to him - and I assume it’s the same for most people. If some rich asshole slanders someone and gets sued for it, that’s pretty easy to tune out. But when he purchases a major social media company and gives a quarter billion dollars to sway an election, does a couple Nazi salutes, and then starts dismantling the federal government, that’s much more attention grabbing.