> but iirc he could still have pulled out by paying "only" a couple billion dollars in fines or something.

That clause was clearly for things outside of Elon (or former Twitter)'s control. Like if a government stepped in to stop the purchase.

Elon never had a good counter argument. So it was simply a case of those who were able to read the public court documents vs the ones who believed Elons out-of-court media blitz.

Alas, the only arguments that matter in court are the arguments that are filled in court. None of the discussion points you talked about even made it to the case, they were laughed out long before Elon gave up and bought Twitter.

------

Reading. It's a superpower. That's what the past year has taught me. A surpring number of people cannot read and will believe falsehoods even if they contradict written and agreed upon documents.