Elon Musk brushed against the territory in May of 2023, tweeting that “Incompetence, in the limit, is indistinguishable from sabotage.” Saboter meant to clatter about in wooden shoes, and by extension to bungle; to do work badly. “The idea is obvious: the peasant with heavy wooden shoes walks clumsily and slowly in company with those who wear shoes of leather,” he writes. — @HackingButLegal, April 3, 2025That was a specific claim about a specific moment: the sabotage is intentional, and incompetence is the cover story. Therefore, under his construction, every disaster on record falls short — we are not at the limit yet — and the incompetence defense survives each finite case by definition.