The guy is both a genius (Tesla and SpaceX are amazing companies) and an idiot (antagonizing the liberal audience, that is Tesla's main customer and his own main source of wealth).
I'm halfway through Walter Issacson's bio on him and I don't get the impression he cares about liberals. He seems to view his companies as something closer to an e/acc vision of saving the world through better technology.
or a genius by getting more conservatives to buy electric vehicles.
The majority of the conservatives have long ago made their mind that global warming is a conspiracy and EV buyers are liberal idiots - don't think there's anything Elon can do to change their mind. Those are the type of people who'd never admit there were wrong.
"Not admitting they are wrong" is not unique to them, happens to every extreme equally.