And if the relativity of simultaneity is taken into account, he can very well say this and from his reference frame it would be true.
It wouldn’t lead to conflicts, it would only mean that things occur or are true relative to someone’s point of view or reference frame.
In any case, I’ll have to look up that Stopped Clock Paradox to see where relativity has gone wrong.
Well, nothing except light itself ever does accelerate to light speed (its mass becomes infinite in that case, requiring an infinite amount of energy to achieve that speed).
As for light itself, that is a stumper I’ll admit. I don’t know if a given photon ever had to accelerate to c or if it jumped to it instantaneously or if it had always existed traveling at c (photons are emitted from charge carrying particles so I think that rules out the latter scenario and from what I’ve studied I think the second scenario holds true). It’s a good question for a science forum.
What inconsistency?
You would think but no. This is a common misconception held by newbies to relativity. The rule of thumb in relativity is that there is a consistent set of rules for what happens to an object when its moving and that such an object is always moving relative to some reference frame.
The universe contracts because that’s one of the rules that must be applied to moving objects (in this case the universe) and the reference frame relative to which it is moving is the traveler. Now, relative to a stay-at-home, it is the traveler that’s moving and the same rules must apply: the traveler contracts.
It is confusing and does seem inconsistent - but it’s not. You just have to keep in mind the relativity of simultaneity.
If I’m the traveler, and I’m passing by (say) Jupiter at 99.99% c, you may say that Jupiter will look squished to the width of (say) a tree trunk. That will be its appearance relative to me. But from the point of view of someone on Jupiter, it will be my space ship that looks squished to the width of something like a dime (or whatever).
Where things are in space, including the front and end of my spaceship, including the front and end sides of Jupiter, and where they happen to be in time (or what was happening at that time) is always a relative matter. It doesn’t have to be the same for each and every observer - that’s the take home lesson of relativity.