Some people idolize rock stars. Some people idolize athletes. Some people idolize Donald Trump. And some people idolize Elon Musk.
I’ve already written plenty- and probably will write more again down the road- on what a piece of shit Donald Trump is. But today we’re taking a deeper look at Elon Musk, the sometimes richest man on Earth who has managed to become a conservative hero in spite of heading a company that makes electric cars.
I can honestly say that I do not understand the appeal of this man at all. He’s not conventionally attractive. He’s not a self- made man- his father purchased and later sold an emerald mine and Elon used that money to start his first company which he later sold for a tidy profit. He’s not a native American citizen- he was born and raised in South Africa (to be clear, I am not anti-immigrant, but that IS a common theme among people who love Musk).
What is Elon Musk good at?
He’s good at impregnating women. He has eleven children with three different women that we know of. Fun fact- two of them are currently involved in lawsuits against him!
He’s good at tweeting ignorant, racist and/ or misogynist things. Some of his top hits include telling Bernie Sanders he “forgot he was still alive”, challenging Mark Zuckerberg to a penis measuring contest, comparing Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to Hitler, a laundry list of misinformation about COVID, and stating his opposition to government subsidies after Telsa received billions in said subsidies.
Time will tell, but it appears he’s good at ruining Twitter/ X. He freely admits he paid way too much for it and tried to get out of the deal multiple times. His first act as owner was to let half the staff go, only to find out that he needed a significant number of them back. Spoiler alert- most of them refused. He made numerous changes to how the platform operates that made stalking, posting threats, and other general bad behavior much easier. He started charging for a “verified” account status, which backfired in spectacular fashion. He suspends accounts of people who say anything negative about him at the drop of a hat. And dumbest of all, he rebranded one of the most recognized, valuable brands in the world- Twitter- to X. There is a reason almost 70% of companies who used to advertise on the platform no longer do.
To be fair, Elon does have good qualities too. He is a very fast learner and picks up complex things subjects like rocketry and engineering very quickly. By all accounts he is a hard worker. He does have a good head for business, even if he doesn’t always use it. He appears genuinely interested in saving the planet, even though he has some off ideas how to go about that.
But that doesn’t make him a hero or a role model. That just makes him human. Just like the rest of us.
Photo by Chris Boland on Unsplash