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These days, Elon Musk is making headlines every single day. Whether it is for something he does with DOGE, a speech he makes, when he attempts to buy other major companies, or even just because of his proximity to President Donald Trump.
Musk, the richest man in the world, seems to also have the ear of the most powerful man in the world: the American President. In an unprecedented move, Donald Trump has allowed Elon Musk not just to form DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) but has decided to give them more power as of last week.
The decision has left a sour taste in many mouths, including mine. Musk is a figure who has historically been embroiled in a lot of controversy. And some of his recent antics are a major cause for concern.At an event to celebrate Donald Trump’s inauguration ceremony, Elon Musk gave a speech that made headlines globally. And it was not the content of the speech itself that had people talking but a gesture that Musk did which raised eyebrows from the entire world.
Musk, had his right hand over his heart and then raised the same arm in the air, in what resembled a Nazi salute. Since then, Musk has firmly claimed that this was not his intention. He posted to his platform, X, and wrote, “Frankly, they need better dirty tricks. The ‘everyone is Hitler’ attack is sooo tired.”
But honestly, not everyone bought his explanation. The fact that he was able to walk past this incident like it was nothing and actually tried to shift the blame on those who were worried was astonishing. A man with so much power and influence over the world right now should not have such a blasé attitude towards his actions being likened to those of a Nazi.
But this is not the first time Musk has been embroiled in controversy, and knowing his hunger for attention, it probably will not be the last. Before things became so politically tinged for Musk, he often made headlines for his personal life.His trans daughter, Vivian Jenna Wilson, went on the record last year to tell the world that her father was an absentee dad who was cruel to her for being queer and feminine when she was a child.
Musk had said that he had been tricked into authorizing gender-affirming care for her when she was 16 years old. To him, he said, she was figuratively ‘dead,’ a horrible thing to say about your child to your public audience of millions.
Now 21 years old, Vivian is not backing down without a fight and, in an interview, said that Musk was lying as while he had been hesitant, he fully understood what trans-related medical procedures he was signing off for her as her parent. “I think he was under the assumption that I wasn’t going to say anything and I would just let this go unchallenged. Which I’m not going to do, because if you’re going to lie about me, like, blatantly to an audience of millions, I’m not just gonna let that slide,” she said.
And to me, if your own child is calling you out for lying… well, that does little for your character.
Being a proud pro-natalist, someone who likes to catastrophize about a ‘population collapse,’ and talks endlessly of wanting to increase birth rates, Musk himself has 12 children with three different women and a variety of different surrogates. And possibly a 13th child, according to Ashely St. Claire’s recent claims.
Three of his children are with his ex-girlfriend, Canadian singer Claire Elise Boucher, who goes by the stage name Grimes. While Grimes welcomed their first child by giving birth herself, the other two were welcomed via surrogate.
When Musk began to date Grimes, a lot of eyebrows were raised, and not just because of their age gap. Grimes was considered as a feminist icon in the music industry. She was known for championing other female and queer artists.
So when Grimes who was known for being vocal about her progressive politics was seen dating Elon Musk, people were shocked to say the least. She had the term “anti-imperialist” in her Twitter bio, which she famously removed after she appeared publicly at the Met Gale on Elon Musk’s arm. An artist who was loud and proud about being against capitalism was suddenly dating the world’s richest man. In 2018, she even defended some of Musk’s actions on Twitter (now X), such as his dissuading his workers at Tesla from unionizing.The act of being an anti-capitalist alternative musician slowly fell away, and she was revealed to be someone who did not mind capitalism at all when presented with the chance to date someone who is quite literally the face of it in the 21st century.
Throughout all of this, she has vehemently tried to maintain that her politics are progressive and portray herself as someone who is on the side of queer youth. She recently posted to Instagram about how she is donating from her music video to fund and develop female and non-binary lead art.
However, she was not only in a relationship with Musk but welcomed three children with him. While she gave birth to their eldest, X Æ A-Xii, the younger two, Exa Dark Sideræl and Techno Mechanicus, were welcomed via surrogate.
Last year, Grimes opened up about the custody battle with Musk. She wrote, “Spent a year locked in battle in a state with terrible mothers rights having my instagram posts and modeling used as reasons I shouldn’t have my kids and fighting and detaching from the love if my life as he comes unrecognizable to me, with a fraction of his resources (or iq/strategy experience).”
“All the while I didn’t see one of my babies for 5 months. And this is only what can be said publicly, since most of my experience these last years should remain behind closed doors,” she added.
Now my question is, why is she surprised? Had she not seen how Musk had been treating his exes in the past? She betrayed her principles to be with a man who did not align with the ideology she sold to fans for years, and when he betrayed her and tried to throw her under the bus, she came back to the same fans for sympathy.
She made the decision to bring three children into this world with a man who denied his eldest child’s transition and has said she is ‘figuratively’ dead. He does not serve the role of a parent in Vivian Jenna Wilson’s life, who has said publicly that Musk was an absentee father. But somehow, Grimes ignored all of this and then tried to change her tune to ‘woe-is-me’ when the world’s most powerful man decided to use his assets against her rather than for her.
And in my opinion, when she was not able to enjoy Musk’s power, money, and influence by being on his good side, she seemed to backtrack on everything she had been defending him for.Personally, I am tired of her shtick. She still can be seen tweeting about as if she cares about the world. When Musk came under fire for a Nazi salute, she asked people to not involve her in the actions of her ex. Unfortunately, when you have three children with a person who has never really hidden his intentions and motives, you do have some responsibility to distance yourself from their actions.
Grimes still preaches about love, advocating for queer youth, and more but thinks it a chore to have to emphatically state that she does not support the problematic rhetoric her ex routinely spews online?
I also cannot stand her ‘aw shucks’ attitude towards her fans. Her tweets reek of a coy, wide-eyed, hair-twirling act. She wrote, “I honestly thank the people who r still grimes fans cuz my god I have not made it easy for you haha. At this point it’s literally like some kind of mystical trial to harden the will,” encouraging her fans to come and console her.
Through all of this, she will also sometimes post something which confuses people about her true feelings towards Elon Musk. On January 18, 2024, she posted, “Just for my personal pride, I would like to state that the father of my children was the first american druid in diablo to clear abattoir of zir and ended that season as best in the USA. He was also ranking in Polytopia, and beat Felix himself at the game. I did observe these things with my own eyes. There are other witnesses who can verify this. That is all.” Alluding to Elon’s gaming skills and how they bring her pride. At one point, she will lament about how he is using his assets to bully her legally and then post about how proud she is of his gaming skills.
Can she pick a lane? On one hand she will be quick to dismiss Elon’s actions as having anything to do with her but then also tweet about the time they were together, trying to remind people of her affiliation with her. Either she wants people to focus on her and her music, or she wants to remind them of her relationship with Elon, she cannot have both but somehow, it seems she picks and chooses a path as she pleases in the moment.
As an adult woman, she is free to make her own decisions, but what annoys me about her is that she actively chose to date someone who went against all the morals she claimed to uphold. This moral flip-flopping is not annoying but it is tiresome and completely see-through.
If Grimes would be adult enough to accept all her actions and say, ‘yes, I changed my mind about capitalism, imperialism and willingly had three children with a man who represented a lot of things I said to have opposed,’ it would have still been palatable. She needs to stop portraying herself as a progressive alternative artist and accept that she is much like everyone else she tries to differentiate herself from.
We all know the truth about her now. So, can we stop acting like she is any better than the father of her children?