For starters, this is a Grimes thread, so we really shouldn't be pulling focus off her, and second, I just can't fucking wait for some TikTok-brained zoomer to hit me with the "oMg wHaT iS tHiS eSsAy tHiNgs lOngEr tHaN 4 SeNtEnCeS aRe oVeRwHeLmInG", but:
The entire 'Pedo Guy' controversy and his weird doubling down on the thing
He could have just said "My bad", deleted the tweet, and moved on. Instead we hired PIs and had whole lawsuits over it. Weird.
The COVID vaccine denials and off-the-cuff remarks about COVID during the early phases of the pandemic
Spreading conspiracy theories and leaning into so much right-wing rhetoric.
The transphobic comments around gender/pronouns
Self explanatory, and this rubs off on Grimes because she is/was very popular within queer subcultures from what I can tell???
The aggressive running of Tesla that's led to a lot of lawsuits around worker safety and harassment, as well endorsing/pushing for union busting
SO many reports of treating staff like trash, absolutely insane expectations of people who work close/near him to be available 24/7/365
Fostering a company culture that let racial and sexist harassment go on unchecked in his factories
The tweeting about his business that have ramifications on stock prices and run against SEC regulations and rules
There's certain kinds of information that you have to run past exec boards and prepare formal information releases for; you have a fiduciary duty to uphold in doing so. I know; I work for a company and am in a position where this kind of information crosses my desk.
Also, LMAO-plug for the Azealia Banks live tweeting Elon losing his shit after tweeting about taking Tesla private or w/e and being there while Grimes was having to calm him down cause he was apparently high AF when he did it
Literally *everything* he's done at Twitter has been HIGHLY unpopular
Senior staff and engineers fired or laid off; so many reports of stalling to pay out benefits and severance
The changes he directly pushed for and wanted implemented have lead to a rise in hate speech across all fronts on Twitter; it's also irreparably damaged Twitter's reputation as a reliable outlet in many cases as a platform where quick and breaking news could be shared by a variety of government and commercial entities
He's had a history of 'questionable' decision making when working with groups of people/teamwork
Literally was ousted from CEO of PayPal via a vote of no-confidence by board members after none of them agreed with him or the direction he was pushing
A lot of his joke tweets and shitposts dances on lines that point to right-wing beliefs and humor
It endorses the content and legitimizes several harmful and hateful movements down the line
Has he done good? Absolutely. When I think of electric cars and pushing technical advancement forward, I don't think of Prius (barf, boo hiss lame ass eco shitboxes), I think of Tesla. He shifted the market with the concept of what electric vehicles could and should be, and now, years later, other brands and manufacturers are finally catching up. Starlink is absolutely wild. Satellite internet has been VIOLENTLY STAGNANT for DECADES; folks in rural areas now have ACTUAL competition with ACTUALLY USABLE INTERNET SPEEDS. SpaceX getting them into space is another bridge of success there - I'm a big believer in humanity going as far as it can do, and pushing for as much as it can push, and a non-government entity working in the market sector of "space freight" is absolutely needed in order to lay down the building blocks for bigger things to come, for both science and knowledge, as well as commercial pursuits, as well as humankind evolution and expansion.
But all that being said, to me, at best, he's a rich idiot who just doesn't play well with others and his financial privilege has insulated him from tangible and real consequences that would otherwise change how someone perceives and handles things. At worst, he's a deeply insecure and highly defensive person who thinks rules and regulations and consequences are for other people and that he should be immune to all of it because of his "ideas" for the future.
Like it's giving rich deluded billionaire who has lost touch with the common people and lacks any sort of empathy drive.
Him and Grimes getting together was ~~quirky at first, but looking at who he is as a person and what he's done over the years, it's so strange, given that she was considered sort of an alt-left creative pro-feminist kind of icon and he's.....absolutely not that.
