Hey. Guys. Quit it. He may have just laid off thousands of employees in the most chaotic and callous ways imaginable, but you know what? You just hate him ’cause you ain’t him, and it’s time to lay off — according to one Maye Musk, mother of Elon, that is.
At least, that’s the message she brought to “The Elon Musk Show,” an aptly-titled BBC series about — you guessed it! — the mercurial, arguably maniacal SpaceX, Tesla, and Twitter CEO’s rise to infamy. The covergirl model reportedly makes an appearance in the doc’s second episode, where she took the opportunity to address her superlatively wealthy kiddo’s online detractors.
“With those companies, he gets a lot of hate,” Maye said, according to Insider. “Stop being mean to him.”
Capisce?
Per Insider, Maye additionally referred to her son as a “genius,” which makes sense because she’s his mom and a lot of moms think that about their kids. She also reportedly added that even though people are jealous of her baby boy’s many achievements, “no one wants to be him.” In other words, he’s no tyrant, just a misunderstood genius — and his life is tough.
It’s worth noting that this isn’t Maye’s first foray into Elon defense. In fact, she’s been in mama bear mode ever since her son’s tumultuous acquisition of Twitter. She’s tagged some “nasty” tweets directed at her son with hashtags like “#NastyNasty” (savage!) and has also joined in Elon’s crying face emoji chorus, laughing at the non-emerald-miners out there attempting to use her son’s newly-purchased public forum as… a public forum. Idiots!
Of course, again because she’s his mom, she’s failed to address the fact that her son’s cultural relevance is very much borne of his own desire to be extremely chaotic on the internet. He’s not just the richest man in the world; he’s also a steady shitposter and terminally online Twitter troll, which are inextricably linked to his and his companies’ incredibly visible — and controversial — profiles.
And being able to say and do whatever you want on the internet — or in the real world — doesn’t mean that those words and actions should be free from comments or criticism, especially when the person saying them is the world’s richest and most influential man. Is straight up bullying ever okay? Not really! But criticism is a necessary part of the territory here.
To be fair, the doc does feature some heavy praise from non-familial figures as well, so it’s not just Maye who’s here to defend. In episode one, former SpaceX talent chief Dolly Singh reportedly argues that once Elon’s finished “building his legacy, it will be unquestionable that he is a combination of Einstein, Tesla, and Rockefeller.” Unquestionable!
“He learned everything about Tesla and Einstein. He has learned everything that they knew and he’s trying to take it to the next level,” Singh said, according to Insider. “I think he’s the closest thing that we have to that kind of a figure in our day and age.”
READ MORE: Even Elon Musk’s mom admits no one wants to be him: ‘He gets a lot of hate. Stop being mean to him.’ [Insider]
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