Once respected as tech genius Elon Musk has become a controversial figure with his increasing political presence and transphobic comments.
Being crowned as one of the worlds richest men, his money was gathered mostly from his entrepreneurial past. Buying up companies like PayPal and most recently, X(formerly Twitter). His seemingly bottomless pit of wealth seems to know no bounds, but a majority of his wealth was earned off of the back of others ideas.
Thought assumed, Musk was never the inventor or creator of PayPal or Tesla, the only company he founded was Spacex. He helped to merge his company X.Com(not Twitter) with PayPal in 2000, briefly serving as the CEO before the company was bought out by eBay in 2001. After the buy out he received $176 million due to being the largest shareholder in the company.
His history is that of smart investments leading to huge profits. It’s a classic formula for this generations billionaires, but unlike other billionaires, Musk claims his family’s wealth had no impact on his.
His father owned a small handful of emerald mines in South Africa that experienced a huge boost in finances during the 80s. Though Musk may not have received any money from this, the security provided by the increase in money allowed him to pursue higher education.
All that education and stability meant that Musk was in an easy spot to start investing and growing both his wealth and ego.
Ego Maniac
Musk was able to generate an almost endless stream of cash due to his investments and with all that cash he was able to get into some important places. Having been a vocal republican supporter for many years, Musk has been all in on supporting recently elected president Donald Trump.
Attending multiple rallies, sporting his own MAGA(Make American Great Again) hat, Musk has made it clear to the public where he stands when it comes to politics. He even made jokes about the Dark MAGA alt-right memes, supporting the joke as it aims to “take down the woke mob”.
After acquiring Twitter Musk aimed to strive for complete free speech on the platform, however this was a lie. In the years since Musk has implemented a ban on impersonation accounts andartificially boosted his own popularity on the site.
It’s hard to open X and not be immediately met with a tweet or repost from Musk, since becoming CEO he’s made X into a platform for right-wing beliefs, if you’re sitting on the fence or left-wing in any way you’re bound to be chased off the platform, that or be met with hate speech, something X doesn’t condone but gladly lets right-wing politicians get away with.
Recently Elon has also made his Transphobic thoughts clear when it comes to talking about his daughter. Vivian Jenna Wilson spoke out on an interview with NBC, speking out about how her father spoke out on how she is “dead” to him. He also spent a majority of June this year liking transphobic tweets.
His anti-trans statements and vocal support of Trump has made X a dangerous platform for anyone in the LGBTQ+ community.
Musk’s recent political support of Trump and adamant love of Trump and growing power could lead to him getting fully involved in US politics in the coming years, of course this isn’t guaranteed, but the possibility is enough to make anyone scared.
Featured image credit: Getty Images
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