Elon Musk elicits strong feelings. There are those who are fans of his. Then there are those who dislike him quite vigorously. Few people are indifferent to Elon Musk. What is it about the man that invites such strong reactions?
A lot of nerds love Elon Musk because as an engineer and designer he constantly thinks up new ideas and sets up new companies: electric vehicles, space programs, boring (related to drilling, not tedium) company etc. He is about electric cars, rockets, hyperloop – he is every nerd’s dream come true.
And mean it! In December 2016, Musk was stuck in traffic so he famously tweeted "[I] am going to build a tunnel boring machine and just start digging ..." He then started the aforementioned Boring Company and did what he said he would – he started digging and drilling.
He announced that he had spoken with Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg about Artificial Intelligence and thought that the latter had only a limited understanding of the matter. His supposed offer to buy and then delete Facebook is a big of an urban legend, but many people believed this --- simply because it’s the sort of thing he would do. And does do.
He married and divorced thrice. This includes twice marrying and divorcing English actor Talulah Riley. The two divorced in 2012, remarried in 2013, filed for divorce in December 2014, withdrew the petition then then refiled for divorce to end the marriage in 2016. He has also been involved with actor Amber Heard and musician Grimes.
His ambitious projects, erratic behavior such as smoking pot on TV, his unusual ideas, his public battles on social media... any headline with the term ‘Elon Musk’ in it becomes clickbait. He is a personality made for memes – reviled, and admired and envied and loved in equal measure.
Neil deGrasse Tyson once described him as a cross-pollination between Thomas Edison and Tony Stark. To be sure, Elon Musk and his lifestyle are the closest any living person comes to Ironman.
Superhero, super-villain – same thing, right? Perhaps with Elon Musk it is.
There were times when he had to borrow money from friends just so Tesla could stay afloat. But he has picked himself up, dusted himself off and carried right on. He has the respect of a lot of people for that.
He is the 40th richest person on earth and is currently valued at $30 billion +. With that much wealth comes a lot of power… and the power to do whatever the hell he wants.
Like the iconic Police song, whatever Elon Musk does or doesn’t do, there is vast band of the faithful who examine and analyse his every move, cheer or criticise as the case may be. They then dream up the most appropriate meme for this most meme-worthy of men.
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