The ambition and effort to change the status quo is never easy or simple, and whenever one such personality takes the task upon themselves, there are bound to be conflicted opinions. This journey is never easy – it garners both friends and foes along the way. One such case is Elon Musk.
Musk rose to fame thanks to his over-ambitious ideas in businesses and to conquer new domains of the world. Musk as a popular name isn’t immune to criticism, and at times that criticism can turn into hateful, rightful or otherwise is another question altogether. There are many reasons behind the general hatred, which prompts the question why do people hate Elon Musk?
The CEO of Tesla and SpaceX Elon Musk is one of the richest men on earth and one of the most recognizable faces of the world, and so it does not come as a shock that there are people who dislike him. Why do people hate Elon Musk so much? The answer could be that his wealth and success through crazy ideas might make him appear arrogant, or that his liberal politics that are only reforming as long as they fit the capitalist individualistic goals of the same ideals, anger both the conservatives and the leftist progressives.
Let’s have a look at some of the reasons that we came up with to determine why do people not like Elon Musk?
Is Elon Musk’s wealth earned through ethical means?
Elon Musk is a known business mogul, also one of the richest persons on the planet. Although he is quite an inspiration for many, there are a lot who question if Musk’s wealth was earned through ethical means or not?
There is a famous video of Democratic representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez also known as AOC, where she says, “You don’t make a billion dollars, you take a billion dollars?” that went viral, putting billionaires like Elon Musk at the center of all the questioning and criticism over how one ethically makes as much money as he has in the limited amount of time.
Pandemic Misinformation
Elon Musk has been known to be careless about his tweets and opinions. He was labeled as someone who peddled information regarding the coronavirus pandemic. He labeled the covid-19 virus as “not very deadly” at the start of the pandemic.
He claimed in the early days of the pandemic that the young people will not be affected by the virus and they are not at high risk despite the fact that those affected with the virus were getting sick severely, contracting many long-term effects of the virus.
Elon Musk himself contracted the virus and even then, questioned the legitimacy of the Covid-19 tests as he received positive and negative results for his test within the span of a few hours.
Elon Musk also publicly questioned and downplayed the use of vaccines to protect against the pandemic – which was very careless on his behalf as he is followed by millions and is considered an inspiration across the world.
Plans to colonize the Outer Space
Elon Musk founded SpaceX to satiate his thirst for exploring outer space. SpaceX is a company that ambitiously plans to start taking passengers out to space especially the planet Mars by 2050 and colonize the planet by moving more than one million to the red planet.
According to the initial plan released by Elon Musk, he will be providing loans to all the people who plan to get settled on the red planet and they are expected to start paying back once they are settled there.
This far-fetched and relatively removed concept from the realities of people on our planet has attracted all the wealthy people across the world, ignoring the immediate needs and requirements of people that could help make their lives better here.
Dismissing the worth and importance of Education
Elon Musk claimed that a college education is simply a waste of time. This was not taken well by a lot of people. This might be one of the reasons why people don’t like Elon Musk as this offended a lot of people.
He stated that college time is all about having fun instead of learning. Hypocrisy was smelt through this statement of Elon Musk as it is mandatory for people to have a bachelor’s degree when applying for a job in SpaceX or Tesla.
Exploitation and Abuse Accusations at Tesla Factories
Elon Musk’s company has been accused severely of taking advantage of the workers at the factories, and mistreating them. He was also accused of underpaying his workers.
Elon was forced to apologize when people started to name and shame him openly – another reason that justifies the hate or rather dislike a lot of people feel towards him.
He was bashed for exposing his workers to the coronavirus when he re-opened his factory in California despite a strict lockdown in the state. The factory suffered an outbreak of the virus and he was held responsible for it.
Tesla has been accused and hit with lawsuits a number of times for various issues such as racism, gender discrimination, and sexual harassment.
Final verdict
Often the hate directed towards Musk becomes so overpowering people shoot off the question ‘why is Elon Musk bad’ into the internet and there are several who have answered that question in elaborate detail as well. When there is fame, you are bound to attract friends and foes equally. Why do people hate Elon Musk, you could say he has given them a lot of reasons to do so.
The world has always criticized people who try to change the dynamics of the world and Elon Musk is one such human being. He is least bothered by the hatred thrown towards him, or at least he would like us to believe so. It is enough for him to continue to pursue his dream projects as he pleases, no matter the real objective behind them.
