No one has yearned to call himself a victim of “cancel culture” more than Elon Musk. In one sense, he’s succeeded beyond his wildest dreams, becoming a favorite villain of the left, the target of non-stop scorn and mockery. But he keeps failing at the second, equally crucial aspect of becoming an icon for self-pitying fascists: selling himself as a MAGA martyr. Even by the low standards of people who love Donald Trump, Musk is too charmless, self-pitying, and privileged to make a compelling character in the endlessly idiotic drama of right-wing outrage at liberals who commit the high crime of not liking them.
Exhibit #1 of how Musk is bad at this: At a Trump victory rally in January, Musk showily threw two hand gestures that are physically and psychically indistinguishable from the infamous Nazi salute. This generates progressive outrage, which usually provokes a “how dare you call us racist just because we spread neo-Nazi conspiracy theories?!” response on the right. And sure, there were some moribund efforts to stand in solidarity with Musk, such as Steve Bannon also tossing off a stiff-armed salute at a MAGA conference. But Bannon cringed while he did it, and the result was that even the far-right in Europe inched away in embarrassment. Instead of a surge of red hats embracing the “sieg heil” as their new troll-the-liberals-for-Elon gesture, the whole thing has faded away.
Exhibit #2, a little older but still hilarious: In 2022, Dave Chappelle was cashing in on his moment of “cancel culture” martyrdom, packing houses with fans outraged that anyone dared tell the comedian that anti-trans bigotry isn’t cool. Musk desperately wanted a piece and joined Chappelle on stage in San Francisco. But instead of a hero’s welcome, Musk got booed, so badly that it was reported later that his employees feared he was having a mental breakdown after the show. Even a self-pity party for bigots draws a line at crybaby antics from the richest man in the world.
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In recent weeks, there’s been a deluge of protests and other actions geared toward making Musk’s car company, Tesla, a toxic brand, in response to the billionaire’s often-illegal efforts to gut the federal government from the inside. The movement has been a big success. Tesla’s stock price is falling and Tesla owners are trying to sell their cars off, even as the used market value is plummeting. But Trump is infatuated with Musk — even using the White House lawn as space for a de facto Tesla commercial — so the GOP and the MAGA media are, with visible reluctance, doing what they can to turn Musk into their latest martyr offered up for the plebes to weep over.
Things aren’t going well. Musk appeared on Sean Hannity’s Fox News show Tuesday for a garment-rending session so pitiful that it barely has any pick-up in the rest of the right-wing press. “I’ve never done anything harmful,” Musk whined, alleging he’s the victim of a shadowy conspiracy of “larger forces at work.” “Who’s funding and who’s coordinating it?” he sniveled, as if it’s not possible that millions of Americans see him for what he is and have decided to join in the fun of destroying his brand’s reputation. “They basically want to kill me,” he declared dramatically, while Hannity made soothing noises.
The melodrama has echoes of Trump falsely claiming that it’s illegal not to buy Teslas, which start at $44,000 for the cheapest new model. Why not? “Cancel culture” complaints are usually premised on the notion that liberals are obligated to applaud bigoted statements, date people they don’t like, and laugh at jokes they don’t find funny. It’s only logical that the next argument was, “Buy my crap, or you’re murdering me.” But these antics are bound to backfire. Teslas are electric cars, which MAGA has been told for a decade now will detach your testicles upon plugging them in. The only real customer base was well-heeled liberals, and having Trump and Hannity endorse the car is kryptonite, and rightfully so.
The vast majority of anti-Tesla actions have been legal and peaceful, but there are reports of some car vandalism and a handful of incidents of people setting cars on fire. Attorney General Pam Bondi declared it’s “nothing short of domestic terrorism.” Musk took the high dudgeon even higher on Hannity, falsely accusing “the Democrats” of “burning down cars, firebombing dealerships, they’re firing bullets into dealerships, they’re smashing up Teslas,” and complaining “Democrats were supposed to be the party of empathy.” Needless to say, Democratic leaders are not setting cars on fire or encouraging this behavior.
But this language is especially rich coming from a man who, only last month, declared that the “fundamental weakness of Western civilization is empathy.” Of course, he was sneering at the empathy people have for retirees whose Social Security checks are threatened, AIDS victims left to die because their drugs were cut off, veterans who are losing health care, and dedicated public servants who have been summarily fired by a billionaire who finds their do-gooder lives to be icky. But Musk has bottomless empathy for cars, which have no feelings. That checks out for a man who speaks often of how he’d like to replace humanity with robots and artificial intelligence programs.
Almost no one propped up by MAGA media as a martyr deserves sympathy. Still, Musk is a hard sell even in the right-wing media ecosystem where “victims” are people who were wished “happy holidays” at Starbucks or tied for 5th place with a trans woman at a single swim meet. The man might as well be wiping away his crocodile tears with $1,000 bills. If anything, making himself the centerpiece of a “woe is me” campaign is backfiring. At town halls across the country, Republican congressmen are finding it nearly impossible to defend Musk from jeering crowds who do not believe Granny should lose her Social Security check so a billionaire can get even richer.
One of the funnier phenomena online in recent weeks is how the Reddit forum for Joe Rogan fans has turned on the podcaster, mostly because they can’t stand how he’s cozied up to Musk. Even Rogan fans are leaving comments these days like, “This nerd wants to buy people’s approval so badly” and making fun of Trump for his pitiful attempt to sell Teslas. Musk was never a great fit for the dirtbag crowd, which has always been more interested in giving wedgies to self-congratulatory nerds than treating them like heroes. Trump’s juice with these guys has always been that he is a proud ignoramus, a man who speaks loudly with great confidence, despite knowing nothing and having no interest in learning.
Musk is also such a man, but he has successfully disguised himself for years as a proper nerd, often bragging about books he’s probably not read and implying he’s got engineering skills he doesn’t have. The crotch-scratching crowd doesn’t love a geek and they especially don’t like someone merely posing as one. The latter may be their only redeemable quality.
The good news is that Musk is doing a bang-up job helping people understand that Trump was never for the working man, as he has successfully tricked so many into thinking. By tying himself so tightly to this pampered brat, Trump has done serious damage to his approval ratings. That’s especially true on the economy, where Trump has usually performed well, buoyed by his unearned reputation as a “businessman” and a lot of public ignorance over how economics works. But Musk is so easy to hate and such an icon of self-dealing that he’s finally helping crack the unwillingness some folks have to believe the truth: Trump doesn’t care about them, only his rich friends. Even when they’re billionaires who can’t shut up about what victims they are.
