Even before his birth, Elon Musk was always in the spotlight. In his early childhood, his technology skills drew great attention. However, over the last few years, his name has been mainly associated with absurdities and controversies.
The suspicious salute during the Inauguration Day event
The richest man in the world stole the scene during his speech at the Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C., where Donald Trump supporters were reunited in a rally to celebrate the new President’s victory.
Musk’s appearance at the event was part of his new role in Trump’s administration: leading the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), the new advisory body created by the US president himself to administer the country’s job market and spending.
After thanking the crowd for allowing Trump’s return to the White House, he suddenly slapped his right hand on his chest before shooting his arm diagonally upward, palm facing down. And to worsen it, he did it twice.
Many specialists and newspapers around the world claimed that this salute is a “Sieg heil” – a German salute used as a sign of loyalty to Adolf Hitler and gained popularity as the Nazi regime grew – which he dismissively denied.
“The ‘everyone is Hitler’ attack is so tired.” declared Musk on his X’s account, formerly known as Twitter, which he acquired in 2022.
Brazilian Supreme Court X Elon Musk
Ever since Musk took over Twitter and changed its name to X a lot has changed in the social media guidelines. Changes to its policies have sparked intense debate about free speech, content moderation, and the spread of misinformation.
After the platform failed to comply with legal orders to block certain accounts accused of spreading “fake news” and hate messages, the Brazilian Supreme Justice Alexandre de Moraes ordered Anatel, the country’s telecommunications regulator, to be taken down in all Brazilian territory.
As expected, Elon took that hit as a sore loser. Right after Moraes blocked X and froze all financial assets of Musk’s Starlink, a satellite internet network that has rapidly expanded over the country, the trillionaire created an account specially dedicated to mocking Justice.
The profile “Alexandre Files” supposedly aimed to expose confidential information from Moraes. Many posts claimed that Brazil was under censorship and its people had no way to defend themselves, trying to portray Moraes as a dictator.
The X owner took it even further, ironizing the situation by calling Moraes “Brazil’s Darth Vader”, the villain in Star Wars. Aftertwo months of one-sided bickering, the self-declared “free-speech absolutist” began to comply with the Supreme Court’s orders. After paying R$ 28.000.000 in fines and agreeing to appoint a local representative, the official X account posted “proud to return to Brazil”.
Musk’s abusive business practices
The owner of six different companies, ranging from electric vehicles, Tesla, to the rocket producer SpaceX. Even so, he has been known to create toxic work environments across these two businesses.
In 2022, Elon was accused of sexual assault and retaliation by eight former SpaceX engineers, who alleged they were illegally fired for raising concerns about sexual harassment and discrimination against women at the company. Ironically, just a day after the lawsuit came, a Wall Street Journal report claimed that Musk has had sexual relationships with at least two employees and has made sexually inappropriate comments toward females at SpaceX.
The open letter published by his previous employees also detailed Elon’s inappropriate behavior, highlighting how he treated women as sexual objects, bombarded the workplace with lewd sexual banter, and offered to reprise those who challenged the ‘Animal House’s environment that if they didn’t like it they can seek employment elsewhere.
His other companies are not spared of this toxic behavior. In 2023, the podcast Land of the Giants produced by The Verge and the Vox Media Podcast Network interviewed Tesla’s employees. Their stories were shocking, extremely long hours, unsafe working conditions, harassment, scandals, fines, lawsuits, and above all else, a fear that one false slip would lead to termination.
A review by Forbes revealed that Tesla’s Fremont, California, plant had three times as many Occupational Safety and Health Administration safety violations as ten other US car factories combined. Injuries were higher than the country’s average. Tesla was also found to have repeatedly misclassified and underreported injuries at its facilities in California and Nevada.
What can we expect from Elon Musk in the future?
Up to this moment, his story has been of great relevance, as well as filled with obscurities and polemics. However, it’s undeniable that as the richest man in the world, his role in the U.S. government makes him one of the most influential people in our society. He has built a powerful empire and quite a name for himself, even so, it’s important to keep in mind that greatness can be accompanied by an imminent fall if not well-managed. Such as the Roman Empire. Elon Musk’s story can end like the quote from Edward Gibbon, “The decline of Rome was the natural and inevitable effect of immoderate greatness”.
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The article above was edited by Clarissa Palácio.
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