Elon: Like Lex Luthor, Not Tony Stark

Photo by Peter Forster on Unsplash

In the second Iron Man film, Tony Stark, breathed to life exactly how I pictured him in the comics by Robert Downey, Jr., goes to Monaco to race. He’s unaware that a villain with a grudge waits to attack him with a weaponized suit that will shred his hurtling race car, and nearly do the same to him. Arriving before the race with a harried Pepper Potts in tow, he whisks through a hotel that’s laced with some famous faces making cameos as themselves. They include Bill O’Reilly, Adam “DJ AM” Goldstein, the obligatory Stan Lee appearance, Oracle’s Larry Ellison and one more tech titan: Elon Musk.

I remembered people noting at the time how appropriate they thought Elon’s cameo was. Some said they saw Musk as a real-life Tony Stark; a brash, brilliant genius who ignored convention, threw caution to the wind but invented incredible technology. I imagine Elon Musk thinks of himself that way too, and sees his own origin story mimicking the man donning the Iron Man super suit powered by the fictional Arc Reactor. I toyed with that notion at the time too, and almost bought into it. Now, I assuredly don’t.

Granted, there are some similarities between them. Like Tony, Elon reportedly has a complicated and strained relationship with his father. Like Tony’s father Howard, Elon’s father Errol is said to be a bright engineer, inventor, and a very successful businessman, although reports I’ve seen do not paint him to be as wealthy as Howard Stark is portrayed in comic book lore. In the Iron Man comics and films, Tony battles to best villains, his business rivals, and outdo the ingenious inventions cast by the long shadow of his legendary deceased father, the founder of the company that bears both men’s last name. Elon also fights to best his own rivals, and seems intent on outdoing his dad’s success, although Errol is still alive to see Elon’s achievements.

In the Iron Man films, Tony wants to make his dad proud, and live up to his legacy. For most of the first two films, he feels Howard was hard on him and not proud of him, but learns later that his dad was quietly his biggest fan. This seems to be a major plot point divergence between the comic book character’s father/son dynamic, and the way Walter Isaacson’s book, Elon Musk, reportedly portrays the relationship between Errol and his son Elon.

As in most things with famous people, no one can be completely sure of the accuracy in depicting family relationships, even with the cooperation of the people in question. Writers of books need conflict to make sure their book is snapped up off of the shelves, and biographies are no exception. Subjects of true stories aren’t always the most reliable narrators of their own lives, either over or underplaying the bad or good to the advantage of their image. If we do believe that Isaacson’s depiction of their relationship is more factual than not, it paints a tumultuous father and son relationship, and a lonely and often unhappy childhood.

According to Isaacson’s retelling of Elon Musk’s account, Errol didn’t just push him competitively, but was verbally and emotionally abusive, bullying, berating and demeaning him. The young Elon would be cruelly insulted on a regular basis by his dad, a practice that others in his life, notably romantic partners, claimed he acted out in his relationships with them. Take the following excerpt from the Business Insider article linked above for example.

Justine Musk, Elon Musk's first wife, told Isaacson said that during their arguments, Elon would belittle and insult her, calling her a "moron," an "idiot," or "stupid and crazy."

"When I spent some time with Errol, I realized that's where he'd gotten the vocabulary," Justine Musk told Isaacson.

Ex-wife Talulah Riley also told Isaacson that Errol Musk's treatment of his son "had a profound effect on how he operates."

The Tony Stark character is brash and prickly but is he downright abusive? I guess that depends on the perspective of the reader but I don’t tend to think so from my limited exposure to the comics and films. Musk, on the other hand, is not only noted by exes as difficult to deal with, but his professional escapades including browbeating and mercilessly driving employees at Space X, Tesla and X, née Twitter, are seen by many as abusive. He sometimes fires thousands in apparently impetuous decisions, another possible demonstration of disregard for people’s worth or feelings.

The other qualities that fictional superhero Tony Stark is known for are being clever, charming, funny and a suave ladies’ man. He’s depicted as having Einsteinian genius, the debonair of James Bond, and topped with the whipcrack wit of a standup. Musk, as anyone who has seen any of his public appearances on SNL or Trump rallies can attest (even before the infamous Nazi salute), cannot be described as any of those things. Again, according to Isaacson’s memoir, Musk was bullied quite a bit as a child. Isaacson described him as bookish, scrawny and believe it or not, lacking the empathy that helps people develop friendships. Some, including his brother and ex-wives quoted in the book, attribute it to forming the often-abrasive personality we see today.

You know who else’s origin story involves a bright but bullied kid, who grows up to be an angry and vengeful industry titan? Lex Luthor. According to the iteration of Lex one refers to, he’s either a poor boy genius who is bullied as a child but uses his intellect and inventions to make himself rich, or an unethical executive who is already a magnate. He then uses those riches to become a criminal mastermind thorn in Superman’s side, or just his constantly malevolent nemesis.

He remains bent on getting revenge on Superman for one of the following reasons. Superman’s either quashing Lex’s adoration from the people in fictional Metropolis, coming to save Luthor but inadvertently exposing him to chemicals or radiation that makes him completely bald as a young man, or some combination of the above. Lex’s plots for revenge often injure many innocents uninvolved in the beef he has with Superman. Any of that sound like anyone you’ve seen in the news lately? No? Well, here’s my take, anyway.

Many people originally had a positive opinion of Musk. In fact, good press for him looked to be almost universal. He claimed to be concerned for the planet, seemed to support sustainability, championed and then invested in Tesla, eventually buying it outright and accelerated the adoption of electric automobiles that operate emissions-free. He presented himself as an awkward, impish super-genius, doing his best to be acceptably social, but failing at it in an endearing way. Some darker personality traits began to peek through after a while, climaxing with a wholesale embrace of the persona of the villainous antagonist of political correctness and sensitivity after purchasing Twitter.

After that, many who saw him as some kind of crusading, clean energy transportation hero, found themselves deeply disappointed. Cries of disgust, along with claims that he changed poured from some former fans, now turned bitterly disgruntled at this development. I think it's more sinister. I believe the person we're seeing was always who he was. The following is the origin story I imagine could be true, but have no way of knowing for sure.

In this possible origin story, Elon, the bullied, nerdy son of a wealthy family, is unpopular at school, then later with girls and finally women. He becomes rich through a series of moves. They include the cofounding of Paypal, reinvestment of proceeds from Ebay’s eventual purchase of it to found Space X, investment in already founded Tesla, culminating in his total purchase of that company and naming himself its founder as a result. He then parleys the cool factor of the Tesla into greater wealth in stocks with both it and Space X undergirded by government subsidies and contracts respectively. He proceeds to pitch himself as the bookworm who made good, endearingly goofy as well as smart.

The wealth, like it or not, eventually grants him success in pursuing women, some of them famous and many of them attractive. The combination of money and babes earns him a following, predominantly among young men who are sexually frustrated. These are widely known as the involuntarily celibate, or incels. Their incapability to find companionship or sexual release that isn’t lap dances, prostitution or pornography-fueled masturbation makes them not only frustrated, but their undersexed state tills the ground for the fertile seeds of bitter misogyny.

A considerable portion of these are bookish, nerdy, lonely, socially awkward and possibly fantasizing about their lives changing just like the characters they read about in comic books as kids. Some go to films like Batman or Iron Man and imagine themselves in the place of the protagonist, using their brains to do work they find fulfilling, but that also makes them incredibly wealthy.

They’re no longer the guy that’s too shy to say hi to the barista they’ve had a crush on for the last year or so. They go out of their way to patronize her spot on their way to work, just to see her smile, call their name out when their coffee is ready and say a friendly hello. They indulge fantasies of becoming the hero who gets that Bruce Wayne and Tony Stark kind of acclaim, and with it the charm and panache that wins them sex. Their fantasy alter-egos easily utter witty things, dress well, stand confidently and smile just right to regularly land women who look like Anne Hathaway, Leslie Bibb, Gwyneth Paltrow or Zoe Kravitz.

Many in this group are underachieving. Some of their stagnant lives are their own fault. These are stuck, for the same reason the artist Common raps in a song called The Questions: having high expectations but low patience. Others are educated and saddled with debt but have careers stifled from multiple economic crashes, shocks and resulting labor market tightness. Still others are embittered because they chose career routes that don’t require college. They find their employment prospects stark, their wages stagnant, have unfulfilling romantic relationships or low dating prospects and believe they’ve been cheated of what’s due to them; namely money, hot women, fast cars and great homes.

Elon buys Twitter, renames it X and proceeds to make himself its star contributor. With TwitX, Elon finds a megaphone to supercharge the image he created, striking a chord with millions more lonely nerds, financially stagnant and sexually frustrated incels. Having been in their shoes, he easily speaks their language, gives voice to their dissatisfaction and becomes their champion. Eventually, he lets more of his mask fall away and begins to make naked appeals to the disgruntled racists and xenophobes blaming “those people” for their plight. He then adds this faction to his legion of doom. In their minds, he’s their Iron Man, or maybe their Dark Knight. In actuality, he’s Lex Luthor and he’s cultivating them as an extension of himself and for his own benefit.

They become his army, hanging on and amplifying his every word and thought. He bought Twitter out completely just to ensure his was the dominant view and voice. This is now his personal echo chamber of racists, antisemites and misogynistic incels. He made himself their god, and they enthusiastically embrace worshipping him.

He astutely recognizes the overlap his audience has with Trump’s MAGA’s, possibly the same group in both camps, or with just so much overlap between the groups that it feels like a ratio of 1:1. He knows Trump is without morals, code, ethics or loyalties outside of his own well-being and comfort. He also knows that the only thing Trump loves as much as himself, or more, is money. Money is something Elon has a lot of, and he can convert lots of it in a liquid state quickly to control Trump, using his own greed to move him like a joystick. He knows he can manipulate Agent Orange, because the man is a prostitute whenever more money is dangling to turn out his virtues to call Musk daddy.

With that influence and his observation of overlap between his worshippers and MAGAs, he exploits it and pulls those in his camp towards supporting Trump if they weren’t already there. For those who are already MAGA, him singing its virtues only further bolsters their already settled decisions to vote for Trump. The final goal? All that you see now.

He gets a captive government with him holding the keys and free reign. It all comes in exchange for imploding America in a way that strengthens Elon’s companies; pleases authoritarians where his plants are set overseas; and guts the agencies and departments that hold him accountable for the labor, product safety and environmental regulations that add to his business costs. All the while, he’s also enriching Agent Orange and his family, to keep 45/7 compliant and continually willing to take America and “bust out the joint”, like Henry Hill and Tommy in Goodfellas.

It’s why he’s been permitted to “DOGE” government spending, when this agency isn’t legal or congressionally approved. It’s why Musk, an unelected, unauthorized and unvetted billionaire government vendor, was given full access to numerous government record systems, including the nations payment system handling $6T in payments annually. His crack team of college students are accessing these crucial systems, including those of Departments of Treasury and State, and probably doing it on personal laptops compromised by viruses from foreign enemies that came from online gaming and pornography downloads.

The nation is now wide open and exposed. It’s financial, diplomatic and possibly some defense information crucial to this nation’s safety, readiness and capability to deliver the basic services individuals and businesses depend on is likely weakened to a nearly irreparable state. Tony Stark hops into his metal suit to take to the air, defend his nation and the world against domestic, international and intergalactic threats. Lex Luthor enriches himself in order to launch attacks against the forces that people look to and depend on for safety, to make himself even richer while endangering everyone else.

Elon Musk is essentially Lex Luthor, and right up until fairly recently, the bald head was about to be a shared feature between them too. Both are selfish and dangerous. Unfortunately for the United States of America, Lex is the only one who is a fictional character.