Fans of Taylor Swift ― singer/songwriter, pop megastar and Time magazine’s 2023 Person of the Year ― are reminding Elon Musk that there are a few key differences between Swift and himself.
Last week, Musk, the billionaire CEO of Tesla, congratulated Swift on being named Person of the Year, before offering a word of caution.
“Some risk of popularity decline after this award,” Musk posted on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter. “I speak from experience lol.”
Musk was named Time’s Person of the Year in 2021. Since then, he has bought Twitter and renamed it X, engaged with antisemitic material on the site and apologized for doing so. He has reportedly ordered his Tesla and SpaceX employees working remotely to return to the office or lose their jobs.
Musk recently urged businesses to “go fuck” themselves if they stopped advertising on X because of his behaviour. Hate speech on X has soared since Musk’s acquisition, and advertising has plummeted. This week, Musk restored the account of banned user Alex Jones, a conspiracy theorist perhaps best known for harassing the parents of dead children.
X users were happy to point out some of the contrasts between Musk and Swift.
“Elon Musk try not to make everything about himself challenge,” one user posted.
Another user wrote: “He could’ve just [said] congratulations and move on. No one asked for his advice/opinion thou.”
“People actually like taylor so i don’t think that’ll be a problem elon,” another user posted.
“Taylor has been dealing with fame before Elon became famous,” someone else wrote. “So that advice is not needed.”
“I don’t think #TaylorSwift needs your advice,” another user posted.