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Elon Musk’s Public Spat Against Bill Gates Takes a Weird Turn

Last Updated September 23, 2020 2:09 PM
Bernadette Giacomazzo
Last Updated September 23, 2020 2:09 PM
  • Elon Musk took to Twitter to deny claims of being Bill Gates’ lover.
  • The comments come right after Gates accused Musk of spouting misinformation about COVID-19.
  • Why is the tech bro hero turning a pandemic into an attention-seeking stunt?

Elon Musk is not Bill Gates’ lover.

In case you were wondering — and, these days, who knows what people do or don’t wonder about? — the tech bro hero and the Microsoft co-founder are not romantically involved.

So, of course, says Musk, who quipped about his romantic status just two days after getting slammed by Gates for spreading ‘misinformation’ about COVID-19.

Was this even a question, Elon Musk? | Source: Twitter 

Aside from the obvious questions, why is Musk making light of the coronavirus? And why is this even a discussion right now?

Elon Musk Is A Smart Man, But He Doesn’t Know Everything

Back in 2019, Elon Musk and Bill Gates were, if not friends in the truest sense of the word, professionally acquainted and friendly. Back in January 2019, they — alongside Warren Buffet — seemed to be of the like mind that believed now, more than ever, was the perfect time to be alive .

Fast-forward 18 months and the COVID-19 pandemic has ravaged both people and world economies. Suddenly, it’s not so great to be alive, and Musk and Gates are not of the same mind anymore.

Ever since the COVID-19 pandemic first started making waves, Musk has been — shall we say — less than agreeable to more liberal politicians’ methods of “crushing the curve.”  

He’s called California’s methods ‘fascist, ‘ and even earned an F-bomb from controversial Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez after he promised to move Tesla out of the state of California.

So, Bill Gates — whose Gates Foundation has been the subject of countless conspiracy theories spear-headed by the odious QAnon surrounding the coronavirus vaccine — decided to correctly point out the obvious.  

Elon’s positioning is to maintain a high level of outrageous comments, He’s not much involved in vaccines. He makes a great electric car. And his rockets work well. So he’s allowed to say these things. I hope that he doesn’t confuse areas he’s not involved in too much.

Pot, Kettle, Black

Now, that said, while Elon Musk certainly doesn’t know much about vaccines, neither does Bill Gates.

Conspiracy theories about the Gates Foundation aside, Gates is not a biologist or a virologist. While he has his fair share of honorary degrees, he dropped out of Harvard after two years to co-found Microsoft. And while his Gates Foundation has certainly spear-headed the development of several life-saving vaccines, their methods are not without legitimate controversy .

That brings us to today’s salvo, in which Musk had to clarify that he and Gates are not lovers.

Yet there’s a larger question that remains at the heart of Elon Musk’s flippant response to COVID-19: why is he making such light of the situation? Whatever other misinformation, and disinformation, exists about the disease, it’s currently wreaking havoc on the world.

It’s one thing for Elon Musk to court attention by inserting himself into a topical celebrity conversation. It’s another thing entirely to court attention over the dead bodies of 150,000 people in the United States alone. And the latter is what he’s doing in this case — and it’s highly unnecessary.