Elon Musk has taken aim at Dr. Anthony Fauci on social media in a particularly pig-headed manner, using his criticism of the White House’s chief medical adviser as an opportunity to poke fun at people who specify their gender pronouns online.
Fauci, 81, was the face of the USA’s Covid response and recently announced he’d be stepping down from his position as chief medical adviser and also from his role as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
He has faced fierce backlash from the right-wing, with Republican lawmakers promising to give him a grilling when their takeover of the House of Representatives kicks off in January, taking issue with the way Fauci handled the pandemic.
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And now, Musk has taken a dig at the expert, while also mocking the trans community.
Taking to Twitter on Sunday (11 December), Musk wrote: “My pronouns are Prosecute/Fauci.”
Musk did not specify his exact grievances with Fauci, but the Twitter CEO was met with push back from scientists and politicians alike.
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Peter Hotez, a vaccine scientist and author, replied: "200,000 Americans needlessly lost their lives from Covid due to this kind of antiscience rhetoric and disinformation."
Responding to Musk on Twitter, Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar insisted Fauci ‘calmly guided our country through crisis’ and added: “Could you just leave a good man alone in your seemingly endless quest for attention?
However, others were supportive of Musk’s incendiary tweet, with Marjorie Taylor Greene - a Republican congresswoman - responding: “I affirm your pronouns Elon.”
It’s certainly not the first time Musk has mocked gender pronouns. The world’s richest man has publicly poked fun at pronoun use as far back as 2020.
That year, Musk tweeted a photo of a soldier rubbing bloody hands on his face alongside the words: “When you put he/him in ur bio.”
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Met with backlash, Musk responded: “Absolutely support trans, but all these pronouns are an esthetic nightmare.”
That same year, Musk’s then-girlfriend Grimes was forced to publicly condemn another of her partner’s pronoun-bashing tweets, which simply read: “Pronouns suck.”
Grimes replied to the problematic tweet: “I love you but please turn off your phone or give me a call. I cannot support hate. Please stop this. I know this isn't your heart.”
UNILAD has approached Musk for comment.
Topics: Elon Musk
Aisha Nozari