Anonymous Has A Bone To Pick With Elon Musk

Anonymous is one of the most and probably the most well-known hacktivist groups to exist on the planet. Founded in 2003, the collective is mostly known for their strongly held beliefs on bringing justice to the injustice that’s performed by not only our government, but people who use their high status to mistreat and abuse the lower-class. They are ruthless and unforgiving. Cold, and calculating. Or so they were, at least. They actually aren’t as active now as they were in previous years.

Their most recent message was actually last year, where they had responded to the U.S. racial tension that had exploded after the death of George Floyd. The Minneapolis Police Department was soon disappointed to find that their website had been taken offline in a DDoS attack that had been performed by the group over the weekend. That was Anonymous’ most recent attack. Shortly after, they crawled back into the shadows, never to be seen again.

…Until the week of June 6, that is.

I was scrolling around on my Twitter feed (Which you should totally follow me on, @bobapuke), when I saw that Anonymous was apparently in the Trending section for hashtags. The elusive organization is finally back after their 1 year slumber, and it seems now that their latest target of hate is Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and self-proclaimed “King of Mars”. But why him of all people (or all billionaires, I should say), and why right now? They could’ve made a video on him quite literally years ago. Watching the video, I found that the spark that probably ignited their fire most likely came from what happened last month with Dogecoin. However, there was definitely a lot more than just that.

I’ve enlisted below the 5 reasons Anonymous has decided to take a stand against the biggest titan in tech:

1: Superiority/God Complex

Elon is explicitly well-known for his major impacts on the tech industry. Electric-powered vehicles once were something that people only dreamed of back then. Space-X and Neuralink are both currently on their way to making some of the biggest innovations that mankind has ever seen for technology. But is Musk actually doing this for the better of the human race, or is there something more sinister hiding behind his electronic revolution? Anonymous likes to believe the latter.

Elon has come to gain quite the following on social media, partially by being one of the world’s most liked billionaires, and partially by the way he communicates to his followers. Anon’s thoughts are that he could care less for any of his fans, though. To them, his loyal subjects are nothing more than a cult to increase his prideful mind that he keeps secret from the public eye. It’s not hard to argue with this opinion, seeing as their next reason ties into this greatly:

2. Harsh Treatment of Workers

If you’re a fanboy of the great Musk, you’re probably well aware of his intense work ethic. It’s no secret by now that the man doesn’t get a full night’s rest 24/7, 365. He believes that every minute, every second, is a moment to be productive — and not wasted on frivolous activities. Any gap in time that can be used to create something new must be used efficiently. In his eyes, there is always time to improve, and enrich the Earth on which you live. There is absolutely no moment to squander, when you’re creating utopia.

However, this mindset serves as problematic in quite literally every single company that Elon owns. Reviews everywhere for Tesla will tell you that the work environment is highly overworked, and obscenely stressful. New employees say that even though the pay is amazing, they almost never see their friends and family anymore. If any of that wasn’t enough, it’ll probably displease you even more to know that the lithium which powers his tech is mined by children in the congo. Just like Musk, workers will rarely ever get a good night’s sleep, instead working themselves to the bone, using nearly every hour on making the world a better place.

3. Didn’t work for his wealth

If you ever thought that Elon had to get it out the mud, then you’re sorely mistaken. He did build some things from the ground up, but financially? Well, he never really had to struggle financially. You’ll be surprised to know that the majority of his wealth actually came from an emerald mine that was bought by his parents. I really, really wish I was kidding, I honestly couldn’t believe it either when I found out from a friend some months ago. It blew my mind to know that who I thought made billions from a gradual come-up actually always had daddy’s money to catch him if he ever fell.

The story behind the emerald mine is that Musk’s father (Errol Musk) was taking a trip on a plane that he was planning to sell. Never even making it to where they were trying to go in the first place, they ended up running into a group of Italians that not only bought the plane they were trying to sell, but offered them a shiny emerald mine for half a share. Errol took the deal, and they ended up getting brand spanking new emeralds for a period of some years. Further news shows that a teenage Elon once even sold some of the emeralds to Tiffany & Co, unbeknownst at the time to his sleeping dad. The come-up story of a lifetime, indeed.

4. Tesla

Oh yeah, you thought that Elon was the founder of the company? That’s cute. Buckle in for more disappointment, my friend. It turns out that the company wasn’t founded by him, but instead was the brainchild of 2 other American entrepreneurs, Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning. However, the main goal for the company was shared by the 3 — aiming to develop sports cars that ran on electricity. Funding for the company came from a plethora of different resources, but Elon was the one who coughed up most of the cash to bring the vision into light.

Eberhard was originally the CEO of the company, with Tarpenning serving as the CFO. After the company started seeing much success, Eberhard eventually stepped down from the throne around 2007, with Tarpenning following behind shortly in 2008. Musk became the new CEO of what would become one of techs greatest kingdoms, and the rest is pretty much history. Though they hold no power over what they once owned anymore (except for maybe share holdings), the two are actually still known to keep in touch with Elon from time to time. How sweet.

Finally, we have the top dog (pun most definitely intended) of the list. The final blow if you will, what the French call a coup de grâce. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you:

5. The Dogecoin Incident

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past year, you’ve probably heard of Dogecoin. If you don’t know what it is, search it up, because I’m lazy and honestly don’t feel like explaining at this point of the article. Shortest explanation I can come up with is: Meme coin make money go brrr. The person who created it made it as a joke, but it blew up in popularity, and Elon has since then only increased that popularity through meme-posts on Twitter. Unfortunately, the amount of power he has over the crypto proved to be disastrous in the last month, and Anonymous isn’t exactly too pleased with the outcome.

The date was Saturday, May 8th. DOGE holders and meme-lords from all over the land waited eagerly at home hoping for their favorite coin to finally hit the golden grail price of a single dollar. Chaos was soon struck, as the Doge Father himself called the crypto of the people, “A hustle”. Musk’s remark caused the price to drop down by 35%, and the death bell had been rung for everyone who had bet big. Tweets from around the globe poured in, telling of the grand amount of cash that was lost, and how their lives were now ruined by the one person they were looking up to for hope.

Musk responded with some memes for their troubles.

It’s currently unknown if Anonymous wants to take any further action against Elon. For now, it seems that they’ve gone right back into their shadowy hiatus, until they have free time to stir up unbridled hate on yet another billionaire. (Hopefully next time, I can write a lengthy article on Bezos or Suckerberg.) Possible God complex and child labor aside, I for one will probably still remain an avid fan of the mad titan of tech. But for others, I’m sure nothing else would please them more than to taste the sweet, salty tears of the King of Mars.