The Pope Is Watching Elon Musk’s Pocket

In between causing political chaos all over the world, Elon Musk has been seeking to make himself even more obscenely wealthy than he already is. A recent pay package offered to Musk by the Tesla board would make him the world’s first trillionaire, should he meet several business benchmarks over the next decade. Despite Musk’s concurrent efforts to make himself an avatar for “western civilization,†I recall something in the Judeo-Christian tradition about it being easier for rich guys to fit through the eye of a needle than to reach Heaven. Recently, a guy who knows a thing or two about said religious tradition (it was the Pope), noted this obscenity and called it out.

“CEOs that 60 years ago might have been making four to six times more than what the workers are receiving … 600 times more (now),†said Pope Leo said in an interview with the Catholic news site Crux. “Yesterday, [there was] the news that Elon Musk is going to be the first trillionaire in the world,†he said, noting: “What does that mean, and what’s that about? If that is the only thing that has value anymore, then we’re in big trouble.â€

In an interview with the New York Times, Tesla’s board chair, Robyn Denholm, defended the company’s decision to give Musk an insane amount of money by claiming that in “any compensation plan, you need to look at what motivates the individual that you’re trying to motivate†and that, “for Elon, it’s doing things that no one else has done before.†So, the only thing that gets Elon out of bed in the morning is the prospect of being the world’s first trillionaire? Don’t you think he should be a little bit more independently motivated than that?

It’s nice to have a Pope who cares about income inequality and all that, but it seems unlikely that Musk is particularly worried about the sanctity of his soul or the fires of eternal damnation. If you look at his X feed, he seems mostly concerned about demonizing Democrats, bragging about his video game exploits, and retweeting Matt Walsh’s thoughts about “Transgenderism†being a “death cult.â€

Musk also spent the weekend attempting to destabilize the United Kingdom by promoting a right-wing anti-immigration rally that saw tens of thousands pour into the streets of London. The rally was partially organized by Tommy Robinson, a far-right political activist and convicted fraudster with a violent criminal record whose given name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, and who has been called an “anti-Islam†activist. Musk joined the rally via an online video stream, melodramatically telling protesters that “violence is coming†and that protesters could “either fight back†or “die.â€

Musk caught criticism for that, too, as even British politicians who have been friendly to the American right expressed skepticism of what Musk was trying to achieve. In particular, Reform leader Nigel Farage said, of the recent protest: “There is no defence of some of the violence used on Saturday. I feared something like that would happen,†The conservative Brit also reportedly questioned what Musk had meant by encouraging protesters to “fight.â€

Musk, who has also said he wants to save Western civilization “from empathy†(given what I know about the teachings of Jesus, this also seems like a bit of a departure from Biblical tradition), made his support for Robinson known in January of this year, when he also accused Starmer of being “complicit in the RAPE OF BRITAIN.†At the time, Musk also promoted the idea that the King should dissolve Parliament. Robinson’s ties to the American right-wing pre-exist Musk’s praise, however. Trump’s culture warrior, Steve Bannon, has spent years praising the convicted felon.