Rounding out a weekend in which he baselessly implied that a former Twitter employee was a pedophile and mocked the use of personal pronouns, Elon Musk was greeted with boos onstage with comedian Dave Chappelle.
The controversial Twitter CEO joined Chappelle onstage Sunday night at the Chase Center in San Francisco during a show co-headlined by Chris Rock.
Chappelle introduced Musk encouraging the crowd to “Make some noise for the richest man in the world.”
Some in the audience cheered while many proceeded to boo the billionaire. “It sounds like some of them people you fired are in the audience,” Chappelle said. Musk has instituted mass layoffs at Twitter since taking over the company in late October.
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Musk remained largely silent onstage as Chappelle struggled to crack jokes and even mocked his own audience for not being able to afford better seats at the show.
Turns out Twitter can, in fact, be real life. https://t.co/FFpups1yEy pic.twitter.com/41jcZgdDR4
— Steven Goffman (@SteveGoffman) December 12, 2022
Earlier on Sunday, Musk posted a tweet both mocking the use of personal pronouns and feeding into right-wing vitriol against President Joe Biden’s chief medical advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci.
“My pronouns are Prosecute/Fauci,” Musk tweeted.
Musk has been critical of measures meant to curb the spread of COVID-19 since the early days of the pandemic. Since taking over Twitter, the platform announced that it would no longer enforce its policies against spreading misinformation about the virus.
Fauci, who led the White House Coronavirus Task Force under former President Donald Trump, has become a target for many on the right because he told people to wear masks and get vaccinated. Republican politicians have called for investigations into Fauci’s role in the U.S.’s handling of the pandemic.
While Republicans like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) snidely affirmed Musk’s tweet, U.S. astronaut Scott Kelly, the twin brother of Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ), criticized him.
“Elon, please don’t mock and promote hate toward already marginalized and at-risk-of-violence members of the #LGBTQ+ community,” Kelly wrote. “They are real people with real feelings. Furthermore, Dr Fauci is a dedicated public servant whose sole motivation was saving lives.”
Musk, whose own daughter is transgender, replied writing that he strongly disagrees. “Forcing your pronouns upon others when they didn’t ask, and implicitly ostracizing those who don’t, is neither good nor kind to anyone,” he wrote, while also repeating right-wing talking points about Fauci.
I strongly disagree. Forcing your pronouns upon others when they didn’t ask, and implicitly ostracizing those who don’t, is neither good nor kind to anyone.
As for Fauci, he lied to Congress and funded gain-of-function research that killed millions of people. Not awesome imo.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 12, 2022
Others in the scientific community jumped to Fauci’s defense.
“For the record: Dr. Fauci has done nothing wrong, except serve our nation. In the meantime, Mr. Musk should know that 200,000 Americans needlessly lost their lives from COVID due to this kind of antiscience rhetoric and disinformation. Elon, I’m asking you to take down this Tweet,” wrote vaccine scientist and professor of virology Dr. Peter Hotez.
“This is targeted harassment & a dog-whistle to those who have attacked physicians & other healthcare workers since the inception of the pandemic,” tweeted Dr. Joy Henningsen. “There’s nothing to prosecute. This language puts healthcare workers in danger, @elonmusk. Many put their lives on the line. Stop.”
For the record: Dr. Fauci has done nothing wrong, except serve our nation. In the meantime, Mr. Musk should know that 200,000 Americans needlessly lost their lives from Covid due to this kind of antiscience rhetoric and disinformation. Elon, I’m asking you to take down this Tweet https://t.co/t3ffWQsXnb
— Prof Peter Hotez MD PhD (@PeterHotez) December 11, 2022
This is targeted harrassment & a dog-whistle to those who have attacked physicians & other healthcare workers since the inception of the pandemic. There’s nothing to prosecute. This language puts healthcare workers in danger, @elonmusk. Many put their lives on the line. Stop.
— Dr. Joy Henningsen (@JoyHenningsenMD) December 11, 2022
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