people-cant-believe-elon-musk-named-time-2021-person-of-the-year

People Can’t Believe Elon Musk Was Named Time’s 2021 ‘Person of the Year’

Elon Musk has officially been named Time‘s 2021 “Person of the Year.” Few people are happy about this.

In addition to the appointment, Time offered up a profile on Musk that’s almost 7,000 words long. Elon Musk has done many noteworthy things in his lifetime, but at what point are we just making up words to describe him?

When describing the tech entrepreneur, Time does not hold back. “This is the man who aspires to save our planet and get us a new one to inhabit: clown, genius, edgelord, visionary, industrialist, showman, cad; a madcap hybrid of Thomas Edison, P.T. Barnum, Andrew Carnegie and Watchmen’s Doctor Manhattan, the brooding, blue-skinned man-god who invents electric cars and moves to Mars.”

How Are People of the Year Chosen?

So, how does one get recognized as the “Person of the Year?” This is a question that surely gets asked every year. Thankfully, Time offers some insight in their FAQ. Better prepare yourself because this is a doozy of an answer:

“The title goes to “the person or persons who most affected the news and our lives, for good or ill, and embodied what was important about the year, for better or for worse,” as former Managing Editor Walter Isaacson wrote in the 1998 issue. That means the person is not necessarily a hero—Adolf Hitler, for example, was Person of the Year in 1938, with a cover showing him playing a ghastly organ and a cover line touting, “From the unholy organist, a hymn of hate.” Stalin got the nod twice, while the selection of Iran’s Ayatullah Khomeini in 1979, when the magazine called him “the mystic who lit the fires of hatred.” And some choices have been ambiguous; take Newt Gingrich, who was a hero to some and a menace to others.”

Twitter users seem to think that Elon Musk could easily fit under all of the categories listed by Time. Perhaps Musk is the perfect person for the honor, then. Musk’s successes and failures are on par with the general duality of man.

Elon Musk Who? Twitter Comes Up with Their Own Honorees

Less than pleased with Elon Musk being chosen, Twitter users came up with their own Person of the Year. Many questioned why nurses and healthcare workers were not selected as the face of 2021. Others wondered why scientists were left out of this year’s important narrative. Teachers were also offered up as potential honorees. Still, others argued for Britney Spears after finally gaining freedom from her conservatorship.

Other suggestions were less constructive and more critical, although funny. Memes were tweeted about the 2006 “Person of the Year,” which was everyone. Some suggested their favorite baseball players should’ve won the accolade. Some wondered if Musk had offered free rides to space in exchange for the award.

Regardless, congrats to the genius-clown-edgelord himself on a rare, once-in-a-lifetime accomplishment.