Elon Musk on grooming gangs: cacophony of concocted concern is an insult to those who lives have been lost and to those ruined by child sexual exploitation
First and foremost: happy new year to you all. I do hope that you all managed at least a little happy downtime with your loved ones, and that you are keeping well in these freezing temperatures.
As I think you well know by now, I am not one to shirk writing about tricky issues. If I am anything, I am an advocate for free speech and for constructive free thinking - where no malice is contemplated. There is that old adage: small minds discuss other people; average minds discuss events; great minds discuss ideas. And, that got me thinking: what kind of mind does one have should you be moved to ruminate upon something through the lens of all three?
Elon Musk (forgive me for starting with the small-minded lens): the multibillionaire technology entrepreneur who is making good on his 2021 declaration of preferring to stay out of politics by sequestering himself into the US President-elect’s inner circle whilst writing to his 211.4m-strong social media audience about … politics. Well, in a fashion, because some of the things he is blurting out are, well, guano. You know what I mean - it’s too soon in the new year for me to be reverting to intemperate language.
The time of writing this was 14:22 on January 8th: in the last few minutes Mr Musk has pushed inflammatory Islamophobia, asked how many Sharia Law courts there are in the UK and declared: ‘UK politicians are selling your daughters for votes.’ He has stated there has been a ‘massive cover up’ of the child rape grooming gangs issue in this country - despite the incredibly thorough, diligent, expert work done by Professor Alexis Jay, to name but one. He’s hit back at the Financial Times (amongst others) who have published a perfectly reasonable piece of analysis that worries for the mental wellbeing of Mr Musk, examining how he appears to be being dragged ‘down the rabbit hole’ of conspiracies and lies that we all know exists online - especially on social media. He is frantically lurching from slur and lie to insult and barb, clearly enamoured with himself and the chaos he is causing.
Quite pathetically, in my view, he has said he is behaving in this way out of familial protectionism, feigning worry that had his dear old nana, who grew up in working-class Liverpool, ‘might have been abducted in present day Britain.’ Well, yes. She might. Just as I might get shot in America, or get hooked on opioids, or enormously fat. Frankly, using nan as an excuse is, as they say over the pond, a cheap shot.
But cheap shots, slurs and lies are one thing; constantly flicking white-hot flint into the tinderbox of racial tensions is another. We know the perils that come with baiting racists - people get killed. Mr Musk, before you end up with blood on your keyboard, pray stop. We get it; you’re on Team Tory and you are used to having everything you’ve ever wanted in life and now feel sad that your friends are not in the cockpit of British politics and that you can’t buy them seats in there either.
Take his nasty and baseless attack on Jess Phillips, MP. A woman who has spent her life protecting women, campaigning against male violence, writing books, for goodness sake, on the abuse of women and girls. Before she became an MP her time was dedicated to Women’s Aid. Her title now? Minister for Safeguarding and Violence Against Women and Girls. Musk’s title for her? ‘Rape Genocide Apologist!’ going on to insist that she ‘deserves to be in prison’ - something that if stated and published by a responsible editor like me in a trusted media outlet like The Yorkshire Post would result in serious legal repercussions and with me out of a job.
So, people, events, ideas:
Person - Elon Musk.
Event - the systemic rape and abuse of young, vulnerable predominantly white working-class girls, at the hands of predominantly Pakistani-heritage* (*source: Prof Alexis Jay, 2014) paedophile grooming gangs - on an industrial scale - in Britain.
Idea - Mr Musk, spare the victims and survivors your cacophony of concocted concern. It is an insult to those whose lives have been ruined and to the communities torn apart. As well as being a distraction from the huge job in hand, of making sure this can never happen again, it is serving to encourage, motivate, energise something inside some easily-influenced people that, should it come to pass, will be laid at your door. Put more simply: have a break from social media - you’re spending too much time looking at Twitter/X - honestly, you’ll feel better for it. We all will.