Featured Image Credit: Alamy
Topics: Elon Musk, Justin Trudeau, Canada, World News
Cameron Frew
Elon Musk has come under fire for posting a meme comparing Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to Adolf Hitler.
The Tesla and SpaceX figurehead is widely known for his social media exploits; yes, he's probably the biggest name in electric cars today, but he can also create volatile rifts in the stock market with a single meme, or even the name of his dog.
Any comment on current affairs is usually rather flippant or brief (he once responded with a laughing emoji to claims Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin ripped off his space firm), so his newest meme is par for the course – if a little harsher than other posts.
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Musk recently caught sight of an article from CoinDesk, a cyptocurrency news site, which detailed how the Ontario Provincial Police and Royal Canadian Mounted Police recently ordered financial firms to cease transactions from 34 crypto wallets tied to funding trucker-led protests across Canada.
The protests are standing against a COVID mandate for truckers. After substantial disruption, Trudeau has invoked the Emergencies Act which grants law enforcement officials the ability to arrest people for obstruction of roadways and disruptive behaviour within a no-go exclusion zone.
The PM recently said it was 'high time that these illegal and dangerous activities stop... they are a threat to our economy and our relationship with trading partners. They are a threat to public safety,' per The Guardian.
Leaflets have also been distributed among occupants of vehicles in the 'Freedom Convoy', warning them they could face criminal charges if they fail to disperse, and airhorns have also been banned for a further 60 days.
In response to the article, Musk tweeted a meme that shows a photo of Hitler with the text, 'Stop comparing me to Justin Trudeau. I had a budget.'
While his legion of supporters seem to find it funny, it's been criticised by many others. 'Using the image of Adolf Hitler and therefore exploiting the tragedy of all people who suffered, were humiliated, tortured and murdered by the totalitarian regime of Nazi Germany created by him is sad and disturbing. It disrespects the memory of all victims and hurts many people,' the Auschwitz Memorial wrote.
On the other side, one wrote, 'The amount of criticism Elon is going to get for this is a bold sacrifice to make in order to bring way more attention to a legitimately serious problem in Canada where the government is objectively getting way to cosy with authoritarianism.'
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