Elon Musk says people shouldn't have someone's pronouns 'forced' on them
Stewart Perrie
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Elon Musk has come out swinging against pronouns and said it's inappropriate to have them forced on people.
The Tesla and SpaceX boss wrote on Twitter over the weekend that his pronouns are 'Prosecute/Fauci'.
Musk is likely referring to Dr Anthony Fauci, who was America's top doctor during the Covid-19 pandemic and advised the White House on what policies should be brought in to stop the virus spreading.
Dr Fauci has also been the Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases for decades, according to Forbes.
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His tweet didn't go down well with many people on Twitter, with NASA astronaut Scott Kelly telling Musk to not make jokes about pronouns.
"Elon, please don’t mock and promote hate toward already marginalized and at-risk-of-violence members of the #LGBTQ+ community," he wrote.
"They are real people with real feelings. Furthermore, Dr Fauci is a dedicated public servant whose sole motivation was saving lives."
But Musk wasn't taking the comment lying down.
He replied, saying: "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."
He also mentioned a conspiracy theory about Dr Fauci without providing evidence.
Peter Hotez, MD, PhD, Dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine, slammed Musk for his comments on Dr Fauci as well.
"For the record: Dr. Fauci has done nothing wrong, except serve our nation," he said.
"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."
While many people around the world will use he/him or she/her pronouns, people who identify as non-binary or gender fluid will use they/them pronouns, or ones that aren't connected to the gender binary.
These people have been routinely mocked by those on the right because they don't understand why anyone would use pronouns other than he/him or she/her.
It's not the first time Musk has posted about his disapproval of using the correct pronouns.
He tweeted back in 2020 that 'pronouns suck' and he copped a roasting in the comments section from people who begged him to adopt the concept.
Musk's partner at the time, singer Grimes, replied to the tweet and asked him to stop slagging off pronouns, according to The Independent.
“I love you but please turn off ur phone or give me a dall [sic]," she wrote. “I cannot support hate. Please stop this. I know this isn’t your heart.”