Elon Musk recently tweeted a photo of John Lydon (aka Johnny Rotten of the Sex Pistols and Public Image Ltd.). The photo shows John Lydon with a quote that says, "I never thought I'd live to see the day when the right wing would become the cool ones giving the middle finger to the establishment, and the left wing becoming the sniveling self-righteous twatty ones going around shaming everyone."
Anyone following punk music for any length of time knows that the Sex Pistols were, from the beginning, kind of just another commodity, and John Lydon has long been a sellout. He became a corporate shill years ago, made the news for supporting Trump (he called Trump 'the only hope'), and most recently, wrote an op-ed for the Queen's Jubilee where he unironically stated, "God bless the Queen. She's put up with a lot." He wrote: "I've got no animosity against any one of the royal family. Never did." He goes on to explain his animosity towards anarchy, however: "Anarchy is a terrible idea. Let's get that clear. I'm not an anarchist." He continues by blasting the 'corporate hand' behind many anarchist websites (I guess it's ok if the anarchists shill for butter, though?): "I'm amazed that there are websites out there — .org anarchist sites — funded fully by the corporate hand and yet ranting on about being outside the shitstorm. It's preposterous."
Honestly, Elon Musk's newfound enthrallment with John Lydon comes as no surprise, given Elon Musk's recent "coming out" as Republican (which, again, surprised no one). As Chelsea Steiner of The Mary Sue wrote, "A billionaire who benefited from Apartheid is a republican?!? What a shocker."
The only surprise, maybe, is how on earth anyone can see the right wing as "the cool ones." But Elon Musk has never seemed particularly cool, so how would he even know. I guess Johnny and Morissey are out somewhere celebrating the Jubilee. I wonder if they invited Elon to the party?
