Social media blowhard and Grimes' former paramour, Elon Musk, has been crowned TIME's Person of the Year 2021.
Now, before you fire up your Twitter fingers to defend or defame the irritating, self-important billionaire, let's reevaluate what this nomination actually means.
For what it's worth, TIME's justification for choosing Musk is pretty typical, lavishing ample praise on stuff that I guess are supposed to be good things, like his wealth and "spectacularly risky" investments.
There isn't a whiff of criticism: the coverage barely acknowledged, says, Musk's attempts to mythologize his own backstory (related his family's wealth, for instance) or that time Musk called that hero cave diver a "pedo guy."
Even still, but the point is that Musk didn't earn TIME's Person of the Year by being a good dude — he's not. He got the nomination simply because he's proven to be terminally unavoidable, especially this year.
Remember that TIME gave Mark Zuckerberg and Donald Trump their POTY nods in 2010 and 2016, respectively, two guys that even their supporters (if Zuck has any) would admit are pretty divisive.
TIME says that it chooses Person of the Year by considering the person or people who "for better or for worse... [have] done the most to influence the events of the year."
To put it another way, the POTY is someone who's been unavoidable over the past year. Don't forget that first part, too: "for better or for worse." TIME's pick doesn't necessarily indicate that the POTY is a good person.
Thus, even as an Admitted Musk Disliker, I can't deny that the guy is always everywhere: from his naked attempts to manipulate cryptocurrency value to the unfunny tweets to his inexplicable SNL appearance, it's been hard to avoid Musk in 2021. And, trust me, I've tried.
