Political commentator Meghan McCain is taking on Tesla CEO Elon Musk and rapper Nick Cannon for a Twitter exchange where the pair talked about their large families.
As McCain wrote in an op-ed for the Daily Mail, the two came off as “creepy cult leaders in dystopian Twitter call for humans to repopulate the planet by having as many children as possible.”
“What do eccentric visionary Elon Musk and celebrity rapper Nick Cannon have in common? Well, it’s not their fashion sense,” McCain said.
McCain’s comments were prompted by Musk’s response to news that he and Shivon Zilis, an executive at one of Musk’s companies, welcomed his seventh and eighth (of 9) children last year. The world’s richest man now has 10 children with three different women.
“Doing my best to help the underpopulation crisis. A collapsing birth rate is the biggest danger civilization faces by far,” Musk said on Twitter.
“Right there with you my Brother!” responded rapper Nick Cannon who has seven children with multiple partners.
Right there with you my Brother!
— Nick Cannon (@NickCannon) July 7, 2022?
Musk responded with a since-deleted tweet, expanding on his ideology about the universe: “Congrats on your family! We must expand scope [and] scale of consciousness for civilization to flourish [and] understand nature of Universe. Consciousness resides most strongly in humans, therefore we need more people!”
McCain responded directly to the Twitter exchange in her article asking, “What the heck is going on here? This may be the creepiest tag team tweet thread in history.”
McCain, a former co-host on ABC’s “The View,” continued her diatribe saying, “I don’t care how many times Musk eviscerates cancel culture and wokeism. I don’t care that he is ‘supposedly’ buying Twitter to save it from the bots and thought-police, or colonizing Mars to save the human race. This is flat out weird.”
The political commentator went on to point out that both men in question had children with different partners very close together. In Musk’s case, he had a son with singer Grimes in May of 2020, twins with his executive Zilis in November of 2021, and a daughter with Grimes in December of 2021.
“So, he apparently had simultaneous pregnancies going on,” McCain commented.
McCain also asserted that Cannon “fathered four babies in a year’s time and then jokingly referred to his manner of procreation as akin to a ‘seahorse.'”
She added, “This ‘impregnate the planet’ mentality is creepy and comes off like the actions of a cult leader more than an altruistic person who wants to expand their family and save the planet.”
Later, in response to comments on his tweet, Musk said, “Kids are worth it if at all possible. I’m planning to increase childcare benefits at my companies significantly. Hopefully, other companies do same. Also, Musk Foundation plans to donate directly to families. Hopefully, details to be announced next month.”
Kids are worth it if at all possible. I’m planning to increase childcare benefits at my companies significantly.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 8, 2022
Hopefully, other companies do same.
Also, Musk Foundation plans to donate directly to families.
Hopefully, details to be announced next month.
McCain went on to point out that while Musk might appear to be espousing the traditional value of having a large family, he’s missing the key element of having a traditional family unit.
“Studies consistently show that children raised in a two-parent household experience less poverty and incarceration and generally receive better educations translating into brighter futures. The bar for bringing a new life into the world should not be ‘if at all possible,'” she said.
