On the Deadbeat Dad, Elon Musk

I’m going to have to talk about Elon Musk, and what he’s revealing about right-wing Catholic commentators.

I don’t blame anyone who closes the tab on me after reading that first sentence. I’m so exhausted with the current situation that I never want to read the word “musk” again. But bear with me, if you can.

Back in 2020, during the Black Lives Matter demonstrations, I expressed my anger at professional Right-Wing Catholics who have views on Black people. Specifically, I was sickened by the way that these commentators decried Black families and dug into the untrue trope that most Black people have “absent fathers.” I couldn’t imagine anything more racist than assuming all Black men abandon their children, and then blaming the children for being shot by the police because they came from a single parent family. But this was the position that was presented to me. This is what the pious Catholic pro-life commentators thought. Absent fathers are bad, indeed so bad that their families deserve whatever they get. Families with a lot of half-siblings where the dad isn’t around much are bad families. Men with several baby mammas are swine.  They don’t hate Black people. They just want them to get their act together and stop having single-parent families so that they will be worthy of respect, that’s all. I heard that over and over again. I thought that was a hard and fast rule. Absent fathers are bad.

Now, let’s Talk about the President of the United States, Billionaire Tech-bro Elon Musk.

Over the weekend, we had a revelation that Musk is a father yet again. This would be his thirteenth baby, the first with MAGA influencer Ashley St. Clair.  That makes four baby moms so far. Not all of Musk’s children are known to the public by name and I wish none of them were, not just because Musk gives his children silly names. Children deserve their privacy. He seems to have had no contact with Ms. St. Clair during her pregnancy and may or may not have conceived the baby through in vitro fertilization (IVF) in the first place. He has reportedly used in vitro to conceive several of his children.

The Catholic Church has declared that in vitro fertilization is a mortal sin. You’re only allowed to make a baby in the strict sense if you’re also making a baby in the colloquial sense, with your lawful wedded wife. Anything else is deeply disrespectful of the child’s dignity. The Church is also against IVF because of the large number of baby embryos that are created in the process, most of which will be killed instead of implanted in the mother’s body. That’s an abortion. I don’t need to tell anyone that Catholics are against abortion because it’s killing. Professional right-wing Catholic commentators are adamant about abortion; it’s one of the only sins they talk about anymore.

And Musk Doesn’t Seem to Have Any Contact or Relationship With Most of His Children.

He’s always carrying around that little blond boy for photo opportunities, but the rest don’t seem to matter. His 20-year-old daughter says he was an absent father. Ms. St. Clair can’t seem to get ahold of Musk to talk to him about their alleged baby. And just this past Thursday, Elon’s ex-wife, Grimes, resorted to tweeting at him on social media, saying that their child was having a medical emergency and she couldn’t contact him. He’s made a lot of babies, but he only spends time with a few. They’re growing up in single-parent homes.

So, do you think we’ll get a lot of condemnations of Elon Musk for being an absent father? Are we going to have pro-lifers picketing Tesla dealerships to condemn him for the mortal sin of in vitro fertilization? Are we going to get op-eds by famous right-wing Catholic influencers explaining that the problem with white South African billionaire culture is absent dads? Will chastity speakers decry him for being a doxy? Is someone going to say that his children deserve no pity because they come from broken homes?

Don’t hold your breath.

You see– and I know this is going to shock you– it wasn’t really about absent fathers and broken homes.

Those right-wing Catholic commentators just hated Black people all along.