{"id":23234,"date":"2026-05-25T19:22:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-25T19:22:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/elon-musk-is-losing-the-culture-war-he-just-doesnt-know-it-yet\/"},"modified":"2026-05-25T19:22:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-25T19:22:12","slug":"elon-musk-is-losing-the-culture-war-he-just-doesnt-know-it-yet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/elon-musk-is-losing-the-culture-war-he-just-doesnt-know-it-yet\/","title":{"rendered":"Elon Musk is losing the culture war \u2014 he just doesn\u2019t know it yet"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By<\/span>John DeVore<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Elon Musk has been busy: SpaceX filed for a blockbuster IPO. On Monday, a U.S. jury dismissed his lawsuit against Sam Altman and OpenAI.<\/a> And last Wednesday, he accompanied President Donald Trump, and an entourage of tech moguls, to China for an elaborate state visit.<\/a><\/p>\n

And yet, the richest man in the world spent much of the past week heckling a movie he hasn’t seen yet, directed by one of Hollywood’s most successful and celebrated directors, and starring a small army of A-list actors, including Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, Robert Pattinson, Zendaya, Tom Holland, and Jonathan Bernthal. He seemed especially angry that a woman of color was cast in two roles.<\/p>\n

In a just-dropped Time Magazine interview<\/a>director Christopher Nolan confirmed that Oscar-winning actress Lupita Nyong’o is playing two iconic roles in his $250 million adaptation of the Greek myth “The Odyssey.” In the ancient poet Homer’s epic “The Iliad,” which precedes “The Odyssey,” the Trojan prince Paris abducts Helen, wife of the Spartan king Menelaus, sparking a 10-year war with Greece that ends in tragedy.  Nyong’o will portray Helen, “the face that launched 1,000 ships,” as well as Helen’s sister, the murderous Clytemnestra.<\/p>\n

Musk quickly took to X <\/a>to voice his displeasure with this casting choice: “Chris Nolan desecrated the Odyssey so that he would be eligible for an Academy Award.” Never mind the fact that the Academy’s eligibility criteria have nothing to do with casting. <\/p>\n

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Chris Nolan desecrated the Odyssey so that he would be eligible for an Academy Award …<\/p>\n

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 15, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Musk also reposted conservative commentator Matt Walsh, who wrote<\/a>“Not one person on the planet actually thinks that Lupita Nyong’o is ‘the most beautiful woman in the world.’ But Christopher Nolan knows that he would be called a racist if he gave the ‘most beautiful woman’ role to a white woman. Nolan is technically talented but a coward.”<\/p>\n

Nolan’s casting of Zendaya as Athena, the goddess of wisdom, and rap superstar Travis Scott as a bard has also angered Musk toadies and assorted online bots. The trans actor Elliot Page was also cast, causing some hysterical right-wingers<\/a> to (apparently incorrectly) suggest the actor is playing the great Greek warrior Achilles, slain by the Trojans, and who Odysseus briefly meets in the afterlife. Musk’s minions are so desperate for engagement that they have to work themselves into a lather over mere speculation.<\/p>\n

All of this points to a clear conclusion. Elon Musk is losing the culture war; he just doesn’t know it yet. His whiny, white grievance and anti-DEI posts are becoming predictable. Boring. Viral filler. He has an enormous platform, but his messages are increasingly small-minded.<\/p>\n

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Another sign that he’s losing his grip: Musk took a break from insulting Nolan and Nyong’o to petulantly criticize the series finale of Amazon Prime’s hit superhero parody “The Boys.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n

Musk’s one-man battle against “The Odyssey” is another symptom of his waning influence on the world outside the hothouse of X; his Cybertrucks aren’t selling<\/a>Grok, his AI product, is lagging behind rivals<\/a>and the man can’t decide whether Trump is his bestie.<\/p>\n

Another sign that he’s losing his grip: Musk took a break from insulting Nolan and Nyong’o to petulantly criticize the series finale<\/a> of Amazon Prime’s hit superhero parody “The Boys,” which he called “pathetic” for killing off the show’s MAGA-coded villain, Homelander, but not before he murders a parody of the billionaire. Musk admitted<\/a> he hadn’t actually watched<\/em> the show, though. He’s just sitting in one of his mansions angrily scrolling, and getting bent out of shape.<\/p>\n

At least “The Boys” showrunner seems to be to having fun sparring<\/a> with an increasingly humorless Musk on X.<\/p>\n

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Meanwhile, the two people Musk is targeting in his crusade against “The Odyssey” also seem to be taking his harassment in stride. Nolan hasn’t commented. But Nyong’o did chime in.<\/a> “Our cast is representative of the world,” she said. “I’m not spending my time thinking of a defense. The criticism will exist whether I engage with it or not.”<\/p>\n

Musk frequently posts bigoted opinions to X, which is his prerogative, I suppose. He owns that dumpster fire. But his current attempts to shame Nolan and suggest that the director, whose action and sci-fi movies are beloved by dudes, is indulging in nontraditional casting to win another Oscar feel transparently pitiful.<\/p>\n

When it was first rumored that Nyong’o had been cast as Helen back in January of this year, furious users on X called it an “insult” to Homer<\/a>. Musk later posted that<\/a> “Chris Nolan has lost his integrity.” This underlying thesis is not only racist, but it’s also so ignorant that I wonder if Musk can tell the difference anymore between what is real and what is make-believe.<\/p>\n

I’m not an expert in ancient history, but I’m pretty sure “The Odyssey” is fictional. There is no such thing as a man-eating Cyclops. And like all classic literature, Homer’s works are open to interpretation.<\/p>\n

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