Grimes performs on Day 3 of the Osheaga Music and Art Festival at Parc Jean-Drapeau on July 31, 2016 … [+]
Elon Musk and Claire Boucher, known by her stage name, Grimes, recently went through a high-profile breakup, “semi-separated” as Musk described it.
Grimes had a bit of fun in her first public appearance since the split, by posing with a copy of Karl Marx’s The Communist Manifesto for photographers. Grimes was snapped flicking through the anti-capitalist book while walking, dressed in what appeared to be cyberpunk or fantasy cosplay.
The publicity stunt aligns with Grimes’ previous quip about setting up a “Lesbian Space Commune” on Europa, to rival Musk’s dream of establishing a settler colony on Mars.
“Grimes” soon began trending on Twitter, as Twitter users found the staged nature of the photo hilarious.
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The photos are ironic not just because of Musk’s vast hoard of wealth, but as a reference to Grime’s perceived ideological shift. Prior to dating Musk, Grimes described herself as “hard, hard left,” and previously baffled fans with a tongue-in-cheek proposition to implement fully automated luxury communism, with the help of AI.
“If implemented correctly, AI could actually theoretically solve for abundance,” she said at the time, in a TikTok post. “Like, we could totally get to a situation where nobody has to work, everybody is provided for with a comfortable state of being, comfortable living.”
On Twitter, Grimes is regularly criticized for defending Musk’s donations to Republicans and alleged union busting; some fans speculate that Grimes was always posing as a leftist to appear more interesting, wearing the ideology like a costume.
Some Twitter users triumphantly retweeted their old tweets, seemingly having predicted Grimes’ return to performative progressivism.
Others expressed optimism that Grimes’ feigned interest in leftism could help spread the word to her fans.
One user pointed out the power of the publicity stunt, and Grimes’ ability to attract attention.
Eventually, Grimes responded to the stunt via Instagram, clarifying that she is not really a communist, and vaguely proposed her own solution to reducing economic inequality, which involves video games, for some reason.
Grimes and Musk, it seems, both have a penchant for teasing the public and press with eye-grabbing publicity stunts; perhaps Musk will respond with a photo of himself reading Atlas Shrugged.
