Meghan McCain has criticised Elon Musk and Nick Cannon for having an “impregnante the planet mentality,” as they are both fathers of almost eight or more children.
In op-ed for The Daily Mail published on Monday, McCain slammed a recent Twitter exchange between the two men and claimed it was the “creepiest tag team tweet thread in history”.
She called their tweeets to one another “flat out weird” and claimed that Cannon and Musk were acting like “cult” leaders that wanted to “impregnate the planet.” She also said that Musk’s family experiences don’t relate to ones that “ordinary Americans” have.
“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,” she wrote, before adding:
“Elon is the wealthiest man on the planet, he certainly can largely do whatever he wants, whenever he wants, however he wants, but don’t for a minute think that ordinary Americans relate to this at all.”
The 37-year-old former television host explained that while Musk “may have the resources to support” all of his children, other families in America “do not”.
On 6 July, reports broke that the 51-year-old billionaire had welcomed twins in November 2021 with Shivon Zillis. On Twitter, Musk seemingly responded to the reports and wrote: “Doing my best to help the underpopulation crisis. A collapsing birth rate is the biggest danger civilization faces by far.”
On 7 July, Cannon responded to Musk’s tweet and wrote: “Right there with you my Brother!”
In a since-deleted tweet to Cannon, Musk congratulated the television host for his family and said: “We must expand scope & scale of consciousness for civilisation to flourish & understand nature of Universe. Consciousness resides most strongly in humans, therefore we need more people!”
Prior to the twins, Musk was already the father of eight children. And just one month after his twins, the Tesla CEO welcomed his second child with on-again, off-again partner, Grimes, in December 2021.
Cannon, who is known for having several children with several different women, is about to welcome his eighth child this year with model Bre Tiesi. In 2021, he welcomed twins Zion and Zillion with Abby De La Rosa and son, Zen, who passed away of a brain tumour in December 2021, with Alyssa Scott. He also shares 11-year-old twins, Moroccan and Monroe, with ex-wife Mariah Carey and two children, Golden, five, and Powerful, one, with Brittany Bell.
McCain’s critique of Musk continued when she called him out for another tweet that of his, from 8 July, that said: “Kids are worth it if at all possible. I’m planning to increase childcare benefits at my companies significantly.”
In response to this post, McCain said Musk was “no role model” and that he had “a strange take to represent the very classic, conservative, pro-family arguments about the need to have large family”.
She also claimed that he didn’t include an “emphasis on the family unit,” which she described as the importance of children growing up in the same home with the same mother.
“The bar for bringing a new life into the world should not be ‘if at all possible’,” she added. “How about? If you have the ability to nurture another human being in a loving home then you should have a child.”
According to McCain, Muskwas essentially saying that if people “don’t have as many children” as they can, then they are “not addressing some existential crisis of population decline”.
“It all feels very impersonal, fatalistic, and dystopian,” she wrote. “Either we act like emotionless rabbits and repopulate the planet or face a dire peril.”
McCain went on to share her opinions about the Neuralink co-founder and his argument in favour of having more children, before noting that she is unsure of “his intentions”.
“The very premise of his argument that we need to have as many children as possible is flawed and unrealistic,” she explained. “I continue to be sceptical of Musk and his intentions in general, as I am with anyone who claims to be coming to save us.”
“The very premise of his argument that we need to have as many children as possible is flawed and unrealistic.
“He is an eccentric billionaire who leads an entirely different kind of life than any of us can fathom,” she added. “Yes, if you are willing and able, have as many children as possible. But not because Elon Musk says so.”
