It shouldn’t be surprising that Elon Musk has weighed in on the social media spat between Megan Fox and Robby Starbuck over the conservative provocateur’s disputed allegations that the “Transformers” actor committed “child abuse” by forcing her three sons with Brian Austin Green to wear girl’s clothes.
Musk has spent Pride Month promoting and “liking” various anti-LGBTQ messages, according to Insider, Them and TMZ. even though he has a transgender daughter who publicly disavowed her relationship with him last year. Among these messages, the Twitter CEO encouraged the parents among his 143 million followers to watch the 2022 online film, “What is a Woman?” by The Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh, which urges intolerance of trans people and opposes medical intervention for trans children, Insider said.
Over the past few days, Musk has posted messages on his platform that show he was closely following the recent controversy between Fox and Starbuck and that he agrees with Starbuck’s criticism of Fox’s parenting choices, as TMZ reported.
Starbuck, a former music video director, congressional candidate and self-styled “free thinker,” started the controversy on Thursday by posting a tweet that accused Fox of “child abuse” in her treatment of the three children she shares with “Beverly Hills 90210” alum Green. Sharing a photo of Fox and their children, Noah, 10, Bodhi, 9, and Journey, 6, Starbuck claimed he once lived in the same gated community as the famous family and witnessed their nanny consoling her sons after the “Jennifer’s Body” actor “forced” them to wear girls’ clothes. Starbuck said he saw two of the sons having a “a full-on breakdown.” He said, “It’s pure child abuse. Pray for them.”
Musk showed his approval of Starbuck’s tweet by replying with an exclamation point.
But ex-spouses Fox and Green, who were married from 2010 to 2021, hit back at Starbuck’s claims. Green told TMZ Saturday, “It’s a totally bogus story.” Green also said: “This person trying to claim this is true is a perfect example of someone with selfish motives that does not care about negatively affecting a parent-child relationship.”
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Fox also vehemently protested Starbuck’s allegations on Instagram, calling him “desperate” and a “clout chaser.” She accused him of using her children’s “gender identity to gain attention” for “his political campaign” — an act that she said has put him “on the wrong side of the universe.”
“Never use children as leverage or social currency, especially under malevolent and erroneous pretense,” said Fox, who is currently dating musician Machine Gun Kelly. She has been open in the past about one of her children choosing to wear dresses and being picked on at school, Us Weekly reported. In interviews, she also has praised this child for being “brave” and indicated that she and Green accept their children’s choices.
With regard to Starbuck’s attack, Fox also called the pundit an “insecure, narcissistic” and “impotent” little man who had messed “with the wrong witch.” She continued the witch theme in a subsequent Instagram Story in which she shared a photo of a news article, which purported to capture footage of real-life “witches” eating a dear carcass outside a farm. Fox captioned the photo: “Me outside Rob Starbuck’s house.”
Starbuck in turn expressed shock and outrage that Fox was “threatening to hold a carcass-eating ritual” outside his house. “If her goal was to look crazy. Mission accomplished!”
Now Megan Fox is threatening to hold a carcass eating ritual at my house. That’d be a bold/dumb decision in TN. If her goal was to look crazy… Mission accomplished! Now people know she practices witchcraft too. pic.twitter.com/Ub5JVu5uKO
— Robby Starbuck (@robbystarbuck) June 11, 2023
Starbuck also shared a screen grab of his response to Fox’s Instagram post, denying that he had “a political campaign” and again insisting that he personally witnessed her alleged mistreatment of her sons. He also said, “I’m not afraid of witchcraft. I’ll pray for you and your boys.”
The witchcraft comments definitely caught Musk’s attention and prompted him to joke on Twitter Sunday: “Looking to hire a VP of Witchcraft & Propaganda.”
Looking to hire a VP of Witchcraft & Propaganda
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 11, 2023
TMZ said this tweet clearly was a reference to Fox because one person replied to Musk: “Megan Fox is your girl.” When someone else chimed in: “She is bad at propaganda though,” Musk replied: “Nobody is perfect.”
Musk may have watched the Fox and Starbuck spat with amusement, but he’s been on a tear over the past few weeks with his anti-trans messaging, as Insider, Them and TMZ reported. “(Musk’s) timeline is full of anti-LGBT content — and is reflective of political stances he’s taken of late,” TMZ said.
His views are seen as particularly hostile to the transgender community, despite the fact that he has a transgender daughter, who legally changed her name last year due to her no longer wanting to “be related to my biological father in any way, shape or form.” Musk subsequently blamed “neo-Marxists” at educational institutions for his daughter’s estrangement.
Prior to inserting himself into the Fox-Starbuck controversy, Musk actively promoted “What is a Woman?” by pinning a link to the video at the top of his Twitter profile, Insider wrote. He also wrote: “Consenting adults should do whatever makes them happy, provided it does not harm others, but a child is not capable of consent, which is why we have laws protecting minors.”
Musk has also liked multiple tweets from the video’s director and other conservatives who praised Twitter for platforming The Daily Wire and Tucker Carlson. According to the LGBTQ publication, Them, Musk’s “like” history also includes a tweet celebrating news that states like Louisiana have passed bans on gender-affirming care for kids. In addition, Musk liked a tweet that interspersed footage of rainbow flags at New York’s Rockefeller Center with Nazi flags and one that photoshopped a picture of actor Elliot Page wearing a shirt, with the words “protect trans kids,” to instead say “sterilize autistic children.”
Last week, Musk shared a link to a Telegraph column about pushing “extreme gender ideology” on vulnerable children and a meme that jokes about a doctor telling a pregnant woman that her child’s kindergarten teacher will decide the child’s gender.
Twitter has increasingly become “a precarious environment for LGBTQ people,” as the platform’s dedication to “free speech” under Musk has make it “more hospitable for transphobia, racism, and other forms of harassment,” as Them and Quartz reported. Notably, Twitter removed its ban on deadnaming and misgendering trans people in April — the same month that Musk suggested that providers of gender-affirming care for youth “should go to prison for life,” Them added.
Musk’s tweets come as Republicans and conservative commentators have been pushing laws to limit the rights of transgender people, including bills that would make it illegal for parents and doctors to provide gender-affirming care, such as puberty blockers and hormone replacement therapy, Insider reported. Prominent doctors and medical groups, including the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), support providing youth with access to comprehensive health care that’s gender-affirming and developmentally appropriate.
“What is most important is for a parent to listen, respect and support their child’s self-expressed identity,” the AAP said in a statement issued in 2018. “This encourages open conversations that may be difficult but key to the child’s mental health and the family’s resilience and wellbeing.”
Source: www.mercurynews.com