By Christian Cullen, Staff Writer

Whenever a new fad or craze takes place in society, it is pretty common for the fans of said craze to get some kind of derisive nickname. The group that is the impetus for this article is the fans of Taylor Swift. Her fans are often mocked on the internet for being crazed or obsessed. People have been obsessed with celebrities since celebrities became a thing. However, fandoms, in my opinion, are more likely to be mocked and made fun of if the fandom is primarily composed of women.

I can give you all a few other examples of fanbases that do not get as much scrutiny as Swifties, yet are just as obsessed. There are the massive LeBron fans (go to his Instagram comments and you’ll see what I mean). There are people who religiously listen to Joe Rogan. The one that I want to specifically focus on though, are the fans of Elon Musk.

Elon Musk, the founder of SpaceX and Tesla, is seen by many as a genius and the person who will take us to Mars. Simply put, he’s not. He’s just not. Beyond his recent propulsion into political power on the right, there have been multiple reasons to look at Musk’s behavior with skepticism. There have long been allegations of mistreatment of his workers. Ex-employees of his companies note that when things go well, Musk takes credit for them; when things go badly, Musk passes the blame. Of course, there has been the acquisition of X, which has lost Musk more than a little bit of money. In general, he’s not some genius businessman, so why do the people that genuinely believe and see Musk as one not receive the same level of attention as other fandoms like the Swifties? Well, the answer is his fanbase is composed primarily of men.

            Essentially, it seems to me that celebrity worship and celebrity culture, when done by women is derided and is celebrated when done by men. Now, I don’t think that celebrity worship is a good thing, per se. However, there is another factor: at least Taylor Swift is good at what she does. Musk is more a charlatan than the one who will send us to the stars. And yet, he still receives support, especially from young men.

They see him as the guy who made SpaceX and Tesla. All I see is a very good snake oil salesman who now sits at the right hand of the president. If you are someone who is a big Musk supporter, ask yourself this: is it more likely that Musk uses his power or misuses that power to better enrich himself? Amid Musk’s very public trip down the alt-right pipeline and the continued exposure of his lack of involvement in any sort of revolutionary science or technology (the Cybertruck sucks guys), the acolytes of Musk have avoided the public attention, questioning attitude and mockery that is often lobbied toward the Swifties.

I think this is a good moment to step back and reconsider how we treat and view fan groups. Overzealous fans can become blind to their faults and errors, losing their ability to critically view them. This applies to both fandoms I’ve talked about at length; while I am not equating the two (though I do believe Musk is a much worse individual than Swift), it seems like Swift is constantly up against pressure never imposed on Musk. Celebrities are not perfect, and we should hold them to the same standards as our neighbors. When we enter into excessive levels of celebrity worship, we become blinded by our own loyalty to the negative consequences their acts may have.