Comrade Grimes has spoken out about the paparazzi images of her reading a copy of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels’ “Communist Manifesto” shortly after she and millionaire lover Elon Musk broke up.
Over the weekend, the experimental pop musician shrugged off growing backlash and jokes about the three photos, which showed him reading the landmark anti-capitalist treatise while roaming the streets of Los Angeles.
“A long time ago, I taught myself to quit monitoring if other people believe I’m socially acceptable,” she wrote in a follow-up tweet on Sunday.
The “Miss Anthropocene” artist clarified in a longer Instagram message that she and her nickname for Musk are “still living” together and that she is “not a communist.” She did say, however, that she agreed with “several extremely good concepts” in the 1848 treatise.
Personally, I’m more interested in a radical decentralized ubi that I believe might be reached through crypto and gaming, but I haven’t worked out that notion enough to articulate it yet,” she explained.
“Regardless, it’s tough to express my political views because the political systems that inspire me the most have yet to be established… Anyway, if the paparazzi continue to pursue me, I’ll try to come up with new memes – suggestions are welcome!”
Social media users were quick to mock Grimes for posing with the revolutionary work (Norton Critical Edition, currently available used for $1.68) as soon as the photos went viral, especially given her relationship with Elon Musk, the controversial CEO of Tesla Motors and SpaceX, who is often portrayed as the poster child of capitalism.
Musk, 50, said last month that he and the 33-year-old Canadian singer had “semi-separated” after three years together. The couple welcomed a baby boy named X A-Xii in the spring of 2020.
“I hope Grimes posing with Marx leads a lot of young, naïve followers on a path that starts with them realizing why she’s a poser and ends with them helping build a world that her ex… and son will have to depart in a rocket,” one user said.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-“Tax Cortez’s the Rich” Met Gala outfit, model Cara Delevingne’s “Peg the Patriarchy” Met Gala vest, and multimillionaire Twitch streamer Hasan Piker “Make the Rich Pay Tax” T-shirt have all been inducted into the pantheon of performative leftist celebrity photo ops.
Others had a lot of fun manipulating the photographs to show alternative book covers, such as Louis Sachar’s “Holes,” Sally Rooney’s “Normal People,” and Andy Griffiths’ “The Day My Bum Went Psycho.”
Another tweeted, “Doesn’t look fake at all.” “I frequently dress up as an elf and carry plainly identifiable communist literature outside.”
