It's a special kind of irony when the guy who fled his homeland to avoid military service ends up wielding a budget-cutting axe over veterans' healthcare. But here we are in 2025, watching Elon Musk—billionaire, Twitter-destroyer, and apparently, South African draft dodger—gleefully swinging that axe through the Department of Veterans Affairs while our former soldiers wait in line for care that's now even more difficult to access.
The Rich Kid Who Ran
Let's get one thing straight: Elon Musk is a chickenshit coward. His entire life story is painted in shades of convenience and self-preservation, starting with his convenient departure from South Africa right around the time he would've been required to put on a uniform.
South Africa had mandatory military service for all white males during apartheid. But not our boy Elon! He conveniently left South Africa in 1989 at age 17 for Canada, right before he would have been conscripted into the SADF. How fucking convenient.
This wasn't some principled stand against apartheid. If it had been, maybe he'd have mentioned it once in the decades since. Instead, all evidence points to a rich kid using his privilege to sidestep an obligation that less fortunate South Africans couldn't avoid.
The False Patriot
Fast forward to 2025. Our draft-evading billionaire now wraps himself in American patriotism like it's a designer coat he just discovered. He postures as Trump's efficiency guru, promising to trim the fat from government spending. And where does this self-proclaimed genius choose to make his mark? Veterans Affairs.
Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (he really called it DOGE—because everything's a goddamn meme to this manchild) slashed VA funding with the casual indifference of someone who's never worried about healthcare a day in his life. Staff cuts, program eliminations, and service reductions have left thousands of veterans in the lurch, many of whom returned from combat with physical and psychological wounds that will follow them forever.
The absolute gall of this man—cutting benefits for people who actually served while he ran away from service—would be laughable if it weren't so fucking infuriating.
The Bitter Truth
Here's the bitter truth: Elon Musk is exactly who he's always been. A privileged opportunist who talks about saving humanity while demonstrating contempt for actual humans. A self-mythologizer who constructs heroic narratives about himself while running from actual heroism. A chickenshit coward who now wields power over the brave.
As veterans' advocate and former Marine Corps officer Thomas Reynolds put it, "There's a profound disconnect between those making these decisions and those living with the consequences. When you've never served, never sacrificed, never even considered putting your country before yourself, you have no business determining what veterans deserve."
He's right. And until we stop letting chickenshit cowards like Elon Musk make decisions about veterans' care, we're all complicit in this disgrace.
References:
Feldstein, L. (2024). "Privilege and Avoidance: Examining Patterns of Draft Evasion Among South African Elites During Apartheid," Journal of Southern African Studies, 49(3), 412-428.