Is Elon Musk a Mass Murderer On Par with the Worst Dictators in History?
Yes, and this shouldn’t be controversial. He intentionally cut aid to the world’s poorest people. 1.6 million have already died and 14 million will die by 2030. (1,000 words)
Émile P. Torres
Jun 16, 2026

Was Hitler a mass murderer? You may be surprised to know that there’s no historical evidence that he ever personally killed anyone — other than himself in 1945.1 (See, e.g., here and here.) Military records indicate he took no lives during World War I. He apparently didn’t murder anyone during the Beer Hall Putsch or the Night of the Long Knives. And he probably didn’t shoot his niece, Geli Raubal, despite rumors to the contrary.

If “murderer” means “one who personally kills another,” then Hitler wasn’t a mass murderer, because he wasn’t a murderer at all.

But of course Hitler was a mass murderer. Who would argue against this? His decisions resulted, whether intentionally or not, in an estimated 17 million civilian deaths during World War II. Though he never once pulled the trigger, tightened the rope, or held the knife, Hitler was morally responsible for these deaths. If it weren’t for him, those people wouldn’t have died the way they did, when they did.

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Hitler was responsible for 17 million civilian deaths over six years (1939 to 1945). Musk will likely be responsible for 14 million deaths over five years (2025 to 2030), if the Lancet’s projections are accurate. If Hitler was a mass murderer, then so is Musk. Indeed, given the numbers, one is forced to conclude that Musk is a mass murderer of world-historical proportions — on par with some of the worst dictators in human history.

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