Last night, musician Grimes posted a nonsensical “proposition for the communists” on TikTok. In it, she rambled on about how the widespread implementation of artificial intelligence can be utilized to quickly get the world to a state of communism, where “no one has to work,” corruption ceases to exist, and equality reigns.
One of the largest problems with Grimes’ proposition is that she begins with a gross mischaracterization of what communism is, labeling it as a political ideal with the end goal that no one ever has to work. Even in the most basic definitions of communism, never does it say that people “won’t work.” It actually says that people will be adequately compensated for their work and skills. She caps off the video by saying that “enforced farming is really not a vibe.” We get it Grimes, in a community-focused future, you do not see yourself actually working and helping those around you—especially if that means touching dirt. You plan on living on Mars while your man Musk presses all the buttons, Metropolis city master-style.
Grimes also seems to have forgotten one of the key tenets of communism: workers control the means of production. In her farming example, in a true communist space, the farmers themselves have control over their work and labor. It absolutely does not mean farmers are cast aside so that we all have to depend on the owners of AI technology (the Musks, the Bezoses, etc.) to survive.
The thought of Elon Musk or any other elite crony leading the oppressed working class to liberation when they’ve profited off of their exploited labor to get where they are is laughable at least, and concerning at most. When it comes to the corruption and exploitation Grimes claims to want to fix, the call is coming from inside the Tesla-funded house. Karl Marx is probably rolling over in his grave at the thought of the billionaires running the world through AI and labeling it “communism.”
Before she was the bride of Elon Musk, Grimes prided herself on her “anti-capitalist” and “anti-imperialist” views. She even quoted Joseph Stalin in her senior yearbook photo. However, shortly after she begun her relationship with Musk, her politics began to shift, and she found herself defending ever move of her neo-colonial Space Force baby daddy. We unsure if this is her way of inching back into communism-focused spaces again, but thinly veiled corporate control over all means of production is not communism, so uh, let’s leave the proletariat revolution to the actual working class.