People Think Dolly Parton Should Be 'Person of the Year'—Not Elon Musk

Elon Musk has been named Time's Person of the Year for 2021, in a move that has drawn quite a backlash from critics.

On social media, thousands of people are agreeing that another well-known figure would have made a better choice for the prestigious award—the singer Dolly Parton.

Musk, the Tesla and SpaceX founder, recently passed Amazon founder Jeff Bezos as the world's wealthiest person, and his net worth is estimated to be around $300 billion.

"This is the man who aspires to save our planet and get us a new one to inhabit: clown, genius, edgelord, visionary, industrialist, showman," Time gushed. However, Musk has many vocal critics who are questioning his worthiness due to his views on taxation, and his opposition to unions and vaccine mandates.

"Let's change the rigged tax code so The Person of the Year will actually pay taxes and stop freeloading off everyone else," said former presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren.

While congresswoman Rep. Pramila Jayapal tweeted: "It's *TIME* for Elon Musk to pay his fair share in taxes."

Former labor secretary Robert Reich reminded his followers that Musk "illegally threatened to take away stock options if employees unionized, and has had 43 workers' rights violations filed against his company since 2010."

As of Tuesday, a popular replacement for Musk started to take off on Twitter with Dolly Parton's name becoming a trending topic.

The country music icon is famous for her philanthropic contributions to the world. She has been lauded for her donation of $1 million to a COVID vaccine trial that ended up being the highly successful Moderna jab.

"Dolly Parton deserved to be 'Person of the Year.' Retweet if you agree!" reads one tweet with more than 24,000 likes.

"Dolly Parton, not Elon Musk deserved to be Time's Person of the Year," tweeted attorney Aaron Parnas in a post that has amassed almost 120,000 likes.

While another popular tweet with thousands of likes reads: "Can we all agree that Dolly Parton is more deserving of Time Magazine's Person of the Year for 2021 than Elon Musk?"

Time's editor-in-chief and CEO, Edward Felsenthal, spoke about the decision to name Musk as Person of the Year in his editor's letter.

"Person of the Year is a marker of influence, and few individuals have had more influence than Musk on life on Earth, and potentially life off Earth too," Felsenthal wrote, per CBS News.

"In 2021, Musk emerged not just as the world's richest person but also as perhaps the richest example of a massive shift in our society."