Just saw Elon Musk clarify something about his background that most people probably got wrong. He's been described as Afrikaner, but he actually corrected that—he's from British/English descent, born in Pretoria. What's wild is he drew a comparison to J.R.R. Tolkien, who was also born in South Africa but came from English parents. Both ended up leaving and becoming these massive figures, but their roots were more connected to Britain than to the Afrikaner culture people assumed.

It's interesting how much context matters when you're trying to understand someone's background. Musk even brought up how misinterpretations of his past can shape how people view his work. The whole thing seems to have come from a blog post that was circulating, and he just wanted to set the record straight on that point.

There's definitely been a lot of speculation about his upbringing in South Africa during that era, and I guess this is him saying: yeah, that's not quite the full picture. Pretty straightforward correction, but it says something about how people make assumptions about identity and heritage based on where someone was born rather than where they actually come from.