Elon Musk Posts Aspirational AI Photo of Anakin Skywalker. You Know, the Allegorical Nazi Pipeline Character

Elon Musk is blowing a right-wing dogwhistle ahead of the midterm elections by posting what appear to be AI-generated images of Star Wars antihero Anakin Skywalker sitting for a Sith family portrait. “This is what they stole from us,” Musk wrote on X, accompanying a doctored image of Anakin Skywalker with his wife Padmé Amidala and his two children, Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia. The faces on the children mirror those of the adult actors who played them, namely Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher. This is what they stole from us https://t.co/q1GnpjF394 — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 1, 2026 While Musk’s post might just seem like random content from someone who doesn’t understand the plot of Star Wars , Musk is actually “Anakin-posting,” a new phenomenon that recasts Anakin Skywalker, who becomes the original franchise’s titular villain, Darth Vader, as a heroic figure rather than a tragic one. The recent trend isn’t just new headcanon or fan fiction about a fictional villain; it’s a signal to susceptible young men to vote in line with right-wing interests this election cycle. To better understand the implications of the South African technocrat posting about Anakin on the eve of the midterm elections, read on below. Who is Anakin Skywalker? In order to understand the nuances of why the right is redeeming Anakin Skywalker as its hero, you need to understand who he is, so we will start at the beginning. In the Star Wars prequel trilogy, set at least 19 years before the original series, Anakin Skywalker is a young recruit training under the Jedi Order to fight evil in the universe. The prequels trace his descent into the dark side of The Force, or guiding moral principle in the universe. He ultimately betrays the Jedi Order, tries to murder his pregnant wife, and eventually becomes the original series big bad: Darth Vader. Episode III: Revenge of the Sith , the third film of the prequel trilogy, focuses on how Anakin becomes disillusioned with the Jedi Order after being led astray by Darth Sidious, the series’ central evildoer, to join the dark side of The Force as a means of saving his wife from dying in childbirth. The tension between both sides of the force, and Anakin Skywalker’s ultimate betrayal of everything he knows, culminates in a light saber fight between Anakin and his mentor Obi-Wan Kenobi in which the fallen Jedi chokes Padmé and eventually falls into a molten pit of lava, cementing his transformation into Darth Vader. Anakin Skywalker’s story is largely considered to be a tragic one, driven by his own selfish decisions, greed, and manipulation by dark forces. Director George Lucas even referred to the six original Star Wars films as “The Tragedy of Darth Vader” because of how the series charts Skywalker’s fall from grace. In the years since the series was originally released, fans online have long drawn comparisons between Skywalker and other figures who have eventually descended into evil such as Lucifer, who in the Bible is portrayed as a fallen angel descended from Heaven after God casts him out for betraying him. Another common comparison drawn is between Anakin Skywalker and facism, as he questions the validity of Democracy during the prequel trilogy and ultimately becomes susceptible to a fascistic Sith leader. Famously, the Star Wars franchise has a lot of lore, so this is only the most cursory of overviews. These are the basics you need to understand the irony of Anakin-posting. What is “Anakin posting” and when did the trend start? Anakin-posting, also referred to as “Anakin Skywalker Gen Z Male Rage Memes” or “Anakin Skywalker Young Men Disillusionment Edits,” refers to a new trend of posting that involves recasting Skywalker as a hero as opposed to a tragic villain. Per Know Your Meme , the trend began in early October 2026, as young men posted largely AI-generated images and videos of Anakin Skywalker to platforms like X, with captions connecting the fictional villain to the rage some right-wing young men feel. Particularly, the meme has been linked to feelings of generational frustration and abandonment felt by younger generations of men given the state of the economy, job market, and inflation among other stresses. “Life of Gen Z: College left you in debt for a degree nobody wants - COVID stole your 20s and prime memories - AI deleted the jobs - Rent takes half your paycheck - Boomers still call you lazy,” one user on X wrote. This is what they stole from us https://t.co/q1GnpjF394 — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 1, 2026 Life of Gen Z:- College left you in debt for a degree nobody wants- COVID stole your 20s and prime memories- AI deleted the jobs- Rent takes half your paycheck- Boomers still call you lazy https://t.co/DqTIkvh1zo — Aleksander Ætelmann (@ArchitectOracle) October 11, 2026 As the meme has grown and been co-opted by conservatives, some Anakin-posters go as far as to say the Dark Side of the Force are actually the ones in the moral right: progressives represent the Jedi Force in this schema, and conservatives represent the Sith, with Skywalker as their hero. Many of these right-wing posters feel they’ve been “betrayed” by women’s rights and the cultural acceptance of immigrants.. “They razed our childhood shopping malls, they flooded our hometowns with foreigners, they made the dollar menu 3$, they made Cortana ugly, and you expect Gen Z men to just forgive them without consequence?” one user wrote . Of course, as the meme has become a conservative, racist, and sexist dog whistle, more right-wing figures have latched onto it. What message does Anakin posting send? When Elon Musk Anakin-posted, he wasn’t just reposting made up Star Wars fan fiction. He is signalling to young conservative men that they were promised a specific future — a wife and children in the nuclear family order — only for it to be taken away by progressives. His signalling sends a silent message to take that promised future back during the elections. Luckily, despite the convoluted nuances of Anakin-posting, people have already begun to see through the tactic and comment under Musk’s post in droves, especially given the actual plot of the Star Wars franchise. “Anakin was a fascist who tried to murder his own wife by putting her in a chokehold. Do you not understand Star Wars?” one user wrote on X. This is what they stole from us https://t.co/q1GnpjF394 — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 1, 2026 Life of Gen Z:- College left you in debt for a degree nobody wants- COVID stole your 20s and prime memories- AI deleted the jobs- Rent takes half your paycheck- Boomers still call you lazy https://t.co/DqTIkvh1zo — Aleksander Ætelmann (@ArchitectOracle) October 11, 2026 @elonmusk Anakin was a fascist who tried to murder his own wife by putting her in a chokehold. Do you not understand Star Wars? — Teyana (@Teyana29) November 1, 2026 “Shocked you would identify with a child-murdering, self-sabotaging, emotionally stunted failure of a father,” another wrote. This is what they stole from us https://t.co/q1GnpjF394 — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 1, 2026 Life of Gen Z:- College left you in debt for a degree nobody wants- COVID stole your 20s and prime memories- AI deleted the jobs- Rent takes half your paycheck- Boomers still call you lazy https://t.co/DqTIkvh1zo — Aleksander Ætelmann (@ArchitectOracle) October 11, 2026 @elonmusk Anakin was a fascist who tried to murder his own wife by putting her in a chokehold. Do you not understand Star Wars? — Teyana (@Teyana29) November 1, 2026 @elonmusk Shocked you would identify with a child-murdering, self-sabotaging, emotionally stunted failure of a father. — The Tomten (@thetomten1) November 1, 2026 And yet another puts it simply , “You celebrate evil because you are evil.” This is what they stole from us https://t.co/q1GnpjF394 — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 1, 2026 Life of Gen Z:- College left you in debt for a degree nobody wants- COVID stole your 20s and prime memories- AI deleted the jobs- Rent takes half your paycheck- Boomers still call you lazy https://t.co/DqTIkvh1zo — Aleksander Ætelmann (@ArchitectOracle) October 11, 2026 @elonmusk Anakin was a fascist who tried to murder his own wife by putting her in a chokehold. Do you not understand Star Wars? — Teyana (@Teyana29) November 1, 2026 @elonmusk Shocked you would identify with a child-murdering, self-sabotaging, emotionally stunted failure of a father. — The Tomten (@thetomten1) November 1, 2026 @elonmusk You celebrate evil because you are evil. — Anonymous (@YourAnonNews) November 2, 2026 Others point out that the irony of Anakin Skywalker becoming a symbol for disillusioned right-wing young men actually speaks to the point George Lucas was trying to make when writing the character. This is what they stole from us https://t.co/q1GnpjF394 — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 1, 2026 Life of Gen Z:- College left you in debt for a degree nobody wants- COVID stole your 20s and prime memories- AI deleted the jobs- Rent takes half your paycheck- Boomers still call you lazy https://t.co/DqTIkvh1zo — Aleksander Ætelmann (@ArchitectOracle) October 11, 2026 @elonmusk Anakin was a fascist who tried to murder his own wife by putting her in a chokehold. Do you not understand Star Wars? — Teyana (@Teyana29) November 1, 2026 @elonmusk Shocked you would identify with a child-murdering, self-sabotaging, emotionally stunted failure of a father. — The Tomten (@thetomten1) November 1, 2026 @elonmusk You celebrate evil because you are evil. — Anonymous (@YourAnonNews) November 2, 2026 Very pleased to see so many young right-wing zoomers finally recognizing just how incredible the Star Wars prequel trilogy really was.George Lucas, a visionary, created perhaps the most profound piece of right-wing media in sci-fi form.Anakin Skywalker is the archetypal disenfranchised chud: a young man who genuinely wanted to do good, believed in justice, and trusted a system that presented itself as noble, democratic, and righteous, all to have his innocence, idealism, sense of justice, and vulnerabilities systematically exploited by the very institutions he believed in.He wanted to make a difference, only to discover that the entire political order he had devoted his life to defending was deeply corrupt, hypocritical, and wicked.And in his disillusionment, he became vulnerable to the very evil he once sought to destroy.A cautionary tale for an entire generation of young men who grew up believing the system was fundamentally good, only to discover that the system was never quite what it claimed to be.George Lucas understood the chud psyche long before the chud was actualized in the zeitgeist. https://t.co/dmyocmpbGy — Kangmin Lee | 이강민 (@kangminlee) October 26, 2026 “Anakin Skywalker is the archetypal disenfranchised chud: a young man who genuinely wanted to do good, believed in justice, and trusted a system that presented itself as noble, democratic, and righteous, all to have his innocence, idealism, sense of justice, and vulnerabilities systematically exploited by the very institutions he believed in,” another X user wrote . “He wanted to make a difference, only to discover that the entire political order he had devoted his life to defending was deeply corrupt, hypocritical, and wicked. And in his disillusionment, he became vulnerable to the very evil he once sought to destroy.” Get the best of what’s queer. Sign up for Them ’s newsletters .