A lot of people believe you need to be a hard-working genius to get rich, so anyone rich must logically be a hard-working genius. Similarly, they believe anyone poor must be a lazy idiot.

In reality getting rich has more to do with opportunity, connections, and luck - but accepting that means you've got to accept that the American Dream has always been a lie. It's much easier to convince yourself that people like Elon are geniuses.

Dubious about that. I think people thought he had a bunch of money, so did things for him in exchange for some of that money.

His father's profile: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Errol_Musk