# 2021 Time Person of the Year **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 26, 2021, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2021-time-person-of-the-year/953250 "2021-10-26T19:54:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2021, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2021-time-person-of-the-year/953250/21 "2021-10-28T01:45:02Z")
> [@CookingWithGas](#): > > Ever since Time chose the personal computer as person of the year (1982), I’ve decided the whole thing is bullshit. They could very well pick the vaccines as ‘persons’ of the year. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2021, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2021-time-person-of-the-year/953250/22 "2021-10-28T01:57:45Z")
How about the coronavirus itself? It’s an entity. Ogod, I can see them doing that. 🙄 ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2021, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2021-time-person-of-the-year/953250/23 "2021-10-28T02:17:12Z")
Hey, viruses are people too! They have civil rights, don’t they? ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2021, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2021-time-person-of-the-year/953250/24 "2021-10-28T18:07:13Z")
Last year was the year to pick something about the pandemic. Instead they picked Biden just for winning an election. This year it should have been Biden when he was actually in office doing things. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2021, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2021-time-person-of-the-year/953250/25 "2021-10-28T18:12:18Z")
My absolute favorite was, years ago, someone on this messageboard linked to a conspiracy theory article about how Barack Obama was a terrible student at Harvard. It was full of the normal sort of fuzzy links, insinuations, and shaky leaps of logic, but this poster was super-proud of the article. I looked up the author to see what else they’d done. In their “about me” section, they listed several accomplishments, including “2006 Time Magazine’s Person of the Year.” [2006 Time Magazine’s Person of the Year](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You_(Time_Person_of_the_Year)#:~:text=You%20were%20chosen%20in%202006,other%20websites%20featuring%20user%20contribution.) ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2021, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2021-time-person-of-the-year/953250/26 "2021-12-13T15:15:56Z")
> [@dalej42](#): > > I can’t see them picking ‘The Essential Worker’ since there’s such a backlash with them fighting vaccine mandates. > > I could see ‘The Changing Worker’ since return to office backlash and worker labor shortages have been such a huge story all year. Only if the essential worker is named Elon Musk. I can only assume this is a buyout pitch by Time, to Elon: Time Person of the Year: Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, named most influential of 2021 [https://www.cnn.com/2021/12/13/media/slug-time-person-year-elon-musk/index.html](https://www.cnn.com/2021/12/13/media/slug-time-person-year-elon-musk/index.html) Looks like @That_Don_Guy and @Keeve were the closest in picking this one. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2021, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2021-time-person-of-the-year/953250/27 "2021-12-13T15:23:23Z")
There a whole bunch of shitheads ignoring the vaccine mandates. I think it should have gone to the essential worker, without which, we would all have been totally up the creek. ---
**Author:** ![flurb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/51bf81/32.png) [@flurb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flurb)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2021, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2021-time-person-of-the-year/953250/28 "2021-12-13T17:36:29Z")
“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.” You gotta be kidding me. ---
**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2021, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2021-time-person-of-the-year/953250/29 "2021-12-13T17:43:59Z")
Oh dear! There goes the Time Person of the Year Award the way of the Nobel Price, particularly the one for Peace! Might just as well give ~~it~~ them to Donald Trump. ---
**Author:** ![Gorsnak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gorsnak/32/7587_2.png) [@Gorsnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gorsnak)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2021, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2021-time-person-of-the-year/953250/30 "2021-12-13T18:49:42Z")
Breaking: Jeff Bezos has filed a lawsuit against Time alleging an unfair selection process. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2021, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2021-time-person-of-the-year/953250/31 "2021-12-13T19:46:54Z")
> [@Pardel-Lux](#): > > Oh dear! There goes the Time Person of the Year Award the way of the Nobel Price, particularly the one for Peace! Might just as well give ~~it~~ them to Donald Trump. Trump was person of the year in 2016. They often have given it to the recently inaugurated president. They wouldn’t do that this year because they gave it the Biden/Harris last year for winning the election. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2021, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2021-time-person-of-the-year/953250/32 "2021-12-13T19:54:28Z")
> [@Gorsnak](#): > > Breaking: Jeff Bezos has filed a lawsuit against Time alleging an unfair selection process. I hope this is a joke. Perhaps you meant Trump? I mean he did try to overthrow the government. ---
**Author:** ![Gorsnak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gorsnak/32/7587_2.png) [@Gorsnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gorsnak)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2021, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2021-time-person-of-the-year/953250/33 "2021-12-13T19:58:15Z")
Context: > **[Blue Origin loses federal lawsuit over NASA moon lander contract](https://www.space.com/blue-origin-loses-lawsuit-nasa-moon-lander)** > > SpaceX and NASA will now resume their Artemis moon lander project 'as soon as possible.' ---
**Author:** ![Ranch\_Dip](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranch_dip/32/5238_2.png) [@Ranch\_Dip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranch_Dip)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2021, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2021-time-person-of-the-year/953250/34 "2021-12-13T20:02:11Z")
never mind ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2021, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2021-time-person-of-the-year/953250/35 "2021-12-13T20:06:26Z")
My first thought was that money changed hands. ---
**Author:** ![LoneRhino](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lonerhino/32/1311_2.png) [@LoneRhino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LoneRhino)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2021, 8:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2021-time-person-of-the-year/953250/36 "2021-12-14T08:59:02Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > Hey, viruses are people too! They have civil rights, don’t they? If they vote Republican then the Supreme Court will say that they do. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2021, 9:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2021-time-person-of-the-year/953250/37 "2021-12-14T09:17:52Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > Time Person of the Year: Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, named most influential of 2021 What a bizarre and inexplicable choice. Elon Musk has had exactly zero influence on my life, either in 2021 or at any other time, and billions of people around the world can say the same. Jeff Bezos doesn’t deserve it, either, and he’s been far more influential, through Amazon and some some of its innovative products like the Kindle. My choice would have been “the medical professional”, focusing on doctors and nurses, or alternatively the medical researchers who developed vaccines in record time. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2021, 9:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2021-time-person-of-the-year/953250/38 "2021-12-14T09:55:27Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > What a bizarre and inexplicable choice. It seems… shopped. Like a JD Power award for ‘best North American mid-sized auto’ or something. (Oh, you, the reader, thought JD Power sent teams of grim-faced researchers to various factories to determine the ‘best subcompact SUV in America’ and weren’t aware that these awards just go to the highest bidder? That’s cute.) Anyway, this selection smells of a JD Power award. ---
**Author:** ![Boycott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boycott/32/6741_2.png) [@Boycott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boycott)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2021, 9:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2021-time-person-of-the-year/953250/39 "2021-12-14T09:57:13Z")
What a joke ---
**Author:** ![not\_what\_you\_d\_expect](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/not_what_you_d_expect/32/3246_2.png) [@not\_what\_you\_d\_expect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/not_what_you_d_expect)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2021, 10:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2021-time-person-of-the-year/953250/40 "2021-12-14T10:16:09Z")
Every single time I bring up the name Elon Musk, the response is always the same. No matter the age or gender of the person I’m talking to. “He’s such a Dick!” I don’t understand this choice and would like to speak to the manager. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2021-time-person-of-the-year/953250.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2021-time-person-of-the-year/953250.md?page=3)