I don't see how humanity will go backward if we don't colonize Mars. That's the kind of thing a cult leader says.
In the meantime Musk is squandering $44bn to buy Twitter just to show that he can.
He said something that sounded like a prediction in an interview, and media outlets, knowing people like you will surely click on a clickbait anti-Musk article, picked it up and ran with it.
Saying "I think this is possible in x years" is not the same thing as saying "Space X will deliver in x years"
The people who were promised full self-driving Teslas and paid for that didn’t interpret specific delivery dates and promises of features as mere possibilities.
for the last 8 years Musk has been promising FSD and that it will be ready next year.