Elon Musk is the Future We Didn’t Hope For

In 2016, I wrote an article titled, “How Tesla Turned Me Into a Car Guy.” In that, I raved at length about how with each passing announcement of Elon Musk, I was becoming increasingly excited and enamored by what I thought at the time to be a real life version of Tony Stark. However, over the last few years, my opinion of Musk has soured, turning from would-be-saviour to childish troll who increasingly sides with would-be demagogues and real-life genocidal dictators.

Musk’s string of horrid behaviour dates as far back as the very founding of Tesla itself. I’m not here to bore you with all those sordid details, but a quick recap may serve as a potent reminder of who we are dealing with.

• Musk forced his way into Tesla, creating the myth of a brilliant entrepreneur

• He attempted and failed to launch a poor imitation of The Onion

• He openly manipulated Tesla stock via Tweets

• He has a long track record of failing to meet any self-imposed deadlines, including FSD

• While his donation to help provide clean water to schools in Flint, his “commitment” to fund fixing the water that was contaminated above FDA levels has gone unrealized

• He said his company, Neuralink, would implant computer chips in human brains by 2020. The experiment was a disaster

• He has admitted that Hyperloop was about getting legislators to cancel plans to build high-speed rail in California. There were no concrete plans to build it

• His attempt to save the trapped Thai schoolchildren was impractical and largely a PR stunt, and then tried to label the diver who saved them as a pedophile

• He said he’d install hundreds of batteries to power Puerto Rico after natural disasters. The technology he provided is now in serious disrepair and/or is not functional

• He said he was going to produce special bricks that could be used to build affordable housing. Never happened

• He promised ventilators for COVID. Hospitals never received them, and the ones that did couldn’t use them as they were the wrong type of ventilator

• He said he would donate $6 billion to the UN World Food Program to combat world hunger. Never did it

• He voted for an open and vocal QAnon supporter turned Congresswoman


All of the above examples do not include his hostility towards labour laws, living wages, maternity leave, or combating rampant racism at his Tesla factories. But that’s not what I want to talk about today. Instead, what I want to talk about is how in the last month or so, especially surrounding the current ongoing war in Ukraine and his recent interview with FT, is how Elon Musk has turned into an icon for far-right extremists.

Try as Elon might to come across as a first year stoner type who proudly proclaims to “not be into politics, man,” the reality of it all is actually quite different. While in the past he’s claimed that he prefers the right side of the Democrats and the left side of the GOP, his political donations have trended away from progressive candidates to almost entirely Republican. And if his bid to purchase Twitter is successful (whether or not he wants it anymore is besides the point now), he’s stated that he will bring former President T**** back to the platform, a decision he once again says is made on the non-ideological grounds of “free speech,” but one that also inherently has quite an obvious partisan streak to it.

Shocking that a person with inhuman levels of wealth would turn towards autocracy.

The idea of “free speech” is an interesting subject to dive a little deeper into as well, as it’s clearly something that has been plaguing the billionaire’s mind for quite some time now, in the sense that Elon wishes to simply say whatever he wants without any repercussions. What Musk fails to realize is that the right to free speech does not mean you are also free from the consequences of what you say. In reality, what Musk is really objecting to here is what the Democratic Party has sort of turned into: the part of moderation. As platforms like Twitter and Facebook have in some ways become the new de-facto “public square” over the past decade, liberals and progressives have been quite outspoken about the necessity for these platforms to do more to combat misinformation and remove extremist content. So for Musk, moderation is not a tool to, well, moderation, but rather a way to censor thoughts and ideas that should be allowed to be freely shared in this new “town square.” Unfortunately for Musk and his acolytes, platforms like Twitter are private companies with their own terms of service. And as a private entity, they can not only bar entry to anyone they deem fit, but also bar people from participating when they do not abide by their fairly simple rules.

So, how does this relate to the war in Ukraine, and similarly, his recent interview with FT? Let’s start with Ukraine. On October 3rd, 2022, Musk Tweeted the following poll:

Source: @elonmusk

Now, looking at Musk’s poll, you might be thinking to yourself, “some of these seem reasonable and might help to prevent a full-scale nuclear war!” That’s where you’re wrong. Aside from getting just so much of Ukrainian history wrong, what Musk was effectively advocating was for Ukraine to lay down it’s arms, stop defending it’s sovereignty against an aggressor state, and for Russia to continue carte blanche in its illegal and genocidal war. In Musk’s mind, this is the only way for peace to come about. What Musk once again and frustratingly so fails to realize is that Putin is dangling the threat of nuclear warfare as a way to continue doing what he wants without repercussions. Aside from Ukraine continuing to defend itself, there is nothing else in his way to achieve what he wants - the complete annexation of Ukraine and the genocide of the Ukrainian people. Whether or not P**** drops a nuke or not is besides the question, because that is not enough of a deterrent to stop Ukrainians from fighting for their land, culture, and lives. And if you don’t think what has already happened in Bucha, Izyum, Mariupol, and so many other cities won’t continue happening if Russia were to take over more territory, you’re horribly mistaken.

So why is this particular Tweet from Musk so important? Well, aside from the Kremlin repeating this as the only way to “secure peace in Ukraine,” and praised him as he “is looking for a peaceful way out of this situation” (ignoring the fact that they invaded Ukraine), respected and renowned journalist, Ian Bremmer, revealed that prior to the Tweet, Musk had confided in him that he had spoken directly with P**** regarding Ukraine. And almost immediately, Musk went on the defensive and claimed that nobody should trust Bremmer (and that the backlash to his poll was the result of a large scale bot attack 🙄, a man who has a strong track record for covering the global geopolitical landscape and broke several controversies surrounding Trump.

However, what’s possibly more remarkable here is that shortly after seeing the backlash to his Twitter poll, Musk stated that SpaceX could no longer continue to pay for Starlink in Ukraine indefinitely. In a reply to noted apologist (among many other horrible things) of Russian aggression, Kim Dotcom, Musk said that he was trying his hardest to de-escalate the situation in Ukraine. A few days later, presumably after even more backlash, Musk walked back and said that SpaceX would continue to fund Starlink at a loss. Keep in mind, that the majority of Starlink deployments in Ukraine were either purchased and delivered via international governments or through direct individuals and volunteer groups, paying the exorbitant £6,000/month cost to keep the service running. Ukrainian activist Melaniya Podolyak asks an interesting question here: did you really lose more money than you earned?

Following this Twitter Poll, Musk went on to have an interview with FT. The entire piece is an interesting look into his Musk’s mind, but I’ll let this particular quote speak for itself.

Source: FT

And there it is. Everything that you need to know about Elon, captured in a fairly benign paragraph. It’s clear that what matters most to Musk is how he is perceived in this world, and that his “legacy” remains intact. He wants to be remembered for having had a lasting positive impact on this world, and as a prime mover to collectively move us away from internal combustion engines towards clean energy and EVs, that is undeniable. However, this paragraph highlights that Musk will do and say just about anything to ensure his businesses are successful. And in the case of China and Taiwan, it’s clear that what matters most is the continuation of 30-50% of total Tesla production within China, not the rights of the Taiwanese to live a sovereign and free life away from the CCP’s grasp. If at this point you still don’t believe me, think about how shortly after Musk made his pro “one country, two systems” remark, Tesla received a substantial tax break from the Chinese government.

You might be saying to yourself at this point, “well, Musk has done some good things, and he might do more! Look at what Tesla is doing to help the environment by pushing the car industry towards EVs!” Again, you’re wrong. In March 2022, Musk Tweeted the following:

Source: @elonmusk

The only issue with this statement of his is that the problem with traffic was already solved decades ago. Cars cause traffic.

Giving people viable alternatives, such as more public walking space, proper and safe bike paths, functional and truly affordable mass public transit, and increasing the usage of high-density-mixed-use housing, all work directly to solve the problem of traffic. Adding more lanes to a highway to solve congestion is like loosening your belt to solve obesity. But of course, Musk will never suggest these as viable solutions to the problem of traffic as it would go directly against the interests of his car company, Tesla. And he certainly won’t put Tesla to work to roll out those alternatives to actually help the environment, because more people using a single bus, even one that is gas-guzzling, is more environmentally friendly than more people driving electric vehicles.

Why won’t he do this, you might ask? It’s because it would directly impact his bottom line.

Musk has proven time and time again that he is not to be believed, and certainly not to be trusted. He openly parrots talking points from the Kremlin and CCP (and note that what Musk outlined in his October 3rd Twitter poll almost exactly echoes what Kim Dotcom wrote back in March) and his businesses directly benefit as a result.

Ultimately, Elon Musk is not the future we had hoped for, but will be the future we continue to get so long as people like him (predominantly rich white men) are not held accountable for their actions. His family profited off of apartheid, and he continues to build Tesla factories in where’s where Uyghurs are being persecuted because of their religion and rounded up in concentration camps. There is nothing surprising about his behaviour, but something almost surreal about seeing it play out in real-time.

All this reminds me of a truly insightful quote from this NY Mag article on Elon. “He’s perpetually obsessed with the next thing and prefers to talk in the future tense - not about the problems that his companies have now but about what they’ll do maybe someday.” And that’s the crux of this article - Elon simply views buddying up with genocidal dictators as purely a means to justify the end. He only cares about this future vision of his, whether it’s the electrification of motor vehicles or terraforming mars, as a means to continue making ungodly sums of money and to continue living in a society where his achievements are allowed to overshadow his extreme lack of morality.

Source: @reactjpg

Elon Musk simply is not the end-all-be-all-would-be-saviour that he nor his hoardes of weird nerds who rush to his defense claim him to be. And if you, like me, find yourself at odds with who he has turned into and the values he espouses (or lack thereof), well then you’re just another bot.