An article by Max Berger describes Elon Musk’s accelerating descent into neo-fascism. Based on his complete mismanagement of the company following his acquisition of Twitter, I analyzed his behavior by using a simple, yet powerful hypothesis: that Elon Musk was, is, and remains a fucking idiot. But maybe he is more than that. Berger writes:
Musk’s descent into semi-fascism is as unintentional and incoherent as Donald Trump’s, but no less dangerous, or recognizable. Like most capitalists who support right-wing authoritarianism, Musk arrived through a combination of economic interest and cultural resentment.
He then details Musk’s history of exploitative business practices in a series of links to articles that are worth reading, in case you weren’t sure that Musk was always an awful person. Surprisingly, he never draws the obvious comparison to Peter Thiel, whose journey from right-libertarianism to neo-fuedalism is well documented in a frightening essay by Thiel himself, and has some parallels with Musk’s recent dalliance with the hard right. Not so coincidentally, both Musk and Thiel are associated with the founding of PayPal.
Instead of comparing him to Thiel, Berger opts to compare Musk to Henry Ford, a comparison that feels weaker to me, but is not without merit. Berger continues to write:
Musk’s embrace of the far-right is immediately apparent by observing the last 6 months of his Twitter activity. Musk’s acquisition of Twitter was cheered on by far-right Republicans like Marjorie Taylor Greene, and Trump advisors and operatives like Steve Bannon. Since his acquisition, he has frequently responded to the most dangerous and deranged far-right complaints – including amplifying an insane conspiracy theory that downplayed the attempted assassination of Nancy Pelosi, and an antisemitic conspiracy theory apparently sourced from 8chan.
Being pushed into adopting fascist beliefs through conspiracy theories is a common occurence since the rise of Trump, as a cursory read of the subreddit /r/QAnonCasualties shows. They provide an especially slippery path to anti-Semitism – it is all too easy to replace a vague “Them” or Illuminati with “the Jews.”
Musk’s adoption by the hard right, at least before his gross mismanagment of Twitter caused some to jump ship, is well demonstrated by the following Tweet which has aged worse than a ketchup stain on the walls of Mar-a-Lago:
Kanye. Elon. Trump.
— House Judiciary GOP (@JudiciaryGOP) October 7, 2022
Berger argues that rather than blindly seeking profit or simply being incompetent, Musk has a real political goal in mind with his acquisition of Twitter:
First, Musk wants to make Twitter more right-wing. Prior to his purchase, he claimed that Twitter’s algorithm was “biased against half the country” and “had a strong left-wing bias” although Twitter’s own research shows the algorithm favors conservatives. Upon taking control of the company, his immediate steps to dismantle content moderation were cheered by the right, and caused an exponential spike in hate speech on the platform.
He continues his argument by positing that Musk is also seeking a profit, and that to Musk the two goals are mutually compatible. However, his attempts to make Twitter into a breeding ground for right-wing vitriol and disinformation have driven the site to near bankruptcy, bringing into question the reactionary mantra “go woke, go broke” so often repeated during anti-SJW YouTube videos like some kind of Hail Mary for misogynist dudebros. While Musk views himself as some kind of freethinking hero standing up against the woke intelligentsia of journalists and blue checkmarks, Twitter continues its not-so-slow decline into unusability. Having surrounded himself with yes-men, toadies, sychophants, and other such jetsam, Musk is entirely unable to see where the problem lies, and instead continues to lash out while those not mesmerized by his Reality Distortion Field mock him on the platform he now owns.
What will happen to Musk and Twitter from here? I don’t really know, but I expect Twitter to become unusable by the end of the year, and go bankrupt sometime next year. After that, it could be sold and rebuilt, or exist as a ghost as the MySpace of the 2010s. It’s likely some new competitor arises and quickly overtakes Twitter, hopefully leaving Musk even more in the red.