Tag Archives: Elon Musk

The Age of Dangerous Charlatans, by Stephen Karganovic

Musk and Gates are emblematic of a class of billionaires who believe their wealth and presumed expertise entitles them to run everyone else’s life. From Stephen Karganovic at strategic-culture.org:

After losing its moral and spiritual compass, Western humanity will be hard put to avoid ruin if it continues to follow the dangerous charlatans.

Elon Musk, the prominent enfant terrible of the globalist set, never ceases to astonish. At the recent G20 business forum in Indonesia, prompted by no apparent motive related to the gathering, he declared that “maybe we will find alien civilisations or discover civilisations that existed millions of years ago.” The bizarre announcement was delivered in a suitably mystical atmosphere, including an occult crystal bowl situated in the forefront, with Musk sitting in the dark, wearing a traditional Indonesian batik shirt and surrounded by candles as he offered a “vision” for the future that in addition to aliens also included deep tunnels and rocket tourism.

There is no record of anyone in attendance asking Musk the obvious question: what qualifies him to speculate on these subjects? There is meagre information about Musk’s education and accomplishments, if we exclude the widely known fact of his sudden, inexplicable, and spectacular enrichment, on a par with similar “success stories” involving the emergence of magnates “out-of-nowhere” in 1990s Russia.

The scant available biographical data about Musk include such titbits of budding genius as creating a video game at the tender age of 12. As for actual education, it is said that in 1997 Musk received bachelor’s degrees “in physics and economics” from the University of Pennsylvania. The eclectic scholar Musk subsequently enrolled at Stanford to pursue graduate studies in physics, which he abandoned after only two days in residence because “he felt that the Internet had much more potential to change society than work in physics.”

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The Burning of Witches Will Continue, by Matt Taibbi

The number of Americans who will actually speak their minds continues to dwindle. Fear is the order of the day. From Matt Taibbi at taibbi.substack.com:

Americans who once venerated self-reliance are building a church of conformity, whose chief means of worship is destroying heretics. Elon Musk should tell the priesthood to shove it

The parochial snobbery of these people was partly responsible for their failure to convert the Indians… Very few Indians were converted, and the Salem folk believed that the virgin forest was the Devil’s last preserve, his home base and the citadel of his final stand. To the best of their knowledge the American forest was the last place on earth that was not paying homage to God.

— Arthur Miller, The Crucible

We burn witches in America. When heathens won’t convert, when the crop is bad, we still burn the village freethinker.

The Federal Trade Commission last week told The Hill it was “tracking recent developments at Twitter with deep concern,” adding, “no CEO… is above the law,” clearly referring to the company’s despised new owner, billionaire Elon Musk.

Musk is the new bête noire of the American consensus. He is the Negative Current Thing, a role mostly played by Donald Trump since summer 2015, with occasional fill-ins (in no particular order, Vladimir Putin, Tucker Carlson, Novak Djokovic, J.K. Rowling, Jeremy Corbyn, Joe Rogan, Dave Chappelle, whatever they call Kanye West these days, and others have manned the slot). The coverage playbook for these heel-of-the-hour stories is rigid. Certain elements are always present.

Criminal investigations are instigated. Advocacy organizations issue denunciations (some combination of the Anti-Defamation League and the ACLU’s Chase Strangio is found in nearly all cases). News organizations demand the person’s muffling. Unions, guilds, and associations threaten walkouts. Even if the villain leans left, he or she begins to be described as “right wing,” a term with little political meaning left, that’s just code for heresy now.

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Elon’s Opportunity, by Eric Peters

Elon can turn Twitter into a free-speech platform. From Eric Peters at ericpetersautos.com:

General Motors has already shown us its true colors – as if we couldn’t already see them. But now we get to see them, again.

Immediately following Elon Musk’s purchase of a controlling stake in the conversation-limiting, thought-stunting “platform” that is styled Twitter, GM pulled all of its advertising, which amounts to a lot of money. It released the usual mewly-mouthed statement that it is “engaging with Twitter to understand the direction of the platform under their new ownership.”

Italics added.

One of the indices of the Left’s takeover of corporate America being the use of such language. GM is “engaging” with Twitter – as if to imply some kind of mutually agreeable cooperative discussion, which this is obviously not. What it is an economic threat to stop advertising with Twitter – which it had been advertising with – if GM comes to the “understanding” that “the direction” of Twitter is in the direction of free speech. Probably in particular as regards the speech of the Orange Man, whom it appears likely will be allowed to speak (well, Tweet) again now that the speech suppressors that GM was happy to support financially have been walked out the door.

This bodes well.

Whether you like the Orange Man or don’t not being the point. The point is the possibility that Twitter may stop suppressing anyone’s speech. This of course is objectionable to the Left and so to General Motors.

Some will say that Twitter is a private company and as such can decide whose speech it allows to use its platform. Except, of course, it isn’t a private company. It is a corporation. And corporations are creations of the state, with state-granted special status, privileges and exemptions.

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Advertise on a Competitor’s Social Media Platform? Um, that Would Be a Hoot… GM “Paused” Ads on Musk’s Twitter, by Wolf Richter

Musk’s automotive competitors are on the horns of a dilemma. From Wolf Richter at wolfstreet.com:

Automakers are huge advertisers. Social media platforms are huge data collectors. And now Tesla’s Musk owns this data.

Automakers spend lavishly on advertising, and they advertise heavily in the social media. But now, one of the social media platforms, Twitter, is owned as of yesterday by the CEO and largest shareholder of Tesla. And the automakers that compete with Tesla, and are getting their clocks cleaned by Tesla, are now finding themselves advertising on Elon Musk’s platform. And when you think about it, that’s kind of a hoot.

No one likes to advertise on a competitor’s platform, for all sorts of reasons, but particularly because on a social-media platform, the competitor gathers the consumer tracking data and can get important insights into current and potential customers and their reactions to the products and ads – without even passing on those insights to the automaker.

Advertising on a competitor’s social media platform is a particular problem because of the vast amount of user data that those platforms collect – data on your customers and potential customers that you may actually not see yourself, unless the platform decides to share it with you.

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“The Gates of Hell Opened”: A Media Panic Ensues As Musk Takes Over Twitter and Fires Chief Censors, by Jonathan Turley

A social media platform may end up posting content that conflicts with the “narrative” on the issue de jour. The horror! From Jonathan Turley at jonathanturley.org:

Last night I wrote a column on the challenges faced by Elon Musk in taking over Twitter and suggested steps to “hit the ground running.” One of those obvious steps discussed in earlier columns was to fire CEO Parag Agrawal, CFO Ned Segal and head of legal policy, trust, and safety Vijaya Gadde, the primary figures responsible for creating one of the largest censorship systems in history. He did so within minutes of taking over and their removal constitutes as singular advances in the cause of free speech around the world. As expected, this morning media figures are in full panic at the thought that one social media platform may restore free speech protections after years of biased and aggressive censorship. The controversial Washington Post columnist Taylor Lorenz lamented, “It’s like the gates of hell opened on this site tonight.”  That’s right, the prospect of others having access to Twitter to express their own views is a hellish prospect for many in the media.

Agrawal and Gadde personified the censorship culture at Twitter, figures who were unabashedly opposed to traditional views of free speech and viewpoint diversity.

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Dear Twitterati – Leave the Road to Serfdom, Learn to Code, by Tom Luongo

Tom Luongo celebrates Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter . . . and rubs some salt in Twitterati wounds. From Luongo at tomluongo.me:

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Elon Musk Officially Takes Over Twitter in the Latest “Genius” Con, by 2nd Smartest Guy in the World

Is Elon Musk just a WEF cog? From 2nd Smartest Guy in the World at 2ndsmartestguyintheworld.substack.com:

As many mindlessly celebrate Musk’s Twitter “acquisition” they fail to appreciate the greater Psyop at play here.

Elon Musk is quite literally a CIA creation. He made all of his money from the taxpayers. When he sells his inflated stock that was made possible by ZEV credits, grants, tax breaks, and other corporate welfare fraud he is laundering the money stolen from taxes that was then inflated by a rigged stock market.

James Corbett brilliantly exposed Musk just the other day ahead of this Twitter takeover:

Musk’s grandfather was a founding member of Canada’s technocratic political party before he had to flee that country.

Musk’s entire agenda is that of the WEF; to wit:

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The US Government Sees Silicon Valley As Part Of Its Propaganda Machine, by Caitlin Johnstone

Remember when Silicon Valley was regarded as libertarian, revolutionary, and anti-establishment? Those days are long gone. From Caitlin Johnstone at caitlinjohnstone.com:

The Biden administration is reportedly considering opening a national security review of Elon Musk’s business ventures which could see the plutocrat’s purchase of Twitter blocked by the White House, in part because Musk is perceived as having an “increasingly Russia-friendly stance.”

Bloomberg reports:

Biden administration officials are discussing whether the US should subject some of Elon Musk’s ventures to national security reviews, including the deal for Twitter Inc. and SpaceX’s Starlink satellite network, according to people familiar with the matter.

US officials have grown uncomfortable over Musk’s recent threat to stop supplying the Starlink satellite service to Ukraine — he said it had cost him $80 million so far — and what they see as his increasingly Russia-friendly stance following a series of tweets that outlined peace proposals favorable to President Vladimir Putin. They are also concerned by his plans to buy Twitter with a group of foreign investors.

The “group of foreign investors” the Biden administration is reportedly worried about oddly includes Prince Alwaleed bin Talal of Saudi Arabia, who has already been a massive Twitter shareholder for years. The White House certainly never had a problem with foreign investors there before.

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The Neocons and the Woke Left Are Joining Hands and Leading Us to Woke War III, by David Sacks

You get a more respectful hearing from the mainstream media and government if you propose the destruction of humanity rather than if you propose peace negotiations. From David Sacks at newsweek.com:

Elon Musk got in hot water again on Twitter—for proposing peace. On Monday, Musk proposed a peace deal to end the war in Ukraine, for which he was denounced as a pro-Putin puppet by the Twitter mob that has formed to police the discourse on all things related to Ukraine.

The president of Ukraine himself, Volodymyr Zelensky, accused Musk of supporting Russia—even though Musk’s company SpaceX donated Starlink to Ukraine’s war effort at an out-of-pocket cost of $80 million. (Full disclosure: Musk is a friend and I am an investor in SpaceX.) Ukrainian Ambassador to Germany Andrj Melnyk was less subtle, telling Elon to “f***k off,” while David Frum tweeted without evidence that “Russian sources” had used Elon to float a “trial balloon” of a peace proposal because they’re afraid of losing Crimea. Scores of blue-checks on Twitter followed their lead, ordering Musk to stay in his lane.

What matters in this story is not that Musk was told off, but rather, that a Twitter hive mind is using the same intolerant cancellation tactics that they use to shut down debate on domestic political issues in order to shape U.S. policy toward Ukraine. They are doing so by demonizing dissent, defaming opponents, and closing off as ideologically unacceptable any path to peace or even deescalation.

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The Ideological Tyranny of Liberal Interventionism, by Mila Ghorayeb

Anyone who suggests that peace should be explored in the Ukraine-Russia war is immediately attacked and suppressed by the regime. From Mila Ghorayeb at chroniclesmagazine.org:

Since the outbreak of the Russo-Ukrainian War this year, celebrities and public figures have been unanimous in their moral support for Ukraine. Some, like Telsa CEO Elon Musk, have gone further than words, lending significant material support to the cause. His spacecraft company, SpaceX, paid $80 million to provide Ukraine with the services of Starlink, which, among other things, enables Ukrainian troops to operate drones and communicate with each other. Musk has explicitly declared himself “pro-Ukraine.”

A normal person would therefore view Musk, a self-professed centrist, as supporting an ally of the American government against the ravages of war. However, Musk’s material and moral contributions mattered little when he proposed a peace plan outside the bounds of the liberal internationalist consensus. Russia, Musk tweeted, should be allowed to keep Crimea, and Ukraine should end its bit to join NATO and adopt a neutral status.

Musk’s diplomatic musings swiftly drew the ire of the Ukrainian government and its supporters. It also attracted resentful remarks from his own government. Senator Lindsey Graham went on an angry rant against Musk that culminated in a call to cut electric vehicle tax credits, which he mistakenly thought benefitted Tesla. Elon’s car buyers haven’t qualified for a tax credit since 2018.

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