Elon Musk’s snake oil

benfell

It’s astonishing, really, how much is appearing about Elon Musk and Twitter all at once. It doesn’t appear coordinated and indeed doesn’t need to be, but it’s a lot of shit, all of it, in one way or another, self-induced. I don’t think I remember even Donald Trump taking so many hits simultaneously.

Gilead

Twitter


Fig. 1. “Elon Musk shared a video of his entrance on his Twitter account.” Photograph attributed to Elon Musk, October 26, 2022, via the New York Post,[1] fair use.

In five words, [Elon] Musk manages to mock transgender and nonbinary people, signal his disdain for public-health officials, and send up a flare to far-right shitposters and trolls. The tweet is a cruel and senseless play on pronouns that also invokes the right’s fury toward Anthony Fauci, the chief medical adviser to President Joe Biden, for what they believe is a government overreach in public-health policy throughout the pandemic and an obfuscation of the coronavirus’s origins. (Fauci, for his part, has said he would cooperate with any possible investigations and has nothing to hide.) . . .

Publicly, Musk appears deeply committed to the right’s culture war against progressivism in most forms. His purchase of Twitter was an explicitly political act couched in the notion of preserving free speech. But Musk’s notion of free speech is a broad course correction that involves amplifying and advancing the interests of right-wing reactionaries while trolling the left. Musk might argue that this is restoring balance to the system, but if we are judging based only on actions and outcomes, it is very hard to see his tenure at Twitter as anything other than a series of policies intended to benefit a particular ideology. . . .

Whether intentionally or not, Musk has, in effect, been governing Twitter using the classic Frank Wilhoit maxim: “Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit: There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect.” [2]

Laura Forman, “Twitter’s Advertising Truth Hurts,” Wall Street Journal, December 11, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/twitters-advertising-truth-hurts-11670706720

Keith Olbermann, “Hey look what they found in the ‘Twitter Files&rsquo,;” Twitter, December 11, 2022, https://twitter.com/KeithOlbermann/status/1601983506070081536

Elon Musk, “My pronouns are Prosecute/Fauci,” Twitter, December 11, 2022, https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1601894132573605888

Charlie Warzel, “Elon Musk Is a Far-Right Activist,” Atlantic, December 11, 2022, https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2022/12/elon-musk-twitter-far-right-activist/672436/

Joseph Menn, “Elon Musk uses QAnon tactic in criticizing former Twitter safety chief,” Washington Post, December 12, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/12/12/musk-child-porn-qanon/

Stephen Wilmot, “Half-Price Tesla Stock Is Still No Bargain,” Wall Street Journal, December 12, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/half-price-tesla-stock-is-still-no-bargain-11670851513

Jeffrey Epstein


Fig. 1. “Donald Trump with his future wife Melania Knauss, Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell at Mar-a-Lago in February 2000.” Photograph credited to Davidoff Studios Photography/Getty Images, February 2000,[3] fair use.

The photograph in Keith Olbermann’s tweet is uncredited there but appears to have been taken by Kevin Mazur on March 2, 2014, at a “”2014 Vanity Fair Oscar Party Hosted By Graydon Carter.”[4] Ghislaine Maxwell, pictured with Elon Musk, was Jeffrey Epstein’s long-time associate, convicted “of luring teenage girls to be sexually abused by the American millionaire Jeffrey Epstein.”[5] Musk, for his part, lobs the “pedo” label and similar allegations around a little too promiscuously,[6] but, of course, I won’t be the one to accuse him of projecting.

Keith Olbermann, “Hey look what they found in the ‘Twitter Files&rsquo,;” Twitter, December 11, 2022, https://twitter.com/KeithOlbermann/status/1601983506070081536

COVID-19 Pandemic


Fig. 1. Photograph by author, November 8, 2022.

Elon Musk supports a conspiracy theory about COVID-19[7] after having been in denial.[8]

Elon Musk, “My pronouns are Prosecute/Fauci,” Twitter, December 11, 2022, https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1601894132573605888

Charlie Warzel, “Elon Musk Is a Far-Right Activist,” Atlantic, December 11, 2022, https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2022/12/elon-musk-twitter-far-right-activist/672436/

Self-driving cars


Fig. 1. Photograph by Mark Doliner, August 1, 2012, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0.

The Wall Street Journal’s “Heard on the Street” column, authored by Stephen Wilmot, is withering on Tesla, which has lost half its value this year, only in part due to Twitter:[9]

Meanwhile, Mr. [Elon] Musk’s chaotic turnaround of Twitter can be seen variously as a management distraction, a financial liability that needs to be funded by sales of Tesla shares or loans to Mr. Musk backed by those shares, a political hot potato that doesn’t sit well with a global mass-market car brand, and generally a high-risk, high-profile enterprise that could take the shine off Mr. Musk’s reputation and by extension Tesla’s brand. . . .

As for software, Tesla continues to struggle with its project to automate driving in a way more than a few of its biggest fans might be prepared to pay meaningful sums for. It isn’t alone: The entire industry hasn’t made as much progress toward commercializing self-driving technology as it once hoped. Even if a breakthrough emerges, there is little reason to think Tesla would make it. It doesn’t appear to have a lead over Intel’s Mobileye, which supplies competitors. Recent hints that Tesla might return to using radar, a tool it previously rejected, underline the point.[10]

Wilmot presents a case that Tesla stock is still woefully overvalued.[11]

Stephen Wilmot, “Half-Price Tesla Stock Is Still No Bargain,” Wall Street Journal, December 12, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/half-price-tesla-stock-is-still-no-bargain-11670851513

  1. [1]Thomas Barrabi, “Elon Musk barges into Twitter HQ as deal nears: ‘Let that sink in,’” New York Post, October 26, 2022, https://nypost.com/2022/10/26/elon-musk-barges-into-twitter-headquarters-as-deal-nears/↩
  2. [2]Charlie Warzel, “Elon Musk Is a Far-Right Activist,” Atlantic, December 11, 2022, https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2022/12/elon-musk-twitter-far-right-activist/672436/↩
  3. [3]Martin Pengelly, “‘She say anything about me?’ Trump raised Ghislaine Maxwell link with aides,” Guardian, October 4, 2022, https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/oct/04/trump-ghislaine-maxwell-epstein-maggie-haberman-book-confidence-man↩
  4. [4]Getty Images, “2014 Vanity Fair Oscar Party Hosted By Graydon Carter,” n.d. https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/ghislaine-maxwell-and-elon-musk-attend-the-2014-vanity-fair-news-photo/476317939↩
  5. [5]Tom Hays and Larry Neumeister, “Jury finds Ghislaine Maxwell guilty in Epstein sex abuse case,” Public Broadcasting System, December 29, 2021, https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/jury-finds-ghislaine-maxwell-guilty-in-epstein-sex-abuse-case↩
  6. [6]Tim Higgins, “Elon Musk Cleared by Jury in Defamation Case Over ‘Pedo’ Tweet,” Wall Street Journal, December 6, 2019, https://www.wsj.com/articles/elon-musk-cleared-by-jury-in-defamation-case-over-pedo-tweet-11575678498; Joseph Menn, “Elon Musk uses QAnon tactic in criticizing former Twitter safety chief,” Washington Post, December 12, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/12/12/musk-child-porn-qanon/; Alistair Walsh, “Elon Musk won’t stop calling diver a pedophile,” Deutschewelle, September 9, 2018, https://www.dw.com/en/elon-musk-wont-stop-calling-diver-a-pedophile/a-45372611↩
  7. [7]Elon Musk, “My pronouns are Prosecute/Fauci,” Twitter, December 11, 2022, https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1601894132573605888↩
  8. [8]Tim Higgins, “Elon Musk’s Defiance in the Time of Coronavirus,” Wall Street Journal, March 20, 2020, https://www.wsj.com/articles/elon-musks-defiance-in-the-time-of-coronavirus-11584733458; Kari Paul, “Elon Musk rails against ‘fascist’ shelter-in-place orders in Tesla earnings call,” Guardian, April 29, 2020, https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/apr/29/tesla-quarterly-earnings-coronavirus-shares; Faiz Siddiqui, “Tesla’s Elon Musk reopens factory, defying county orders and daring officials to arrest him,” Washington Post, May 11, 2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/05/11/musk-tesla-factory/; Faiz Siddiqui, “Tesla defied county orders so it could restart production. Days later, workers tested positive for the coronavirus,” Washington Post, June 9, 2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/06/09/tesla-factory-coronavirus/↩
  9. [9]Stephen Wilmot, “Half-Price Tesla Stock Is Still No Bargain,” Wall Street Journal, December 12, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/half-price-tesla-stock-is-still-no-bargain-11670851513↩
  10. [10]Stephen Wilmot, “Half-Price Tesla Stock Is Still No Bargain,” Wall Street Journal, December 12, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/half-price-tesla-stock-is-still-no-bargain-11670851513↩
  11. [11]Stephen Wilmot, “Half-Price Tesla Stock Is Still No Bargain,” Wall Street Journal, December 12, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/half-price-tesla-stock-is-still-no-bargain-11670851513↩

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