Elon Musk

Elon "Elmo"Twitter insiders are calling Elon Musk by a new nickname, Elmo. It's spreading on the platform. by Kali Hays (Nov 15, 2022, 4:44 PM PST) Business Insider. Reeve "Chief Twit"Elon Musk Twitter (archived from October 28, 2022). "Space Karen""A scientist’s viral tweet called Elon Musk ‘Space Karen’ — as a way to defend science" by Travis M. Andrews, Washington Post, 2020 November 17 "Harry Bōlz" https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/us/elon-musk-changes-ex-name-to-harry-bolz-what-does-it-mean/articleshow/118146142.cms#:~:text=In%2520April%25202023%252C%2520Musk%2520changed,X%2520to%2520%2522Harry%2520B%C5%8Dlz.%2522 "Elongated Muskrat""Elongated Muskrat" - Know Your Meme "Kekius Maximus" Kekius Maximus @elonmusk Twitter (archived from 1 Jan 2025 01:31:22 UTC). "Adrian Dittmann" Musk is a former illegal immigrant and current who is one of the richest people in the world — sometimes the richest, depending on swings in Tesla's stock price.Aimee Picchi (January 8, 2021). "Elon Musk tops Jeff Bezos as the world's richest person". CBS News.Chloe Taylor (March 2, 2023). "Elon Musk loses crown as world’s richest person—just 48 hours after regaining it". Fortune.Because much of his wealth is tied up in Tesla and SpaceX stock, both of which are difficult to assess the "true" value of, his "real" wealth is actually difficult to determine, although similar comments could apply to the worth of Bezos or of just about any other multibillionaire. Musk has expressed a wide range of erratically-shifting and sometimes contradictory beliefs. To name a few among these: he has endorsed antisemitic and/or racist ideas,Jessica Guynn (November 17, 2023). "Has Elon Musk gone too far? Outrage grows over antisemitic 'actually truth' post". USA Today.David Goldman (November 17, 2023). "Elon Musk agrees with antisemitic X post that claims Jews 'push hatred' against White people ". CNN.Adam Kovac (September 6, 2023; periodically updated). "Elon Musk has made some disturbing comments about Jews. Here's a list". The Forward. conspiracy theories,Clare Duffy (December 11, 2023). "Elon Musk’s X is encouraging users to follow conspiracy theorist Alex Jones after reinstating his account". CNN. and occasional pro-Russia/China positions,Shubhangi Dua (July 7, 2023). "Elon Musk pledges Tesla to China’s 'core socialist values' to avert EV price war". Interesting Engineering.(October 4, 2022). "Kremlin welcomes Elon Musk proposal for Ukraine settlement denounced by Kyiv". Reuters.Oliver Darcy (September 12, 2023). "An explosive Elon Musk biography is just hitting shelves. But the book's acclaimed author is already walking back a major claim". CNN Business. but has often taken the exact opposite position before on any given issue. Despite this, he has also fostered an enormous cult of personality.The Elon Musk personality cult lives strong Felix Salmon (Jan 7, 2023) Axios.The Cult of Personality of Elon Musk by Quincy de Vries (2022 winning submission) The Orwell Society.The cult of Elon Musk: Why do some of us worship billionaires? Billionaires like Steve Jobs and Elon Musk are no different than other billionaires... except they have cults by April 29, 2022 4:02PM EDT) Salon. But he is best known for his S3XY electric vehiclesDoes Tesla models spell S3XY CARS? Cyber Backpack (archived from January 29, 2023). and for his "plans" to colonise Mars.Emperor Elon Musk? SpaceX founder clarifies if he’ll lead humans on Mars The South African 13 March 2018Elon Musk Reveals His Love Of Anime And The Desire To Build A Mecha Forbes 16 October 2018 7 September 2018 By 2023, Musk had been recognized by the Guinness World Records for the "largest loss of personal fortune in history" (US$182 billion loss) due to a crash in Tesla's stock price.Elon Musk breaks Guinness World Record for ‘largest loss of personal fortune in history’ by Giulia Carbonaro (Updated: 13/01/2023) Euronews.
He is also the embodiment of the hi-tech messiah complex of the 21st century with a detailed history of terrible Twitter shitposting.Elon Musk drops first SoundCloud track, 'RIP Harambe.' Yes, you read that right Mashable UK 31 March 2019 To give one shining example of his typical eccentric flair: he once brought a two-hundred year old musket to a video-game studio to demand a cameo in their cyberpunk game.Robin Valentine (September 20, 2023). "Elon Musk demanded a cameo in Cyberpunk 2077 while wielding a 200-year-old gun: 'I was armed but not dangerous'". PC Gamer.
Musk is notable for massively promoting several firms that have pushed cutting-edge innovation forward in the fields of green technology, cars in space, artificial intelligence, hyperloop, and space travel, and several charities. Musk, however, also oversees questionable labor practicesTesla and Elon Musk's Tweet Violated Labor Laws Protecting Unions, Judge Rules Time 29 September 2019Tesla workers speak out: 'Anything pro-union is shut down really fast' The Guardian 10 September 2018 and has a strange view of modern capitalism.
Musk is also notable for his significant political shifts over the years. In 2012, Musk described himself as a moderate with middle of the road political views."Tesla’s Elon Musk Relishes Being the Winner, Not Loser" by Phil LeBeau, CNBC, 2012 November 13 At that time, his politics were far secondary to his futurism persona — his social media was all about his companies' progress, with the goal of such companies being lofty concepts such as minimizing climate change and bullshit such as "colonizing" Mars."Elon Musk's mission to Mars" by Rory Carroll, Guardian, 20213 July 17 By 2024, fueled by private life drama (including Musk's inability to handle his transgender daughter's transition),"Elon Musk’s journey from humanitarian to poster of rightwing memes" by Alex Hern, Guardian, 2024 August 9 Musk had largely abandoned this persona in favor of reactionary stances, becoming a Trumpism-aligned persona obsessed with the supposed dangers of "woke". His Twitter feed increasingly looked less like a promotion for his Tesla and SpaceX companies and more like the feed of a far-right activist."Elon Musk is going all-in on Donald Trump" by Chris Isidore, CNN, 2024 July 24"Elon Musk’s X feed becomes megaphone for his far-right politics" by Faiz Siddiqui and Jeremy B. Merrill, Washington Post, 2024 August 12 Prior concerns of Musk, such as the threat climate change posed to the world, were largely abandoned"‘The dumbest climate conversation of all time’: experts on the Musk-Trump interview" by Oliver Milman, Guardian, 2024 August 13 in favor of supporting far-right hooligans,"Who Is Tommy Robinson? Elon Musk Champions Far-Right UK Activist—And Splits With Farage" by Alison Durkee, Forbes, 2025 January 6 downplaying the impact of the Holocaust at an AfD rally,"Elon Musk tells German far-right crowd the nation should move beyond "past guilt" ahead of Holocaust Remembrance Day" by Haley Ott, CBS News, 2025 January 28 and performing two on stage at Donald Trump's 2025 inauguration."What Elon Musk’s Salute Was All About" by Katrin Bennhold, New York Times, 2025 January 25 Musk financially supported, campaigned with, and promoted Big Lie conspiracies about Trump in the 2024 U.S. presidential election."Musk Is Going All In to Elect Trump" By Theodore Schleifer, Maggie Haberman, Ryan Mac and Jonathan Swan, New York Times, 2024 October 11 By January 2025, Musk was so heavily in Trump's orbit that he was widely mockingly described as the de facto 47th president of the United States."Democrats taunt Trump with ‘President Musk’ moniker" by Alex Gangitano and Mike Lillis, Hill, 2024 December 29
Musk has found endless controversy (and legal problems) due to bizarre and even despicable tweets ranging from COVID-19 misinformation and anti-lockdown stubbornness,"Elon Musk promoted coronavirus misinformation for months. Then his own infection kept him out of SpaceX's astronaut launch." by Morgan McFall Johnsen, Business Insider, 2020 November 25 to market-destabilizing comments, to even labeling a diver as a pedophile.Elon Musk calls British diver in Thai cave rescue 'pedo' in baseless attack The Guardian 16 July 2018 Other bizarre tweets include denying that a neo-Nazi was in fact, a neo-Nazi,Elon Musk Shares Fake Voltaire Quote Actually From Neo-Nazi by Matt Novak (May 27, 2023,02:51pm EDT) Forbes.Elon Musk posted misleading tweets about the Texas mall gunman's long history of neo-Nazi views being a potential 'psyop' by David Klepper & Associated Press (May 10, 2023 at 12:25 PM PDT) Fortune. and creepily declaring that he wanted to impregnate megastar musician after she endorsed Kamala Harris for the 2024 U.S. presidential election."Elon Musk’s Offer to Father a Child With Taylor Swift Elicits Disgust: ‘You’re Creepy. Full Stop’" by Todd Spangler, Variety, 2024 September 11 
In 2023, Musk deliberately shut down access to the Ukrainian military as they were carrying out a military operation in Crimea. Musk also drew the ire of the Taiwanese government and the praise of the Chinese Communist Party when he publicly supported the PRC claim over Taiwan.National Review, Retrieved on September 13, 2023. 
Musk has shown some willingness to admit when he's wrong, though this is rather rare (and may be PR). Two examples include his regret for promoting a conspiracy theory about Nancy Pelosi's husband,Virginia Chamlee (September 11, 2023). "Elon Musk Privately Said That Spreading a Paul Pelosi Attack Conspiracy Was Among His 'Dumbest Mistakes': Book". People. and regret for cheering on a particularly egregious antisemitic post.
Andrew Higgins (January 22, 2024). "Elon Musk, on Rehabilitation Tour, Calls Himself 'Aspirationally Jewish'". The New York Times.
==Youth and skeletons in the family closet==
Musk's maternal grandfather, Joshua N. Haldeman (a.k.a., "10450-1", as per Technocracy's edictAmerican Needs No Part Of the Price System: An observation of our social trends indicates breakers and a smashup ahead. Only Technocracy is preparing. by Joshua Haldeman (July 1940) Technocracy Digest, pages 6-7. (archived from 2013-06-19 12:46:56).), was a chiropractor, a member of the Technocracy movement See the wikipedia version of and of the (SCP)Joshua N Haldeman, DC: The Canadian Years, 1926-1950 (1995) J. Can. Chiropr. Asso. 39(3):172-186. In 1942, Technocracy was described as propagandistic and an incipient fascist group.Technocracy Springs to Life With Big Splurge of Publicity by John C. Rogers (March 18, 1942) Buffalo Evening News, page 37.Elon Musk’s Anti-Semitic, Apartheid-Loving Grandfather: The billionaire has described his grandfather as a risk-taking adventurer. A closer read of history reveals something much darker. by Joshua Benton (September 20, 2023) The Atlantic. Technocracy and the SCP held antisemitic conspiracist views, as did Haldeman. "An examination of Joshua Haldeman’s writings reveals a radical conspiracy theorist who expressed racist, antisemitic, and anti-democratic views repeatedly, and over the course of decades…" Haldeman moved to apartheid South Africa because he believed that country led "'White Christian Civilization' in its fight against the 'International Conspiracy' of Jewish bankers and the 'hordes of Coloured people' they controlleda."
Musk's father, Errol Musk , was an engineer who by his initial account traded an airplane that he owned for half-ownership of three emerald mines in Zambia. Errol had admitted that the mines were illegal. In a loter account, Errol claimed that he was only paid in emeralds for the airplane, which began his criminal enterprise of fencing of stolen diamonds and emeralds, as well as smuggling the finished gems overseas:Elon Musk by Walter Isaacson (2023) Simon & Schuster. ISBN 1982181281.
Elsewhere, Errol described the ill-gotten gains:
Errol is also a racist in denial about himself who criticized Elon's mother Maye's entire family as racist. Errol used the 'I'm not prejudiced, but...' argument to claim that he himself was not racist:
Elon was born wealthy, as are so many billionaires. Musk lived a lavish lifestyle in his youth because of this. To avoid a mandatory stint in the South African military, which would have required him to uphold the apartheid regime that he has at times claimed that he despised and other times not mentioned it as a rationale for leaving South Africa.Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future by Ashlee Vance (2015) Ecco. ISBN 0062301233. He left South Africa to attend college in Canada and the United States, while certainly a display of privilege, it was also a very real move to avoid upholding white supremacy at the point of a gun but not at the point of a Krugerrand.Elon Musk's family once owned an emerald mine in Zambia — here's the fascinating story of how they came to own it by Phillip de Wet (Feb 28, 2018, 06:30 AM) Business Insider (archived from June 10, 2020).Elon Musk's family once owned an emerald mine in Zambia by Phillip de Wet (Feb 22, 2018, 02:48 PM) Business Insider (archived from December 3, 2018).
==Business ventures==
*Zip2: started in 1995 (apparently "with investments from The New York Times Company, Knight-Ridder, MDV, Softbank and the Hearst Corporation"), a company that produced city guides for newspapers, sold in 1999 to Compaq for $307 million."Elon Musk". Xprize Foundation.
*PayPal: long story short - in 1999 Musk (using his Zip2 cash) and a few other men founded X.com, an online bank, which subsequently merged with its competitor Confinity in March of 2000. Confinity had already developed an early version of PayPal and released it in 1999. Musk was able to become CEO of the newly merged company but because the board found him to be a total shitgibbonSeriously though, there were a bunch of issues. First off, he insisted on keeping the site named "X", even though consumer surveys consistently showed that people thought it was a pornographic website. Also, he insisted that the company use Microsoft framework even though the rest of the board preferred Unix. Lastly, he's kind of a jerk and they got tired of his shit. they fired him in October 2000 while he was flying to Australia for his honeymoon; he was replaced by Peter Thiel. In subsequent litigation over his firing, he was able to negotiate that he be listed as one of the founders of PayPal (which is what Confinity was renamed in 2001), despite that, as noted, he didn't find himself listed as an official founder. Additionally, because he kept his stock holdings (about 11% of the total, making him the largest shareholder), when eBay bought PayPal in 2002, he made about $180 million in the deal.
*SpaceX: started in 2002, a company that researches, develops, and manufactures spacecraft and (reusable) launch rockets,If you're into space exploration, the videos of the rocket stages landing are pure nerdgasm. including development of and testing it by putting an advertisement in Earth orbit (a Tesla).Which itself was a petty, douche move by Musk. When Martin Eberhard was forced out of Tesla by Musk, the subsequent settlement stipulated that when the roadsters finally came out, Eberhard would get the first one off the line. Musk instead tried to keep it for himself, and rather than hand it over, he had it shot into space; he wound up giving Eberhard the third one, which had to be rebuilt after engineers had crashed it. See Debunking Musk, Pt 2 for more details and sources. The above-mentioned Peter Thiel (who is said to have a "love-hate relationship" with Musk) was "instrumental in SpaceX's success", investing some $20 million into it via his Founders Fund in 2008, when the company was "on the rocks".Dorothy Cucci (December 2, 2022). "Peter Thiel thinks Elon Musk is a 'fraud,' and 6 other unexpected details about the billionaires' love-hate relationship". Business Insider.Anthony Ha (August 6, 2008). "Private rocket company SpaceX gets $20M from The Founders Fund". VentureBeat. Alongside Boeing, SpaceX enables NASA to send American astronauts into space on American rockets, from American soil, for the first time since the final Space Shuttle mission in 2011NASA Names Astronauts For First Commercial Flights BBC News 3 August 2018 and is also developing the most powerful space rocket yet, In 2023, SpaceX made a "successful" launch of the Starship rocket the resulted in what SpaceX called a "rapid unscheduled disassembly before stage separation" and destruction of the launchpad — oops!Was the SpaceX launch really a ‘success’? by Jackie wattles (4:58 PM EDT, Fri April 21, 2023) CNN.‘Rapid unscheduled disassembly’: SpaceX Starship explodes after test flight launch by Natalie Dreier (April 20, 2023 at 12:25 pm PDT) KIRO. The subsequent launch was also deemed a 'success' by SpaceXSpaceX Starship megarocket launches on 2nd-ever test flight, explodes in 'rapid unscheduled disassembly' by Josh Dinner (November 18, 2023) Space. and finally the in 2024 saw the recovery of the Super Heavy booster, that landed in the launch tower.
*Tesla Motors: founded in 2003 by MuskDoes it matter if founders run tech companies? The San Francisco Chronicle 26 September 2018 Martin Eberhard (who was shoved out by Musk)Tesla's Founder Sues Tesla's CEO Wired 11 June 2009 a company that designs and manufactures semi-automated electric cars.
*SolarCity: started in 2006, a company that manufactures and installs rooftop solar panels. Acquired by Tesla in 2016; its successor is Tesla Energy.
*Hyperloop, announced in 2013, an idiotic and impossible rapid transit method that is basically a Maglev train inside a vacuum tube. Musk wants this to compete with conventional high-speed rail.
*OpenAI: started in 2015, a nonprofit intended to generate a general artificial intelligence (and avoid Roko's Basilisk). He left OpenAI in 2018.
*Neuralink: started in 2016, a company intended to produce software and devices that can interface with the human brain. As of 2022, Neuralink is being investigated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Inspector General for violations of the Animal Welfare Act.Exclusive: Musk’s Neuralink faces federal probe, employee backlash over animal tests by Rachael Levy (December 5, 20225:46 PM PST) Reuters. Musk has advocated both bad management practices (by telling employees to work faster by imagining a bomb strapped to their heads), and bad science practices (employees have alleged that "Neuralink launches tests in quick succession before fixing issues in earlier tests or drawing complete conclusions.")
*Thud: started in 2018, a company intended to produce comedic/satirical articles similar to The Onion, which Musk had attempted to purchase after it wrote satirical articles about him. After Musk pulled the rug out after 6 months, Thud made a muffled sound on the ground and did not come back up.Elon Musk wanted The Onion; he got Thud by Jacob Kastrenakes (Jul 2, 2019, 8:30am EDT) The Verge.
*pravduh.com: started in 2018, a website intended to let people vote on the reliability of media sources, created after Musk received much negative media coverage in the same year.Problem solved, was able to buy http://Pravduh.com! Game on by Elon Musk (11:27 AM - 25 May 2018) Twitter (archived from August 17, 2021). This turned out to be a minor temper tantrum, as there's no evidence the site ever had any content.http://Pravduh.com Archive.org. Not to be confused with Pravda.ru, which actually has content of the bovine fecal variety.
===The Boring Company: Burn it all down===
The Boring Company (TBC), started in 2016, a company intended to reduce the cost of boring tunnels. This could come in handy if the Hyperloop manages to defy reality itself. In 2018, it was awarded a contract to provide an express train service from the O'Hare International Airport to downtown Chicago, scheduled to open in 2021.The Latest: Musk Says O’Hare Express Line Could Open in 2021 Associated Press News 14 June 2018 By September of the same year, however, nothing has been done, and the future of the project remains in doubt.Rahm Emanuel wanted to expand O’Hare airport and partner with Elon Musk on high-speed rail. Now what? Chicago Tribune 4 September 2018 So far, the Boring Company is not very exciting.
As of 2023, 5 TBC projects were cancelled or moribund (Baltimore-Washington Loop, Chicago, Illinois, Los Angeles and San Jose, California, and Sydney area, Australia). Only one short demonstration tunnel had been completed (Las Vegas, Nevada). It almost immediately ran into issues as its Tesla vehicles encountered traffic jams—almost as if cars are not the solution to traffic.Oh look, it's a Tesla traffic jam in Las Vegas' Boring Company tunnel, Mashable, January 6 2022.
In 2018, attempting to make Boring exciting again, Boring began manufacturing flamethrowers, selling 20,000 flamethrowers by subscription. At the time, California was experiencing its worst wildfire season up to that point, so Musk was seriously pissing off government officials and private citizens.Elon Musk sells all 20,000 Boring Company 'flamethrowers': Stunt generates $10m for billionaire’s personal hobby despite warnings from Home Office and US politicians by Samuel Gibbs (1 Feb 2018 05.58 EST) The Guardian. Both UK and California government officials warned Musk that it was generally illegal to own flamethrowers in both jurisdictions.
===Tesla Motors===
Tesla Motors is a car company figure-headed by Elon Musk. It is famous for being the only company with a commercially available car floating in space. It makes "eco-friendly" electric cars, which made the news for catching fire with toxic smoke and hard-to-extinguish flames.Tesla Under Fire After Explosive Crash: In the wake of an explosive crash involving a Model S, the question arises as to whether Tesla’s battery technology is inherently safe. by Paul A. Eisenstein (Feb. 18, 2017) NBC News.Tesla on fire: UK director Michael Morris' car bursts into flames (17th June 2018, 02:54 PDT) BBC. As it turns out though, while Teslas caught fire, they did so at a much lower rate than the cars relying on tiny controlled explosions of extremely flammable hydrocarbons.Teslas catch fire at 1/10th the rate of regular cars by Mark Kane (Apr 18, 2021 at 7:46am ET) Inside EVs. However, putting out lithium battery fires is far more difficult than putting out internal combustion car fires, sometimes requiring over 20,000 gallons of water.Due to Those Batteries, Tesla Car Fires Require Outlandish Volumes of Water to Extinguish by Joe Kukura (22 June 2021) SFist. Tesla also makes cars that can drive themselves, but they seem to have a habit of crashing while doing so.Tesla driver says car was in autopilot when it crashed at 60mph: Driver of Model S, which failed to stop at a red light and collided with a firetruck in Utah, told investigators she was using the semi-autonomous system by Sam Levin (14 May 2018 19.24 EDT) The Guardian.
Following the introduction of the "Autopilot" (advanced driver assistance) feature on Teslas in June 2022, there have been 17 fatalities, 736 crashes involving Teslas with the feature enabled.17 fatalities, 736 crashes: The shocking toll of Tesla’s Autopilot: Tesla’s driver-assistance system, known as Autopilot, has been involved in far more crashes than previously reported by Faiz Siddiqui & Jeremy B. Merrill (June 10, 2023 at 7:00 a.m. EDT) The Washington Post. This number of Tesla crashes is far more than all other vehicles with driver assistance combined. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration senior safety adviser Missy Cummings has said that the number of fatalities per crash for Teslas has also been a concern. Musk's "decisions — such as widely expanding the availability of the features and stripping the vehicles of radar sensors — appear to have contributed to the reported uptick in incidents".
====Coins for Cars====
In late 2020, Tesla hinted that they would begin accepting Bitcoin for cars, which sent the already overpriced Bitcoin even higher. In early 2021, Tesla bought $1.5 billion in Bitcoin,Tesla's bitcoin investment reportedly made more profit this year than car sales in the whole of 2020 by Theo Golden (Feb 20, 2021, 1:02 PM PST) Business Insider. and then in March made the actual announcement they'd sell cars in Bitcoin. Bitcoin skyrocketed even further, making Tesla's Bitcoins even more valuable. Then Tesla began selling off their Bitcoins,Elon Musk's Tesla Sold Bitcoin in Q1 for Proceeds of $272M: Elon Musk's electric vehicle company purchased $1.5 billion in BTC in February. by Nate DiCamillo (Apr 26, 2021 at 1:23 p.m. PDT; Updated May 8, 2023 at 8:18 p.m. PDT) CoinDesk. whereas Musk loudly insists didn't happen,Elon Musk clarifies that ‘Tesla has not sold any Bitcoin’ by Jessica Bursztynsky (May 17 20215:48 AM EDT) CNBC. just before refusing to accept Bitcoin for their cars in May 2021.Tesla Backtracked on Accepting Bitcoin, but There Are Car Dealers That Take It by Clifford Atiyeh (May 16, 2021) Car and Driver.Tesla will no longer accept Bitcoin over climate concerns, says Musk (13th May 2021, 01:56 PDT) BBC. Strategic business misstep or pump-and-dump scheme? You decide.
But there's another explanation that doesn't involve insider trading or market manipulation. During those two months, numerous problems with Bitcoin purchases became apparent, at least for the consumer. To purchase a Tesla, you have to place a deposit of $2500 or equivalent value in Bitcoin. If you cancelled before the car was made you got a refund, but if the deposit was made in Bitcoin, Tesla got to choose whether to pay you Bitcoins or cash. I.e., if Bitcoin went down, you got Bitcoin, but if it went up, you got cash. The US also has "lemon laws" for defective cars, colloquially known as "lemons", where you can be compensated if the manufacturer gives you a lemon. But if you paid for your car in Bitcoin, you guessed it, Tesla could compensate you in whichever currency was worth less.You’re a Lemon if You Buy a Tesla With Bitcoin by JP Koning (Mar 29, 2021 at 4:59 a.m. PDT; Updated May 8, 2023 at 8:17 p.m. PDT) Coindesk. Purchasing itself was a hassle; when given a quote, you had 30 minutes to complete the purchase or you would have to get a new quote.coindesk This was needed because of Bitcoin's notoriously volatile price, as otherwise the purchaser could change their mind as Bitcoin fluctuated. Most charitably, this whole debacle was such a miserable experience for everyone involved, and not the image that Musk wants for Tesla.
===Twitter===
Musk purchased Twitter for $44 billion on October 28, 2022,Elon Musk Completes $44 Billion Deal to Own Twitter by Kate Conger and Lauren Hirsch (28 October 2022) The New York Times. after first engaging in the deal, then backing out, then going to court, and then reversing course and forking over the cash. It might be an elaborate ploy to make money out of Twitter (somehow) or serve other interests, but even as a libertarian it is hard to believe he cares about 'anything goes' free speech. In any case the whole process has been fraught with his typical attention seeking derp behaviour, highly manipulative tactics, and weird and douchey tweets/comments including personal attacks on well known figures. He claims there will still be moderation, so we're not sure what that means for "protecting free speech". Predictably, his adoring fans have eaten up everything he has done so far, praising every move he has made as "genius" and believing that Musk actually cares about anyone but himself. 
As for how the site is post-acquisition, it's gone about as well as you'd expect."Racist tweets quickly surface after Musk closes Twitter deal", The Washington Post 28 October 2022. In a short time, he's fired the CEO, CFO and CLO,"Elon Musk closes deal to acquire Twitter, fires top executives: Source", ABC News 28 October 2022. and this happened. Not great, to say the least. 
====Trashing Twitter's verification system====
Shortly after the acquisition, Musk used his genius skills to roll out a plan to supposedly shore up Twitter's revenue, by allowing anyone to get a "verified" check mark simply by paying $8 a month. Previously, this check mark was only available to public personalities in order to help distinguish Twitter accounts actually run by a public person, instead of being one of the many parody and troll accounts that run rampant on that social network."Why Twitter Verifies Users: The History Behind the Blue Checkmark" by Craig Kanalley, Huffington Post, 2013 March 12 Predictably, by changing the requirements to only a small cash payment, this allowed for trolls to easily create fake "official" Twitter accounts for shitposting... such as tweeting a picture of giving the middle finger, "official" professional sports players "announcing" fake trades, and "official" accounts of Tony Blair and George W. Bush musing on how they "miss killing Iraqis"."Mario flipped off Twitter for nearly two hours with the blessing of Musk’s ‘verification’" by Sean Hollister, The Verge, 2022 November 9"Fake Twitter accounts flock to blue check mark chaos" by Taylor Hatmaker, Techcrunch, 2022 November 9"Twitter chaos over blue-tick 'Tony Blair' and 'George Bush' Iraq posts" by Xander Elliards, The National, 2022 November 10 Unsurprisingly, some of those impersonating celebrities went beyond shitposting to promote cryptocurrency scams."Twitter Bans Accounts Mocking 'Free Speech Absolutist' Elon Musk" by Billy Perrigo, Time, 2022 November 7
Musk, who previously tweeted that "comedy is now legal on Twitter" after purchasing the company (in reference to—before he bought the company—the Babylon Bee getting suspended from Twitter for transphobia),"Elon Musk’s Twitter is a safe space for bros who think they’re funny" by Monica Hesse, Washington Post, 2022 November 7 used his "free speech absolutist" principles to permaban the impersonation accounts off the platform."Musk threatens to boot Twitter account impersonators" by Frank Bajak, AP News, 2022 November 7 Consequently, an especially popular permaban speedrun during this period, particularly among comedians and Internet personalities, was for people with already verified accounts to rename themselves as Elon Musk and start trolling the "Chief Twit"."Elon Musk’s response to fake verified Elon Twitter accounts: a new permanent ban policy for impersonation" by Richard Lawler, The Verge, 2022 November 6
In late March 2023, Musk once again announced that beginning April 1 2023, Twitter will start removing "legacy verified checkmarks" in favor of a system where users and organizations pay for "verified" checkmarks ($8-$11 a month for users and $12,000 a year for organizations), though purportedly there was exemptions for the top 10,000 organizations by follower count. Predictably, most people balked, feeling that there was no value in a system where "verified" only means that one has given Musk money."It looks like Elon Musk played himself with Twitter Blue" by Zeeshan Aleem, MSNBC, 2023 March 31"Twitter’s $1,000 checkmark will be free for the 10,000 most-followed companies""Twitter celebs balk at paying Elon Musk for blue check mark" by Matt O'Brien, AP News, 2023 March 27 As April 1st passed, it was clear that whether or not the check was removed was haphazard and entirely on Musk's whims; while many people's verified check marks stayed, in a sign of his continued hostility to American media (and his tendency to break promises), the one notable verified checkmark he took away was from the Twitter account of the New York Times."What’s happening with Twitter blue check marks?" by Matt O'Brien, AP News, 2023 April 3
Evidently, the checkmark purge had been set back about three weeks. On April 20, 2023, the remaining nonpaying verified users began losing their checkmarks... for the most part.Sara Fischer and Ina Fried (April 21, 2023). "Musk takes away blue checks, Twitter shrugs". Axios. Things went just swell after that. Imposter accounts immediately flooded the site, including imposters for government agencies who immediately began shitposting misinformation.Lauren Sforza (April 21, 2023). "Blue check chaos: Twitter policy spurs confusion and scramble to prove authenticity". The Hill.Nicole Carpenter (April 21, 2023). "Twitter's de-verification debacle, explained". Polygon."Confusion as Musk’s Twitter yanks blue checks from agencies" by Matt O'Brien and Kathleen Foody, Associated Press, 2023 April 21 IRS accounts lost verification, opening the door to potential scams.Daysia Tolentino (April 21, 2023). "Fake accounts pop up on Twitter following legacy blue check removals". NBC News. The attempt to monetize legacy verified users didn't work very well. Twitter only saw a net increase of 28 paid subscriptions among them in the first day (or about 400, according to a separate claim).Ariana Baio (April 22, 2023). "Only 28 legacy verified users signed up for Twitter Blue hours after Elon Musk took away their checkmarks". The Independent.Chance Townsend (April 22, 2023). "Twitter Blue nets 28 signups so far since legacy checkmark purge". Mashable.Kari Paul (April 22, 2023). "Fake accounts, chaos and few sign-ups: the first day of Twitter Blue was messy". The Guardian. Two days in, the net signups had risen to about 700 (about $5,600 in profit). That's out of around 300,000 legacy verified users.Barbara Ortutay (April 21, 2023). "Twitter begins removing blue checks from users who don't pay". The Associated Press. Some of those new subscriptions (at least three) were personally paid for by Musk himself. Bizarrely (considering Twitter's trouble with advertisers), Musk also started demanding that any business not spending $1000 a month on Twitter needed to subscribe in order to run advertisements on the platform."Twitter Demands Advertisers Pay for a Blue Check or Spend $1,000 a Month" by Thomas Germain, Gizmodo, 2023 April 21 Let us know how that ultimatum works out for you.
In fact, several prominent Twitter users responded to Musk's move by announcing that they intended to block every single Twitter Blue subscriber, due to a perceived low quality content and higher prevalence of trolls, crypto-bros, Musk sycophants, and scammers in that group."Dril and other Twitter power users begin campaign to 'Block the Blue' paid checkmarks" by Matt Binder, Mashable, 2023 April 21"Twitter users #BlockTheBlue as ‘verified’ accounts take on new meaning" by Kelsey Ables, Washington Post, 2023 April 22 Musk managed to turn Twitter verification into a "digital dunce cap", as one Forbes writer put it, adding: "It's honestly shocking to see the blue checkmark become so hated so quickly. There may not be anything like it in the relatively short history of social media." But Musk wasn't finished. He retaliated with seemingly-mandatory verification for his detractors. For one case — (a popular shitposting account) — Twitter repeatedly added the checkmark, and dril repeatedly removed it.Matt Novak (April 22, 2023). "Elon Musk Made The Twitter Checkmark A Digital Dunce Cap". Forbes.William Hughes (April 22, 2023). "Celebrities, including dril, now working to remove their apparently mandatory Twitter checkmarks". The A.V. Club. So apparently "spite checkmarks" are a thing now.Mike Pearl (April 22, 2023). "Twitter gives dril a spite checkmark". Mashable. Ultimately, Twitter provided "complimentary" paid verification to anyone with over a million followers. Including dead people.Althea Legaspi (April 22, 2023). "Twitter Users With a Million Followers Are Getting 'Paid' Blue Checks, Like It or Not". Rolling Stone.Zoe Kleinman (April 23, 2023). "Twitter restores blue tick to high profile accounts". BBC News. Katherine Tangalakis-Lippert (April 22, 2023). "Twitter is adding verified check marks to the accounts of dead celebrities, making them look like paid Twitter Blue subscribers". Business Insider. John McCain will be happy to hear from beyond the grave that he remains verified on Twitter.
What makes this particularly hilarious is that the verification system arose out of a legal dispute circa Twitter's inception, where the company agreed that they are liable for any damages caused by impersonation. In June 2009, MLB manager Tony La Russa sued Twitter over a parody account impersonating him. That account mocked the then-manager of the St. Louis Cardinals with tweets like: “Lost 2 out of 3, but we made it out of Chicago without one drunk driving incident or dead pitcher.” Tony La Russa Twitter lawsuit settled. The Hollywood Reporter. While the lawsuit was settled out of court, it nevertheless was the catalyst that caused Twitter to roll out the Verified Accounts feature as it was originally implemented for more than a decade.
====Shitposters vs. advertisers====
Two days after the acquisition, Hillary Clinton tweeted a condemnation of a recent assault of Nancy Pelosi's husband. As the alleged suspect was reportedly fueled by conspiracy theories and misinformation, Clinton also accused the "Republican Party and its mouthpieces" of regularly spreading "hate and deranged conspiracy theories", linked the assault to the misinformation, and demanded accountability. Musk responded back with a tweet containing a "news article"... an article that happened to be a completely deranged, hateful conspiracy theory about Pelosi's husband from a well known fake news site,"Musk responds to Clinton after she links GOP 'hate and deranged conspiracy theories' to Paul Pelosi attack" by Katie Balevic, Business Insider, 2022 October 30"Musk tweets at Hillary Clinton suggesting conspiracy surrounding Paul Pelosi attack" by Zach Schonfeld, The Hill, 2022 October 30 essentially proving Clinton's point. According to his biography by Walter Isaacson, Musk was ridiculed for the exchange by his brother and privately regretted it.Virginia Chamlee (September 11, 2023). "Elon Musk Privately Said That Spreading a Paul Pelosi Attack Conspiracy Was Among His 'Dumbest Mistakes': Book". People. In January 2023, he apologized for it.Jyoti Mann (January 29, 2023). "Elon Musk apologizes for tweeting a baseless conspiracy theory about the attack on Paul Pelosi". Business Insider.
Although a re-evaluation of contracts is not unusual whenever leadership changes, Musk's buyout caused quite a bit more concerns than you typically see during an acquisition. Before the buyout, Musk had built up a following among the generally right-wing "shitpost" crowd due to Musk's "free speech absolutist" philosophy and, starting in the early 2020s, increasing amounts of tweets dabbling with fringe right-wing memes, including a tweet with the "red pill" meme and the use of "woke" as a snarl word."Elon Musk is playing Twitter footsie with the fringe right" by Russell Brandom, The Verge, 2020 May 18"Elon Musk says he's wading into politics to stop the 'woke mind virus' from destroying civilization" Some of these shitposters (some who have had their accounts suspended on Twitter and elsewhere for things like transphobia, COVID-19 misinformation, the Big Lie of Donald Trump, and racist and homophobic slurs) therefore cheered when Musk bought Twitter."As Elon Musk Buys Twitter, the Right Is Celebrating" by Nik Popli, Time, 2022 October 28 
Advertisers, however, make up 90% of Twitter's revenue, and advertisers have long considered "brand safety" to be of utmost importance. Many companies do not want to see their advertisements placed next to any inappropriate content, which includes fake news, extremism, and hate."Brand Safety: The Ultimate Guide", Bannerflow When even the "Chief Twit" CEO is tweeting out hateful misinformation from a fake news site, it is no surprise that many advertisers paused their spending on Twitter shortly after the buyout in order to evaluate what direction Musk will take with Twitter's content moderation policy."General Mills latest to halt Twitter ads as Musk takeover sparks brand exodus" by Kari Paul, Guardian, 2022 November 3 In 2024, a global survey revealed that over a quarter of advertisers plan to decrease their spending on the platform over the next year, citing extreme content and the risk to their brands.Hanna Ziady, Advertisers plan to withdraw from X in record numbers. CNN, 5 September 2024.
The fake-verified-blue-check debacle added the concerns of advertisers, as trolls not only impersonated celebrities, they also impersonated corporations. Probably the most notable corporate impersonation was a fake "official" account created to impersonate , which made a shitpost tweet on November 10 2022 that declared that "insulin is free now". Of further concern to companies was Twitter's slow response time to complaints that demanded that these fake accounts be taken down, largely because of Musk's massive headcount reduction in Twitter's communications department. This further pissed off advertisers, causing more of them to pause advertising due to concerns over "brand safety"."How Much Did Twitter's Verification Chaos Cost Insulin Maker Eli Lilly and Twitter Itself?" by Kyle Barr, Gizmodo, 2022 November 14"A fake tweet sparked panic at Eli Lilly and may have cost Twitter millions" by Drew Harwell, Washington Post, 2022 November 14
Musk's initial reaction to the advertiser pause, of course, was to deflect. First, he blamed "activists" for the revenue drop (claiming "they're trying to destroy free speech in America"),"Elon Musk says Twitter has had ‘massive’ revenue drop as advertisers pause spending" by Annie Palmer and Lora Kolodny, CNBC, 2022 November 4 and then he threatened to "thermonuclear name & shame" advertisers who were "boycotting"."Thank you. A thermonuclear name & shame is exactly what will happen if this continues.", Elon Musk, Twitter, @elonmusk, 2022 November 4, archived on 2022 November 5 Then he used his "free speech" principles to block a prominent marketing executive who questioned how brand safety can be maintained when Musk "just laid off 75% of the moderation team.""Elon Musk Blocks Top Marketer Who Questioned Twitter’s Retreat From Content Moderation" by Loree Seitz, The Wrap, 2022 November 4
Musk, however, equally pissed off the shitposters by insisting that "Twitter will continue to combat hate & harassment & enforce its election integrity policies" and actually agreeing to talk with civil rights leaders."Right-Wingers Are Already Turning on Elon Musk" by Nikki McCann Ramirez, Rolling Stone, 2022 November 2 Pissing off the shitposters further, Musk also defended and stood by Twitter's head of safety and integrity Yoel Roth,"Elon Musk's Actions on Twitter Are Already Angering Conservatives" by Giulia Carbonaro, Newsweek, 2022 November 4 who was a previous target of the MAGA crowd when fact-checking labels started to be added to Donald Trump's tweets, and old tweets made from Roth resurfaced that called Trump a "racist tangerine"."Trump is attacking a Twitter employee over the company's decision to fact-check him because the employee criticized Trump in past tweets" by Aaron Holmes, Business Insider, 2020 May 28
====Musk vs. Twitter employees====
Musk, however, wasn't done pissing people off: the next step he undertook was to try to piss off Twitter's employees. On November 10 2022, Musk sent his first email to all Twitter employees as CEO. In the email, Musk warned that the "road ahead is arduous and will require intense work to succeed" and painted a bleak picture of Twitter's future. In the process, he nixed Twitter's previous generous work-from-home policy instituted during the COVID-19 pandemic."The email Elon Musk just sent to Twitter employees is a masterclass in how not to communicate" by Chris Stokel-Walker, FastCompany, 2022 November 10 (Of course, the letter failed to mention that a significant portion of Twitter's financial woes at the time were Musk-inflicted damage, caused by Musk massively overpaying for Twitter and adding $13 billion in corporate debt, meaning Twitter was on the hook to pay $1 billion in interest payments annually.)[https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-email-ends-remote-work-twitter-staff-office-2022-11 "Read the 2:30 a.m. email Elon Musk sent to staff, his first, announcing the end of remote working at Twitter
Kate Duffy and Kali Hays 10 hours ago"] by Kate Duffy and Kali Hays, Business Insider, 2022 November 10"‘Economic Picture Ahead Is Dire,’ Elon Musk Tells Twitter Employees" by Kate Conger, Ryan Mac, and Mike Isaac, New York Times, 2022 November 10
Multiple Twitter executives (including the aforementioned Roth) that made it past Musk's initial firings expressed confidence in the genius of Musk's plans by handing in their resignation papers that week."Twitter’s content moderation head quits as departures alarm the FTC"by Joseph Menn, Cat Zakrzewski, Faiz Siddiqui, Nitasha Tiku, and Drew Harwell, Washington Post, 2022 November 10 Later that week, Musk fired multiple employees for the cardinal sin of responding to Musk's super-genius public tweets explaining how, when it came to his tweets about the technical details of Twitter, Musk had absolutely no clue what he was talking about. "Twitter fired employees who publicly called out Elon Musk" by M. Moon, Engadget, 2022 November 15
The next week, on Wednesday November 16, Musk sent a mass email ultimatum to all employees, declaring that Twitter was shifting to an "engineer-driven operation" of whom the employees "will need to be extremely hardcore" going forward, "working long hours at high intensity". Within that email was a button asking them to commit to Musk's "hardcore" vision. Those that disagreed with Musk's genius visionary management style (e.g., seemingly a "slave-driving" -style work environment where one must also be an ass-kissing yes-man to Musk) could resign from Twitter at 5PM on Thursday November 17, with three months severance pay."Musk's "hardcore" marching orders" by Scott Rosenberg, Axios, 2022 November 16"Musk issues ultimatum to staff: Commit to 'hardcore' Twitter or take severance" by Faiz Siddiqui and Jeremy B. Merrill, Washington Post, 2022 November 16 Twitter stalled and short-changed severance payments for many who took the option, later the subject of a class-action lawsuit.Vittoria Elliott and Chris Stokel-Walker(January 6, 2023). "Twitter Promised Them Severance. They Got Nothing". Wired.Emma Roth (January 16, 2023). "Laid-off Twitter workers must drop class-action severance lawsuit, judge says". The Verge.
The result was predictable, given Musk's callous and disrespectful attitude towards his employees: a reported mass exodus, to the point where Twitter had to shut its doors on Friday November 18 in order to protect its systems and data."Inside Twitter as ‘mass exodus’ of staffers throws platform’s future into uncertainty" by Oliver Darcy, CNN, November 17 Initial reports estimated the exodus to include at least 1200 full-time employees, including 96% of the "services" team and several entire departments."Elon Musk’s Twitter Teeters on the Edge After Another 1,200 Leave" By Ryan Mac, Mike Isaac and Kellen Browning, New York Times, 2022 November 18 The team dedicated to countering child sexual abuse on the platform was cut in half, leaving behind an "overwhelmed skeleton crew".Job cuts by Elon Musk decimated Twitter team tackling child sexual abuse By Olivia Solon and Jillian Deutsch, Bloomberg News (via The Los Angeles Times), 2022 November 29Alexandra S. Levine and Thomas Brewster (November 18, 2022). "Elon Musk Inherited Twitter's Child Abuse Nightmare — Experts Say He's Making It Worse". Forbes. David Ingram, Lora Kolodny, and Brandy Zadrozny (December 13, 2022). "Elon Musk says he can stop child exploitation on Twitter. So far, he’s axed jobs and pushed out watchdogs." NBC News. One former Twitter executive commented that with so many employees leaving, Twitter "will struggle just to keep the lights on". "#RIPTwitter" became the #1 trending topic on US Twitter in reaction to this news.Twitter: United States Trends, archived on 2022 November 18"Resignations Roil Twitter as Elon Musk Tries Persuading Some Workers to Stay" by Ryan Mac, Mike Isaac, and David McCabe, New York Times, 2022 November 17
On December 13 2022, reports emerged that Twitter was not paying any rent for the offices Musk was requiring employees to work from, and was discussing denying severance payments to the thousands of people who had been laid off since the takeover."Musk Shakes Up Twitter’s Legal Team as He Looks to Cut More Costs" by Ryan Mac, Mike Isaac, and Kate conger, New York Times, 2022 December 13 Twitter was later sued by its landlord for allegedly failing to pay its rent. Twitter employees were evicted from the company's office in Singapore — noted as its headquarters for the Asia-Pacific region — for unpaid rents as well. Reportedly, this fate was set to hit about a dozen Twitter offices for the same reason. Around the same time, the company began auctioning off supplies from its offices such as coffee machines, chairs, statues, and sculptures.Rachel Treisman (January 18, 2023). "Twitter auctioned off office supplies, including a pizza oven and neon bird sign". NPR.
In early February 2023, around the time a major global outage occurred on the platform, Twitter also managed to piss off developers of third party clients, maintainers of non-nefarious bots, celebrities that use tools for social media management, social media researchers, and more by announcing that third party access to the Twitter API that made this third party ecosystem possible would no longer be free for anyone."Twitter is shutting down its free API, here's what's going to break" by Karissa Bell, Engadget, 2023 February 8"Twitter’s API changes could spell harassment for fan accounts" by Allegra Rosenberg, Polygon, 2023 February 8 Meanwhile, in a sign of Musk's continuing god complex, a report emerged around that time that Musk fired an engineer simply for suggesting that his declining engagement numbers on the platform were simply because public interest in his shitshow was waning. This revelation also resulted in Musk ordering a change to Twitter's "ranked timeline" that ensured that Musk's tweets were heavily promoted, whether you liked it or not."Yes, Elon Musk created a special system for showing you all his tweets first" by Zoe Schiffer and Casey Newton, Verge, 2023 February 14 
The company shed more employees in February 2023, leaving Twitter with a little less than 2,000 employees (down from around 7,500 in October 2022).Kate Conger, Ryan Mac and Mike Isaac (February 26, 2023). "In Latest Round of Job Cuts, Twitter Is Said to Lay Off at Least 200 Employees". The New York Times. (Archived). In the same month, according to Twitter had four outages; in addition, researchers and users were noticing more bugs popping up that affected Twitter's usability. On March 6th, yet another major site-wide outage was reported. (According to Netblocks, Twitter only had nine outages in the entire year of 2022)."‘Sometimes Things Break’: Twitter Outages Are on the Rise" by Ryan Mac, Mike Isaac, and Kate Conger, New York Times, 2023 Feburary 28"Twitter's latest meltdown proves Elon Musk is still doing it wrong" by Lance Ulanoff, Techradar, 2023 March 6 
On March 7 2023, Musk received widespread criticism for bullying and mocking an entrepreneur who founded a prominent web design company called Ueno whose company Twitter acquired in 2021."Twitter acqui-hires creative agency Ueno to help design new products" by Sarah Perez, TechCrunch, 2021 January 6 Þorleifsson was also disabled and a wheelchair user, having Reportedly Þorleifsson was fired from Twitter during the February layoffs, but received no email confirmations about the termination (merely noticing that he was locked out of his Twitter account). So he appealed to Musk directly on Twitter to determine whether he had been sacked. Musk callously responded with multiple tweets with shitpost memes as well as claims that "this guy (who is independently wealthy) did no actual work", along with a questioning of Þorleifsson's disability, calling it an "excuse". (Surprisingly, Musk issued a rare apology for the extremely unprofessional, possibly litigable behavior a few hours afterwards.)"Elon Musk shares rare regrets for brutally mocking a disabled former Twitter employee: ‘I would like to apologize’" by Verne Kopytoff, Fortune, 2023 March 7"Musk Apologizes After Mocking Disabled Twitter Employee He Publicly Fired" by Noah Kirsch, Daily Beast, 2023 March 7
====Content moderation dictator====
All of the pandering to advertisers about content moderation (including a previous assertion in early November that Musk would not make major decisions about restoring banned accounts before setting up a "content moderation council" with diverse viewpoints)"People banned from Twitter won’t have accounts restored for weeks, Elon Musk says" by Associated Press, posted in MarketWatch, 2022 November 2 ended up being a bunch of bullshit. By November 19 2022, Musk's Twitter had reinstated several accounts previously banned for hate, harassment, and election conspiracy bullshit. These names included manosphere grifter Andrew Tate (suspended in 2017 for advocating that women should "bare [sic] some responsibility" for being sexually assaulted), Jordan Peterson (suspended for transphobic tweets about Babylon Bee (suspended for transphobic tweets about and Donald Trump (banned for inciting violence in early 2021, and still promoting the Big Lie 2020 election conspiracy at the time of his reinstatement)."These Are The Banned Twitter Accounts That Elon Musk Has Reinstated, Is Considering Reinstating, And Those He Refuses To Reinstate" by Ryan Schocket, Buzzfeed Staff, 2022 November 19"You can ignore Andrew Tate" by Rebecca Jennings, Vox, 2022 August 24"Elon Musk restores Donald Trump's Twitter account" by Clare Duffy and Paul LeBlanc, CNN, 2022 November 19 
Musk, however, was also still pissing off some shitposters at that time due to announcing what effectively was a shadowban system ("Negative/hate tweets will be max deboosted & demonetized") on November 18, and refusing to reinstate Alex Jones's Twitter account."Right Wingers Fume After Musk Announces Shadowbanning Policy" by Nikki Mccann Ramirez, Rolling Stone, 2022 November 18
On November 29 2022, Twitter announced that it would no longer enforce its policy against misleading information about COVID-19, potentially opening up the platform further to scam artists and grifters pushing anti-vaccination or potentially dangerous alternative medicine woo."Twitter says it’s no longer enforcing COVID-19 misleading information policy" by Natasha Lomas, TechCrunch, 2022 November 29 To no one's surprise, this category includes Musk himself, who managed to combine a tasteless transphobic joke with a baseless call to prosecute (based on bullshit repeated ad nauseam by extremist Republicans like Rand Paul and Jim Jordan) in a couple of tweets made in mid December 2022."Musk fires back after criticism of gender pronouns tweet about Fauci" by Zach Schonfeld, The Hill, 2022 December 12 
On December 12 2022, Musk's Twitter dissolved its Trust and Safety Council, an advisory group of around 100 independent civil, human rights, and other organizations formed in 2016 to address hate speech, child exploitation, and other problems on the platform."Musk's Twitter has dissolved its Trust and Safety Council", Associated Press, 2022 December 12, reported on NPR In addition, on this same day, reports emerged that the once cordial relationship between Yoel Roth and Musk had developed into a feud after Roth left the company. This culminated in Musk releasing internal documents concerning Roth managing Donald Trump's ban, and (using a tired tactic of his) calling Roth a pedophile. Musk's baseless pedophile claim resulted in an escalation of threats against Roth, forcing him to flee his home."Former top Twitter official forced to leave home due to threats amid ‘Twitter Files’ release" by Donie O'Sullivan, CNN, 2022 December 12 
Reports emerged that Musk used his "free speech absolutism" to ban activists who documented extremism and violence among the alt-right, under the guise of them being "antifa". Reportedly the bans were enacted at the request of the notoriously whiny anti-left agitator Andy Ngo."Left-Wing Voices Are Silenced on Twitter as Far-Right Trolls Advise Elon Musk" by Robert Mackey and Micah Lee, Intercept, 2022 November 29 In addition, again unsurprisingly, some users claimed to be banned from Twitter simply for being even remotely critical of Musk in a tweet."Some Twitter users who criticized Elon Musk say they've been suspended or told they violated rules due to 'hateful conduct'" by Jyoti Mann, Business Insider, 2022 November 28 A Twitter bot account that tracked the location of Musk's private jet (using public information), which made headlines in January 2022 when the operator refused a $5000 payment from Musk to delete the account,"Teen wants $50,000 to stop tracking Elon Musk’s private jet" by Igor Bonifacic, Engadget, 2022 January 30 was, in the name of "free speech absolutism", banned from Twitter on December 14 2022."Twitter Suspends Account Tracking Elon Musk's Private Jet" by Derek Saul, Forbes, 2022 December 14
Musk's "free speech absolutism" became suspect when he banned the Twitter accounts of several mainstream media journalists who had been covering Musk,"Elon Musk’s Twitter bans CNN, NYT, WaPo journalists without explanation" by Oliver Darcy, CNN, 2022 December 15 as well as the Twitter account of rival social network "Elon Musk’s Twitter Suspends Rival Mastodon Account" by Charisma Madarang, Rolling Stone, 2022 December 15 On December 18, Musk further dented his "free speech absolutism" claim when he banned links to content on several other social networks, as well as some link aggregators."Elon Musk’s Twitter bans links to other social media sites, including Facebook and emerging rivals" by Briang Fung, CNN, 2022 December 18"Twitter bans promotion of accounts on other social media sites, including Facebook, Instagram and Truth Social" by Julianne McShane, Jason Abbruzzese and Ezra Kaplan, NBC News, 2022 December 18 In April 2023, Musk's Twitter started blocking links to the blogging platform on the grounds that they were launching a Twitter-like service called Substack Notes."Twitter Takes Aim at Posts That Link to Its Rival Substack" by Kate Conger and Ryan Mac, New York Times, 2023 April 7 On April 19, 2023, Twitter suspended a reporter from for simply reporting on an incident where Matt Walsh's Twitter account was hacked."He Reported on a Twitter Hack. Musk’s Free Speech Haven Kicked Him Out" by CT Jones, Rolling Stone, 2023 April 19
As one would expect, more companies continued "pausing" their Twitter commitments due to the chaos, including pauses that went beyond advertising, such as a decision by to (very temporarily)"CBS News Resumes Twitter Posting After Hiatus Over ‘Security Concerns’" by Todd Spangler, Variety, 2022 November 20 step back from Twitter on November 18 2022."CBS News Suspends Twitter Posting ‘In Light of the Uncertainty’ About Musk-Owned Social Platform" by Todd Spangler, Variety, 2022 November 18 By one account, half of Twitter's top 100 advertisers had paused advertising on Twitter by mid November 2022;"In less than a month, Elon Musk has driven away half of Twitter’s top 100 advertisers" by Sharon Kann and Angelo Carusone, Media Matters, 2022 November 22 this figure had increased to 72 out of 100 by December 17 2022."Twitter layoffs continue under Elon Musk" by Clare Duffy, CNN, 2022 December 23 Also during that month, advertisers started to be told that they "needed to become comfortable" with Musk's unpredictability and uncertainty."Twitter’s Efforts to Court Advertisers Turns Them Off" by Sahil Patel and Erin Woo, The Information, 2023 January 11 As of February 2023, over half (625) of Twitter's top 1,000 pre-acquisition advertisers had fled."More than half of Twitter’s top 1,000 advertisers stopped spending on platform, data show" by Clare Duffy, CNN, 2023 February 13Shirin Ghaffary (March 24, 2023). "Why advertisers aren't coming back to Twitter". Vox. Asked during an April 2023 interview to name a single advertiser who had left and then returned, Musk could not do so.Eleanor Hawkins and Sara Fischer (April 18, 2023). "Musk tries media blitz to win back Twitter advertisers". Axios.
In early April 2023, Musk released the source code of Twitter's recommendation engine. Among the findings, Musk has his own special category in the engine (perhaps explaining why users report seeing his messages so prominently), and certain topics like "Ukraine" seemed to be suppressed. Separately, in further signs of the "free speech absolutism" of Musk's Twitter, others noted that if one uses certain words like "transgender", "gay", "lesbian", or "bisexual" in a Tweet, the message wouldn't preview when shared via direct message (which implies these are now flagged as inflammatory or sensitive terms)."At Elon Musk's Twitter, speech is anything but free" by Ina Fried, Axios, 2023 April 3 Shortly thereafter, Twitter revoked its policy banning targeted deadnaming and misgendering of transgender people — a move by Musk that had been anticipated since November 2022.Evan Urquhart (November 1, 2022). "One of the Biggest Red Flags of Elon Musk's Twitter Takeover". Slate.Barbara Ortutay (April 18, 2023). "Twitter removes policy against deadnaming transgender people". The Associated Press.
Continuing Musk's war with media, in April 2023, Twitter started randomly labeling various news outlets such as NPR, BBC, and CBC as "government-funded media" – which Twitter says implies government may have editorial say – or "state-affiliated media" (which generally suggests propaganda), rather than "publicly-funded media" (which even on Twitter remains non-pejorative). Previously Twitter only used the more concerning labels for media outlets that essentially served as government mouthpieces (such as Russia's RT or China's ); in contrast, under Musk these labels were slapped on outlets that, while publicly funded by various degrees, had editorial independence from the government; in some cases (such as NPR), the government provided very little of the operating budget."New Zealand radio threatens to quit Twitter over ‘government’ tag", Al Jazeera, 2023 April 17"These Are All the Media Outlets Disputing Twitter's New Labels" by Armani Syed, Time, 2023 April 18 Multiple media outlets around the world, beginning with NPR and PBS, responded to the inaccurate labels by exiting Twitter."Musk, media reach boiling point over Twitter changes" by Rebecca Klar, Hill, 2023 April 18 Twitter soon removed media labels entirely, including for Russian and Chinese state media.Patrick Hipes (April 22, 2023). "Twitter Removes 'Government-Funded Media' Labels From NPR, PBS, Others After Backlash". Deadline.
In May 2023, reports emerged of widely-circulated animal abuse content suggested prominently by Twitter's internal search engine. This included a particularly notorious video, which appeared as a suggestion if a user searched for "cat".Ben Collins (May 12, 2023). "Cat and dog torture videos litter Twitter, adding to concerns about moderation. NBC News. Between that and reports of widely-viewed child abuse content (again, after gutting the team dedicating to fighting child exploitation, along with other moderation crews), priorities are clearly in the right place.Michael H. Keller and Kate Conger (February 6, 2023). "Musk Pledged to Cleanse Twitter of Child Abuse Content. It’s Been Rough Going." The New York Times. (Archived.)Ben Goggin, Lora Kolodny, and David Ingram (January 6, 2023). "On Musk's Twitter, users looking to sell and trade child sex abuse material are still easily found". NBC News. It is unknown why companies are hesitant to place advertisements for their products next to this sort of content.
On June 1 2023, the Daily Wire reported that they had been in talks with Twitter to set up a paid advertiser campaign to promote a transphobic "documentary" by Matt Walsh called What is a Woman?. Twitter staff, however, backed out after reviewing the film, and warned the Daily Wire that although they could still post the video, the film would be flagged as "hateful content" under Twitter's policies. This, naturally, infuriated Twitter's right-wing trolls. At this point, Musk decided to throw his safety employees under the bus, and (after a small bit of hesitation) worked to ensure that the hateful content promoted by the Daily Wire would not be labeled as hateful content on Twitter. Musk later shared the video on his feed with the comment "every parent should watch this" (while also promoting a number of anti-trans talking points elsewhere). This incident resulted in yet even more staff resignations, among them Ella Irwin (VP of trust and safety, who had just taken the post when previous head Yoel Roth left in November 2022), Maie Aiyed (Twitter brand safety partnerships program director), and AJ Brown (head of brand safety and ad quality)."Right-wing Musk fans win Twitter CEO's loyalty. Staff loses." by Matt Binder, Mashable, 2023 June 2"Elon Musk's Twitter loses second trust and safety chief", BBC, 2023 June 2
On June 21 2023, Elon Musk use his increasingly doublespeak-y "free speech absolutism" principles, as well as his increasing transphobia, to declare that "cis" and "cisgender" were now considered slurs on Twitter and that users who engaged in "harassment" with these words would face consequences."Elon Musk Declares ‘Cisgender’ a Slur on Free Speech Twitter" by Jody Serrano, Gizmodo, 2023 June 21 He did this again in Late October.The word “cis” is a heterosexual slur. Shame on anyone who uses it. by Elon Musk (7:41 PM · Oct 30, 2023) Twitter (archived from 30 Oct 2023 21:29:23 UTC). In 2024, trying to post the word cisgender (an actual medical term) on Twitter/X now results in an automatic content warning ("This post contains language that may be considered a slur by X and could be used in a harmful manner in violation of our rules.").On Elon’s whim, X now treats ‘cisgender’ as a slur by Amanda Silberling (9:33 AM PDT • May 14, 2024) Tech Crunch.
At the beginning of July 2023, Musk (fresh off of making headlines for immaturely challenging social media rival CEO Mark Zuckerberg to a style "cage match")"A ‘Cage Match’ Between Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg May Be No Joke" by Ryan Mac and Mike Isaac, New York Times, 2023 July 1 decided to impose severe rate limits on Twitter, which in effect broke the user experience for most Twitter users."No One Believes Elon Musk’s Explanation For Breaking Twitter" by Paul Tassi, Forbes, 2023 July 2 Musk also enacted a change which required one to be logged in before viewing content; previously public tweets were viewable by anyone. Although Musk claimed that the new supposed "temporary" "emergency" rate limits were enacted to deal with "extreme levels of data scraping & system manipulation" purportedly being done by artificial intelligence companies, many commentators didn't buy that explanation, speculating that either Musk refused to pay for some critical Twitter infrastructure, or that the forced login change caused a technical issue severe enough to effectively self- the site."Confusion at Twitter continues over Elon Musk's tweet limits" by Shiona McCallum and Liv McMahon, BBC, 2023 July 3 The changes also broke Twitter management tools like "TweetDeck suffers as Musk enforces read limits on Twitte" by Ivan Mehta, Techcrunch, 2023 July 3 Advertising industry experts saw the change as yet another blunder that would drive away advertisers en masse (of those that hadn't fled already, that is)."Musk's Twitter rate limits could undermine new CEO, ad experts say" by Jody Gordy, Reuters, 2023 July 3 This sudden self-PWNED moment caused a surge in interest in rival platforms, such as Mastodon, "What does Twitter 'rate limit exceeded' mean for users?", Reuters, 2023 July 4 Spill,"Spill Becomes Latest Trendy Twitter Alternative After Elon Musk Enrages Users Again" by Jeremy Fuster, The Wrap, 2023 July 3 and even Truth Social."Donald Trump Handed Big Win After Elon Musk Misstep" by Ewan Palmer, Newsweek, 2023 July 3 
Probably not entirely coincidentally, on Monday July 3 2023, Zuckerberg's new rival Twitter clone, showed up on mobile application stores for "pre-saving" with a scheduled launch date of July 6 2023."Threads, Meta's Twitter clone, is arriving very soon" by Caitlin Welsh, Mashable, 2023 July 4 This launch was reportedly quite successful, with 100 million reported users signed up in less than a week (in part thanks to Threads sharing a user base with Instagram). On Monday July 10 2023, Musk's response to this was to engage in extremely cringe and embarrassing juvenile taunts, challenging Zuckerberg to a literal dick measuring contest and calling Zuckerberg the old and tired default insult of the alt-right, a "cuck"."Musk Melts Down as Threads Nears 100M Users: ‘Zuck is a Cuck’" by Erik Uebelacker, Daily Beast, 2023 July 9"Elon Musk goes low against Zuckerberg as Twitter-Threads spat intensifies" by Martin Pengelly, Guardian, 2023 July 10
Not coincidentally, also on Monday July 10 2023, Musk's shithole got praised by the fucking Taliban of all things for its "pro-free speech policies" while calling out Threads as "intolerant" for not putting up with extremist pollution."Twitter Beats Out Threads for Coveted Taliban Leader Endorsement" by Nikki McCann Ramirez, Rolling Stone, 2023 July 10
In December 2023 Elon Musk lost a court case related to California's content moderation policy. This is one case of Musk putting Twitter into two court cases, one with the state of California, and the other related to a Media Matters Lawsuit. Elon Musk's X fails to block California's content moderation law. Reuters, 28 December 2023. Musk’s X sues liberal advocacy group Media Matters over its report on ads next to hate groups’ posts Associated Press, 21 November 2023.
====Sucking up to authoritarians====
According to a report by the non-profit news organization Rest of the World in April 2023, since Musk took over Twitter, Twitter's compliance with government demands for censorship or surveillance rose to over 80%, from around 50%."New data exposes Elon Musk’s free speech charade" by Zeeshan Aleem, 2023 April 28
In late January, Musk continued to demonstrate how his "free speech absolutist" claim was bullshit (particularly perhaps when it came to appeasing authoritarian demands) when Twitter censored links to a BBC documentary critical of Narendra Modi (a documentary which in particular highlighted Modi's troubling connections to the 2002 Gujarat riots.)"Elon Musk Caves to Pressure from India to Remove BBC Doc Critical of Modi" by Murtaza Hussain and Ryan Grim, Intercept, 2023 January 24
In May 2023, Musk was criticized for yet another dent in his purported "free speech absolutism" claim. Prior to a critical election in Turkey, where voters determined whether or not Recep Tayyip Erdoğan would be re-elected, Twitter announced that certain content would be restricted in order to prevent the entire site from being blocked in that country (a tactic the often-authoritarian Erdoğan government had used quite often in the past to suppress criticism.) This move was seen by many as kowtowing to Erdoğan."Turkey Election: Elon Musk Accused of Censoring Erdogan Critics on Twitter" by Fatma Khaled, Newsweek, 2023 May 13 In response to a critical tweet by journalist Musk defended the decision by implying that it was preferable to have a few tweets throttled rather than have Twitter throttled in its entirety. This earned a strong rebuke from Wikipedia founder who cited Wikipedia's own censorship battles with Erdoğan's government to chide Musk for not treating "freedom of expression as a principle rather than a slogan.""Wikipedia Founder Crushes Elon Musk for Caving to Twitter Censorship in Turkey: ‘Treat Freedom of Expression as a Principle Rather Than a Slogan’" by Mason Bissada, The Wrap, 2023 May 13 
In August 2023, unsealed court documents revealed that in February that year, Twitter dragged its feet and fought back in providing data from Donald Trump's account to the government, in accordance with a search warrant related to an investigation into Trump's role in the 2021 U.S. coup attempt (an investigation that eventually led to an indictment). The repeated delays were such that Twitter eventually ended up earning a $350,000 contempt of court fine."Twitter held in contempt, fined $350K over Trump data delay" by Ashley Belanger, Ars Technica, 2023 August 9"How Jack Smith Structured the Trump Election Indictment to Reduce Risks" by Charlie Savage, New York Times, 2023 August 4 Judge specifically singled out Musk in a February 7 hearing, wondering if the foot-dragging was "because the new CEO wants to cozy up with the former president". Another federal prosecutor named Renato Mariotti noted that it was an unusual step for Twitter to hire "expensive lawyers to fight a lawful search warrant", and believed that Trump was getting special treatment from Musk.""Special treatment": Judge suggests Musk trying to "cozy up" to Trump by trying to tip him off" by Gabriella Ferrigine, Salon, 2023 August 16
In contrast to his capitulation towards "right-wing" populist government moderation requests, Musk was much more openly hostile in a case involving Brazil, which (not coincidentally) was led by the "left-wing" government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva at the time. In December 2022, supporters of the defeated president Jair Bolsonaro attempted to storm the headquarters of the Brazillian Federal Police. As part of the inquiries into the attacks, in January 2023, the Brazil Supreme Court asked social media platforms to hand over information and suspend accounts linked to any illegal activities relating to such. Musk expressed concern, but ultimately complied with the order on that date. However, on April 2024, Brazil Supreme Court justice asked for some additional accounts to be blocked. In this case, Musk openly defied the Supreme Court's orders, removing Twitter's legal representative from Brazil in protest. As a legal representative is required by law in Brazil for any foreign country to operate, de Moraes gave Musk a deadline of August 29 2024 to comply with the court or else Twitter would be banned in Brazil. Predictably, Musk did nothing, so on that date, the ban was enacted — even using a to attempt to bypass the ban and access Twitter would result in a fine."Elon Musk’s feud with Brazilian judge is much more than a personal spat − it’s about national sovereignty, freedom of speech and the rule of law" by Yasmin Curzi de Mendonça, Conversation, 2024 September 9"Before Brazil and Elon Musk: X’s history of run-ins with left and right" by Dwayne Oxford, Al-Jazeera, 2024 September 10 Aside from Brazil, Musk has been much more willing to apply his "free speech absolutism" motif and moan about "censorship" when it comes to moderation requests from Western democracies such as the EU and Australia. (Of course, his capitulations to "right-wing" authoritarians demonstrate that the "absolutism" part of Musk's motif is simply bullshit.)"Elon Musk is absolutely not a ‘free speech absolutist’" by Gaby Del Valle, The Verge, 2024 September 4
====The lie of free speech absolutism====
Musk purchased Twitter in October 2022, and two months later he suspended several journalists who had been critical of him on Twitter: Matt Binder (@mattbinder) of Mashable, Drew Harwell (@drewharwell) of The Washington Post, Steven L. Herman (@W7VOA) of Voice of America, Micah Lee (@micahflee) of The Intercept, Linette Lopez of Business Insider, Ryan Mac (@rmac18) of The New York Times, Donie O'Sullivan (@donie) of CNN, Keith Olbermann (@keitholbermann), Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) and Tony Webster (@webster).Twitter suspends journalists who have been covering Elon Musk and the company: Musk joined a Twitter Space to say the suspensions were related to new rules banning private jet trackers. Twitter suspended an account that tweeted the whereabouts of his plane. Ostensibly, the suspensions were because of use of private jet trackers, but such information is openly available on the webJetSpy and the accounts were suspended without warning.Twitter suspends journalists who have been covering Elon Musk and the company: Musk joined a Twitter Space to say the suspensions were related to new rules banning private jet trackers. Twitter suspended an account that tweeted the whereabouts of his plane. by Jason Abbruzzese et al. (Dec. 15, 2022, 5:08 PM PST / Updated Dec. 16, 2022, 12:52 AM PST) NBC News. It's a lesson in how to preserve "freeze peach" by silencing one's critics. Musk continued to throttle journalists but more subtly by downgrading Twitter posts that have external links (such as to full journalistic reports).Musk admits X throttles links as ‘news influencers’ take over by Will Oremus (November 27, 2024 at 9:05 a.m. EST) The Washington Post. Musk has even throttled posts with links to specific news outlets that he doesn't like, such as The New York Times.Elon Musk’s X is throttling traffic to websites he dislikes: The site formerly known as Twitter added a five-second delay when a user clicked on a shortened link to the New York Times, Facebook and other sites Musk commonly attacks, a Washington Post analysis found by Jeremy B. Merrill & Drew Harwell (Updated August 16, 2023 at 11:53 a.m. EDT; Published August 15, 2023 at 1:27 p.m. EDT) The Washington Post.
In July 2023, Musk un-suspended the account of a QAnon influencer named Dominick McGee after some of the account's followers complained that the account had been suspended for its political messaging. In reality, McGee had been suspended for posting a partly-censored image of a toddler being tortured. This image was taken from one of the most notorious child abuse videos in the world, made by an Australian man named who was convicted of child sexual abuse in the Philippines and sentenced to 129 years' imprisonment.The reason for suspension should be shown, along with ability to appeal quickly and easily. There are so many layers of software (20+ million lines) that this is much harder than it should be. I’m told that this account was suspended for posting child exploitation pictures associated with the criminal conviction of an Australian man in the Philippines. https://cnn.com/2022/11/10/asi… by Elon Musk (5:02 PM · Jul 26, 202) Twitter (archived from July 27, 2023).Only people on our CSE team have seen those pictures. For now, we will delete those posts and reinstate the account. by Elon Musk (5:05 PM · Jul 26, 2023) Twitter (archived from July 26, 2023).Australian who sexually abused children in the Philippines given 129-year jail term by Kathleen Magramo (1:36 AM EST, November 10, 2022) CNN."Twitter under fire for reinstating account that posted child sex abuse" by Joseph Menn and Drew harwell, Washington Post, 2023 July 28 Such material, even when partially censored, is considered child sexual abuse material (CSAM), and therefore illegal.Twitter under fire for reinstating account that posted child sex abuse: It’s only the latest incident of banned imagery making its way onto the site since Musk bought it by Joseph Menn & Drew Harwell (Updated July 28, 2023 at 10:31 a.m. EDT|Published July 27, 2023 at 5:46 p.m. EDT) The Washington Post.
Musk has insisted that stopping the spread of CSAM on Twitter is one of his highest priorities. However, in June 2023, the Stanford Cyber Policy Center reported that Twitter had been letting through known CSAM material that should have been automatically detected by a widely used database of detected child exploitation images. According to Stanford Internet Observatory's chief technologist David Thiel, PhotoDNA appeared to be at least partially down for a period of time in 2023. Due to this, plus a lack of a rapid response to fix the issue (due to the trust and safety teams being gutted), "tons of known CSAM" flooded Twitter for a significant period before the issue was fixed."Cross-Platform Dynamics of Self-Generated CSAM" by David Thiel, Renée DiResta and Alex Stamos, Stanford Internet Observatory, 2023 June 7
Following the 2023 attack on Israel by Hamas and the Israeli retaliation in Gaza, an explosion of antisemitic posts on X/Twitter went unchecked. Musk, thinking that he could solve the problem, must have thought he could just go to Israel, meet with Prime Minister Netanyahu, make a statement ("We need to do everything possible to stop the hate."), and that would be the end of it.Elon Musk boosts Pizzagate conspiracy theory that led to D.C. gunfire: The far-right theory motivated a gunman to fire multiple rounds inside the Comet Ping Pong pizzeria in Northwest Washington in 2016. Musk boosted the theory to his 164 million followers anyway. by Drew Harwell (November 28, 2023) The Washington Post. It would seem very unlikely given that Musk refuses to do anything about Twitter antisemitism since the Trust and Safety team at X likely remains eviscerated from the time it was dissolved in December 2022,Twitter abruptly dissolves safety council moments before meeting: The firm’s turmoil appears to deepen since Elon Musk’s takeover with Yoel Roth forced to flee home amid personal attacks (Mon 12 Dec 2022 21.56 EST) The Guardian. and since Musk boosted the previously-thought-to-be-moribund Pizzagate conspiracy theory one day after meeting with Netanyahu.
Despite Musk's claims of free speech absolutism, he has consistently capitulated to right-wing authoritarians (India's Narendra Modi and Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan)How India tamed Twitter and set a global standard for online censorship by Karishma Mehrotra & Joseph Menn (November 8, 2023 at 10:00 p.m. EST) The Washington Post.Twitter is complying with more government demands under Elon Musk: The company has not refused a single request since Musk took ownership, according to self-reported data. by Russell Brandom (27 April 2023) Rest of World. but not when it involves censoring far-right anti-democratic ideasAmid probe into Musk, Brazil's top court says 'every company is subject to the constitution' (April 8, 20241:08 PM PDT) Reuters. or his own critics.Musk tried to ‘punish’ critics, judge rules, in tossing a lawsuit: In a win for hate-speech researchers, a federal judge in California dismisses X’s lawsuit under the state’s anti-SLAPP law by Will Oremus & Taylor Telford (March 25, 2024) The Washington Post.
In September 2024, the account of journalist Ken Klippenstein was suspended from Twitter for publishing the Trump campaign's internal evaluation of JD Vance that the mainstream media refused to publish.
In 2024, British graphic novelist Darryl Cunningham was unable to find a US or UK publisher for his book about Musk, Elon Musk: Investigation into a New Master of the World even though the French language edition had already been published (Elon Musk: Enquête sur un nouveau maître du mondeElon Musk: Enquête sur un nouveau maître du monde by Darryl Cunningham (2024) Delcourt. ISBN 2413086129.) Delcourt had lawyers review every word and image in the book and had not used any information that had not already been published.‘We live in a climate of fear’: Graphic novelist’s Elon Musk book can’t find UK or US publisher: Darryl Cunningham blames fear of ‘legal consequences’ for reluctance to take on book, now only available in French by David Barnett (23 Nov 2024 11.00 EST) The Guardian. It would seem to be a widespread act of self-censorship by English-language publishers on the possible threat of what would be extremely expensive legal action by Musk. There was justifiable fear by the publishers about a SLAPP suit from Musk if they published; in 2023, Musk had filed a defamation SLAPP suit against Media Matters for America with the presumed intent of crushing the organization.Elon Musk’s Supreme Court Endgame in Defamation Lawsuit by Rebecca Buckwalter-Poza (March 25, 202410:00 AM) Slate.
====The right-wing edgelord troll====
Musk continued his descent from futuristic tech CEO into just another shitposting edgelord troll on November 28 2022. The overnight tweetstorm included tweets with a Pepe the Frog image, an image of Baked Alaska that was quickly deleted, and a fake "CNN headline" created by a small right-leaning satire site called Genesius Times (tweeted, of course, without any context to the real source whatsoever)."Elon Musk’s Pepe The Frog Tweet Decried By ADL As His Overnight Tweetstorm Also Highlights Guns, Revolutionary War Imagery & Fabricated CNN Headline" by Tom Tapp, Deadline, 2022 November 28"Elon Musk quietly deletes meme featuring prominent white nationalist Capitol rioter" by Mikael Thalen, Daily Dot, 2022 November 28"Image of CNN report about Elon Musk came from parody site" by Sophia Tulp, AP, 2022 April 8 Musk continued to be Very Concerned about what he called "free speech", "The Twitter Files on free speech suppression soon to be published on Twitter itself. The public deserves to know what really happened …", @elonmusk, Twitter, 2022 November 28 while also simultaneously displaying "concerns" in other tweets about there needing to be a "counter-narrative" for supposed "far left San Francisco/Berkeley views""Elon Musk blasts San Francisco’s ‘far left’ views on Twitter as advertisers flee" by Joshua Bote, SFGate, 2022 November 23 and claiming that a supposed "woke mind virus has thoroughly penetrated entertainment and is pushing civilization towards suicide.""Elon Musk says he’s ‘not right wing’ but ‘woke mind virus pushing civilisation toward suicide’" by Lydia Chantler-Hicks, Evening Standard, 2022 November 25 Of course, all those advertisers who paused Twitter ads, in Musk's mind, also hated "free speech" as well, because apparently "free speech" in Muskland means "paying Elon Musk money"."Elon Musk Wonders: Does the Company that Fought the FBI in Court to Prevent Giving it the Text Messages of Terrorists Hate Free Speech Because It Stopped Giving Me Money?" by Jason Koebler, Vice, 2022 November 28 Meanwhile, Twitter's radically reduced anti-propaganda team experienced noticeable difficulty stopping an apparent pro-China spam campaign that was attempting to flood out any information on Twitter regarding the "Twitter grapples with Chinese spam obscuring news of protests" by Joseph Menn, Washington Post, 2022 November 27 
An analysis of Musk's replies and exchanges on his Twitter account by published on November 28 2022, indicated that increasingly Musk was living in a right-wing "filter bubble". Musk's approving chats heavily consisted of accounts associated with Gamergate and/or alt-right figures, conservative activists, crypto bros, and Tesla "fan groups" that praised every announcement he made and LOLed at every shitpost he tweeted. On the flip side, Musk tended to mock and act flippantly toward criticisms coming from Democratic politicians, as well as making fun of the mainstream American media in general (the latter probably due to Musk's thin-skinned inability to handle criticism.)"On Twitter, Elon Musk finds comfort in his right-wing 'filter bubble'" by Damien Leloup , Léa Sanchez and Olivier Clairouin, Le Monde, 2022 November 28 
A March 2023 BBC analysis of Twitter by indicated that at that time, due to Musk's decimation of safety teams, trolls ran rampant on the platform, targeted harassment campaigns (including those originated by state-sanctioned campaigns) aimed at curbing freedom of expression were common, and abusive misogyny had increased."Twitter insiders: We can't protect users from trolling under Musk" by Marianna Spring, BBC, 2023 March 6 Musk's response to the article was to tweet that "trolls are kinda fun"; also predictably, Twitter trolls responded to the report by directing a torrent of abusive posts at the reporter."How Elon Musk's tweets unleashed a wave of hate" by Marianna Spring, BBC, 2023 March 21 
In early April 2023, Musk unexpectedly changed the Twitter logo above the home icon (and elsewhere) into the logo for the cryptocurrency. Not coincidentally, at that time, Musk was being sued by a group of investors accusing Musk of running a "pyramid scheme" with Dogecoin, by manipulating the Dogecoin market with his tweets."Why Did Elon Musk Change the Twitter Logo to the Dogecoin Cryptocurrency Meme?" by Todd Spangler, Variety, 2023 April 3Keith Johnson v. Elon Musk, United States District Court Southern District of New York, Case No 1:22-cv-5037
Due to Musk firing Twitter's communications team, as of March 2023 (under a new policy change instituted by Musk), any mail sent to these accounts will be automatically replied to with a "poop emoji". Which ironically happens to also be a great description of Twitter under Musk's leadership."Got a question for Twitter's press team? The answer will be a poop emoji" by Rachel Tresiman, NPR, 2023 March 20
====Climate change misinformation/disinformation====
In the past, Musk had advocated pro-sustainable energy stances (and was a significant spokesman of such), as one would expect from the CEO of the company that essentially kick-started the electric vehicle market with Tesla."Elon Musk, Climate Hero?" by Dana Goodyear, New Yorker, 2015 May 7 Publicly during this time period, Musk was strongly concerned about climate change, and was fervently against climate science deniers. In 2017, Musk told that "climate change is the biggest threat that humanity faces this century, except for AI"."Elon Musk: The Architect of Tomorrow" by Neil Strauss, Rolling Stone, 2017 November 15 In October 2016, in response to a interview where the coal baron (and John Oliver arch-nemesis)"John Oliver Taunts Coal Baron Enraged by Giant Talking Squirrel With Giant Singing Squirrels" by Marissa Matrinelli, Slate, 2019 November 11 called Tesla a fraud, Musk tweeted "Real fraud going on is denial of climate science.""Elon Musk Says Denial of Climate Change is 'Fraud'" by Jess Vilvestre, Futurism, 2016 October 13 Musk even broke off his council associations with Donald Trump after Trump stepped away from the "Elon Musk steps down from Trump advisory councils over Paris climate decision" by Sean O'Kane, The Verge, 2017 June 1 
Since taking Twitter over, Musk's priorities have shifted to shitposting transphobic jokes and hanging out with his conspiracy theory-loving sycophants on the platform. While Musk is not a climate change denier (at least at this time), this shift in focus has resulted in a considerably diminished focus on his previous stance championing the fight against climate change. 
Besides allowing vicious attacks on climate scientists on TwitterClimate crisis deniers target scientists for vicious abuse on Musk’s Twitter: Abusive, often violent tweets denying the climate emergency have become a barrage since Elon Musk acquired the platform, say UK experts by Anna Fazackerley (14 May 2023 02.00 EDT) The Guardian. (to the point with many climate scientists, fed up with the racism, sexism, and climate-denying trolls and bots on the platform, have simply left)"Climate scientists flee Twitter as hostility surges", Al Jazeera, 2023 May 24 and prioritizing results from climate change deniers on Twitter,Climate misinformation ‘rocket boosters’ on Musk’s Twitter by David Klepper (January 19, 2023) AP. Musk has himself posted climate change misinformation:Important to note that what happens on Earth’s surface (eg farming) has no meaningful impact on climate change. Overwhelmingly, the risk of climate change is due to moving billions of tons of carbon from deep underground into the atmosphere. Over time, if we keep doing this, the chemical makeup of our atmosphere will change enough to induce meaningful climate change. by Elon Musk (2:28 AM · Jun 25, 2023) Twitter (archived from June 25, 2023).
In fact, land use change (LUC) impacts the balance of the Earth's carbon cycle by altering the land's carbon carrying capacity, for example where rainforest is replaced by farmland. According to the annual Global Carbon Budget studyGlobal Carbon Budget 2022 by Pierre Friedlingstein et al. (2022) Earth Syst Sci Data 14(11): 4811–4900. doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-4811-2022., 11% of the annual net increase in atmospheric CO2 concentration is currently a direct result of LUC, while cumulatively LUC is responsible for one third of anthropogenic CO2 emissions since 1750. While the impact of fossil fuel combustion is undoubtedly greater, it is straight up climate denial to state that LUC has "no meaningful impact".
LUC also significantly impacts the atmospheric concentration of the other key greenhouse gases, methaneMethane emission from rice fields as affected by land use change by Moniruzzaman Khan Eusufzai et al. (2010) Agr Ecosyst Environ 139(4): 742-748. doi.org/10.1016/j.agee.2010.11.003.Soil methane oxidation and land-use change – from process to mitigation by Kevin R. Tate (2015) Soil Biol Biochem 80: 260-272. doi.org/10.1016/j.soilbio.2014.10.010.Impact of land use change on soil methane fluxes and diffusivity in Pampean plains, Argentina by María De Bernardi et al. (2022) Agr Ecosyst Environ 329: 107866. doi.org/10.1016/j.agee.2022.107866. and nitrous oxideReviews and syntheses: Soil N2O and NO emissions from land use and land-use change in the tropics and subtropics: a meta-analysis by J. van Lent et al. (2015) Biogeosciences 12(23): 7299-7313. doi.org/10.5194/bg-12-7299-2015.Impact of land use change on greenhouse gases emissions in peatland: a review by Ryusuke Hatano (2019) Int Agrophys 33(2): 167–173. doi.org/10.31545/intagr/109238.From research to policy: optimizing the design of a national monitoring system to mitigate soil nitrous oxide emissions by Stephen M Ogle et al. (2020) Curr Opin Env Sust 47: 28-36. doi.org/10.1016/j.cosust.2020.06.003..
LUC additionally affects climate conditions by changing biophysical properties such as albedo, evapotranspiration and surface roughnessLocal biophysical effects of land use and land cover change: towards an assessment tool for policy makers by Gregory Duveiller et al. (2020) Land Use Policy 91: 104382. doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2019.104382.Modelling the influence of land-use changes on biophysical and biochemical interactions at regional and global scales by N. Devaraju et al. (2015) Plant Cell Environ 38: 1931-1946. doi.org/10.1111/pce.12488.. Although these effects are generally more localised than changes in atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations, localised climate change is still relevant when considering climate change impacts.
If human civilisation had acted more quickly to transition away from fossil fuels, we could afford to ignore the effect of LUC on climate in the short to medium term. However, as decades of inaction has brought us to the point of climate crisis, addressing the impact of LUC will be necessary if we are to meet goals such as the Paris Agreement to limit global temperature rise to 1.5°CUNFCCC - Introduction to Land Use and the European Union's ambition of net zero emissions by 2050 European Environment Agency - Greenhouse gas emissions from land use, land use change and forestry in Europe.
Aside from the issue of LUC, modern agriculture and forestry systems are also highly dependent on petroleum-based fertilizers, energy-intensive machinery for planting and harvesting, and transportation networks that are still largely powered by fossil fuels. The IPCC groups these factors alongside the effect of LUC itself under the heading Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land Use (AFOLU), which they say was responsible for 22% of net global CO2-eq GHG emissions in the year 2019.IPCC AR6 Synthesis Report
Musk has also downplayed the threat of climate change to various degrees on several occasions. In an August 2022 tweet, for instance, Musk seemed to put more prominence in depopulation conspiracy theories than climate change. ("Population collapse due to low birth rates is a much bigger risk to civilization than global warming.")"Population collapse due to low birth rates is a much bigger risk to civilization than global warming." by Elon Musk, @elonmusk, 2022 August 26, archived on 2022 August 26 On May 5 2023, in response to a tweet from Mike Cernovich calling "global warming" "the largest scam in human history.", Musk replied that "global warming risk is overblown in the short term, but significant in the long term.""Global warming risk is overblown in the short term, but significant in the long term" by Elon Musk, @elonmusk, Twitter, 2023 May 5, archived on 2023 May 5 
Musk has also taken several public stances against government and business initiatives that address climate change, but didn't happen to benefit the pockets of Musk. For instance, Musk came out against Joe Biden's bill, due to what critics saw as irritation at other automobile companies getting more subsidies than Tesla."Elon Musk slams Biden’s Build Back Better bill and its electric car incentives" by Oliver Milman, Guardian, 2021 December 8 Likewise, right after Tesla was booted from "ESG index", Musk called environmential, social, and governance (ESG) a "scam" that was " weaponized by phony social justice warriors". (The reason for S&P excluding Tesla was due to racism at Tesla's factories.)"Elon Musk Is the Newest Acolyte of the Right’s Critical Energy Theory Nonsense" by Kate Aronoff, New Republic, 2022 May 23
====The future====
Musk's Twitter problems were so significant, they affected his primary company Tesla as well. Between April 4 2022 (the date Musk first disclosed he took a 9% stake in Twitter) and December 15 2022, Musk's primary company, Tesla, lost a staggering $705 billion in market capitalization. The Twitter purchase was not the only reason for the decline, however it was clear that Twitter played a significant factor. Many investors were not happy with Musk seemingly abandoning Tesla in order to badly mismanage Twitter. Investors also were not happy at Musk using Tesla stock as a "piggy bank" to help finance propping up his favorite shitposting platform."Elon Musk Has Now Sold $22.9 Billion In Tesla Shares Since Buying Twitter—And Dragged Down Tesla's Market Cap By $700 Billion In The Process" by Derek Saul, Forbes, 2022 December 15 Many analysts also noted that Tesla's previously sky-high stock price relied, in part, on Musk's reputation as a genius futurist. Musk's mismanagement misadventures at Twitter cracked that facade, and thus damaged the Tesla brand and helped damage Tesla's stock price. As an added headache, Musk's increasingly hyper-partisan conspiracy theory and political oriented tweets added additional Tesla brand damage. Particularly considering that the left-leaning people that Musk is obsessively attacking were always the ones most likely to buy a Tesla, while conservatives are the least likely to do so."How Elon Musk’s Twitter Takeover Is Ruining His Own Myth — And Tesla’s Stock" by Alan Ohnsman, Forbes, 2022 November 23
Perhaps with this in mind, on December 18 2022, Musk posted a Twitter poll asking whether or not he should continue as CEO of Twitter, claiming he would abide by the results. The poll closed on Monday, with the result (57.5%) clearly showing most voters in favor of him leaving the CEO position."Elon Musk polled Twitter on whether he should step down as CEO. Most voters said yes" by Ashley Kapoot and Lora Kolodny, CNBC, 2022 December 19 After initially appearing to want to move the goalposts and change the rules for the poll,"After Twitter users voted to oust Elon Musk as CEO, he wants to change how polls work" by Clare Duffy, CNN, 2022 December 20 on Tuesday December 20 2022, Musk gave in... sort of. Musk tweeted that he would "resign as CEO as soon as I find someone foolish enough to take the job!", while still maintaining that he would run the "software & servers teams"."Is This the End of Elon Musk’s Twitter Odyssey?" by Kyle Chayka, New Yorker, 2022 December 21 Of course, this was seen by many as mere "window dressing", and that he would retain significant influence over the company regardless of whether he was CEO or not."Does Elon Musk's resignation from Twitter mean he'll give up control? Experts weigh in" by Max Zahn, ABC News, 2022 December 22 
On May 12 2023, Musk announced that , previously an advertising chief executive at NBCUniversal, would become Twitter's new CEO. Musk would still be involved as executive chairman and chief technology officer."Elon Musk Appoints Linda Yaccarino Twitter’s New Chief" by Tiffany Hsu, Sapna Maheshwari, Benjamin Mullin and Ryan Mac, New York Times, 2023 May 12"Elon Musk says he's found "a new CEO" for Twitter. It's said to be NBCU's Linda Yaccarino." by Aimee Picchi, CBS News, 2023 May 12
By March 2024, according to the market research firm Sensor Tower, the number of Twitter daily app users worldwide had declined 15% since November 2022 (when Musk took over), and had declined 23% in the United States specifically. In comparison, most social media apps were experiencing modest growth worldwide during that period, and (with the exception of TikTok) were flat or modestly down in the United States.[https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/fewer-people-using-elon-musks-x-struggles-keep-users-rcna144115 "
Fewer people are using Elon Musk’s X as the platform struggles to attract and keep users, according to analysts"] by David Ingram, NBC News, 2024 March 22 Fake news was still very prevalent on the Twitter platform, so much so that in December 2023, Twitter became the first tech company to face a formal investigation within the European Union under the "European Union investigating Musk’s X over possible breaches of social media law" by Kelvin Chan, Associated Press, 2023 December 18 Hate speech, including noxious AI generated images straight from 4chan's /pol/, also thrived on the platform;"Bigots use AI to make Nazi memes on 4chan. Verified users post them on X." by Will Oremus, Washington Post, 2023 December 14 rather than address the hate speech, Musk responded by suing watchdog organizations like the and the Anti-Defamation League."Elon Musk’s X sued this nonprofit after it exposed hate speech, and its new research shows little has changed" by Jonathan Vanian, CNBC, 2023 September 13 With major advertisers still staying clear of Twitter's toxic environment,"Elon Musk’s X ad revenue reportedly fell $1.5B this year amid boycotts" by Ashley Belanger, Ars Technica, 2023 December 13 Twitter also was noteworthy for being infested with tons of shady advertisements, including cryptocurrency scams, "dropshipping" scams, and health care scams and misinformation."Twitter Users Report an Increase in Crypto Scam Ads" by Emily Price, PCMag, 2024 January 6"Twitter’s Scammy Advertisers Are Getting Wrecked by Community Notes" by Miles Klee, Rolling Stone, 2024 January 12
Even with the above, what the future holds for the platform is uncertain, but more than likely it will become even more of a lawless wasteland than it was before. If it manages to still exist, that is.
==Mental health issues==
Musk has been variously described as having non-professionally diagnosed PTSD, being autistic, and bipolar disorder by himself, relatives and friends.
Grimes, one of Musk's baby mamas, described his bipolar manic phase as "demon mode".
==Sociopathy==
 
For someone who has ostensibly created some ventures that could be called good for society (pioneering electric vehicle manufacture, installing rooftop solar, more questionably others), Musk and Tesla have exhibit repeated and disturbing signs of narcissistic sociopathySociopathic Tendencies Got Musked.Is Elon Musk a psychopath? by Common Sense Skeptic (Apr 6, 2021) YouTube. (superficial charm, lying, intentionally causing harm to others).
Musk believes in the theory that all of existence is a simulated reality and has dedicated millions of dollars towards proving an unfalsifiable hypothesis true,Elon Musk And Friends Are Spending Millions To Break Out Of The Matrix by Janet Burns (Oct 13, 2016,02:00pm EDT) Forbes. rather than using that money to do something beneficial. Presumably, he believes in this theory because he believes it could absolve him of any accountability regarding his actions. Musk's apparent belief that reality is a simulation would appear to be a rationalization for Musk doing whatever the fuck he wants. When one is the richest person on the planet one can do a very good job of creating a walled garden to keep out things that one doesn't want to confront by just throwing money at them.
Adjacent to Musk's sociopathy, is his support for longtermism — the idea that interplanetary colonization or creating virtual realities of trillions of virtual people in space is more important than dealing with current world problems or even foreseeable extinction level events, including climate change. Musk has shown support for longtermerist ideas, including William MacAskill's book What We Owe the Future,Understanding "longtermism": Why this suddenly influential philosophy is so toxic: Whatever we may "owe the future," it isn't a bizarre and dangerous ideology fueled by eugenics and capitalism by Émile P. Torres August 20, 2022 12:00PM (EDT) Salon. calling the book "a close match for my philosophy."The Heavy Price of Longtermism: Longtermists focus on ensuring humanity’s existence into the far future. But not without sacrifices in the present. by Alexander Zaitchik (October 24, 2022) The New Republic.
===Musk, himself===
Musk either thinks that he is a big gorilla, or he knows that is a manospherian, declaring to his first wife at their wedding in 2000, "I am the alpha in this relationship." He later treated her like a slightly privileged employee, later telling her often, "If you were my employee, I would fire you.""I Was a Starter Wife": Inside America's Messiest Divorce by Justine Musk (September 10, 2010) Marie Claire. In 2020, Musk tweeted a call to "Take the Red pill 🌹".Take the red pill 🌹 by Elon Musk (17 May 2020) Twitter (archived from May 17, 2020). The term "red pill" was popularized by the manosphere and absorbed into the larger alt-right. It is possible however that Musk was referring to the original use in the film series The Matrix, which would agree with his simulated reality belief. Years after The Matrix was released, the filmmakers revealed in 2016 that films were actually a reflection of their transsexuality.Lilly Wachowski Acknowledges Re-Examination of The Matrix With Lens Focused on Transness by Jessica Lachenal (Apr 5th, 2016, 5:04 pm) The Mary Sue. Although the red rose in Musk's tweet is a symbol of social democracy, Musk is known to be strongly against this ideology.
On March 6, 2020, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic when vaccines were not available, Musk said, "The coronavirus panic is dumb".The coronavirus panic is dumb by Elon Musk (12:42 - 6. March 2020) Twitter (archived from March 23, 2020). By March 17, state and local officials were ordering lockdowns to prevent further spread of COVID and the overburdening hospitals that did eventuate. On March 19, Musk stated, "Based on current trends, probably close to zero new cases in the US too by the end of April".Based on current trends, probably close to zero new cases in US too by end of April by Elon Musk (4.38 - 19 Mar 2020) Twitter (archived from March 22, 2020). Contrary to what the boy genius predicted, daily case counts have yet to drop to zero as of December 2021, and the daily peak was 218,000 in January 2021 before vaccines were widely available.COVID Data Tracker Centers for Disease Control. By April, Musk was complaining about lockdowns.FREE AMERICA NOW by Elon Musk (23:14 - 28. Apr. 2020) Twitter (archived from April 30, 2020). In May 2020, Musk opened his Fremont, California Tesla factory in defiance of Alameda County health orders. As a result, he personally caused 450 COVID cases.Hundreds of covid cases reported at Tesla plant following Musk’s defiant reopening, county data shows by Faiz Siddiqui (March 12, 2021 at 7:24 p.m. PST) The Washington Post.
By July 2023, Musk's position on COVID-19 was considerably more cranky and in line with the anti-vaccination movement, in line with his general tilt towards conspiracy theories. After basketball player collapsed of cardiac arrest, Musk, without any evidence, tried to insinuate that the COVID-19 vaccine may have caused this, stating that " is a known side-effect" of the vaccine. When Twitter users helpfully added a fact-check to this post that actually the risk of myocarditis is significantly higher from a COVID-19 infection than the vaccine, this fact check was removed."Twitter Deletes Fact-Check Of Musk Connecting Bronny James’ Cardiac Arrest To Covid Vaccine" by Antonio Pequeno IV, Forbes, 2023 July 25 Myocarditis also is not the most common cause of cardiac arrest in young athletes."Elon Musk is using Bronny James' cardiac arrest to baselessly spout anti-vaccine talking points" by Rebecca Cohen and Hilary Brueck, Bsuiness Insider, 2023 July 25
After resigning, a Tesla employee returned to work just to say goodbye to colleagues. Musk shoved and threatened the employee by saying "I will nuke you."‘I will nuke you’: Elon Musk was accused of shoving and threatening a former Tesla employee by 
Graham Rapier (Apr. 6, 2019, 8:32 AM) Business Insider.
Regarding alleged rampant racism against African Americans at a Tesla factory, for which Tesla is being sued by the State of California, Musk advised that victims of racism should get a "thick skin".Is the world's richest person the world's worst boss? What it's like working for Elon Musk by Russ Mitchell (Nov. 15, 2022) Los Angeles Times via SFGate.
On a private jet, Musk allegedly offered a flight attendant a horse in exchange for sex after he had exposed his erect penis and touched her. The attendant refused and was awarded $250,000 in an out of court settlement.A sexual misconduct claim against Elon Musk involved him offering to buy a SpaceX flight attendant a horse in exchange for an erotic massage by Cheryl Teh (May 19, 2022) Business Insider.
Musk told the UN he would donate much of his fortune to end world hunger if they told him exactly how they would spend it, and then, when they gave him precisely what he wanted, a detailed program explaining exactly what they would use his money for, he refused.Johnny Wood, How Billionaire Elon Musk's Fortune Could End World Hunger. weforum.org, 19 November 2021. Of course, he reneged on his part of the deal.
Musk has thought of himself as a utilitarian. He once stated that the "Goal of government should be to maximize the happiness of the people."Goal of government should be to maximize the happiness of the people. Giving each person money allows them to decide what meets their needs, rather than the blunt tool of legislation, which creates self-serving special interests. by Elon Musk (07:53 - 24. Jun 2020) Twitter (archived from July 28, 2020). He has promoted the effective altruism movement,Is Elon Musk on Board With ‘Effective Altruism? by Nicholas G. Evans (April 21, 2023) The Chronicle of Philanthropy. and he used Roko's basilisk as a pickup line on someone who was his partner."Elon Musk Shares Grimes’ New Song That Has a 'Roko's Basilisk' A.I. Message." by Mike Brown (29 November 2018) Inverse.
There is apparently an idea even in his own family that people in general loathe Musk. His brother Kimbal clearly knows it and understands why. Following Musk's appointment to be co-head with Vivek Ramaswamy of the two-headed DOGE, Musk's own mother, Maye, felt compelled to defend him on Fox News, saying:Elon Musk’s mom says it’s ‘degrading’ to call her son ‘wealthy’: He’s ‘the genius of the world’: Maye Musk’s comments sparked mockery on social media, with many making the comparisons to a nerdy cartoon character sheepishly saying his mom thinks he’s cool by Justin Baragona (27 November 2024 11:04 EST) Independent.Elon's mom is on Fox buttering up her son and answering questions about whether anybody actually likes him. Cringe. by Aaron Rupar (November 26, 2024 at 7:46 AM) BlueSky.
At least calling Musk a wealthy billionaire is a statement of fact.
====Musk's addictive personality====
Despite multiple studies showing that excessive work hours leads to less productivity overall,"Memo to work martyrs: Long hours make you less productive" by Bob Sullivan, CNBC, 2015 January 26 Musk self-promotes himself as a workaholic who is obsessed with working extremely long hours,"Elon Musk's productivity hack is taking 2 or 3 days off a year, working 7 days a week, and getting 6 hours of sleep a night" by Nidhi Pandurangi, Business Insider, 2023 May 17 and frequently expects his employees to do the same."Elon Musk warns Tesla workers they'll be sleeping on the production line to build its new mass-market EV" by Tom Carter, Business Insider, 2024 January 25 Curiously, in spite of his self-styled "workaholic" image, Musk also manages to allocate excessively long hours posting to Twitter. It is not unknown for Musk to go on tweeting binges for multiple hours on end, even exceeding 24 hour spans on occasion."Elon made exactly 100 posts on here since yesterday including replies that began at 12:18 AM ET on Saturday and continued until 5:08 AM ET on Sunday. They seemed to be pretty much uninterrupted for 29 hours straight and pretty much every major far-right account was engaged with." by Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski), Twitter, 2024 February 4, archived on 2024 February 6 In one alleged report, venture capitalist and Tesla board member Antonio Gracias once took Elon's and locked it in a hotel safe in order to prevent Musk from engaging in an ill-advised late night tweeting binge. Musk later got hotel security to open the safe at 3AM just so that he could start tweeting again."A Tesla board member once locked Elon Musk's phone in a safe to keep him off Twitter. The billionaire forced hotel security to open it, biographer says." by Grace Kay and Kali Hays, Business Insider, 2023 July 6
In early 2024, the Wall Street Journal reported an additional allegation that could explain some of Musk's erratic behavior in the 2020s: Musk is a frequent recreational drug user. While Musk is well-known for his love of weed, the report further alleged drugs used included LSD, cocaine, MDMA, and "Former Tesla director Larry Ellison invited Elon Musk to Hawaii to 'dry out' from drugs, report says" by Katherine Tangalakis-Lippert and Lloyd Lee, Business Insider, 2024 February 4 Musk's propensity to take drugs was reportedly to the point where business associates and board members were worried that it would affect his career."Tesla Board Members Asked Elon Musk To Go To Rehab: Report" by Bradley Brownell, Jalopnik, 2024 February 5 In late 2022, allegedly went so far as to urge Musk to travel to his private Hawaiian island for a period of time in order to pause his work and "dry out" from drugs.
===Companies, by proxy===
Tesla has repeatedly rolled out new and potentially-dangerous (a not fully-functional 'auto pilot',Tesla Deaths (2021).Backseat Tesla Driver Unapologetic After Arrest for Reckless Driving: Soon after he was released, Param Sharma took to his Instagram page and uploaded a video that shows a driverless Tesla on The Embarcadero in San Francisco — with him in the backseat by Sergio Quintana (Published May 13, 2021; Updated on May 14, 2021 at 7:20 am) NBC Bay Area. 'Insane' modeTesla tempted drivers with ‘insane’ mode and now is tracking them to judge safety. Experts say it’s ludicrous. Tesla’s system for rating drivers’ safety came under criticism as the company prepared to roll out its Full Self-Driving software to more owners. by Faiz Siddiqui (October 10, 2021 at 6:00 a.m. EDT) The Washington Post.) or on-its-face features (driver-accessible video gamesTesla halts use of video games in moving cars amid safety probe: The move comes after the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened a probe into the ‘Passenger Play’ feature this week. by Faiz Siddiqui (December 23, 2021) The Washington Post.) that are tested on existing car owners rather than going through extensive in-house testing. Tesla has 3 times the number of driver deaths compared to other vehicles in its car class (BMW, Lexus, and Mercedes).
In 2021, Tesla was sued by six women who worked at Tesla factories, alleging that there was "rampant sexual harassment" and "nightmarish conditions" at the factories.Six Tesla workers file additional lawsuits alleging sexual harassment by Faiz Siddiqui (December 14, 2021 at 3:07 p.m. EST) The Washington Post. The lawsuit alleged that the abuse is effectively encouraged by Musk's lewd tweets. A woman who was an engineer at SpaceX has also said that she suffered sexual harassment there and that there was rampant misogyny.At SpaceX, we're told we can change the world. I couldn't, however, stop getting sexually harassed. by Ashley Kosak (2021) Lioness.
A former contract worker at Tesla was awarded $137 million in a discrimination suit against Tesla that had alleged racist epithets, discrimination and a hostile work environment.Jury orders Tesla to pay more than $130 million in discrimination suit, which alleged racist epithets and hostile work environment by Faiz Siddiqui (October 5, 2021 at 1:47 a.m. EDT) The Washington Post.
Being a whistleblower seems to be grounds for immediate termination at Tesla despite it being illegal for Tesla to do so.Tesla Whistleblower Meissner Associates.Since 2017, > 30 @tesla employees have been victim of whistleblower retaliation $TSLA Employees blew the whistle on fraud, safety , harassment, sexual assault & more. Most disturbing, many were terminated immediately after contacting Musk or ethics hotline. … by Luis Carruthers (4:43 PM · Jul 23, 2019) Twitter (archived from 26 Dec 2021 02:49:10 UTC).Tesla called her a criminal. Her fight could be a milestone for employees’ rights by Russ Mitchell (Dec. 8, 2020 5 AM PT) Los Angeles Times.
As part of Musk's shambolic 2022 takeover of Twitter, the entire Twitter office in Ghana was terminated except for one employee; this had been its only office in the entire continent of Africa. The employees were not mentioned by name and were not offered severance pay,Layoffs could weaken Twitter in its biggest global growth markets by Diksha Madhok (7:58 AM EST, Wed November 9, 2022) CNN. thus they were being treated like objects and not like people.
In a rare ray of humanity behind Musk's wall of misanthropy, Tesla attempted to fully automate the production of Tesla Model 3 in 2018, thus getting rid of those pesky workers once and for all. It turned out to be a disaster with employees having to work overtime to fix the mess that the robots made. It was so bad that it was first known time that Musk admitted to ever being wrong.Elon Musk drafts in humans after robots slow down Tesla Model 3 production: ‘Humans are underrated,’ says CEO after company failed to hit weekly production target in first quarter of 2018 by Samuel Gibbs (16 Apr 2018 05.36 EDT) The Guardian. Musk even said, "Humans are underrated.",Yes, excessive automation at Tesla was a mistake. To be precise, my mistake. Humans are underrated. by Elon Musk (:54 PM · Apr 13, 2018) Twitter (archived from 19 Oct 2024 17:34:33 UTC). which means that Musk underrates humans.
===Self-serving philanthropy===
Musk likes to project an image of philanthropy, notably claiming that his for-profit companies are themselves philanthrophic, but half of all his charitable giving can be attributed to self-interest. Examples are:Elon Musk Has a Giant Charity. Its Money Stays Close to Home. After making billions in tax-deductible donations to his philanthropy, the owner of Tesla and SpaceX gave away far less than required in some years — and what he did give often supported his own interests. by David A. Fahrenthold and Ryan Mac (March 10, 2024) The New York Times.The “Charity” of Elon Musk by Alan Cantor (March 2024) Alan Cantor Consulting.
*Donating money to Cameron County and the city of Brownsville where SpaceX is headquarters, and doing so less than two hours after his SpaceX rocket exploded over the county. Some of the money that went to the city eventually went to business revitalization, that included a bar and upscale restaurants. Musk was effectively trying to entice employees to move to Brownsville, whose downtown had been described as dusty.
*Failure of his Musk Foundation to give away the required minimum amount each year.
*He founded a non-profit, gated school, Ad Astra, initially with only 14 students, all of whom are either his or those of SpaceX executives. After moving to Texas, half of the 50 students were related to SpaceX employees.
*Donations to the semi-non-profit OpenAI, which has its own sociopathic end-product of ChatGPT.
*Under or unfulfilled promises of donations, and lack of focus (guided by tweets) for those donations that do not involve self-interest.
*Donations to rural schools through the UN in Rwanda and Kazakhstan to help them gain internet access… through Musk's Starlink.
*Donating money to a charity to help a SpaceX customer and fellow-billionaire, Jared Isaacman, who didn't want to fork-up the money himself.
*One of Musk's major donations, which went to his Musk Foundation, saved him $2 billion in taxes.
==Elon and the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad Tweets==
Despite being a rock star of scientific progress and innovation, a busy professional with a million things to do and a good understanding of the essential importance of good communication, Musk still finds time to tweet stupid shit every now and then. He apparently loves Tweeting so much, he bought 9.2% of Twitter, making him the single largest shareholder of the company.Elon Musk becomes Twitter’s largest shareholder, NY Times, April 2022 You might also notice Twitter has 11 board members, and 9.2% is more than 1/11th of the company, enough to permanently make yourself a board member without any voting necessary. Which is exactly what happened.Elon Musk to Join Twitter’s Board of Directors After Becoming Largest Shareholder: Tesla chief executive has built up a 9.2% stake in social-media company by Sarah E. Needleman & Will Feuer (April 5, 2022 7:13 pm ET) Wall Street Journal.
After taking over Twitter, Musk's tweets took a huge turn for the worse. Increasingly, Musk started directly promoting conspiracy theories on his feed (such as all but endorsing the Great Replacement Theory in late 2023)"Elon Musk All but Endorses the Great Replacement Conspiracy Theory" by Miles Klee, Rolling Stone, 2024 January 5 As CEO of Twitter, Musk went out of the way to amplify the voices of noxious trolls like the conspiracy nutjob Alex Jones or the manosphere grifter Andrew Tate."Elon Musk is going down a conspiratorial rabbit hole and taking X with him" by Oliver Darcy, CNN, 2023 December 2023 Musk simultaneously used his "free speech absolutism" to block (or even sue) organizations and individuals that were critical of him."Elon Musk provides yet another platform for far-right attacks" by Philip Bump, Washington Post, 2023 November 21"Judge dismisses ‘vapid’ Elon Musk lawsuit against group that cataloged racist content on X" by Nick Robins-Early, Guardian, 2024 March 5
Musk's behavior on Twitter after he bought it was so extreme, it actually effected the reputation of the businesses he ran. In 2024, market intelligence firm Caliber reported that Tesla's "consideration" score in the United States (eg whether people would consider buying a Tesla car) fell from 70% in November 2021 to a low of 31% in February 2024, a decline that Caliber attributed in large part due to Musk's polarizing persona."Would-be Tesla buyers snub company as Musk's reputation dips" by Hyunjoo Jin and Nick Carey, Reuters, 2024 April 1
==="Marx was a capitalist"===
Musk makes the common mistake of mixing up Marxist socialism with modern welfare social democracy. While he may be somewhat right in his interpretation of Marxist socialism as "the greatest good for all", modern welfare social democracy concerns itself with reducing poverty and misery and funding a large range of basic social services without abandoning capitalism. In either case, he describes socialism in a way that neither makes sense in Marxist socialism nor modern welfare social-democracy "the kind that shifts resources from most productive to least productive, pretending to do good, while actually causing harm". This is a gross misrepresentation of Marxist socialism and doesn't remotely resemble modern welfare social democracy. And it's simply asinine to claim Marx was a capitalist simply because he wrote a book titled Capital. Was Hitler a strugglist, given the title of his own book?
===Unions===
Typical DARVO strawman tactic, taking someone's statement that unions help keep companies from drifting into becoming bad ones, and twisting it to claim they're saying all companies are bad.
In 2023, Musk stated: "I disagree with the idea of unions … I think the unions naturally try to create negativity in a company."Tesla's clash with Swedish workers risks spilling over into a regional fight by Anna Cooban (December 5, 2023) CNN Business.UAW launches bid to organize Tesla and 'entire non-union auto sector' in US by David Shepardson (November 29, 2023) Reuters.
In a 2018 post to Twitter, Musk threatened to pull the stock options of any workers who unionized at Tesla."Nothing stopping Tesla team at our car plant from voting union. Could do so tmrw if they wanted. But why pay union dues & give up stock options for nothing? Our safety record is 2X better than when plant was UAW & everybody already gets healthcare." - @elonmusk. 6:44 AM on May 21, 2018.
===Boring boneheads===
After his flagship company, Tesla, posted a massive loss it could be imagined that analysts would want to know why. Musk was busy telling everyone that things were fine when he said:
This briefly bummed out the investors and Tesla stock dropped 5% (about $3 billion).Elon Musk Rejects ‘Boring, Bonehead Questions,’ and Tesla’s Stock Slides The New York Times 3 May 2018
===Tesla===
In 2019, Musk tweeted that the company may go private. 
For whatever reason he did this (who knows?), he broke the law as it was of a speculative nature. While the company wasn't destined to go private, the market took the tweet seriously, and some investors lost millions in the speculation game. Investors initiated a lawsuit, which is still in the courts.A federal judge just ruled that Tesla must face a shareholder lawsuit over Elon Musk's tweet saying he was considering taking the company private Business Insider 15 April 2020 Somehow Musk survived this colossally stupid move. Though in fairness, Tesla is currently worth about 10x what it was when Musk made that tweet; had he gone through with the deal it would've been the greatest business deal in modern history.
However, clearly, this wasn't enough. In 2020, while he was busy denying the serious nature of COVID-19, he also made a casual claim that his company was "over-valued".Tesla Shares Tumble As Musk Says Stock Is Overvalued Barron's 1 May 2020
This led to a huge drop in market value with himself losing billions in value. It is unlikely any of this will stop Musk from making stupid, pointless, destructive comments in the future about the value or future of the company.
Tesla claims in its annual reports to shareholders that it's ethical and that it does "not knowingly accept products or services from suppliers that include forced labor or human trafficking in any form."Tesla Modern Slavery Transparency Statement Tesla.EV makers’ use of Chinese suppliers raises concerns about forced labor: U.S. law barring parts and products from the Xinjiang region poses a challenge for Tesla and other auto companies by Evan Halper (Sept. 18 at 5:00 p.m.) The Washington Post. However, some materials that go into Teslas come from Xinjiang, China, where forced labor is rampant, and where there is a ban on imports of parts into the US (due to the Uyghur genocide). It would seem to be either willful ignorance or just plain hypocrisy.
===Bigotry===
====Transphobia====
Musk, despite his brainchild Tesla being well-known for its inclusiveness of LGBTQ+ people,Eamon Barrett, Elon Musk flaunts Tesla's perfect score on LGBTQ equality index, saying his company respects 'personal choices'. (Jun 2, 2022). Fortune. has also made quite a few attacks on the use of pronouns for non-binary individuals. After facing much backlash after infamously tweeting "pronouns suck",Elon Musk's transphobia on Twitter is not a joke. Observer. 28 July 2020. Musk went on to make the following even-more damning follow-up tweet a few months later:
It also didn't help Musk's case that he additionally shared a meme of a soldier rubbing his face with bloody hands and a hat with the words "I Love To Oppress", with the caption ""when you put he/him in ur bio"when you put he/him in ur bio by Elon Musk (10:11 PM - 13 Dec 2020) Twitter (archived from December 14, 2020). The meme is known as "The Eternal Anglo"The Eternal Anglo - I LOVE TO OPPRESS.jpg Know Your Meme. The term 'The Eternal Anglo' is based on the antisemitic 1940 film produced in Nazi Germany. The Eternal Anglo meme is purportedly primarily used by fascistic German and Slavic speakers to demonize English-speaking countriesEternal Anglo (February 16, 2017) Urban Dictionary. but has morphed into other usage within the larger alt-right.
In 2022, Musk's transgender daughter cut ties with him, saying "I no longer live with or wish to be related to my biological father in any way, shape or form". She has legally changed her name to Vivian Jenna Wilson.Daniel Arkin and Diana Dasrath, Elon Musk's daughter granted name and gender change (June 23, 2022) NBC News In response, Musk blamed "full-on communism" in universities,Roula Khalaf, Elon Musk: "Aren't you entertained?". (October 7, 2022). The Financial Times. (Archived on November 20, 2022)Andrea Blanco, Elon Musk discusses estranged relationship with daughter: "Can't win them all". (October 11, 2022). The Independent. showing the typical right-wing ignorance of what communism actually is.
In April 2023, as if to demonstrate why his own child would want to distance themselves from him, Musk continued his anti-trans campaign by removing the Twitter policy against deadnaming. In June 2023, he promoted Matt Walsh's anti-trans "What is a Woman?" schlockumentary.Daysia Tolentino and David Ingram (June 2, 2023). "Musk’s response to an anti-trans video sparks 24 hours of chaos at Twitter". NBC News.Robert Carnevale (June 2, 2023). "Elon Musk Promoted the Matt Walsh Transgenderism Doc 'What Is a Woman' After Twitter Originally Restricted It". The Wrap.Prem Thakker (June 2, 2023). "Elon Musk Personally Elevates Transphobic Video Originally Flagged as Hate Speech". The New Republic. Further, he agreed with a post by Jordan Peterson suggesting that transgender-affirming therapists should be imprisoned.Prem Thakker (June 2, 2023). "Elon Musk Calls to Imprison Therapists Helping Trans Kids". The New Republic. Musk also announced that he will personally "be actively lobbying to criminalize making severe, irreversible changes to children below the age of consent".Rebecca Hernandez
(June 3, 2023). "Elon Musk Announces Plans to Lobby Against Gender-Affirming Care". The Star Observer.Paul Squire and Aaron McDade (June 2, 2023). "Elon Musk spent the last 24 hours spreading increasingly unhinged anti-trans content". Business Insider. He further agreed that "LGB" should be separated from "TQ+"; a potentially peculiar statement since the Q (either "Queer" or "Questioning") is part of the LGB; in fact it encompasses all three of those. Further, Musk himself doesn't proclaim any sort of non-heterosexual identity and thus has little grounds to decide on such topics.
In July 2024, during an interview with Jordan Peterson, Musk admitted that part of his motivation for his turn towards reactionary politics is due to his estrangement from Vivian. Musk claimed that Vivian (who, in the interview, he deadnamed once again) was "killed" by the "woke mind virus" and claimed that he was "tricked" into agreeing to gender-affirming care procedures such as puberty blockers (which he falsely claimed were a "sterilization drug")."Musk says estranged child's gender-affirming care sparked fight against 'woke mind virus'" by Anthony Robledo, USA Today, 2024 July 22"Elon Musk says his transgender child was figuratively 'killed by the woke mind virus'" by William Gavin, QZ, 2024 July 23 Vivian responded by slamming Musk as a largely absent father who berated her for exhibiting feminine traits and pressured her to appear more masculine. Vivian also slammed Musk's characteristics of gender affirming care, stating that they were lifesaving for her and other people with severe gender dysphobia, and that the requirements to be approved for taking puberty blockers as a minor were far more onerous than Musk characterized."Elon Musk's transgender daughter, in first interview, says he berated her for being queer as a child" by David Ingram, NBC News, 2024 July 25 A few weeks later, Vivian slammed a depiction of her in a 2023 biography / hagiography of Musk, claiming that the biography was "genuinely defamatory" and that she "was treated as a VILLAIN BACKSTORY-ORIGIN" in order "to get clicks" from reactionaries addicted to "culture war bullshit"."Elon Musk's trans daughter, Vivian Wilson, slams his biography as 'genuinely defamatory" by Ryan Adamczeski, Advocate, 2024 August 12
====Antisemitism====
In 2023, Musk continued to flirt with antisemitism. Shortly after George Soros sold all of his Tesla stock, Musk targeted him not for selling the stock but by comparing Soros to the Jewish X-Men villain and Holocaust survivor ("Soros reminds me of Magneto") from Marvel Comics, and Tweeting:Soros reminds me of Magneto by Elon Musk (2:02 AM · May 16, 2023) Twitter (archived from May 16, 2023).Musk says George Soros ‘hates humanity,’ compares him to Jewish supervillain: The CEO of the Anti-Defamation League condemned Elon Musk’s comparison of Soros to Magneto — a Marvel villain who opposes humanity by Avi Selk & Herb Scribner (May 16, 2023) The Washington Post.
It doesn't help matters that antisemitic tweets greatly increased after Musk took over Twitter,Antisemitic tweets soared on Twitter after Musk took over, study finds by Cristiano Lima & David DiMolfetta (March 20, 2023 at 9:02 a.m. EDT) The Washington Post. which one must assume Musk is perfectly fine with since he eviserated the Trust and Safety team at Twitter.Musk's Twitter has dissolved its Trust and Safety Council (December 12, 20229:59 PM ET) Associated Press via NPR. Within a few days that Musk claimed a free speech absolutist defense ("I mean, uh, freedom of speech. I’m allowed to say what I want.") for saying bigoted shit like this, he also censored remarks critical of Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Twitter in deference to autocratic rule in Turkey.Israeli government blasts Musk attack on Soros for ‘reeking of antisemitism’ by Avi Selk (May 17, 2023) The Washington Post.
In mid-November 2023, Musk agreed with a post from a Twitter account (with a long history of posting extremist, conspiracy tinged, bigoted content@breakingbaht Twitter (archived on 2023 April 30).@breakingbaht Twitter (archived on 2023 May 5).@breakingbaht Twitter (archived on 2023 May 22).) that accused Jewish communities of pushing "dialectical hatred against whites" and spoke of an antisemitic, Great Replacement / white genocide-like conspiracy theory that falsely asserted that Jews want to use "hordes of minorities" to displace the white population.Okay. Jewish communties have been pushing the exact kind of dialectical hatred against whites that they claim to want people to stop using against them. I'm deeply disinterested in giving the tiniest shit now about western Jewish populations coming to the disturbing realization that those hordes of minorities that support flooding their country don't exactly like them too much. You want truth said to your face, there it is. by "The Artist Formerly Known as Eric" (@breakingbaht) (2023 November 15) Twitter (archived on 2023 November 15). Musk's reply to this post was "You have said the actual truth.""Elon Musk expresses support for antisemitic post on X, calling it "the actual truth"" by Aimee Picchi, CBS News, 2023 November 16 This Tweet coincided with a report from Media Matters for America (MMFA) detailing how advertisements for major brands were being placed within Twitter threads that praised Adolf Hitler and Nazis."As Musk endorses antisemitic conspiracy theory, X has been placing ads for Apple, Bravo, IBM, Oracle, and Xfinity next to pro-Nazi content" by Eric Hananoki, Media Matters, 2023 November 16 Musk's antisemitic tweet combined with the MMFA report resulted in backlash from both the White House and the EU, alarm from Jewish leaders and organizations, and departures of yet even more advertisers from the Twitter platform."Elon Musk faces growing backlash over his endorsement of antisemitic X post" by Aimee Picchi, CBS News, 2023 November 17"Antisemites are saying Elon Musk is on their side after his latest tweets about Jews" by David Ingram, NBC News, 2023 November 16 This was not the first time that brands suspended advertising on Twitter due to ads appearing next to pro-Nazi content; a similar incident occurred in mid-August 2023."Two brands suspend advertising on X after their ads appeared next to pro-Nazi content" by Claire Duffy and Brian Fung, CNN, 2023 August 17
====White genocide and racism====
Musk is so racist, that even fellow-racist Steve Bannon thinks he's too racist:
After decades of mostly ignoring his natal country, Musk claimed that "They are openly pushing for genocide of white people in South Africa" in 2023, based on a single political rally by the country's third-largest party, the Marxist-Leninist Economic Freedom Fighters, in which an apartheid-era song was sung that included the lyrics "shoot to kill", "kill the Boer" and "kill the farmer".Elon Musk raises the specter of ‘white genocide’ by Ishaan Tharoor (August 1, 2023 at 7:29 p.m. EDT) The Washington Post.
In November 2023, shortly after agreeing with an antisemitic oriented post that flirted with white genocide conspiracy theories, Musk replied to an exchange between the alt-right racist pundit Jack Posobiec and the far-right Dutch politician/pundit In the thread, Posobiec complained that "white people are the only ones who are supposed to hate their own race in order to be considered good people... and white culture is the only one where hatred of it is considered a virtue"."White people are the only ones who are supposed to hate their own race in order to be considered good people Whiteness is the only culture identified by those outside it and not those who are part of it And white culture is the only one where hatred of it is considered a virtue" by Jack Posobiec (@JackPosobiec), Twitter, archived on 2023 November 16 Vlaardingerbroek agreed with the sentiment, insisting that "everyone is allowed to be proud of their race, except for white people, because we’ve been brainwashed into believing that our history was somehow 'worse' than that of other races.""Everyone is allowed to be proud of their race, except for white people, because we’ve been brainwashed into believing that our history was somehow “worse” than that of other races. That false narrative needs to die - and if we really want to do the comparing game, white people have also done A LOT of good for the world." by Eva Vlaardingerbroek (@EvaVlaar), Twitter, 2023 November 16 These statements, of course, were obvious racist loaded language based on a perceived persecution complex against whites, similar to such alt-right memes as It's Okay To Be White. Of course, Musk completely agreed with the statements, replying that it was "time for this nonsense to end and shame ANYONE who perpetuates these lies!""Twitter CEO Says Platform Is Fighting Antisemitism a Day After Owner Elon Musk Endorsed It" by Miles Klee, Rolling Stone, 2023 November 16 Elon Musk on ‘Great Replacement Theory’ says THIS, not immigration to blame for Europe's ‘falling white population’ Mint
====Supporting far-right hooligans====
Musk and his Twitter platform played a significant role in the 2024 United Kingdom riots. The genesis of these riots, which began in late July 2024, occurred when false rumors spread online that the suspect of a deadly mass stabbing event was a Muslim immigrant."UK riots show how social media can fuel real-life harm. It’s only getting worse" by Brian Fung, CNN, 2024 August 9 These claims were amplified by noxious far-right personalities such as Nigel Farage, Laurence Fox, and Tommy Robinson (the later who was reinstated on Twitter in November 2023 after previously being banned for breaching Twitter's "hateful conduct" policy)."Tommy Robinson and Katie Hopkins reinstated on X as Elon Musk overturns Twitter bans" by Holly Evans, Independent, 2023 November 6 Musk did his best to amplify the riots himself: he engaged with Robinson, tweeted exaggerated bullshit such as "civil war is inevitable", and bizarrely compared UK authorities pursuing the hooligan perpetrators to "woke Stasi"."Where are the brave inciters of Britain’s race riots? From Tommy to Elon, they’re far, far away" by Marina Hyde, Guardian, 2024 August 6"Elon Musk engages with Tommy Robinson as social media warned over misinformation" by Martyn Landi, Independent, 2024 August 2"Elon Musk Won’t Quit Trying to Stoke Civil War in the U.K." by Paige Oamek, New Republic, 2024 August 9 Twitter was identified as one of the primary outlets that spread the misinformation that fueled the riots. Critics directly linked actions Musk took as CEO of Twitter to the riots, such as disbanding the trust and safety team and setting up a "blue check" system that allowed nefarious actors to boost disinformation propaganda."UK's worst riots in years were incited by online disinformation about asylum seekers", NPR Weekend Edition, Transcript, 2024 August 10
In reality, the riots were hardly at the level of a "civil war" — they represented only a tiny minority of the UK population. The rioting was way out of step with UK public opinion. Even Reform UK voters reacted negatively to the hooliganism."Elon Musk says civil war is coming to the U.K. The British beg to differ." by Yuliya Talmazan, NBC News, 2024 August 8"Trying to Capitalize on Anti-Migrant Riots Could Backfire on U.K.’s Far Right" by Amanda Taub, New York Times, 2024 August 8 The riots also amplified concerns that the far-right was now a significant threat to British society. A poll taken by after the riots showed that 47 percent of Britons professed this belief. This percentage, up 15 points since the previous poll in February 2024, was nearly as high as the percentage of Britons identifying Islamic extremism as a threat. "Almost half of Britons now believe right-wing extremists are a major threat following 2024 riots" by Matthew Smith, YouGov, 2024 August 7 By August 2024, many of the far-right hooligan gatherings were countered by much larger groups of anti-racism protesters that defended hooligan targets such as immigration centers."‘More of us than you’: Thousands of anti-racism protesters turn out to counter far-right rallies in UK" by Christian Edwards and Rob Picheta, CNN, 2024 August 8
Despite Musk being seriously out of step with Briton public opinion, Musk feuded with prime minister Keir Starmer after he called Musk out on his bullshit "civil war" tweet. Backed by alt-right memes shared by far-right agitators such as Andy Ngo, Musk reacted to the news of police arresting violent rioters by bizarrely comparing Britain to the Soviet Union. Musk also applied Soviet Union-style whataboutism to the government's decision to provide extra protection for mosques during the riots, wailing "shouldn’t you be concerned about attacks on all communities?" at a time when such attacks were obviously not occurring."Elon Musk launches Twitter tirade over far-right riots as minister brands billionaire ‘deeply irresponsible’" by Millie Cooke, Independent, 2024 August 6 Musk even shared (and quickly deleted) a fake news image that promoted a conspiracy theory about the UK building "detainment camps" on the Falkland Islands for rioters."Musk shares faked far-right 'detainment camp' for rioters post", BBC, 2024 August 8
Predictably, Musk's support for hooliganism corresponded with a significant British increase in interest in Twitter competitors and including from Labour MPs who were seeking refuge from Twitter's increasing far-right toxicity."Labour MPs begin quitting X over ‘hate and disinformation’" by Eleni Courea, Guardian, 2024 August 12"Bluesky signups surge in UK amid Musk's feud with government over riots" by Deborah Mary Sophia, Reuters, 2024 August 13 In September 2024, data from Similarweb showed that active daily users of Twitter in the UK dropped from 8 million in 2023 to only 5.6 million at that time, with more than a third of that fall happening after the hooligan riots."With Bluesky, the social media echo chamber is back in vogue" by Jemima Kelly, Financial Times, 2024 September 22, archived on 2024 September 24
In 2025, Musk indicated his support for looting during the peak of the by adding the Clown World emoji to his reposting of a Twitter troll account that claimed that looting was legal.🤡🌎 by Elon Musk (8:13 PM · Jan 11, 2025) Twitter (archived from 13 Jan 2025 16:11:32 UTC).Newsom accuses Musk of encouraging looting in LA fires disinformation spat: Billionaire reposted false claim as Republicans seek to condition disaster aid to Democratic-controlled California by Robert Tait (13 Jan 2025 11.12 EST) The Guardian.
==="Pedo guy" lawsuit===
Musk's most ghastly batshit-insanity is the accusation of a child-rescuing hero of being a pedophile. While several young soccer players were stuck in a cave, Musk flew to Thailand and tried to offer help however he could.Elon Musk Thinks a Mini-Submarine Could Help in Thai Cave Rescue The New York Times 7 July 2018 Regardless of whether or not his mission to help out was nothing but a PR stunt, it seemed his help was rather useless and was getting in the way.Elon Musk and the Thai cave rescue: a tale of good intentions and bad tweets Vox 18 July 2018 A semi-professional spelunker, Vern Unsworth helped bring the trapped children to safety.HERO'S LAWSUIT Who is Vernon Unsworth? Thailand cave diver dubbed ‘paedo guy’ by Elon Musk The Sun 7 December 2019 He was critical of some of Musk's efforts to help including criticism of the feasibility of Musk's proposed amazing-cave-submarine-child-rescue-awesome-mobile.Elon Musk calls British diver in Thai cave rescue 'pedo' in baseless attack The Guardian 16 July 2018 Unsworth risked his life to reach the boys, comfort the scared children and rescue them.Exclusive interview with Thai cave rescue hero Vernon Unsworth: ‘If the Brits hadn’t been called in, it would have been too late’ The Times 15 July 2018 As thanks for this he was accused of being a pedophile by Musk.Cave diver criticizes Musk’s kid-sub rescue plan. Musk suggests he’s a pedophile Los Angeles Times 15 July 2018 Musk's petty hissy-fit in the form of a vague accusation of pedophilia didn't go away even after Musk deleted the tweet and gave a half-hearted retraction.Elon Musk Has Finally Apologized to the Thai Cave Diver He Called a ‘Pedo’ Fortune 18 July 2018 A week later, Musk sprayed a full out pedophile on social media...twice.Elon Musk calls British diver in Thai cave rescue 'pedo' in baseless attack The Guardian 16 July 2018Elon Musk attacks British cave diver for a third time, calling him a ‘child rapist’ by Ryan Browne (5 September 2018) CNBC.
In September 2018, Unsworth filed suit for defamation, with Musk somehow winning,Elon Musk 'Set Out to Destroy Me,' Says Cave Diver After Losing 'Pedo Guy' Defamation Lawsuit Against Tesla Boss Newsweek 18 December 2019 despite none of his accusations having a shred of truth to them — the Private Investigator hired by Musk having scammed him.Elon Musk claims his investigator tricked him about diver he called a 'pedo' The Guardian 9 October 2019 The court was mostly hung up if Musk was just casually slinging the term or actually trying to defame Unsworth.
During the trial, he essentially defended his right to be a Twitter troll.Elon Musk defends his right to be a Twitter troll at 'pedo guy' trial Billionaires gonna troll. by Rachel Kraus (December 4, 2019) Mashable.
===Doxing federal employees===
In the middle of November 2024, Musk reposted two tweets that contained the names of federal government employees that he wants gone. This has terrified government workers, who fear not only losing their jobs, but being the targets of harassment and even violence by the Chief Twit and his horde of rabid fans.
==Natalism==
If we are taking Musk at his word, one of his central concerns is that of which he said was "the biggest issue in 20 years" as of 2019 (and he has since continued signaling his interest, often via Tweet).Sarah Jones (July 7, 2022). "Is Elon Musk Trying to Populate Mars Himself?". Intelligencer (New York). He believes that people should be having more children, and is himself the father of roughly a dozen.Kenzie Bryant (September 11, 2023). "All Is Well Again in House Elon Musk". Vanity Fair. He sometimes expresses his natalist beliefs in totalizing and dramatic ways. For example, in a reply to he once claimed that a "major part of the fall of Rome was low birth rates".Elon Musk (September 18, 2023). "A major part of the fall of Rome was low birth rates". Twitter. After which, he actually went to Rome to tell people to have more children.(December 16, 2023). "Elon Musk urges people in developed countries to have more children". Euronews (with Agence France-Presse). Musk claims that "population collapse due to low birth rates is a much bigger risk to civilization than global warming". He has also insinuated that low birth rates are "a massive genocide of the next generation of humans", a result which he attributed "instrumentally" to overpopulation alarmist Elon Musk (February 13, 2024). "Ehrlich was instrumental in causing a massive genocide of the next generation of humans". Twitter. Despite his repulsion towards Ehrlich, Musk has something in common with him: draconian disregard for personal While Ehrlich advocated mass sterilization, Musk has advocated stripping voting rights from childless people.Josh Marcus (July 4, 2023). "Elon Musk supports eliminating voting rights for people without children". The Independent.
There is perhaps more under the surface here. Musk is more especially concerned that people with high IQ scores aren't having enough children.Cheryl Teh (March 7, 2023). "Elon Musk says it's 'super concerning' that smart youths aren't having as much sex as those with average IQs, referencing data from a study published 23 years ago". Business Insider.Abigail Adams (September 11, 2023). "Elon Musk 'Wants Smart People to Have Kids,' Executive He Welcomed Twins with Says in New Book". People. (He is himself "confident" in his own intelligence, and expresses a fear that the future will look like Idiocracy.) His concern, then, perhaps isn't quite that too few children are coming into the world, but that too few children with high-IQ parents are. This view of his has sometimes been derided as "hipster eugenics",Pete Shanks (September 21, 2023). "Natalism and Hipster Eugenics". Center for Genetics and Society. or "low-key eugenic", and it isn't hard to see why.
Why Musk is so interested is debatable. He has indicated various reasons, and some of them appear dubious, such as his bullshit proclamation that Mars will need colonists. WIRED speculated that it could be a cold, capitalist calculation about labor supply: more children, more workers.Virginia Heffernan (October 26, 2022). The Real Reason Elon Musk Wants You to Have More Babies. WIRED. That would perhaps explain why Jeff Bezos,Steve Mollman (December 16, 2023). "Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk say human population not nearly big enough: 'If we had a trillion humans, we would have at any given time a thousand Mozarts'". Fortune. the late Shinzō Abe, and the villains from are mostly in agreement with Musk, at least. Assuming Musk's adherence to this sort of eugenic natalism is genuine, it may offer a certain for some other positions he has taken, which could in fact be outgrowths from this central belief. For instance, his fear of a white genocide scenario may (somewhat speculatively, but his engagements with the account @eyeslasho appear to support thisThomas Germain (January 10, 2024). "Elon Musk Seems to Endorse Tweet Saying Students at Black Colleges Have Low IQs". Gizmodo.) stem from racialist anxiety towards reproduction by non-white, non-Asian people. His natalism also appears to have informed his views on birth control and abortion.Andréa Becker (October 16, 2023). "Elon Musk's Feud With Grimes Is a Warning". Slate.Charisma Madarang (April 18, 2023). "Elon Musk and Tucker Carlson Discuss the Urge to Impregnate Women". Rolling Stone.
Musk's references to transgender medicine as "sterilization",Samantha Riedel (April 14, 2023). "Elon Musk Suggests Doctors Who Treat Trans Youth Should 'Go to Prison for Life'". Them.Noor Al-Sibai (March 18, 2023). "Oh, Great, Elon Musk Has Entered the Trans Kids 'Debate' Chat". Neoscope (Futurism.). beyond their inaccuracy (at least for nonsurgical interventions such as hormone replacement), could possibly be another outgrowth from his eugenic natalism. suggested it was indeed a factor (alongside a perceived dislike of "woke culture"), and had a half-decent response invoking the existence of modern fertility interventions.Joey Nolfi (August 10, 2023). "Grimes had 'long conversation' with Elon Musk about trans issues: 'He's unhappy with woke people'". Entertainment Weekly.Steven Levy (August 8, 2023). "Grimes on Living Forever, Dying on Mars, and Giving Elon Musk Ideas for His Best (Worst) Tweets". WIRED. (For example: has been successfully used to boost fertility in both transgender men and women, and "extended sperm search and microfreeze" is reportedly effective for the latter.Jacqueline Mroz (October 21, 2022). "A New Procedure Could Expand Reproductive Choices for Transgender Women". The New York Times.)
In reality, many of the root causes of the low global birth rates are actually a byproduct of human progress — notably advances in education and health, more freedoms and opportunities in society, and equal rights for women (along with some additional negative external factors like ballooning costs for raising kids)."The World’s Population May Peak in Your Lifetime. What Happens Next?" by Dean Spears, New York Times, 2023 September 26"You can’t even pay people to have more kids" by Anna North, Vox, 2023 November 27 However, ironically for Musk (who significantly promotes "hardcore" working hours in his businesses), excessively long working hours have been additionally identified as a significant factor in reducing birth rates in studies of South Korea, which has one of the lowest fertility rates in the world.Kim T. The impact of working hours on pregnancy intention in childbearing-age women in Korea, the country with the world's lowest fertility rate. PLoS One. 2023 Jul 19;18(7):e0288697. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0288697. PMID: 37467184; PMCID: PMC10355408.[Ahn J, Lee SH, Park MY, Oh SH, Lee W. The Association Between Long Working Hours and Infertility. Saf Health Work. 2021 Dec;12(4):517-521. doi: 10.1016/j.shaw.2021.07.005. Epub 2021 Jul 14. PMID: 34900371; PMCID: PMC8640650.] One Japanese company () in 2010 banned late-night working and restricted overtime in an attempt to boost productivity. Not only was productivity successfully boosted, so was the internal birth rate within the company."A Japanese Company Bans Late-Night Work. A Baby Boom Soon Follows" by Kanoko Matsuyama, Bloomberg, 2023 July 12 Poor national policies that favor corporate work over the health and support of families (as in the United States, a country which lacks federally mandated paid paternity leave, universal health care, and universal child care) may also contribute to low birth rates."Lack of paid family leave, support at work partly to blame for 30-year low in fertility rates: Experts" by Kaelyn Forde, ABC News, 2019 January 12 A study by the Economic Innovation Group suggests that more flexible work options, such as the remote work that many companies were forced to implement during the COVID-19 pandemic, may have some limited positive effects on fertility."Early Remote Work Impacts on Family Formation" by Lyman Stone and Adam Ozimek, Economic Innovation Group, 2023 March 7 (Unsurprisingly, Musk detests remote work, calling it "morally wrong" in a May 2023 interview with )"Elon Musk Says Remote Work Is 'Morally Wrong,' Calls It 'Messed Up'" by Madeline Garfinkle, Entrepreneur, 2023 May 17
==Donald Trump==
Musk was very critical of Donald Trump until Trump became President. Musk then changed his mind and joined Trump initiatives including a council of business advisors and a project to promote manufacturing in the US.Here's why Elon Musk is changing his tune on Trump Business Insider 29 January 2017 Musk's attacks on the media seemed in accord with Trump's complaints about fake news and were supported by Trump's son Donald Trump Jr.Elon Musk melts down, blames scumbag tesla critics for electing trump Vanity Fair 23 May 2018 He also supported Trump's campaign to shift global tariffs on car imports and exports to be more favorable to American car exports.Elon Musk's and Donald Trump's Twitter Tariff Tiff Wired 12 March 2018 He left Trump's presidential council in June of 2017, citing Trump's withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement.Elon Musk leaving Trump advisory councils following Paris agreement withdrawal TechCrunch 1 June 2017
Musk claimed to have voted for Barack Obama twice (2008, 2012), Hillary Clinton (2016), and Joe Biden (2020), before supporting fascism from 2022 onward, starting with DeSantisElon Musk’s Political Shift: How The Billionaire Moved From Backing Obama To Endorsing DeSantis by Sara Dorn (November 27, 2022) Forbes (archived from 1 Dec 2022 13:41:51 UTC). continuing with Trump and Alternative for Germany in 2024.Outrage as Elon Musk claims ‘only AfD can save Germany’ by Kate Connolly (20 Dec 2024 13.08 EST) The Guardian. One is reminded of the villainous surgeon in the horror film Get Out trying to lure his victim into a feeling of trust, "By the way, I would have voted for Obama for a third term, if I could. Best President in my lifetime, hands down."Get Out: Quotes IMDb. As evidence of Musk's saying things that are politically expedient that he clearly does not believe in, in 2023 he pledged to the Chinese government that his companies would adhere to "'core socialist values", so that he could avert an EV price war with China.
By 2024, Musk had significantly shifted his politics towards Trumpism. As a result, after an assassination attempt on Trump, Musk quickly endorsed him and even said that he planned to support Trump's presidential bid with an undisclosed sum of cash."How Elon Musk Chose Trump" by Theodore Schleifer and Ryan Mac, New York Times, 2024 July 18 Musk even began appearing on stage with Trump at campaign rallies, and set up a to directly campaign for Trump. During one rally, Musk enthusiastically jumped around Trump like an idiot.Elon Musk’s Giant Leap NYTimes
Musk's turn towards Trumpism naturally included Other-demonizing conspiracy theories. During the 2024 election campaign, Musk claimed on his Twitter account, without evidence, that Democrats were trying to fill the country with undocumented immigrants, such as himself, who would subsequently reward them with permanent power. Ironically given Trump's authoritarianism and the authoritarianism of adjacent entities such as Project 2025, Musk also repeatedly warned that the 2024 race could be the last free election in America should Kamala Harris win.
===Giving a Nazi salute===
While celebrating Trump's reelection on January 20, 2025, Musk gave the three times on television.Elon Musk 'makes Nazi salute' two or three times during inauguration speech by Emily Hodgkin (Jan 20 2025) Irish Star.Did Elon Musk Sieg Heil at Trump's inauguration? Musk was seen making the gesture twice on live television. by Mathilda Heller (January 20, 2025 22:29; Updated: January 21, 2025 21:18) The Jerusalem Post. Despite the obvious modern-day meaning of the gesture, made doubly-clear during the first Trump term at, for example the Unite the Right rally, several organizations cut him slack for alleged ambiguity, giving him free reign to troll for Hitler: CNN’s Erin Burnett,CNN's Erin Burnett and Kasie Hunt omit @elonmusk saying "I'm giving you my heart" after greeting the crowd, failing the "smear @elonmusk as a Nazi without saying Nazi so as to avoid another defamation lawsuit" challenge by Eric Bonilla (1:29 PM · Jan 20, 2025) Twitter.CNN, Going for Their Next Defamation Lawsuit, Smear Elon Musk as a Nazi by Jorge Bonilla (January 20th, 2025 9:31 PM) Newsbusters. Note: inflammatory headline by wingnut website Newsbusters; Burnett made no such statement that the headline implied. The New York Times calling the gesture ambiguous, "Elon Musk Ignites Online Speculation Over the Meaning of a Hand Gesture",Elon Musk Ignites Online Speculation Over the Meaning of a Hand Gesture: Speaking at a celebratory rally in Washington, Mr. Musk twice extended his arm out with his palm facing down, drawing comparisons to the Nazi salute. by Ryan Mac (Jan. 20, 2025) The New York Times. and shockingly even the ADL cut him slack, "It seems that @elonmusk made an awkward gesture in a moment of enthusiasm, not a Nazi salute, but again, we appreciate that people are on edge."This is a delicate moment. It’s a new day and yet so many are on edge. Our politics are inflamed, and social media only adds to the anxiety. It seems that @elonmusk made an awkward gesture in a moment of enthusiasm, not a Nazi salute, but again, we appreciate that people are on edge. In this moment, all sides should give one another a bit of grace, perhaps even the benefit of the doubt, and take a breath. This is a new beginning. Let’s hope for healing and work toward unity in the months and years ahead. by ADL (10:52 PM · Jan 20, 2025) Twitter (archived from 20 Jan 2025 23:00:42 UTC).
Many people, have said that this was an awkward gesture because Elon is autistic, to the horror and frustration of actually autistic people and therapists quickly calling these excuses as obviously wrong and ableist, something those who made the accusationsakin to saying “the left is hypocritical for going after an autistic man”, never mind the fact that you can criticize people without being bigoted.Elon is Hitler? Liberals regress to cancel culture to compensate for their loss. | OpinionMusk’s straight-arm gesture embraced by right-wing extremists regardless of what he meant actually perpetuate ableism by excusing awful behaviour by saying that’s just “being autistic”.Yes, Elon, it was a Nazi salute... and autism is no excuseSome Are Excusing Elon Musk's Disturbing Salute As Autism — And Autistic People Have ThoughtsAfter Some People Claimed Elon Musk's Disturbing Salute Was Because Of Autism, Others With Autism Have Weighed In To note that the reputation of autism is pretty awful and autistic people always have to denounce many stereotypes and misconceptions that constantly make life harder for them. Being a far right incel is one of those stereotypes.Common examples include Elliot Rodger, Alek Minassian. Irony being should the far right get its way they wouldn’t exist.Breaking Down the Top 10 Autism Stereotypes: Unveiling the Truth
Others have said that it was a 'Roman Salute', something which was the inspiration for the fascists salute in the first place. Some have also said that it was a Bellamy Salute, an old gesture made during the pledge of allegiance, which in 1942 would be replaced with the “hand-over-heart” gesture specifically because of its resemblance to the fascist's salutes. When those defending Elon were asked to do the gesture if they claimed it wasn’t so bad, they would refuse. CNN panelist dares Scott Jennings to perform Musk salute on live TV
This stunt actually led the Raphael Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention to issue a red flag alert for genocide in the United States. 
To play Devil's advocate, if Elon didn’t mean it to be a Nazi salute, him following it up by making Nazi jokes (which would be then condemned by the ADL) doesn’t help matters.ADL, which had defended Musk, takes issue with his Nazi puns He would also make his intention clear instead of leaving it ambiguous. It also doesn’t help when white supremacists like Nick Fuentes and Andrew Torba celebrated the event, Musk refrained from disavowing or condemning them.Neo-Nazis Love the Nazi-Like Salutes Elon Musk Made at Trump’s Inauguration
Musk's former friend, Philip Low, asserted Musk indeed meant it to be a Nazi salute, but added: "Elon is not a Nazi, per se. He is something much better, or much worse, depending on how you look at it. Nazis believed that an entire race was above everyone else. Elon believes he is above everyone else." He speculated on several alternative reasons Musk could have done it.Nur Ibrahim (January 28, 2025). "Former Friend of Elon Musk Says Billionaire 'Believes He Is Above Everyone Else'". Snopes.Dr. Philip Low’s Post by Philip Low (January 28, 2025 at 7:56 AM) LinkedIn (archived from 28 Jan 2025 14:33:40 UTC).Philip Low on Elon Musk by Philip Low, with additional commentary (January 24 at 7:56 AM) Facebook (archived from 28 Jan 2025 14:35:22 UTC).Former Friend of Elon Musk Says Billionaire 'Believes He Is Above Everyone Else': Philip Low shared his views on Musk's alleged Nazi salute in widely shared posts on Facebook and LinkedIn. by Nur Ibrahim (Jan. 28, 2025) Snopes.
In Dorothy Thompson's " essay appearing in Harper's Magazine some eighty years earlier, she describes one archetype who may come close enough:
Low, the CEO of NeuroVigil, and the son of a Holocaust survivor, had a more specific analysis of Musk's Nazi salutes:
==See also==
*Nikola Tesla – from whom his company’s name came. Although ironically, Musk identifies more with Tesla's nemesis, Thomas Edison, than with Tesla himself.Elon Musk interview reveals whether he prefers Nikola Tesla to Thomas Edison Big Think 4 February 2019Also interesting is that he did not name the company "Tesla". It was incorporated in July 2003 as "Tesla Motors"; Musk did not become involved with the company until February of 2004. This is a recurring theme with Musk, rewriting history to give himself credit for things he didn't actually do.
*Henry Ford – The past version of Elon Musk, with all of the anti-semitism and racism as well!
*Engineers and woo – discussion of a highly-adjacent sort of arrogance
*Joe Rogan - his biggest fan.
==External links==
*Elon Musk Today — Bullshit Musk has said
==Notes==
==References==
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