Elon Musk: freedom fighter or aspiring dictator?
Given their not-so-secret ambitions, what are big tech oligarchs really up to?
Elon Musk stirred a cauldron of controversy when he saluted a crowd at President Trump's inauguration celebration in Washington D.C. on January 20. After thanking Trump supporters for delivering a win, Elon slapped his right hand to his chest, then sharply extended his locked arm upward to his right, with his hand bladed and palm down - the spitting image of the fascist salute. He then patted his chest again and said, “My heart goes out to you.”
There are four interpretations of what Elon did. Some think he made an innocent gesture - an expression of his feelings to the audience, done either accidentally or out of ignorance. Others saw it as a Nazi salute, and are condemning Elon as a Nazi. A third group also saw it as a Hitler salute, but they are celebrating Elon for it.
False racist/Nazi accusations from leftists have conditioned both conservatives and moderates to dismiss any Nazi or racist accusation they hear.
See the full speech here:
I’m not convinced Elon's flirtation with fascism is motivated by racist or antisemitic ideology, or that he has a desire to see anyone eradicated. I do see plenty of evidence it is motivated by his autocratic nature, his desire for totalitarian control, and his desire to see himself as an imperial ruler.
I was just having a conversation with my Dad on New Years Day and expressed my concern the world’s richest man may have fascist sentiments. Then a few weeks later, Elon gave a fascist salute. It has become glaringly obvious he has been flirting with fascism, but is he a full-blown Nazi?
My interpretation, which I seem to be pretty alone in, is that Elon knew what he was doing and did what he intended to do, but that his motives aren’t as nefarious as those of the Nazis in the early 20th century. I appreciate the many good things Elon has done in business, technology and politics. But I cannot turn a blind eye to what he did on January 20, nor to the many other potentially dangerous sentiments he has expressed over the years.
Matt Browning, a former police detective from Mesa, Arizona who spent a decade undercover investigating white supremacists, told Arizona’s Family/CBS 5, “It’s a Sig Heil. He hit his chest hard and threw up his hand. If you look, it wasn’t just like waving to the crowd. It was more of an aggressive form. I’ve seen hundreds if not thousands of white supremacist skinheads throw up Nazi salutes. That was no different.”
Over the past several days of controversy, Elon has not bothered to go to his X page to apologize or to disavow and denounce fascist salutes. He has not even explicitly denied he did one. His first response on the day of his speech was to accuse leftists of dirty tricks. It’s generally true that leftists are full of dirty tricks, but it’s no defense for what he did.
Friends don’t let friends flirt with fascism
The vast majority of conservative leaders I’ve heard comment are defending Elon without raising a question. Leftists have cried wolf so many times, falsely accusing people of being racist when they speak out against racism, and falsely accusing people of being Nazis for saying true things that have nothing do to with Nazis. False racist/Nazi accusations from leftists have conditioned conservatives and moderates to dismiss any Nazi or racist accusation they hear.
Elon’s salute is concerning. The way he has trivialized it is concerning. And the way neo-Nazis have celebrated it is concerning.
So, it’s not that surprising Elon’s salute has been universally dismissed and downplayed by just about everyone - except leftists who have been calling him a Nazi for years and a small number of others. This is a shame. Elon’s friends and supporters should be the first to call him out on what he has been dabbling in. Friends don’t let friends flirt with fascism.
The day after the salute, Elon bashed the media for criticizing him and asked why they don’t criticize Democrats who do the same thing. He posted a deceptive photo of Democrats with their hands in the air, without showing the actual videos the photos were taken from. Again, no mention of what he did.
The actual videos show them waving to the crowd or waving their arms around, as public speakers tend to do. None of them were doing what Elon did. Elon’s responses to his controversial salute don’t prove what his motives are, but they prove he is willing to be deceptive in order to downplay them.
Two days after his speech, Elon pointed out the irony of leftists taking time off praising Hamas to call him a Nazi, but still no mention of what he did.
The next day, he made a Nazi joke. But still, he did not address his salute, apologize for it, or make any claim that he did it on accident or did it out of ignorance. It was similar to Nazi jokes he posted in response to Nazi accusations made against Trump last year during the campaign.
It wasn’t until January 24 that Elon addressed what he did directly, saying he was moving his hand to the audience to express his heart going out to them. But again, his comment was focused on bashing the media, dishonestly claiming they were trying to cancel him for saying his heart goes out, and failing to address the fact that the way he moved his arm out was a precise replica of a fascist salute.
Not since we defeated the fascists in World War 2 has there been such a widespread defense for, dismissal of, and desensitization toward the use of the fascist salute.
And he claims his salute was a media deception. You can have different opinions on Elon’s motives, but anyone who believes their own eyes can see what he did. It’s on video and that video was not fabricated.
Then, a couple of his posts seemed like potential subtle admissions he may have had intent behind what he did, but that his intent was less nefarious than many think.
But then on January 26, he seemed to double down on his fascist intent and threaten people who criticize him. He posted, “Nemo me impune lacessit.” According to multiple online translations, it means, "No one provokes me with impunity."
Adam Smithee posted on X what looks like a video of Elon at a SpaceX meeting making hand gestures to signify his heart going out to the people he was speaking to. It looks much different than the salute he gave the crowd in D.C.
Elon’s father Erroll went on Chris Cuomo’s show to defend his son, though he didn’t think it was a random gesture to express his heart going out. He actually believed Elon’s gesture was intended as the same salute the Nazis used, but claimed Elon’s purpose was to use it in its more ancient context & not in the Nazi context.
After Cuomo asked if his son made a Nazi salute, Erroll laughed for a few seconds, with a laughter eerily similar to Elon’s. “It’s absolute nonsense.” He continued to laugh. “Absolute rubbish.” The laughter continued. Erroll then explained the claim is rubbish because it’s a “universal salute” that’s been used for “thousands of years.” He added he was an anti-apartheid politician in South Africa and his sons helped him with elections.
Elon associate Andrea Stroppa saw what Elon did as a “Roman salute.”
Stroppa’s X name includes the phrase, “Claudius Nero’s Legion.” There is at least one other Elon fan on X with that same phrase in their X name.
Elon has a history of expressing his fascination with the Roman Empire. He and his fans have pushed an image of Elon as a Roman emperor type of figure.
Biblical prophecy experts believe when the Antichrist comes, he will preside over a revived Roman Empire.
This discussion on the history of salutes is interesting and seems to counter Erroll’s claim about the salute being thousands of years old. Either way, there is a real perception in the minds of people that the salute goes back to Roman imperialism.
Here’s another take:
Elon’s mother and siblings have all defended him.
But his son Xavier, who identifies as a female named Vivian, said his salute should be called what it is and discussed the dynamic of “plausible deniability” involved in the incident. I found it interesting when I heard that phrase, because it already came to mind when I noticed the number of people who recognize Elon’s gesture looks like a fascist salute but don’t believe it was one, simply because he made the comment “my heart goes out to you.”
Elon told Jordan Peterson during their last interview, “My son Xavier is dead, killed by the woke mind virus. I vowed to destroy the woke mind virus after that.”
Erroll gave another interview in which he pointed out the history of fascism on Elon’s mother’s side of the family and their support for Hitler and for the apartheid government in South Africa. He was careful to clarify that he didn’t think they knew the extent of what the Nazis were doing in Europe. And as he said in his more recent interview, he thinks his son would take after him rather than his maternal grandfather he never met.
Elon’s salute is concerning. The way he has trivialized it is concerning. And the way neo-Nazis have celebrated it is concerning.
When there is a question about a person's motives, I put that question aside to ask a more concrete question: What are the effects caused by that person's actions?
The answer is clear and the effect Elon’s salute is having on the world is clear. Not since we defeated the fascists in World War 2 has there been such a widespread defense for, dismissal of and desensitization toward the use of the fascist salute. And Elon’s salute was most likely responded to with the greatest outpouring of Nazi salutes and praise for Hitler than any time since VE Day.
I consider what Elon did a desecration of an important civic day to America, the inauguration of a new president - and a historic day for a president who experienced the greatest comeback story in our history.
As I scrolled through Elon’s X page, a section called “Who to Follow” interrupted it after viewing his latest couple posts. It provided a list of three people it encouraged me to follow. At the top of that list was Andrew Tate.
On January 20, Tate responded to Elon’s salute by telling his 10.6 million X followers to make Nazi salutes “until people are over it.” He also retweeted a post describing Elon’s salute as a Hitler salute and stated, “We’re so back.” The next day he said, “I’m thinking we should bring the Nazi salute back.” He also posted, “EItler,” which is an obvious abbreviation of “Heil Hitler.” In the recent past, I noticed he posted about people beginning to name their sons Adolf again. He posted, “Nature is healing,” or something to that effect.
I’ve heard people dismiss Elon’s use of the fascist salute as an irrelevant gesture from a century ago on the other side of the world. Yet just three days after Elon’s salute, a black Nazi sympathizer posted a picture of himself making the salute before he opened fire at his school.
Andrew Torba is a racist who spreads a perverted idea of Christianity and runs the social media platform Gab, which is a hive of white supremacist expression. He posted a photo of Elon’s salute to his half-million X followers, saying, “Incredible things are happening.” He also said he thinks the purpose of Elon’s salute was to shift “the range of ideas deemed acceptable in discourse” and described the salute as “harmless, perhaps even playful, but certainly not the sinister act it was later portrayed to be by the media.”
Here’s Torba’s take on Elon’s motives:
Here’s the opposite take:
It seems a bit brazen of Elon to host a discussion with a racist using his @adriandittmann account, several days after the controversy over his salute. He moderated a debate between notorious racist Nick Fuentes and someone who goes by @CharlotteFang77 on X, but also appears to go by Charlie, and appears to lead something called Milady Cult. Fang has posted many times that Peter Thiel is behind the cult, but denied it during the discussion.
The debate seemed to be more about Fuentes’ objections to many of the factions within the Trump coalition than his racist ideology. He did express his racism a few times. No host or listener seemed to give any affirmation to his comments about race. One listener gave repeated thumbs down every time he mentioned it. At the end, Elon seemed to focus on the shared cultural interests all in the conversation had and the things Fuentes opposes that he things are good to oppose, like unfettered immigration. It also seemed to me that Elon was treating these people like human beings, rather than as spiritual personifications of the worst of their beliefs.
But still, some of those beliefs are pretty bad. Here are some of Fuentes’ posts:
During the debate, Fang said (s)he is an AI accelerationist and his/her head is 100 years from now, so (s)he’s not concerned with nation-state politics. When (s)he said that, @adriandittmann, aka Elon, posted two hearts, expressing wholehearted agreement. When Fang mentioned cryptocurrency undermining nation states, Elon posted three 100s, again expressing strong personal agreement.
It’s enough to make you wonder about Elon’s involvement in D.O.G.E., which has short-term goals of eliminating government excess & waste, and cutting national expenses. But could Elon’s long-term vision for the world be to replace nationalism with some sort of technocratic or corporate imperialism? Does he see the power of nation-states as an impediment to his ambitions?
And why is Elon so silent, not just about what he did, but about the inspiration he gave to fascists, who are explicitly praising Hitler because of his salute? If he is so innocent of having any fascist intent, why doesn’t he condemn the way his salute is being celebrated? And why is the X platform promoting people like Andrew Tate who are celebrating the Nazi salute?
Think of the contrast here. Elon has been bashing the media who criticized his salute as being Nazi, but has said nothing about white supremacists who celebrated it as being Nazi. He can’t use the excuse they are nobodies with no following and are better ignored. Andrew Tate has five times more X followers than PBS, the media outlet Elon’s sister criticized for their coverage of the incident.
This aspect of the situation also sheds light on the claim that many Democrats did the same thing Elon did. When these Democrats raised their hands in the air, how many neo-Nazis celebrated them and praised Hitler? The obvious answer is zero because what they did is obviously different than what Elon did.
It’s hard to find an objective perspective on the world’s richest man. Elon is a hero to conservatives for restoring free speech on social media when he purchased Twitter. He is a demigod to his cult followers. And he is a villain to political leftists because he broke their monopolistic & fascistic grip over the world’s digital town squares and has been an articulate opponent of their woke ideology.
I find it hard to believe Elon’s pattern of behaviors are all coincidental. And I cannot believe this world class entrepreneur, engineer & intellectual, who prides himself on his knowledge of history, among many other subjects, was ignorant of the fascist salute or found himself accidentally doing one. I think he knew exactly what he was doing and did what he intended to do.
I’m not convinced Elon's flirtation with fascism is motivated by racist or antisemitic ideology, or that he has a desire to see any of earth's populations eradicated. I’m not convinced he is a full-blown Nazi. But I do see plenty of evidence Elon’s flirtation with fascism is motivated by his autocratic nature, his desire for totalitarian control, and his desire to see himself as an imperial ruler.
Elon’s alternative X account, @adriandittmann, has a history of speaking out against white supremacy. (@adriandittmann has denied being Elon, but I believe 100% it is him.)
Elon often speaks out against the institutionalized racism of DEI. He advocates for increasing the human population and has had many kids. His biographer, Walter Isaacson, tells the story of Elon getting a bad dog bite as a youth, but refusing medical attention until he was promised the dog would not be killed. He seems to be pro human and animal life. He does not seem to be the full-blown psychopath leftists portray him as. Far from it. But he does seem to have potentially dangerous sentiments and desires.
THE TWO ELONS: LIBERTY & TYRANNY, ANGELS & DEMONS
In his biography of Elon Musk, Walter Isaacson wrote, “Elon’s father exercised an extremely stern streetwise autocracy with his boys…Elon would later apply that same stern autocracy to himself and others…Elon’s moods would cycle between light and dark, intense and goofy, detached and emotional, with occasional plunges into what those around him dreaded as demon mode…His behavior hinted at a danger that needed to be constantly battled…exorcising the demons and wrestling with the dark side of the force…”
I believe the power of Elon Musk and other big tech billionaires must be held in check, or humanity will lose its freedoms forever.
Isaacson also tells the story of Elon learning hypnosis as a child and using it to control the mind of his sister, convince her she was a dog and have her eat raw bacon.
A year ago, Elon told Lex Fridman during an interview, “My mind is a storm.” He compared watching A.I. grow up with watching his little son grow up.
Over the years, Elon has often presented an image of himself as an emperor or king. I believe he once gave himself the title “techno-king.” His fans (or his alt accounts/bots?) have pushed that image of him even more vigorously, something he seems to appreciate. They even present him as a god. I’ve never seen any effort by him to discourage it.
He has also pushed an image of himself as a champion of liberty and democracy. He seemed to prove that by purchasing Twitter, reducing censorship and restoring free speech. But then again, it seems there are other, less than altruistic, motives for his Twitter purchase. Elon’s biographer wrote that Elon bought Twitter after getting a board seat because “it was in his nature to want total control.” And Elon has expressed his wish to turn Twitter into an everything app like WeChat, which is a Chinese app that has total control over the daily lives of Chinese people.
There seems to be a war between liberty and tyranny in Elon’s mind and the winner could shape what kind of future we live in.
Elon seems to wear his heart on his sleeve to an extent and is willing to admit there are “two wolves” within him, and express these sentiments so publicly. There are also things he can be manipulative and deceptive about. But I would suspect the other big tech overlords have evil and deceptive motives in their hearts 1000x worse and are far more secretive and controlled about not revealing what they are.
We would never know what Google’s Larry Page had to say about prioritizing building a digital god over the well-being of humanity if Elon did not reveal it. Elon suggested Page’s vision for the future existence of humanity is as uploads to a digital intelligence. Elon admitted he is a pro-human speciest after Page accused him of being one. But Elon himself has talked about doing the very same things, connecting human minds to A.I./machines, building a digital god, and suggesting humans could go extinct after A.I. surpasses us. See below for more on that.
“Perhaps that’s where our new god will come from,” Elon said to Jordan Peterson about his new A.I. supercomputer data center in Memphis, TN, comparing it to the home of ancient Egyptian gods in Memphis, Egypt.
I tend to think Elon is more trustworthy than Larry Page to direct the future of A.I. The same with Sam Altman, who thought to name gore films among a handful of things he is working on providing consumers the ability to create using A.I. But I wish there was someone more trustworthy than Elon and all the big tech oligarchs to build the future of A.I. I believe the power of Elon Musk and other big tech billionaires must be held in check, or humanity will lose its freedoms forever.
Elon has more potential to unleash good and more potential to unleash evil upon the world than any other individual on the planet. But there are other powerful people who, as a cabal, have even more potential to unleash evil, and Elon may be the only person who can stop them.
Elon’s first wife Justine spoke of the darkness in Elon’s soul and said, “Darkness does not have to mean evil. It can refer to anything that has not yet been brought into the light, that lives in the space beyond our boundaries…[geniuses and visionaries] bring light to the dark and they show us the universe.”
My hope for Elon is that in all his technological and civilizational endeavors he would completely disavow totalitarianism and commit to building technologies that do not result in centralized control and does not grant him or anyone else control over the lives of other people. I hope he builds technologies that guarantee the autonomy of individuals and the sovereignty of nations rather than the autocracy of big tech oligarchs.
My hope is Elon’s better angels win the war for his soul and that he brings light into the darkness rather than snuffing out the light with darkness. And despite what he said to Lex Fridman about not needing a source of strength, I hope he does find a source of strength to defeat his inner demons. On his own, his demons may very well have their way with him and he may very well become a force for evil in the world. Like the first two of the 12 steps, he needs to start by admitting what his problem is and seeking help from a power greater than himself. And hopefully that greater power is God the Creator, not Satan the deceiver.
If he can defeat his inner demons, how much more capable will he be to wage war against the demons in the world.
I think Trump has an opportunity during his second term to implement real safety mechanisms to protect individual liberties against the tyranny that can come from many sources: government, corporations, technology, A.I., big tech oligarchs, or even a single mega tech monarch.
I just hope all these billionaires who have made their way into Trump's good graces don't persuade him to grant them a level of control over the world that is too massive to be undone by future governments - and all in the name of deregulation.
The spineless way many of our big tech oligarchs kissed up to Trump after conforming to Biden’s woke agenda shows how little they can be trusted. At least Elon had a spine during all that woke insanity.
If we have a Democrat win the next election, the big tech overlords will probably just swing back to the left. Isn't that the most fundamental definition of fascism, a fusion between the government and the big business of the country? In that sense, Elon is the least fascist of that group. I guess there are other like Jensen Huang who hasn’t seemed to kiss up to any president from either party?
Trump associate Steve Bannon got into a conflict with Elon after the election victory over immigration. Bannon accused Elon of being evil and said he is “really about the implementation of techno-feudalism on a global scale.”
Wouldn’t implementing a technocracy just be replacing one unelected bureaucracy with another, only one that is even less democratic?
Elon aspires to turn X into a copy of WeChat, China’s all-controlling app.
“Kitsch Liao, assistant director of the Atlantic Council's Global China Hub, says super-apps like WeChat align with Beijing's aims of organizing all aspects of life to keep control of the country.” Why does Elon think an app that “controls every aspect of people’s lives,” violates people’s rights, and enables government tyranny to be “kick ass”?
What’s with Elon’s apparent aspiration to become an imperial ruler?
Erroll said Elon was named after his maternal great-grandfather and the Mars leader in “Mars Project.”
ELON’S COLLECTIVISM & TRANSHUMANISM
Will Elon create a real-life Borg?
On one hand, Elon seems to go out of his way to express how much he loves humanity, wants to protect humanity from potential A.I. threats, and wants individual liberty and sovereignty to be protected from centralized and globalized control. In October he was in Philadelphia and said, “I’m against globalist power…maximum power to the individual…agencies at the federal level should have minimal to zero power over you.”
On the other hand, he has a history of statements about working to merge humanity with A.I. (if you can’t beat em, join em) and steer humanity into a collective consciousness or “hivemind.” He has a history of criticizing leftists for their hivemind, yet he wants to create one of his own. On Inauguration Day, he commented about the matrix. Instead of saying it must be destroyed, he said it must be reprogrammed. He once explicitly said, “I don’t want to break the matrix. I want to shape it.”
Isaacson wrote that Elon has a “lifelong fascination with the tantalizing thought that we might be pawns in a simulation devised by higher order beings.” He's helping to create the future world all of humanity will be living in, so I wonder what impact his belief that our lives are a simulation programmed by some other entity could have on that?
Referring to his X platform, he has said, “The goal of this platform is to be the collective consciousness of humanity, which necessarily means a wide range of beliefs.” That sounds contradictory to me. You can much more easily achieve collectivism through uniformity and conformity, can you not? Doesn’t a collective consciousness necessarily mean excluding variants that do not conform?
I’ve noticed when he talks about becoming a spacefaring civilization he often uses the word “consciousness” rather than “humanity” as that which he hopes to preserve for the distant future. And I don’t know what to make of his post showing the extinction of humanity and two robots visiting a museum with human skeletons.
Read his words for yourself and make your own interpretations & conclusions.
I have heard Elon talk about feeding information to people's brains with nanobots running in their bloodstream, as if that's the same thing as a person listening to the news. If you have any love for preserving your individual liberty and autonomy, such dangerous sentiments and ambitions should make you very concerned about Elon’s agenda for the world.
ELON’S OCCULTISM
Isaacson wrote about Elon always wanting to be the dungeon master when playing Dungeons and Dragons with his family and friends. For much of 2022, Elon’s profile picture showed him wearing a Satanic symbol.
He has also dabbled in the Kek cult. In ancient Egyptian mythology, Kek is a primordial god representing darkness and chaos.
In his pseudonymous X account, @AdrianDittmann, Elon once mentioned the rumors that he is a cult leader. He said nothing to counter the idea, and sounded like he liked it.
“The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.” -George Orwell
In the past several years, I've mostly been convinced the greatest risk of fascism in America is from the woke progressive left. But in the past couple years, I've had a growing concern of the possibility it could come from the so-called "moderate" technocratic “middle” in partnership with either the woke far left or the fascist far right. We could have two different factions of technocratic fascists, one aligned with woke far left and one aligned with the far right. That is very concerning.
The more fascism grows on any side, the more it grows as a reaction on the other side. If that cycle continues uninterrupted, it’s only a matter of time before we have full-blown fascism from one side or the other. It’s only a matter of time before the growing polarization and extremism leads to one side violating the rights of the other and even committing atrocities against them. We have already experienced the birth pangs of such an outcome.
In the 1930s, the world was mostly divided between two variations of the same hellish totalitarianism. I see the potential for the 2030s to repeat the hell of the 1930s, only with all the new technologies creating a hell never before seen in human history.
I would like to write a second part to this story about how the conservative cover for Elon’s salute points to a dangerous future. But I doubt I’ll have time.