Elon Musk

That cash giveaway is a clear federal election crime. I’m continually surprised at how toothless the authorities are in these situations.

One theory is that there isn’t really any downside for musk and those like him. Nation states have largely been unwilling to sanction these guys in any meaningful way, playing up to the right gets those who are in that mindset frothing and it’s easy to bring more of them in. More engagement, more clicks, more ad revenue. The tech bros have long lived by the ‘move fast and break things’ mantra and now they’re applying it to the fabric of society.

cant quite work out what is in it for him?

https://www.theatlantic.com/books/archive/2024/10/donald-trump-is-elon-musks-trojan-horse/680309/

In Elon Musk’s vision of human history, Donald Trump is the singularity. If Musk can propel Trump back to the White House, it will mark the moment that his own superintelligence merges with the most powerful apparatus on the planet, the American government—not to mention the business opportunity of the century.

Many other titans of Silicon Valley have tethered themselves to Trump. But Musk is the one poised to live out the ultimate techno-authoritarian fantasy. With his influence, he stands to capture the state, not just to enrich himself. His entanglement with Trump will be an Ayn Rand novel sprung to life, because Trump has explicitly invited Musk into the government to play the role of the master engineer, who redesigns the American state—and therefore American life—in his own image.

^^ Pretty chilling assessment there.

^ Very scary….

Also cant quite work out what is in it for him?

Gotta be some huge tax breaks in it for him too…

Gotta be some huge tax breaks in it for him too…

And government contracts, plus relief from the import tariffs that seem to be Trump’s answer to every problem.

Billionaires are a separate superpower now, working against the benefit of wider society. They will probably create a greater negative influence on the lives of working people in the west than either China or Russia.