What is a man to do with his time when he has amassed more wealth than is possible to spend in a hundred lifetimes? Being truly and forever untethered from even the most basic of life’s concerns, it seems likely that the true nature of a person would be laid bare. Should he become an international daredevil, like Richard Branson? A philanthropist funding various humanitarian causes, like Bill Gates? Quietly go about buying and selling stock and businesses like Warren Buffet? Become a recluse hermit like Howard Hughes? Whatever the choice, it’s pretty clearly a reflection of the person and their true character.
And so we have Elon Musk, the wealthiest human to have ever walked the planet. He needs nothing. He can do anything. The world is his oyster. So what does he do with his time? Apparently, he reads Tweets (or Xits). And, well, he just doesn’t read them, but he contemplates them deeply and then weighs in with his own opinions. Publicly vomits his opinions, in fact. You know, the sort of thing we might expect from any teenager as yet unaware of the ramifications of exposing unfiltered and ill-considered opinions across the globe via the internet. We expect such behavior from teenagers because while their bodies might say “adult”, their brains remain undeveloped and are in the firm control of their raging hormone monsters. Teenagers think they know everything and are immune to any repercussions.
It’s true, we’ve become numbed to the stupidity of even grown adults behaving in this way, thanks to the Trumpification of human discourse. The PAB has brought our society to such a low state that we come to expect his (pre)teen behavior, but he should be an anomaly. Sure, he’s a rich man out of control, but he’s not really rich. Most of his wealth, and the fame that associates with it, is a delusion built on marketing and branding rather than actual wealth.
Perhaps unreasonably, we expect something more from the genuinely wealthy. Not because of their inherent superiority – oh no. But simply for their own self-interest. The last thing they should want is to draw attention to themselves in a sea of negative publicity that ultimately will hurt the only thing that matters to them – their wealth. Trump wallows in negative publicity. He revels in it. Having absolutely no ideology, nor even an understanding of the word, makes this easy for him. But for the genuinely wealthy, bad publicity is usually not something that they want because it can hurt their bottom line and move them down a spot on the Fortune 500 list.
So how do we explain the phenomenon of Elon Musk? Rich guys can get away with a lot, like constantly lying about their companies and their capabilities, and gaming stock values. Elon is a master at such subterfuge. He can even get away with doing mind bendingly stupid things like spending $44 billion on Twitter and then systematically dismantling it. People just laugh at him, but he can afford that.
Musk’s latest stunt, though, defies easy explanation. He responded to a Xit posted by some rando neo-Nazi by agreeing with his statement that Jewish communities support “dialectical hatred against whites”. Musk amplified the sentiment by saying “You have said the actual truth.”
Even if Elon thinks this is true (which clearly he does, to the extent that he thinks at all), why would he say it? Why would he put that into writing and click a button to send it around the world? It’s one thing to be an evil, blood sucking vampire that roams the night in stealth, but it’s something else for Nosferatu to dress in drag and grab a mic on karaoke night before draining his prey of their vital juices. On camera.
The reality is that the world neither needs nor wants Musk’s socio-political opinions. If he has those opinions in his secret heart, most people don’t really care. They will continue to fund his cars, space ships, and Xitter if he just keeps his pie hole closed.
Predictably, Jewish leaders were in an uproar over Musk’s commentary, and following quickly behind that, major corporations are pulling out of Xitter faster than Donald pulls out of Melania. IBM, Apple, Amazon, Disney, Lion’s Gate, and others, are walking away from Xitter at a record pace, and Xitter is already on the brink of collapse. (Wait, you mean those companies hadn’t already abandoned Xitter? Or did they do it months ago before quietly crawling back in after the coast was clear?)
Hopefully, Xitter will do the world a favor and just close its doors once and for all.
Thanks for the great post J.
Don’t forget Facebook! It’s a cesspool of hate speech and disinformation too!