Well, there doesn't seem to be any more ambiguity over who far-right crackpot billionaire Elon Musk will be supporting for the presidency. "There is either a red wave this November or America is doomed. Imagine four more years of this getting worse ..." Musk posted to X (formerly known as Twitter) last Friday.
Musk’s tweet was in response to a xenophobic video that claimed, among other things, that "there's no law against illegal migrants committing crimes."
Yep, that does sound like the average Friday night for our pal Elon. He’s one of the richest people on the planet, and he's glued to a smartphone, watching QAnon-level quackery while thumb-typing his own paranoid responses.
While this doesn't quite count as Musk endorsing Donald Trump, the "four more years" makes it clear that Musk wants President Joe Biden gone. And the assertion that "America is doomed" if we keep having a pretty damn good economy, fantastic employment numbers, and substantial moves to slow climate change would be great fodder for mockery if Musk weren’t already absolute clown shoes in every other public appearance.
What's up, Elon? You worried Biden's going to stop you from walling up Tesla whistleblowers alive, “Cask of Amontillado”-style?
Elon clearly intends to drag out his eventual embrace of Donald Trump mainly because the man is a shameless attention-seeker, but he's been making his overtures to the presumptive Republican nominee increasingly obvious of late. Musk visited Mar-a-Lago in early March, and in an interview with former CNN host Don Lemon that ran on Monday, Musk suggested an endorsement might still happen before the election—though he claims he won't be spending any of his own money on the race.
Musk's politics have been drifting hard to the right and the conspiratorial for a long while now. In December, The New York Times produced a thoroughly mocked article pretending to be stumped on whether Musk's politics might be considered "conservative" or just "anti-left." But in practice, there isn't a question whether Musk would prefer a flaming fascist in the presidency if the nonfascist alternative would result in tighter regulation on his sometimes dangerous companies.
Let's take a look at the past year or so of Musk's political pronouncements and see if we can glean the pouting manchild's political stances.
- In early February, he boosted an off-the-wall, far-right conspiracy theory about supposed election fraud that makes Rudy Giuliani sound almost coherent in comparison.
- Last November, he boosted the "Pizzagate" conspiracy theory, which is popular with QAnon scenery-chewers and caused an armed believer to fire shots inside a pizza restaurant in 2016.
- Also in November, he endorsed an antisemitic post claiming that "western Jewish populations" are behind attempts at "flooding" countries with "hordes of minorities"—i.e., the white-supremacist idea commonly known as the “great replacement” theory.
- While still reeling from the public and advertiser revulsion to that tweet, he posted another wildly racist tweet, this one even more inexplicable.
- Last July, he agreed that "democracy is probably unworkable" unless childless Americans are barred from voting.
- Last June, he bantered online with an antisemitic user who was promoting "blood libel" conspiracies against Jews.
- Last May, he engaged with the notion that the 2023 mass shooting in Allen, Texas, which was perpetrated by a neo-Nazi, could be a psychological operation against conservatives.
- In February 2023, he claimed the "US media" is "racist against whites."
- And oh look, more antisemitic conspiracy peddling in May 2023. What are the odds?
Based on this list, it sure doesn't sound like he’s vague about his political preferences. He and Donald Trump sound like two peas in a pod—an ouroboros of wealthy, xenophobic conspiracy cranks kissing each other's asses. And it seems like only a matter of time until Musk boosts the seditious conspirator with whatever tools are at the X owner’s disposal.
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