Space Oddity; Review of Slobodian and Tarnoff's "Muskism"
9 hours ago
- Elon Musk is the richest person and most powerful capitalist, but his personal behavior and online presence make him easy to dismiss as a malignant clown.
- The book 'Muskism: A Guide for the Perplexed' argues that Musk is a symptom of a cultural-political malaise rather than a coherent thinker, and his ideology is a contemporary analogue of Fordism.
- Musk's worldview, shaped by his upbringing in apartheid South Africa, emphasizes vertical integration, fortress futurism, and a deep reliance on state contracts for his companies like SpaceX and Tesla.
- His social media activity is a serious business tool that allows him to manipulate markets and influence politics, exemplified by his purchase of Twitter and his control over Starlink during the Ukraine war.
- Musk's transhumanist vision, including Neuralink, reflects a desire to merge humans with machines, while his reactionary politics focus on combating the 'woke mind virus' and rejecting empathy as a weakness.
- The Muskist worldview, as implemented through DOGE, has led to devastating consequences such as the dismantling of USAID and hundreds of thousands of deaths, revealing it as an antihuman ideology that underpins contemporary capitalism.