How Elon Upstaged Donald
The new Troll in Chief may have undermined both authoritarianism and his hopes for a techno-monarchy
Elon Musk accomplished a lot this week.
No, I’m not talking about the Twitter owner’s implementation of the 8 dollars for a blue checkmark scheme, his massive reduction in workforce before rehiring many of them the next day, or his proposal for a content moderation council to judge and delete dangerous tweets. I’m more interested in how, by his own example, he revealed his own impotence as well as that of the social media star he replaced, Donald Trump. And in doing so, Musk has also revealed the inadequacy of any dictatorial approach to technology, business, or politics.
Let’s go through this fast, just like Musk did:
From the get-go, his decision-making process has been imperious, whimsical, lacking any coherent strategy or awareness of second and third-order effects, oblivious to the way choices externalize harm to others, and as performative as a businessman on reality TV. He played to the most sycophantic entourage of hangers on — all of them trying to win the attention of their cult leader. He came out of the gate — literally hours into his first morning as chief — spreading fake news and defying all social norms.
