Alexander Hurst writes:

Musk’s new obsessions (beyond the validation and human affection that he mistakenly believes he will find on social media) are attacking public servants, slashing social spending and going after the most vulnerable. “In most cases, the word ‘homeless’ is a lie,” Musk tweeted recently. “It’s usually a propaganda word for violent drug addicts with severe mental illness.”

The most charitable interpretation is that Musk exists at various points along the Dunning Kruger scale. He’s a fantastic venture capitalist, whose sci-fi-enthusiast investments produced, let’s be honest, far more interesting companies than something like luxury goods or fast fashion. But this provided him with incalculably more resources to be a blithering moron when it comes to things such as geopolitics, or how to build and organise a just society. The less charitable interpretation – the one presented by his former friend Sam Harris on a recent podcast appearance – is that he is “palpably, visibly deranged … snorting ketamine and tweeting at all hours of the day and night”, has been radicalised by his own algorithm and presents himself as Tony Stark while actually being Dr Evil.

But because plutocracy and pursuing a radical social agenda in the US still isn’t enough, Musk has set his sights on other nations as well. Over the past half-year, he has gone after Italian judges who blocked a migrant detention plan, promoted misinformation and stoked riots in the UK, floated the possibility of interfering directly in UK electoral politics by giving Nigel Farage’s party $100m, and persistently ignored EU law regarding content moderation and disinformation on X.

When rogue states behave this way – election interference, active disinformation campaigns, social media manipulation – other states call them out, or even impose sanctions. Musk is not simply a private citizen with an opinion and a large following. His sheer wealth, his control of X, and his new position within the US government place him in a different category. So how do you solve that kind of problem, or at least respond to it?

Musk’s fellow billionaires have chosen the path of appeasement, if not outright enthusiasm, making pilgrimages to Mar-a-Lago to prostrate themselves before its idiot king and the man behind the curtain. No real surprise there. What’s more surprising is that prominent journalists and big media organisations have done the same, fuelling Trump’s campaign to silence and intimidate through lawsuits, such as his latest one against the Des Moines Register for having published a poll he didn’t like.

The populist premier of Ontario, Doug Ford, has a potentially more effective strategy of taking on bullies – at least rhetorically. “We will go to the extent of cutting off their energy, going down to Michigan, going down to New York State and over to Wisconsin,” Ford said in response to Trump’s taunting about making Canada a 51st state and imposing tariffs. Likewise, when the Brazilian supreme court judge Alexandre de Moraes refused to back down and treated Musk’s companies as a single universe – freezing Starlink assets and ordering telecom providers to block access to X – Musk blinked. [Continue reading…]