April 11th

Of all the billionaires who for better or worse make our neoliberal world economy go round Elon Musk gives me creeps. I understand the danger that Jeff Bezos and Koch brothers and Mark Zuckerberg pose to our democracy and freedom of speech and association but in my opinion, he can potentially do the most damage.

The damage done by Amazon (to our economy and local industries), by Facebook (to our social interaction and moral values), and by the Republican Party (to, well — to everything decent) is irreversible. All we can do is to take care personally to avoid getting swept in the insanity and chaos of modern life and try to be decent and responsible for our actions.

As for Musk — I am worried about how much sway he has over conspiracy nuts. He has this persona — wacky, self-made billionaire who tweets BS and smokes weed on idiotic podcasts — that speaks to the basement dwelling losers. They think he is different, not button-down stiff but a regular guy who made it great and is not part of an “old boys club”. He gives validation to anti-vaccine nut jobs with his tweets, endangering all of us since that gives a reason for them not to get COVID-19 vaccination. He is very vocal about ending any lockdowns and reopening the economy without any regard for his workers and the population at large.

Conspiracy theorists had a hero for four years in Trump, someone that they can look up to (and they need that in their sad and pathetic lives — someone that they feel is one of them and yet someone that has monetary or political success). Now Musk is becoming their prophet. And they are active in all media (mainstream and social) to spread conspiracy misinformation. And that will be very dangerous to the general public. I mean it already is, when I see how seemingly normal, educated people are looking and using conspiracy excuses for their anti-social, anti-science, anti-reason behavior. Pretty sad and downright disheartening state of affairs in pretty much every corner of the globe and any social strata. Except for the very rich ones — they are getting even richer quicker.

And we — we are getting fatter, more comfortable, more in debt, and more blasé about it all.