Produced by ElevenLabs and Information Over Audio (NOA) utilizing AI narration.
On the day that Elon Musk introduced his intention to purchase Twitter in April 2022, I attempted to sport out how the acquisition would possibly go. Three eventualities appeared believable. There was a bizarre/chaotic timeline, the place Musk really tried to enhance the platform, however principally simply floated harebrained schemes like placing tweets on the blockchain. There was a timeline the place Musk primarily reverted Twitter to its founding ethos—one which had a naive and simplistic concept of real-time world dialog. After which there was the worst-case state of affairs: the darkish timeline and its offshoot, the darkest-darkest timeline. Right here’s how I described that one:
The darkest-darkest timeline is the one the place the world’s richest man runs a communications platform in a really vengeful, dictatorial method, which entails Musk outright utilizing Twitter as a political device to advertise excessive right-wing agendas and to punish what he calls brain-poisoned liberals.
Some 29 months later, this seems to be the timeline we’ve dwelling in. However even my grim predictions didn’t anticipate the depth of Musk’s radicalization. He’s now not teasing at his anti-woke views or simply asking questions to impress a response. To name him a troll or a puckish courtroom jester is to sugarcoat what’s actually happening: Musk has develop into one of many chief spokespeople of the far proper’s political undertaking, and he’s reaching individuals in actual time at an enormous scale along with his message.
Since his endorsement of Donald Trump in July, Musk has develop into the MAGA motion’s second-most-influential determine after the nominee himself (sorry, J. D. Vance), and probably the most vital node within the Republican Occasion’s info system. Musk and his platform are to this election what Rupert Murdoch and Fox Information had been to previous Republican campaigns—cynical manipulators and toxic propaganda machines, pumping lies and outrage into the American political bloodstream.
Although the masks has been off for some time, Musk’s intentions have develop into much more blatant not too long ago. Following Taylor Swift’s endorsement of Kamala Harris, through which Swift labeled herself a “childless cat girl” in reference to an insult deployed by Vance, Musk publicly provided to impregnate the pop star. And simply this previous weekend, Musk did the next:
- amplified a conspiracy principle that ABC had leaked pattern debate inquiries to the Harris marketing campaign
- falsely claimed that “the Dems wish to take your children”
- fueled racist lies about immigrants consuming pets
- shared along with his practically 200 million followers on X that “Trump should win” to “protect freedom and meritocracy in America”
- insinuated that it was suspicious that “nobody is even making an attempt to assassinate Biden/Kamala,” including a thinking-face emoji. He subsequently deleted the submit and argued that it was a joke that had been effectively obtained in non-public. “Seems jokes are WAY much less humorous if individuals don’t know the context and the supply is obvious textual content,” he wrote in a follow-up on X.
Whether or not Musk is telling the reality about his assassination submit or providing up a feeble excuse for his earnest trolling doesn’t matter. Though he’s making an attempt to clarify this submit away as only a innocent little bit of context collapse, what he’s actually revealing is the extent to which he’s captured by his viewers, pecking out posts that delight the one cohort keen to supply the eye and respect he craves. The parallels to Trump could also be apparent at this level, however in addition they account for Musk’s capacity to dominate information cycles.
Like Trump in his Apprentice and The Artwork of the Deal eras, Musk earlier than his political obsessions was a star well-known in a unique, principally nonpolitical context. Though Musk’s volatility, contrarianism, and disdain for the press had been a matter of document earlier than his MAGA flip, his fastidiously constructed standard picture was that of a billionaire innovator and rocket scientist (Musk was reportedly an inspiration for Tony Stark’s character within the Iron Man film franchise). Which is to say: Many individuals skilled Musk’s right-wing radicalization not as inevitable, however as a surprising departure. Proper-wing diehards amplified him with glee, as proof of the ascendance of their motion, whereas liberals and the media amplified him as a distressing instance of the proliferation of on-line mind worms in a sure slice of Silicon Valley.
That Musk is polarizing is essential, however what permits him to draw consideration is this transformation of context. A far-right influencer like Charlie Kirk or Alex Jones is predicted to unfold vile racist conspiracies—that’s what they’ve at all times carried out to earn their dwelling. However as with Trump in his 2016 marketing campaign, there may be nonetheless a lingering novelty to Musk’s position as MAGA’s minister of propaganda. Many individuals, for instance, nonetheless don’t perceive why a person with limitless sources would possibly wish to spend most of his time appearing as a political occasion’s in-house social-media workforce. Musk has been a troll for some time, however his standard picture as a savvy entrepreneur stayed intact till solely not too long ago. He was the topic of a largely flattering, best-selling biography as not too long ago as final yr. He appeared on the duvet of this journal in 2013 as a contender for the world’s best dwelling inventor. In actual fact, even when Musk muses about how unusual it’s that nobody has tried to shoot Harris, standard information retailers nonetheless cowl it as a departure from an imagined established order. On Monday, a New York Instances article described Musk, a person who not too long ago hosted a fawning interview with Donald Trump on X and has amplified conspiracy theories resembling Pizzagate, as “the world’s richest man,” who “has established a status as an edgy plutocrat not certain by social conventions in terms of expressing his opinions.”
That just about each considered one of Musk’s utterances is deemed newsworthy makes him an ideal vector for right-wing propaganda. Take Musk’s position in spreading the nonsense about Haitian residents in Springfield, Ohio. In line with an evaluation delivered by the journalist Gaby Del Valle on Vox’s At present, Defined podcast, Musk replied to a tweet by Kirk on September 8, through which the influencer had shared a screenshot from a Springfield resident on Fb claiming that Haitians within the space had been consuming geese, geese, and pets. Musk’s reply served to amplify the declare to his followers and admirers simply two days earlier than the presidential debate, the place it was straight referenced by Trump onstage. The lies “left the ecosystem of right-wing Twitter partially as a result of Elon Musk bought concerned,” Del Valle stated. Like Trump earlier than him, Musk is ready to act as a clearinghouse for the fringier concepts coming from the far-right fever swamps.
Musk’s is probably the most adopted account on X and, as its proprietor, he has reportedly requested engineers to algorithmically increase his posts on the platform. (Musk has denied that his tweets are intentionally amplified, however the platform exhibits them even to individuals who don’t observe him.) The structure of the positioning, most notably the platform’s algorithmically sorted “For You” feed, routinely options Musk and information about Musk, which will increase the probability that something the billionaire shares will attain a wider viewers on a service that’s nonetheless at the least considerably influential in shaping American political discourse. It sounds conspiratorial to recommend that Musk is tweaking the algorithmic dials on his website or utilizing X as a political weapon, however the fact is that Musk doesn’t even must demand that his firm increase a selected message. Musk has spent practically two years putting in his personal account as X’s most important character and shaping the platform’s structure in his personal picture. The politics of X are inextricably linked to Musk’s personal politics.
It might be far too simplistic to recommend that X is the explanation for the chaos of our present political second, or that Musk is solely accountable for the harmful rhetoric that has contributed to terrorizing Haitian residents and completely disrupting life in Springfield. Trump and Vance selected to amplify these messages too, and doubled down when referred to as out on it. X is a relatively small platform, previous its prime. It was stuffed with rubbish earlier than Musk purchased the positioning, and its structure goaded customers into being the worst variations of themselves lengthy earlier than the billionaire’s heel flip. However beneath Musk’s stewardship, X has develop into the worst model of itself—a platform whose each coverage and design selection appears meant to snuff out our higher angels and effectively elevate our nationwide political temperature.
X beneath Musk is a stress cooker and an insidious power—not essentially as a result of it’s as influential because it as soon as was however as a result of, to those that can’t give up it, the platform provides the impression that it’s a mirror to the world. One hallmark of Fox Information is its capacity to conjure a political perma-crisis, with a purpose to instill a pervasive sense of worry in its viewers. X, with Musk as its de facto director of programming, has created an info ecosystem that operates in a lot the identical method. However the impact isn’t felt simply amongst MAGA true believers.
As we lurch nearer to Election Day, it’s straightforward to really feel as if we’ve all entered the Nice Clenching—a nationwide second of assuming the crash-landing place and bracing for impression. One will get the sense that the darkest forces in American life are accelerating, that politicians, highly effective billionaires, and common residents alike are emboldened within the worst method or additional radicalized. Each scandal, gaffe, and tragedy appears to tackle a brand new political significance—as a harbinger of a possible electoral end result or an indicator of societal unraveling. And it’s precisely this sense that Musk and his platform stoke and feed off day-after-day.
