Is Elon Musk Actually Evil?
I thought he was a savior of humanity, but he is increasingly looking like the devil
This may sound like hyperbole but is it really? Elon Musk mocked handicapped people on Twitter when he took over. He fired a handicapped Icelander widely regarded as a great contributor and innovative guy by countless people. Yet, Elon, with no knowledge of the guy, started insulting him and suggested he was worthless and exaggerated his handicap.
Read more: Elon Musk apologizes after mocking disabled Twitter employee
At other times he agrees with tweets from Nazis suggesting Jews want to destroy the white race. Now he is tearing down the US federal bureaucracy with the same evil glee he tore down Twitter. Except this isn’t a social media company, but an organization that delivers important services and aid to millions of people. People are going to die over this, get sick or suffer economically and mentally. He also terrorizes federal employees by calling them leeches, evil, lazy and enemies. American laws are blatantly broken and ignored.
How much hatred and evil must be in a man to engage in so much nasty behavior with such glee? These are people working hard to do a job. They have families and friends. He laughed on X about how he was destroying US aid organizations that apparently millions of people rely on in different ways across the world.
I get that we cannot always support people. Sometimes cuts must be made. But usually, we see those cuts as regrettable. We are not positing on social media and making jokes about ruining people’s lives. I cannot think of any other reason to do that than the fact that you are a straight out evil person.
I was once a great admirer of Elon Musk. I felt bad for the horrors he had endured in South Africa. Or allegedly endured. Now, I am not sure how much of it was true. Elon lies constantly about everything. He was exposed as a big liar on his computer gaming skills. If a man can lie about that, then he can lie about anything. The reason I use the word “evil” is because that is how Elon Musk described his own father. Now I wonder if his father was perhaps not the evil character Elon described him as. Rather, Elon Musk is the vindictive nasty psychopath who describes his dad as evil because his dad didn’t give into his every whim.
Vivian Wilson, Elon’s trans daughter, has a rather damning characteristics of her own father. In other words it is not just Elon’s father who calls him out. It is his own daughter as well.
I remember shrugging off when Elon’s first wife described how he was upset with her because they lost their first child. He didn’t see the point in being sad. Who can be such callous about losing a child other than a psychopath?
At the time, I made tons of excuses for Elon Musk because I knew of his alleged horrible childhood. I figured he was damaged in some ways or could not express emotions in a normal sense. At the time, I had bought into the idea that Elon was working to save humanity by transitioning to electric vehicles and solar panels, as well as colonizing Mars. Increasingly I’m realizing that these are not selfless goals. He wants to be the messiah. He aims to be a savior that is praised. I used to dismiss this notion because Elon is not explicit about it the way Donald Trump is. Trump’s narcissism is broadcast loudly to the whole world. He is constantly telling everyone how great he is. Constantly blaming other people.
Elon Musk is far more subtle. He is not an obvious case of narcissism like Trump. He may be one, but you cannot tell right away. Yet when you read about how he ran his companies and always insisting on being the name and the face outside in anything he got involved in it becomes clear there must be some narcissism going on that just isn’t as visible to the public.
Looking at what is going on in the US I start wondering if there is a mass psychosis. How can so many people be okay with a man destroying a nation within? And this isn’t limited by any means to America. I look at the comment sections of big Norwegian newspapers. There are a substantial number of loud Trump fans here as well.
I am reminded of my grandfather’s stories about all the traitors we had in Norway during WW2. The Quislings. Life in occupied Norway was often about knowing who was a “Jøssing” (a good Norwegian) or a traitor. When you have a man like Trump threaten economic or military action to cease territory of one of Norway’s longest allies and friends, Denmark, you should not be cheering on Trump.
Many of us Norwegians have grown up spending childhoods on Danish beaches or gone to Lego land with our parents. It is a deeply loved country that we shared a union with for 400 years. Greenland was once Norwegian territory, but due to the union with Denmark it was left over to them when we split as nations in 1814.
What am I getting at? That Greenland has a place in Norwegian history and hearts. It goes back all the way to Viking times and Donald Trump is no laying claim to that land. If you are a good Norwegian, if you are a Jøssing, you should not be cheering on this man. His henchman Elon Musk suggested to this 200 million followers on Twitter/X that the British government should be overthrown. He wrote an article in Germany about how AfD, a German far-right party, is the only hope in Germany and that the whole future of Germany relies on electing a far-right party.
And I haven’t even mentioned his Nazi Salute because frankly Elon Musk behaves like one regardless of whether he made that salute or not. Racism on Elon Musk’s Tesla car factories has been rife for many years. He lost court cases over it. But are we really surprised? His grandparents were Canadian Nazis who moved to South Africa specifically because they agree so much with the ideology.
Many of you will shake your head and protest because you know Elon Musk can be nice and do many nice things. Sure thing. But your mistake is to think evil is like a Hollywood villain. Real world evil people are not like movie caricatures.
How many of you know that Al Capone put date markings on milk to avoid that children got sick from bad milk? Yet, he was a monster in other ways.
Read more: Is Al Capone Really The Reason We Have Expiration Dates?
Or how many know how passionate Hitler was about animal welfare? Hitler was a vegetarian and deeply opposed to eating animals. In fact, part of his plan was to make all of Germany vegetarian. Modern-day Germany is very into vegetarian eating. People just never tell you one of the reasons for that is likely Hitler. Last time I was in Spain on a beach vacation I got sick of all the pizza and burger tourist food. I found a vegetarian restaurant. Surprise, surprise it was German.
Read more: Adolf Hitler and vegetarianism
Don’t misunderstand me and think I am suggesting that vegetarians are Nazis. Rather I am trying to get across that humans are complex. Truly bad people are capable of doing good things. Norway’s traitor Quisling, for instance, helped lots of refugees in Russia before WW2.
The problem is when you deny the evil and the treason of someone because you have seen them do good things. Elon Musk has done amazing things for our access to space through the development of the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets. Now the spectacular development of Starship. Electrification of transportation could not have advanced as rapidly without Tesla.
In many ways, I think Elon Musk is the new Wernher von Braun. He was the man that pioneered rocketry more than anyone in the last century. He developed the infamous German V2 rocket and later designed the Saturn V rocket that brought Americans to the moon. Von Braun was obsessed with getting to the moon. So much that he was willing to become an SS member and work for the Nazi regime to get the resources to design large rockets. He let slave labour build his rockets. Whenever he got the moral test, he always prioritized his moan goal above all else.
Elon Musk is no different. He will sacrifice anyone to reach his goal of Mars. Part of is zeal to burn down the US government is that its bureaucracy has been putting in obstacles against his massive rocket projects. And so Elon has used his enormous wealth to elect a man even worse than himself, Donald Trump. A man guilty of trying to overthrow the US government, and a likely serial rapist (numerous accusations), not to mention tax fraud, banking fraud and anything you can name.
It doesn’t feel all that different from von Braun joining the SS. Men who will do anything to reach their goals, all while they are telling us that they are doing it for us. They are doing it for humanity. Are they? Perhaps they believe so themselves, but there is a paternalism in that mindset. A billionaire who is supposed to tell us what we need. A man who does not value our opinions or care about his workers one iota.
He says he cares about children, but will force fathers to spend all waking hours at his corporations. Much like himself. He has 12 children, but he rarely sees them. Instead, he prefers to play computer games, tweet constantly and run 3 large companies and now restructure the federal government.
It is a mockery against fathers who work long hours because they have to in order to provide for their families. Elon Musk has half a trillion. He doesn’t need to run 3 companies. He could choose to be a good father instead. He insists we must all have more children, but he is a terrible role model as a father. If you have children, you should decide to be with them. For him, it seems utterly utilitarian. He is just contributing to populating the planet.
If we are actually to have more children, we need fathers to actually be present. Mothers aren’t going to stay home because you want to play computer games and work 24/7. Modern women want to work and that means men have to participate in raising children. The American oligarchs, like Elon Musk, aren’t being role models for that. Quite the contrary they brag about how much they work. You could reformulate that into bragging about how much you are away from your own family. Not much to brag about.
In that regard I see Norwegian politician Audun Lysbakken as more of a real role model for fathers. He was away for four months, using the parental leave system we have in Norway. So for four months he prioritized his own newborn daughter over politics. That is what taking children and family life serious looks like. He was heavily criticized for it in Norway, but I think what he did was very important. It highlighted that children should come first, regardless of your status.
It isn’t as glamorous as sending a rocket to Mars, but quality societies are built in the small. It is about the little things. It is not about vanity projects and desires to have your name in the history books and statues of yourself erected all over the place. I always loved how J. R. R. Tolkien in the Lord of the Rings elevated the simple people, the Hobbits, over the more heroic people who had won great battles and created marvelous cities.
To me, Elon Musk is like a form of Boromir (although Boromir is more honorable than Elon). Someone chasing status and honor but have let himself become morally corrupted. What we should all try to be more like is Samwise Gamgee. A simple gardener who never lets his moral compass get corrupted, and who always sticks up for his friends.
Why I wrote this article
There are those who will insist I should have given more “proof” of various claims. Citations or what not. That I was not balanced enough. But this piece was an emotional piece. A reaction to the extremism engulfing the US, and it is repercussions for the rest of the world. The time for measured, sensible rhetoric is over. If you want us as writers to not be so “political” then direct your criticism towards Trump and Elon. They set the standard for rhetoric, and most of us have not remotely fallen to as deep level as them. I am criticizing the most powerful people on the planet at the moment.
People who use their power to belittle and mock those far more vulnerable than themselves. If you are going to criticize my writing, then ask yourself what you have done to criticize the behavior of Elon Musk and Trump. Don’t be a useful idiot for a privileged, powerful extremist. Show that you got some spine and direct your energies towards protecting civil society. Don’t be a lapdog for the rich and powerful.
There is a time for standing up and speaking in a strong voice, and that is now. The “moderates” have utterly lost the script. Don’t be another Neville Chamberlain of our era. Don’t be an appeaser.
Resources
I thought I should collect here links to various articles and stories about why Elon Musk is such a dangerous and bad person.
- Phillip Lowe unamsking Elon — Lowe a multibillionaire who knew Elon Musk for 14 years.
- The Trouble with Elon — Sam Harris, well known intellectual in the New Atheist moment and long time former friend of Elon Musk.
- Justine Musk on death of their child Nevada — While perhaps not the most consequential lie, this story is just one of many examples of how Elon will lie about anything.
- Elon Musk admits to cheating in video games — Elon Musk very publicly claimed to be among the top gamers in the world. A rather silly thing to do if you know that you regularly cheat. If he could lie about something like this, then what else has he lied about?
