Why Elon Musk Strikes Fear in the Progressive Heart

Prompted by Elon Musk s bid to purchase Twitter, The New York Times has endeavored to discover the elusive politics of Elon Musk. The resulting investigation by Jeremy W. Peters is studiously fair-minded, but ultimately inconclusive. A survey of the serial entrepreneur s political contributions yields little. Unlike fellow billionaires Charles Koch and George Soros, who have given hundreds of millions of dollars to candidates on the right and left, respectively, Musk s giving has been paltry and dispersed among an ideologically diverse set of elected officials.

While Musk has loudly protested COVID-19 lockdowns, a position typically associated with libertarians and conservatives, he is also the founder of Tesla, a company beloved by crunchy liberals for being the world s largest producer of electric vehicles. When Texas Gov. Greg Abbott defended a controversial law restricting abortion access by citing Musk Elon consistently tells me that he likes the social policies in the state of Texas Musk demurred, saying, In general, I believe government should rarely impose its will upon the people and, when doing so, should aspire to maximize their cumulative happiness. He then offered a perspective that, considering the state of our discourse, most Americans could heartily endorse: That said, I would prefer to stay out of politics.

All in all, Musk finds himself among the plurality of Americans who are neither right nor left, but politically homeless. From these facts and more, Peters reasonably concludes that Musk has a nondenominational political philosophy. As for what the implications of that philosophy might mean for Twitter should Musk acquire it, Peters cites a person who has worked closely with Mr. Musk who says it s his firmly held belief that in a functioning democracy, it is anyone s right to say whatever stupid thing you want.

via thedailyscroll.substack.com

The right to say “whatever stupid thing you want.” Now that should be in the Constitution.