“The fundamental weakness is empathy,” Musk recently told radio podcast host Joe Rogan. “There is a bug, which is the empathy response.”
As Musk has established himself as at least the second most powerful person in an administration seeking a wholesale remaking of institutions, rules and norms, what he said matters, because it encapsulates a political plan. What the Project 2025 report set out in over 900 turgid pages, Musk’s remark captures in a simple pithy mantra for the social media age.
So when he crashes and burns, or dies of a drug overdose, I’m not supposed to care?
Cool. I think I can manage that.
He’ll achieve more lasting fame than the puppet who got elected. There will be endless psychological and economic studies on his rise and fall, trying to explain it.
As people shun his name there will be a legend of a mysterious unnamed figure who first brought compelling EVs to the masses, who revolutionized space access, and was willing to try futuristic ideas other companies are too afraid to invest in. We’ll never know who that was.
The name of Musk will forever be cemented as the oligarch with some sort of psychotic break who destroyed democracy, reduced the us government to a pandering mess of waste, fraud and corruption serving the whims of a few to the detriment of everyone else. Who was instrumental to wrecking decades of international influence and superpower status, who presided over the us fall from the biggest economy, and created a sharp inflection against scientific and technical innovation, and indirectly caused millions of deaths and great harm and suffering
Hell, I can manage to celebrate