Elon Musk and his government’s Ministry of Efficiency have Rampage through the federal government. But in his way of making his disciples Inadvertently fired nuclear safety workers And announces that he loves Donald TrumpA straight man can love another man,” he Support Barack Obama.
That is to say, Musk is a complex, mean person. To get to know him better, seven Vox writers tell us what they have learned can help them understand billionaires.
A person with extraordinary risk tolerance
Musk made $250 million, or $180 million after tax, selling PayPal to eBay, according to his biographer Ashlee Vance. Then he turned around and invested in a new business: $100 million to SpaceX, $70 million to Tesla, and $10 million to solar. “Apart from building an actual money-making machine, it’s impossible for Musk to choose a faster way to destroy his wealth,” Vance wrote. Of course, gambling worked, but it could easily lead to bankruptcy. An appetite for danger extends to his personal life. At one of his birthday parties, Musk was blindfolded while throwing his knife while wearing a knife, making himself face the 350-pound champion compared to the wrestler.
– Dylan Matthews
In hindsight, Musk’s Dispute with British cave explorer in 2018 It may have predicted his political darkening.
That year, there were 12 boys and their football coach Trapped in a flooded cave in Thailand. Elon Musk proposed to help the Thai government’s rescue efforts by contributing Mini-Submarine. But authorities believe Musk’s proposal is unrealistic and rejected it.
An international team eventually rescued the boy. In a subsequent interview, a British cave explorer who assisted the effort, Vern Urnsworth, explain Musk’s proposal “absolutely no chance of work” and the tycoon “has no idea what the cave passage looks like.”
Musk answered by calling Unsworth’s “pedo” And said he would bet that the British divers were predators, a claim that billionaires had no evidence.
The incident shows that Musk is slightly sensitive to individuals and is willing to tell defamatory lies to make those who have suffered the abuse. If you are willing to declare the child’s rescuer a pedophile because he devalues your mini ladies, how will you respond to the Democratic president Unless your company From the Electric Vehicle Summit?
Anyway, now a political crusader, Musk has expanded his burning and unfounded allegations. He accused British politicians of teaching to “Rape Genocide”, Just because they favor investigating child sexual abuse rings at the local level, not the state. He absurdly believes that the Democrats Illegal import immigration In 2024, in a conspiracy to steal the US election. And he It is said that The U.S. government paid millions of dollars to media media to Reuters for “massive social deception” – although in reality, it was the first Trump administration Signed Through data companies, Thomson Reuters’ special services fight cyberattacks using “social deception” strategies.
Musk has long been a thin-skinned liar. This used to be a problem for British cave divers. Now, this is the world’s problem.
– Leviz
Don’t underestimate your obsession with “awakened thinking virus”
There is a lot of speculation about what drove Musk to get himself into politics to such a degree – his wealth, going to Mars, etc. – but I think his obsession with defeating what he calls “wake up the heart virus.” Like many people, he has been thoroughly radicalizing him on his identity issues recently (him) Quote already Distrust the doctor who prescribes gender care for his trans daughter, and he has since stood out), and his behavior shows that he does believe that turning this shift is one of the main reasons for his life.
That’s what he’s trying to do in the Twitter takeover, and in a sense it’s what he does at Doge by attacking progressive institutions like nonprofits, universities, media and “deep states.” Unlike many Trump’s first advisers, Musk has both the ability to ignore legal prudence and the ability to figure out how to achieve the incident – no one expected him to effectively grasp the power leverage within the administration, which allowed his team engineers to lay off civil servants in batches and block spending, but he did. He is a sabotage ball that hit Trump.
– Andrew Prokop
Elon’s blind person is not good
In the decade and a half I’ve been covering Elon Musk and his company, it’s really impressive to see this guy’s worldview get stuck in an echo chamber. Things get worse When he bought it. I’m talking about Twitter, now it’s X, and I wonder every day if Musk will see more information in his feed or feedback than he mentions.
This is the realm of deep brain decay, and what’s happening on X seems to be To some extentinform Musk of plans to demolish federal labor. Musk’s behavior is known to be an implementation of the right-wing mob mentality he cultivates on social media platforms, a feedback loop that is increasingly linked to the daily life of Americans. People have said that what happened on Twitter is important to others on Twitter. Now, thanks to Musk and his mob, it is shaping the future of America.
– Adam Clark Estes
Champion of “Male Energy”
Musk and his allies are turning dei criticism into a defense of traditional masculinity, in which case caution and consideration are reappeared as the mark of weakness and losers. Within this framework, prioritizing diversity is the culprit to show that we failed today.
When Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg said the company needed more “male energy” because corporate culture had become “spained in culture”, he expressed growing Republican sentiment. Recent Survey data shows Now, 79% of Republican men and 67% of Republican women believe that “society has become too soft and feminine” – a huge spike since 2011. Not to improve Equal effort – It’s about caution. Originally a driving force for a specific diversity initiative, it is developing into a broader ideology where the adventures that question the musk-style are more than bureaucracy-it is feminine. As this attitude becomes increasingly permeable to businesses and governments, prudence is becoming the fastest way to dismissal.
–Rachel Cohen
Hope to benefit your bottom line
While Doge brings the chainsaw to the federal labor force, Musk is Use his power Interfering with the investigation and regulatory struggles against his company while guiding billions of dollars in profitable contracts.
His social media website x pressure Advertising giants hacked public involve buying more ads on X while warning federal intervention to merge with rival Omnicom Group’s $13 billion merger, according to the Wall Street Journal. Musk’s rocket company SpaceX wants to land Profitable Grants For the Mars mission, its subsidiary Starlink aims to Take over Verizon’s contract Overhaul FAA’s communication system.
After investigation into Musk’s brain computer interface company Neuralink, FDA investigators fired (Some are Request a return). New Emission rules Tariffs could make Tesla a good match for its competitors. Although car companies’ sales in Europe Crush Among them Growing protestsa knee-length Consumer Financial Protection Agency can no longer investigate hundreds of Tesla complaints.
Similarly, the dismissal of the National Labor and Industrial Relations Commission Blocked the agency Ruling to investigate Musk. Musk’s list of conflicts of interest will only continue to grow.
– Avishay Artsy
The bets are different now
A recurring theme in the story about Elon Musk: People tell him that something is impossible or too dangerous, and then he does it anyway. Of course, sometimes it was an embarrassing failure, but it was about half the time he seemed to manage to achieve this, and in the private sector, success far outweighed failures. SpaceX’s story in particular is full of opponents who are in awe of the Rockets and against their expectations, which really works.
The problem is that in government, Musk has moved from half of the time to an incredible achievement to a world where he failed to do the impossible, and his other half of his time would mean catastrophic death. Musk’s latest gambling will appear on the global mortality chart every year if PEPFAR grants, malaria programs, and child vaccinations are eliminated worldwide.
– Kelsey Piper
This story originally appeared in Today, I explainedVox’s flagship daily newsletter. Register a future version here.
