If someone mentions the Russian Revolution, we would normally think of the revolutionary activities of 1917 which led to the overthrow of the Russian monarchy. However, there was a kind of precursor in 1905. Let me introduce a character into the narrative— Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, the 5th son of Tsar Alexander II, brother of Tsar Alexander III and uncle of Tsar Nicholas II. One of Russia’s wealthiest— and most reactionary— men, he was appointed Governor-General of Moscow in 1891. A predatory closet queen and very uptight, arrogant and polarizing figure unable to cope with criticism— with a sickly demeanor and a repulsive personality— he expelled Moscow’s 20,000 Jews as soon as he was appointed.
The bane of students and— for his role in the Bloody Sunday massacre— workers and the ultimate symbol of repression and the Romanovs’ autocratic rule, he was assassinated in the Kremlin during the 1905 Revolution.
Historians look back on him as the Elon Musk of his day… but not the first Elon Musk kind of character history had to contend with. Another character we should know: Louis-Auguste Le Tonnelier de Breteuil, Baron de Preuilly in the run-up to the French Revolution. Breteuil was loaded and was at the center of pre-Revolutionary economic and social life, a tenure marked by controversy, scandal, extreme polarization and political maneuvering. He symbolized the excesses and privileges of the aristocracy. In 1789, as the Revolution gained momentum, Breteuil was dismissed from his position as the Minister of the King's Household and, recognizing the imminent danger he fled to Switzerland. In exile, Breteuil remained active in royalist circles and played a poisonous role in coordinating counterrevolutionary efforts, including the ill-fated escape attempt of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette in June 1791 (Flight to Varennes).
Today, Musk is the best living advertisement for the proposition that there should be no billionaires. He is the embodiment of Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis’ statement that we can have billionaires or we can have a democracy but we can’t have both. Some may celebrate Musk as a visionary entrepreneur, but he epitomizes the systemic issues inherent in capitalism. The vast concentration of wealth is his paws is emblematic of a system that allows a select few to amass extraordinary riches while most of humanity struggles to meet basic needs. The existence of billionaires like Musk highlights the corruption of our for sale political system and, because of that, the failure of wealth redistribution mechanisms and the inadequacies of policies aimed at reducing economic disparity. With the power of conservatives, immense wealth brings overbearing, unassailable political influence. Musk's interactions with political leaders and his ability to sway policy decisions flies in the face of democratic principles.
It’s worth noting that Tesla's labor practices— unsafe working conditions, union-busting, prioritization of profit over worker welfare and inadequate responses to worker complaints over product safety should have long ago landed Musk in prison for life. His vicious anti-union stance undermines workers' rights to organize and collectively bargain for better conditions and pay and better products. And while Musk positions himself as a pioneer in sustainable technology with Tesla and SpaceX, a closer examination reveals significant environmental contradictions and lots of greenwashing. SpaceX's ambitious projects, including the Starlink satellite constellation, contribute to the growing issue of space debris. The increasing clutter in Earth's orbit poses risks to other satellites and future space missions, raising questions about the long-term sustainability and ethical implications of such ventures.
Musk embodies the whole concept of technocratic authoritarianism and if society doesn’t figure out how to protect itself, we will succumb to it in an ultimate real life unelected dystopian vision.
Musk's cultivation of a personal brand as a maverick entrepreneur diverts attention from systemic issues and, for some idiots, perpetuates the myth of the “benevolent billionaire.” This narrative reinforces the idea that individual genius and innovation— neither of which has anything to do with him— rather than collective action and systemic change, are the keys to progress, undermining solidarity and collective movements for social justice. His failed high-profile ventures, from Mars colonization to Hyperloop transportation, are distractions from pressing earthly issues he poo-poos such as poverty, healthcare and systemic racism. His grandiose projects are escapist, delusional fantasies that divert public attention and resources from addressing urgent socio-economic needs.
On Thursday, Musk’s 20 year old biological daughter, Vivian Jenna Wilson, turned to NBC News for her first-ever interview, responding “to comments Musk made Monday about her and her transgender identity. On social media and in an interview posted online, Musk said she was ‘not a girl’ and was figuratively ‘dead,’ and he alleged that he had been ‘tricked’ into authorizing trans-related medical treatment for her when she was 16. Wilson said that Musk hadn’t been tricked and that, after initially having hesitated, he knew what he was doing when he agreed to her treatment, which required consent from her parents. Musk’s recent statements crossed a line, she said. ‘I think he was under the assumption that I wasn’t going to say anything and I would just let this go unchallenged,’ Wilson said in a phone interview. ‘Which I’m not going to do, because if you’re going to lie about me, like, blatantly to an audience of millions, I’m not just gonna let that slide.’ Wilson said that, for as long as she could remember, Musk hasn’t been a supportive father. She said he was rarely present in her life, leaving her and her siblings to be cared for by their mother or by nannies even though Musk had joint custody, and she said Musk berated her when he was present. ‘He was cold,’ she said. ‘He’s very quick to anger. He is uncaring and narcissistic.’” This is almost identical too the way family members described Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich over 120 years ago.
Wilson said that, when she was a child, Musk would harass her for exhibiting feminine traits and pressure her to appear more masculine, including by pushing her to deepen her voice as early as elementary school.
“I was in fourth grade. We went on this road trip that I didn’t know was actually just an advertisement for one of the cars— I don’t remember which one— and he was constantly yelling at me viciously because my voice was too high,” she said. “It was cruel.”
Musk didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Wilson and her twin brother were born to Musk’s first wife, author Justine Musk. The couple divorced in 2008, and Wilson said her parents shared custody between their homes in the Los Angeles area.
…Wilson said that she hadn’t spoken to Musk in about four years and that she refused to be defined by him.
“I would like to emphasize one thing: I am an adult. I am 20 years old. I am not a child,” she said. “My life should be defined by my own choices.”
Musk threw a spotlight on Wilson on Monday by speaking about their relationship in a video interview with psychologist and conservative commentator Jordan Peterson streamed live on Twitter, saying he didn’t support Wilson’s gender identity.
“I lost my son, essentially,” Musk said. He used Wilson’s birth name, also known as a deadname for transgender people, and said she was “dead, killed by the woke mind virus.”
And in a post on Twitter, Musk said Monday that Wilson was “born gay and slightly autistic” and that, at age 4, she fit certain gay stereotypes, such as loving musicals and using the exclamation “fabulous!” to describe certain clothing. Wilson told NBC News that the anecdotes aren’t true, though she said she did act stereotypically feminine in other ways as a child.
Wilson also addressed Musk’s recent comments in a series of posts Thursday on the social media app Threads.
“He doesn’t know what I was like as a child because he quite simply wasn’t there,” she wrote. “And in the little time that he was I was relentlessly harassed for my femininity and queerness.”
“I’ve been reduced to a happy little stereotype,” she continued. “I think that says alot about how he views queer people and children in general.”
In recent years, Musk has taken a hard-right turn into conservative politics and has been waging a campaign against transgender people and policies designed to support them. This month, he said he was pulling his businesses out of California to protest a new state law that bars schools from requiring that trans kids be outed to their parents.
On Twitter, Musk has for years criticized transgender rights, including medical treatments for trans-identifying minors, and the use of pronouns if they are different from what would be used at birth. He has promoted anti-trans content and called for arresting people who provide trans care to minors.
After Musk bought Twitter, in 2022, he rolled back the app’s protections for trans people, including a ban on using deadnames.
Musk told Peterson that Wilson’s gender transition has been the motivation for his push into conservative politics.
“I vowed to destroy the woke mind virus after that, and we’re making some progress,” he said.
Surely you mean does he belong on the TOP of the list!