Elon Musk 101: An Essay by Optimus Bongrat - tslaQ.org

January 22, 2024

Right now a lot of people are experiencing what we call The Realization, a term coined years ago by tslaQ contributor Tesla Charts to describe what happens when Elon Musk strays into an area of expertise that you know something about…and you suddenly realize he doesn’t know anything about it and is just bullshitting. Naturally, this makes you wonder what else he doesn’t know anything about and if you stick with it, you discover that what he doesn’t know covers a hell of a lot of ground.

Since Musk’s October 2022 acquisition of Twitter (now X, reflecting his bizarre, apparently life long obsession with the 24th letter) much of the world has experienced a variation of The Realization, one based on character and morality rather than technical knowledge. You will often hear that Musk “has changed,” but that is simply wrong. Through both his own mistakes and the hard work of many, Musk has been exposed. His carefully constructed, long standing image as some kind of benevolent genius, working not for himself but for humanity, now lies in ruins.

In this opinion essay, contributor Optimus Bongrat throughly explores how and why we’ve arrived at this moment with the most successful consumer and financial con artist in the history of business. Originally published on Threads as 62 individual posts, we present it here in one piece and lightly edited for easy readability.

Introduction

In this essay, I set forth my theory of why Elon Musk is a criminal, why Tesla is a fraudulent company, why Musk acquired Twitter, and why authorities have failed to hold Musk accountable.

My interpretation is not original, but rather a synthesis of work by a number of excellent and courageous journalists, investors, and commentators, including Jim Chanos, Ed Neidermeyer, Lora Kolodny, Linette Lopez, Russ Mitchell, Ronan Farrow, Paris Marx, and many others.

African Beginnings

During the first half of the 20th century, millions of whites migrated to Sub-Saharan Africa, escaping a European continent ravaged by war and poverty. These mostly middle class migrants found in South Africa, Rhodesia, Mozambique, Zambia, and the Congo a warm climate, abundant natural resources, cheap labor, and a high standard of living. But this prosperity came at the expense of natives, who were driven from their lands, exploited, and disenfranchised.

Musk was born in South Africa in 1971, a time of great anxiety for whites in Africa. British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan’s “Winds of Change” speech in 1960 had sparked black independence movements across the continent. The Congo Crisis of 1960-65, especially, convinced many whites in southern Africa that universal suffrage would lead to white “population collapse” in their territories as it had in the Belgian Congo.

An outspoken Nazi sympathizer during World War II, B.J. Vorster led South Africa as Prime Minister from 1966-1978. Vorster pushed two policies that were highly popular with his white constituents: apartheid at home, and military and economic support for neighboring Rhodesia’s war against black revolutionaries. Thousands of terrified Rhodesians fled the conflict to South Africa during the 1970s, heightening the fears of South African whites.

Nearly every country condemned Rhodesia’s war for white supremacy and imposed severe economic sanctions. But Rhodesia survived due to support from South Africa and Portuguese-ruled Mozambique. Recognizing the importance of international perception, whites in southern Africa framed the struggle in Cold War terms: whites were defending honorable Anglo-European values such as democracy and capitalism against black “terrorists,” armed and indoctrinated by the communist Soviet Union and China.

Today, prevailing explanations for Musk’s recent politicization include spiraling drug abuse, online radicalization during COVID, and psychiatric illness, each contributing to Musk’s growing detachment from reality. But I argue that Musk has not changed in recent years; public perception of Musk has changed. Musk’s worldview can be traced to two sources: the politics of white South Africans in the 1970s and 1980s, and Musk’s life long love of science fiction.

Musk’s upbringing in apartheid South Africa imparted both a sense of white European superiority and a fear of white “population collapse” driven by the population growth and inevitable enfranchisement of native Africans. As Mozambique gained independence from Portugal in 1975, Rhodesia became Zimbabwe in 1980, and international pressure to end apartheid in South Africa steadily increased in the 1980s, Musk formed the conviction to leave Africa and establish his own colony.

A lover of science fiction, Musk dreamed of establishing his civilization on the planet Mars, beyond the reach of black “terrorists” and “communists.” But to achieve his dream, Musk would need to build a fortune. Musk was born into a comfortable, upper-middle class family in South Africa, but he did not have the resources to fund interplanetary travel.

A Mediocre Academic Career

Today, millions admire Musk as the paradigmatic “genius.” Musk has done much to promulgate this perception, aided by a credulous media craving the spiritual successor to Steve Jobs. But Musk’s early life does not support the genius myth. Musk was a mediocre student at his South African private schools. Musk got his first lucky break by gaming Canadian citizenship law, which allowed him to enroll at Queen’s University at Kingston, ranked the 15th best university in Canada.

After two years in Canada, Musk got his second lucky break: acceptance as a transfer student to UPenn, one of America’s most prestigious universities. While there has been speculation about the validity of Musk’s undergraduate degrees, I believe that Musk did graduate from UPenn in the mid-1990s with a B.A. in Physics and a B.S. in Economics. These are both difficult, technical fields, and Musk’s dual degrees are impressive. I concede that Musk knows more physics than I do.

But UPenn did not award honors to Musk, who was nowhere near the top of his class. Musk’s B.A., rather than B.S., in physics indicates that many of the people currently reading this article know more physics than Musk does. If Musk is a genius, then he is a minor genius. Richard Feynman he is not.

Startups

After UPenn, Musk moved to California to build his fortune. The dotcom bubble was in full swing. Musk’s track record during this period was mixed: while he founded and sold two successful startups, he was also ousted from both companies due to mismanagement. Musk demonstrated strong commercial instincts, but not the character to lead. More stable leaders stepped in for Musk, steering both companies to successful exits, and providing Musk with millions of dollars in seed capital.

In the early 2000s, Musk funded three companies: SpaceX, Tesla, and SolarCity. Musk knew nothing about rockets, but should be credited with assembling a first-rate team of engineers who leveraged old NASA technology to establish SpaceX as a major government contractor. Musk’s greatest contribution to SpaceX has been nonstop fundraising. Musk’s supreme talent is not physics, but rather extracting investments and subsidies from the gullible to fund cash incinerating projects.

Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning, not Elon Musk, founded Tesla. But Musk provided important venture capital, and again demonstrated strong commercial instincts in recognizing before other automotive companies the viability of a mass market electric sports car. Due to disagreements with Tesla’s founders, Musk used his equity in Tesla to oust the founders and establish himself as the undisputed leader.

SolarCity was a total failure, demonstrating many of Musk’s worst tendencies. Founded by Musk’s cousins Lyndon and Peter Rive, SolarCity exemplified Musk’s Trumpian preference for promoting relatives and friends over more qualified outsiders. SolarCity took advantage of customers’ desire to make a positive climate impact, while burnishing Musk’s “green” credentials. SolarCity never had a viable business plan to earn a profit. And, ultimately, Tesla acquired SolarCity in a highly conflicted transaction to help Musk save face.

Editor’s Note: There was actually much more than face at stake, see Tesla Shareholder Lawsuit SolarCity Acquisition.

The business world changed after the Global Financial Crisis of 2007-08. The Fed, struggling with a financial market meltdown and unemployment, ran out of traditional monetary tools. So Fed Chairman Bernanke tried something new: quantitative easing. The Fed bought bonds to inject cash in the economy, propping up the financial markets and stimulating economic activity. The risk of this unprecedented measure – inflation – never materialized as critics warned.

In 2009, the US economy started to recover. Consumer price inflation remained low throughout the 2010s, but inflation appeared in the prices of financial assets. The low interest rate economy, stimulated by quantitative easing, led to expanding valuations. Searching for yield, investors – both public and private – started funding long-term projects with low expected returns. It was against this backdrop that Musk brought Tesla public in 2010.

The Criminal Pattern Is Set

Musk’s timing was shrewd. Tesla stood to benefit from economic growth, low interest rates, and an Obama administration eager to subsidize green projects. But the automotive industry is famously difficult. While investors might pay $20 or $30 for $1 of profit generated by a software company, investors typically pay $5 to $10 for $1 of profit generated by an automotive company. The difference is due to low margins, capital intensity, cyclicality, demand elasticity, and competition.

Tesla’s first decade as a public company, 2010-20, was not smooth. Beset by production delays, management turnover, and the ceaseless need to raise fresh capital, Tesla was nearly forced into bankruptcy. But image obsessed narcissists like Elon Musk find it impossible to admit failure, and will go to desperate measures to avoid doing so. A few years after Elizabeth Holmes turned to fraud to save Theranos, Musk turned to fraud to save Tesla.

Elizabeth Holmes defrauded Theranos investors and customers by exaggerating the capabilities of her product and technology. She boasted that her blood testing machine could run hundreds of tests accurately with only a drop of blood, promising enormous benefits for humanity. In reality, Elizabeth Holmes’ blood testing machine could only run a few blood tests, and delivered unreliable results. In 2015, the hard-nosed investigative journalist John Carreyrou exposed the fraud.

Like Elizabeth Holmes, Musk defrauded Tesla investors and customers (and taxpayers) by exaggerating the capabilities of his products and technology. Every year since 2016, Musk has boasted that Tesla cars already have the capability to drive autonomously. Every year since 2016, Musk has promised that this capability will be commercially available in 1-2 years. While Musk has executed other frauds – defective parts, battery range, etc. – the “full-self driving” fraud is the most incredible.

Musk’s “inventions” follow a similar trajectory. Someone tells Musk about an emerging technology, and Musk pretends he invented it. Musk first learned about autonomous driving technology from his friends Sergey Brin and Larry Page, the co-founders of Google. While innovators like computer scientist Amnon Shashua – CEO of Mobileye – had been developing autonomous driving technology for decades, Google was making significant progress in the early 2010s through its Waymo subsidiary.

Musk recognized that autonomous driving technology would help differentiate Tesla in a competitive marketplace, and enable Musk to market Tesla to investors as a disruptive Silicon Valley technology company, not a low-margin, capital intensive, cyclical automotive manufacturer. But Musk faced a problem: the technology did not exist. While companies like Mobileye and Waymo were making steady progress, their technology was nowhere near ready for commercialization.

Moreover, the approaches pursued by Google and Mobileye required a plethora of expensive hardware including radar, lidar, cameras, and ultrasonic sensors. Musk recognized that adding this equipment to Tesla cars would significantly increase cost of goods sold, pressuring gross margins. So Musk applied his genius “first principles” philosophy to the problem, reasoning that cameras are like human eyes, and if humans can drive with only their eyes, then cars can drive with only cheap cameras.

Perhaps because nobody has accused me of genius “first principles” thinking, I struggle to comprehend Musk’s reasoning. Cameras and software seem different from a human being with eyes. Regardless, Musk’s dubious approach to autonomous driving technology had predictable results. Musk’s self-driving car never materialized. But Musk has no regard for technological and economic realities. Rather than take the honest, difficult path like Google and Mobileye, Musk chose fraud.

Enormous, Deadly Con Games

In Oct 2016, Musk released a slick video supposedly depicting a Tesla car driving itself. In reality, the video was heavily edited; the car, with mapping tech not deployed in other Tesla cars, crashed during filming. Musk had full knowledge of the product’s limitations, even reassuring employees that he would present the video as an aspirational goal, not a current capability.

But Musk lied to both his employees and the public. Musk presented the video as a demonstration of a current capability accessible to all Tesla drivers. Nearly the exact same fact pattern landed former Nikola CEO Trevor Milton in prison. In Jan 2018, Milton published a video on Twitter in which a Nikola truck appeared to be driving on its own power; in reality, the truck was rolling down a hill.

In 2022, the US Department of Justice secured Milton’s conviction for fraud.

“Milton engaged in a scheme to defraud investors by inducing them to purchase shares of Nikola through false and misleading statements regarding Nikola’s product and technology development. Milton’s scheme targeted individual, non-professional investors – so-called “retail investors” – by making false and misleading statements directly to the investing public through social media and television, print, and podcast interviews.” – From the DOJ announcement

To date, Musk has not been indicted.

Musk’s victims are not only retail investors. Musk’s autonomous driving fraud has caused scores of gruesome car accidents, killed 40+ people, and maimed many more. Elizabeth Holmes’ fraud caused people to worry about inaccurate blood test results, at least until they were tested again. Elizabeth Holmes is currently serving a decade-long sentence in federal prison. Trevor Milton’s fraud didn’t harm anyone physically. Trevor Milton is currently serving a 4-year sentence in federal prison.

Musk’s promise of autonomous driving technology induced customers to buy Tesla cars and retail investors to purchase Tesla stock, but this fraud alone was insufficient to establish Tesla as a major automotive manufacturer. Survival in the automotive industry requires efficient, low-cost production. Toyota is famous for operational excellence, and sells approximately 10 million cars per year globally, ahead of #2 Volkswagen (~8 million cars) and #3 Hyundai Kia (~7 million cars).

With no expertise in manufacturing, Musk clumsily produced Tesla’s cars from an inefficient, formerly abandoned factory in Fremont, CA. As Tesla continued to bleed cash, Musk constantly fundraised, begging friends and the Saudis for new money. In 2018, Tesla was on the brink. Musk was desperate, waking up from nightmares screaming about bankruptcy. Then, at Musk’s low point, he forged a deal with China to save Tesla.

China Comes to the Rescue

The Chinese government, eager to establish domestic automotive and technology industries, agreed to build for Musk an enormous, state of the art factory in Shanghai. The benefit for Musk was obvious: the ability to mass produce Tesla cars very cheaply for both wealthy Chinese buyers and the high margin export market. Now, Tesla could truly compete with major automotive manufacturers. The Chinese constructed the factory in less than a year, positioning Musk for his best year yet in 2020.

In 2020, COVID shocked the global economy. Facing a financial crisis and unemployment, the US government again flooded the economy with fiscal and monetary stimulus. Bored, at home, and glued to the Robinhood app, an entire generation of degenerate gamblers started buying stocks, options, and crypto: their favorite stock was Tesla. The popularity of the new Model Y, the efficiency of the new China factory, and a dearth of other cars propelled both Tesla’s car sales and stock price.

Tesla’s soaring stock price allowed Musk to raise extremely cheap equity in the public markets, repay Tesla’s debts, and stockpile cash to finance Tesla’s next phase of growth. As Musk’s personal wealth multiplied, he plowed money into his dream of establishing a eugenic society, with Musk at the center. While Musk had failed to reach Mars, let alone establish civilization there, he did succeed in establishing a personal fiefdom in an equally uninhabitable environment: Texas.

In South Africa, the Boers traditionally had large families with many children. With the help of his own private fertility clinic, Musk impregnated several women with approximately a dozen children. Musk moved Tesla’s headquarters to Texas and started buying up huge tracts of land to finally establish his own colony. Musk received a royal welcome from the Governor Greg Abbott and his morally bankrupt Attorney General, Ken Paxton.

Texas and the Hard Right Turn

Musk’s move to Texas in 2020-21 marked a turning point in Musk’s political profile. Under the Democratic Obama administration, Musk adopted the identity of a liberal Democrat, dedicated to saving humanity from climate change. This helped Musk extract subsidies from US taxpayers and sell luxury cars to climate-conscious liberal elites. Then, under the highly polarizing Republican Trump administration, Musk refrained from political engagement for fear of alienating customers on either the left or the right.

Perhaps Musk had the sense to realize that allying with Trump would devastate Tesla’s reputation with core customers. But equally important, Musk saw himself in Trump, and Trump saw himself in Musk. Both Musk and Trump are a stupid person’s idea of smart; a poor person’s idea of rich; and a lonely person’s idea of popular. Both are completely unburdened by principles, conscience, and honor. Both thrive on deception, and intuitively knew to avoid each other.

But why, in 2020-2021, at the peak of Musk’s wealth, reputation, and power, did he so publicly embrace far-right politics? First, Musk was never a stranger in rightwing social circles; Musk maintained deep ties to prominent conservatives such as PayPal mafia don Peter Thiel and lackey David Sacks, as well as Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale. Second, Musk felt alienated by California’s restrictive COVID policies, which threatened Tesla’s profitability with factory shutdowns.

Third, by 2020-2021, Musk’s ego had grown so immense that he felt more comfortable dropping the center-left facade. But fourth – and this is the core thesis of my entire essay – Musk turned to rightwing politics for protection. While Trump had immobilized nearly every federal agency, Biden made it clear in 2021 that his officials would be tougher cops on the beat. After years of struggling to barely conceal his frauds, Musk recognized the threat of a Biden DOJ sending him to federal prison.

Until 2020, Musk’s imagined enemies were short sellers, legacy auto, and big oil, none of which represented a real threat to him. But Musk recognized the danger of the DOJ, SEC, and NHTSA finally putting down the pizza and getting to work to protect the public from lethal product defects and fraud. A fan of strategy games, Musk knew the importance of alliances. To take on the Biden admin, Musk would need to cultivate powerful alliances at home and abroad.

Domestically, Musk forged alliances with the Republican Party. Ron DeSantis, Greg Abbott, Ken Paxton, Ryan McCarthy, Tucker Carlson, and various other notable conservatives flocked to Musk’s side. Internationally, Musk aligned himself with authoritarian and nationalist governments: China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Israel, India, Italy, Argentina, and the Netherlands. But if these powerful friends offered Musk political protection, then Musk needed to offer them something in return.

Musk offered Tesla: new factories, employment, and purportedly cutting-edge technology. But on a global scale, Tesla is insignificant, producing roughly the same number of cars as Mercedes or Renault, and notably fewer than BMW. Musk offered SpaceX, an important military and communications contractor in a global space race. But SpaceX does not possess technology that cannot be replicated by an adequately funded national space program, or even by another billionaire like Jeff Bezos.

By late 2021, Musk knew he was being investigated by the DOJ, and he needed something that would make him indispensable to both the Republican Party domestically and authoritarian governments abroad. Musk had tweeted compulsively for years. But it must have bothered Musk on some level that Twitter’s main character was Trump, not Musk. When Twitter banned Trump after the Jan 6 insurrection, Musk surely rejoiced at the opportunity to become Twitter’s new main character.

Yet Twitter’s decision to ban Trump must have also terrified Musk. For years, Musk had slowly built a gigantic cult of personality on Twitter, using the platform to promote his companies and pump Tesla’s stock price. If Trump used Twitter to become president, then Musk used Twitter to become the world’s richest person (at least on paper). Twitter was the raw material of Musk’s stardom and wealth, and Musk’s desire for control has always attracted him to vertical integration.

The Stay Out of Jail Plan and the Destruction of Twitter

Musk formed a new master plan. Having carefully pumped Tesla’s stock price to a ridiculous, bloated valuation, Musk finally dumped. In late 2021 and throughout 2022, Musk unloaded approximately $40 billion worth of his shares onto the open market. This was a staggering sum, distinguishing Tesla as the most successful pump and dump scheme, and Musk as the greatest con man, of all time. Musk used the proceeds to pay taxes, repay personal debts, buy land, pay child support, and painfully kill Neuralink monkeys.

But mainly, Musk used the proceeds to buy Twitter. There were several motivations. First, Twitter was Musk’s favorite toy, and he wanted to own it. Second, owning Twitter protected Musk from being deplatformed like Trump. Third, protection from deplatforming allowed Musk for the first time to spread as many dangerous falsehoods as he wanted with little fear of repercussions. But most importantly, owning Twitter made Musk indispensable to the Republican Party and authoritarian regimes abroad.

Domestically, Musk could wield Twitter as both a sword to attack his enemies – the Democrats – and a shield to deflect deserved criticism. Musk has long dreamed of establishing his own dominion – whether on Mars, or in Texas – in which he can be the Big Man. On Twitter, Musk finally succeeded. Musk restored Trump, launched Ron DeSantis’ presidential campaign, platformed a new Tucker Carlson show, and not only restored Alex Jones, but personally welcomed him back on a Twitter Space.

Internationally, Musk could wield Twitter to gain favor with authoritarian, populist, and far-right governments. If one thing kept Xi Jinping, Vladimir Putin, Mohammed bin Salman, and Benjamin Netanyahu up at night, it was Twitter. During the Arab Spring in the early 2010s, people organized on Twitter to topple corrupt and authoritarian governments. Authoritarians fear the truth and take extreme measures to suppress it. In Musk, they found a like-minded ally with loyalty only to himself.

Before Musk, Twitter was a vital source of real-time news. Now, Musk regularly bans journalists who criticize him, suppresses information adverse to his interests, and promotes much of the site’s most vile content, including white supremacy, antisemitism, Islamophobia, homophobia, transphobia, misogyny, hatred of immigrants, January 6th insurrectionism, COVID denial, racism, race pseudoscience, eugenics, and pro-Russia propaganda. I loved the old Twitter, and I will never forgive Musk for destroying it.

Where Do We Go From Here?

Now I wonder what comes next for Musk, Tesla, and Twitter. Tesla’s bloated valuation, the source of Musk’s vast wealth, depends on sustained growth. But Tesla has likely hit a ceiling at approximately 2 million cars per year. And to reach this volume, Musk slashed the prices of the cars, sacrificing most of Tesla’s profits. Global automotive competition – ironically, largely from China – has now surpassed Tesla in both electric vehicle market share and autonomous driving technology.

In 2017, Musk announced the Tesla Semi and projected 100,000 semi-truck deliveries per year by 2022. That never happened. Also in 2017, Musk announced the Tesla roadster. That never happened. In 2019, Musk claimed that Tesla would have 1 million robotaxis on the road in 2020. That never happened. In 2020, Musk held a “Battery Day” event, promising a revolutionary 4680 battery that would dramatically increase vehicle range. That never happened.

In 2021 and 2022, Musk held “AI Day” events in which he promised a humanoid robot that would eliminate “dangerous, repetitive, and boring tasks.” That never happened. Musk also promised to build the “Dojo” supercomputer that would establish Tesla as a leader in AI, with the potential to sell cloud services like AWS to other companies. That never happened.

Recognizing the end of Tesla’s automotive growth story, Musk is now flailing wildly to come up with new vaporware that might justify Tesla’s enormous valuation, which he boasts could eventually be the world’s largest, “bigger than Apple and Saudi Aramco combined.” Envious of NVIDIA’s success in AI and robotics, Musk seems to be repositioning Tesla as a disruptor in those fields. But given Musk’s extensive track record of puffery, I am not optimistic about Tesla’s prospects in either industry.

Meanwhile, Twitter is now a distressed debt story. Twitter today is likely worth less than its $12B of debt, after Musk rapidly obliterated approximately $30B of equity value. Roughly break-even on an operating income basis, Twitter is burdened by more than $1B of annual interest expense, which will necessitate ongoing cash infusions. But despite Musk’s undeniable talents in fundraising, even the first principles genius will have trouble convincing anyone to invest behind the $12B of debt.

Musk’s only solution, if he wants to keep his favorite toy, is to dump several billion worth of Tesla stock and repurchase Twitter’s debt from the banks. While the banks might be willing to give him a slight discount, they will not agree to a significant discount given Musk’s enormous personal balance sheet. Alternatively, Musk can sell SpaceX shares in the private market or take SpaceX public to raise more cash to repay Twitter’s debt. Regardless, the fates of Musk’s companies are intertwined.

Musk’s personal future is uncertain. The DOJ has been investigating Tesla since late 2021. In the most recent 10-Q, Tesla disclosed subpoenas related to the self driving fraud, the exaggerated range fraud, the self-dealing glass house fraud, and perhaps other crimes that have not yet been reported. Zach Kirkhorn, the CFO who reportedly ran Tesla for years while Musk compulsively tweeted, abruptly departed Tesla in Aug 2023, rarely a positive sign for a company under criminal investigation.

Yet, as serious as things are looking for Musk, I have a nagging fear that Musk will continue to wage war on our society unchecked. Musk has been insulated from any real consequences by his special status as a military contractor, his vast wealth, his political influence, his authoritarian alliances, his enormous cult of credulous fans, his Quinn Emanuel white collar defenders, and a journalism industry that seems more interested in attracting page views than speaking truth to power.

The End of the Game

Many things must happen for the Elon Musk nightmare to end. First, Biden must win the 2024 presidential election. If Trump wins, he will certainly protect or pardon Musk. Second, courageous prosecutors and plaintiff attorneys must breach Musk’s formidable legal walls, which requires beating the formidable attorney Alex Spiro in a jury trial and shredding Musk’s unconscionable customer and employee contracts. Third, news outlets must stop reporting every idiotic Musk prediction and stock pump as news.

Fourth, governments must stop awarding Musk contracts to explode SpaceX rockets, expand Tesla’s charging network, and build imaginary hyperloops to block the development of high speed rail. Fifth, investors must stop funding Musk’s ridiculous science fiction projects. Sixth, judges must invalidate Musk’s arbitration, non-disclosure, and non-disparagement agreements so that victims can expose his crimes. Seventh, public and private sector leaders must publicly condemn Musk’s behavior.

Eighth, credulous hacks like Walter Isaacson must stop canonizing Musk. Ninth, sycophantic access journalists like Andrew Ross Sorkin and Kara Swisher must stop granting Musk softball interviews. Tenth, virtue signaling universities like Yale must stop granting Musk honorary doctorates. Eleventh, rags like Time magazine must stop putting Musk on the front cover as Person of the Year. Finally, and most importantly, ordinary people must stop buying Tesla cars and using Twitter.

In conclusion, let us remember the scores of victims who have been killed and maimed by Musk’s autonomous driving fraud and systematic coverup of product defects. Let us remember the countless people of color, immigrants, Muslims, Jews, LGBTQ people, women, and other vulnerable populations who are experiencing a tidal wave of bigotry and violence due to Musk’s defilement of Twitter. Let us remember the brave Ukrainian heroes whose attacks were thwarted by Musk’s friendship with Putin.

Let us remember the twenty kindergarten children and six adults murdered at Sandy Hook Elementary School, and the pain their families felt when Musk welcomed Alex Jones back to Twitter. Let us remember the women who were abused and exploited by Andrew Tate, and the pain they felt when Musk welcomed him back to Twitter. Let us remember the countless retail investors, including retirees, who will lose everything when Tesla stock collapses. Let us expose Musk’s terrible crimes, and demand justice.

@optimusbongrat
Published on Threads January 15, 2024
Notes and minor revisions by tslaQ.org editorial team January 22, 2024

No, he hasn’t changed…but maybe you have. From December 2019: Who is Elon Musk?

Recommended Links (many are behind paywalls…read a few of these…or just scan the headlines…and ask yourself this question: What other public company CEO even remotely compares?)