https://robertreich.substack.com/p/the-anti-democracy-alliance
"Friends,
Elon Musk and entrepreneur and investor David Sacks reportedly held a secret
billionaire dinner party in Hollywood last month. Its purpose: to defeat Joe
Biden and reinstall Donald Trump in the White House. The guest list included
Peter Thiel, Rupert Murdoch, Michael Milken, Travis Kalanick, and Steven
Mnuchin, Trump’s Treasury secretary.
Meanwhile, Musk is turning up the volume and frequency of his anti-Biden
harangues on his X platform.
According to an analysis by the
New York Times, Musk has posted about
President Biden at least seven times a month, on average, this year. He has
criticized Biden on issues ranging from Biden's age to his policies on heath
and immigration, calling Biden "a tragic front for a far left political
machine.”
The
Times analysis showed that over the same period of time, Musk has posted
more than 20 times in favor of Trump, claiming that the criminal cases Trump
now faces are the result of media and prosecutorial bias.
This is no small matter. Musk has 184 million followers on X, and because he
owns the platform he’s able to manipulate the algorithm to maximize the number
of people who see his posts.
No other leader of a social media firm has gone as far as Musk in supporting
authoritarian leaders around the world. In addition to Trump, Musk has used his
platform in support of India's Narendra Modi, Argentina's Javier Milei, and
Brazil's Jair Bolsonaro.
Some of this helps Musk’s business interests. In India, he has secured lower
import tariffs for Tesla vehicles. In Brazil, he has opened a major new market
for Starlink, SpaceX’s satellite internet service. In Argentina, he has
solidified access to lithium, the mineral most crucial to Tesla’s batteries.
Musk has slammed Biden for his decisions on electric vehicle promotion and
subsidies, most of which have favored unionized U.S. auto manufacturers. Musk
and his Tesla are viciously anti-union.
But something deeper is going on. Musk, Thiel, Murdoch, and their cronies are
backing a movement against democracy."
Via Kevin O'Brien.
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
