Did Elon Musk Win the Election for Trump?

Leah Feiger: The new Rupert Murdoch.

Tim Marchman: Yeah. He’s a self-styled futurist, a Tony Stark, all that. But he’s also a very familiar figure, right out of one of those Victorian novels…

Leah Feiger: That you desperately want to be reading on-

Tim Marchman: In the park reading.

Leah Feiger: …a park somewhere. Yes, soon.

Tim Marchman: We know this kind of figure. Just somebody who owns a mass media outlet and uses it to promote his interests. That is exactly what you’re describing there.

Vittoria Elliott: For a story that we published yesterday about how Musk has, by rolling back all of these protections at what was formerly Twitter, he’s flown cover for a lot of other tech companies that have also rolled back their protections, but not quite as violently. One of the former Twitter employees I spoke to for the piece said, “You know, Musk is a smart man fundamentally. Not about everything, but about a lot of things.” We have a long history in this country of really rich people owning newspapers, like Jeff Bezos and the Washington Post. But Musk realizes that social media is media, and the better play if you want to control the conversation is not necessarily to own a paper, but to own the platform.

Leah Feiger: Obviously we’ve all been talking about this in our group Slacks and have been for some time, but the elephant in the room is the online bro culture and the Manosphere, and the podcast bros that have really shaped this election. Musk is obviously a member of this cadre and has become one of its leaders. Talk to me about some of these views and how you guys think that this has impacted what we’re seeing here right now.

Vittoria Elliott: Oh, damn. I have so many feelings. I think it’s particularly telling that instead of being out on the campaign trail on Monday, Musk spent almost three hours in a studio in Texas with Joe Rogan. I think that should indicate to all of us how important someone like Joe Rogan, who was hesitant with his endorsement, but has definitely been a pillar on the more acceptable end of the Manosphere, to think about how important he is as a figure for that community. Young men, young disaffected men, are not exactly the most reliable voting demographic. So, to me, actually waiting until the last minute makes a lot of sense, because I think if that endorsement had come out in August, it would’ve been really easy for that to lose steam. But you’re talking about a group of people for whom that sort of sustained political engagement is not really their vibe. But to have it come out the night before the election, so it’s actually a more immediate choice off of the back of that endorsement, makes a lot of sense to me.

I think when we’re talking about this, we’re talking about the Manosphere. Some of the views that Musk has parroted from its darker depths have been anti-diversity, equity, inclusion initiatives, this emphasis on childbearing and child-rearing. Musk has at least 11 children that we know of, with at least three different women. This very pro-natalist view, this view that people should be having big families, that they should be having children, and implicit in that, that women should be child-rearing, and that women’s obligation is to use their body for creating children and for the perpetuating of the human species.

Original Author: Leah Feiger | Source: Wired