I ended up today watching a video about Musk. It has some interesting observations, but it might be missing the point.
Today I also saw ...
Elon Musk: Interesting observation
Autism Capital: Also known as the Reich effect.
People who can't defend themselves physically (women and low T men) parse information through a consensus filter as a safety mechanism. They literally do not ask "is this true", they ask "will others be OK with me thinking this is true". This makes them very malleable to brute force manufactured consensus; if every screen they look at says the same thing they will adopt that position because their brain interprets it as everyone in the tribe believing it. Only high T alpha males and aneurotypical people (hey autists!) are actually free to parse new information with an objective "is this true?" filter. This is why a Republic of high status males is best for decision making. Democratic, but a democracy only for those who are free to think.
I did wonder if this was real. I couldn't see it on xitter, because I don't have an account, and don't want anything to do with it. It does seem so. The quote perhaps originally came from 4chan. Seems totally on brand.
I shouldn't need to explain why this is outrageous, dangerous and extremely dumb.
I mean who ever wrote this doesn't seem to know what a democracy or a republic is. They also appear to be unaware alpha wolves are a myth. Whoops.
In the Youtube video, it talks a lot about Musks companies, and a little about his upbringing. Johnny Harris observes that maybe Musk is addicted to drama. He also wonders if Musk changed around 2020 for reasons that we don't really know. He points out the obvious hypocrisy around free speech. From the fact that xitter was modified to amplify Musks speech by 1000x, and around government "censorship", that has actually got much worse post Musk. For example there are more government requests under Musks leadership, and twitter complied with 50% and Musk complies with 80%.
The video doesn't cover the difference between freedom of speech and freedom of reach. It doesn't ponder that you can't shout fire in a crowded theater (ie there is no such thing as free speech absolutism). That "freedom of speech" provides protection from government. It doesn't say anything about arguing in good faith, lying, talking bullshit or encouraging violence.
What I'm trying to say, although the video is hardly flattering of Musk is seems to be doing an awful lot of needless heavy lifting.
Part of the mystery over the past few years, which has only become worse and more obvious recently, is the amount of Silicon Valley elite that have embraced 2024 Trump. We have Peter Theils "I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible", we have David Sachs and Marc Andreessen and motley crew of other misanthropes such as Oracles Larry Ellison.
Zuckerberg, a painfully nerdy human simulcra, is trying to edge his way around this. He does martial arts - oooh sooooo alpha! He eats meat! Grrr. Recently he complains about Biden administration asking him to remove, of all things, covid misinformation. Next he gets threatened/warned/trolled by Trump that he's going to be thrown in jail. More super simp than super alpha.
Anyways there is a bunch of banal and perhaps conspiratorial explanations
There is probably some truth in these. Perhaps for some people that's the end of the story.
I'm starting to wonder if we are looking at this in the wrong way. Accelerationism is not a particularly new idea. Helter Skelter was Charles Mansons accelerationist plan to start a race war. More recently a racist accelerationist domestic terror attempt.
Step back and think about how it applies here...
They believe they are the "alpha males" presumably the "high status males" that are supposed to run things. This is laughable. They are generally pampered, plump and elderly men. About as alpha as a wet sock. For some reason I find Andreessen particularly amusing - looking like a cone-head reject and all.
They aren't traditionally stupid people. Smart people can and do believe incredibly stupid things on occasion. Narcissists and people surrounded by sycophants more so. People who feel untouchable will feel that they can take great risks. Especially if they believe the downsides are born elsewhere and/or helps them.
They might have a different take on things - but they are surely not so stupid as to not see what Donald Trump is and how obviously unsuitable he is.
Unless that's the point.
If they are accelerationalists, and into the Dark Enlightenment, which we know for sure some of them are. In that case supporting Trump makes sense. The main objective is to blow everything up. We get to - through all this destruction - the state they think is warranted and deserved by them. To be the "high status males" running everything. It's unclear what this scenario really is, or how any of this will work - just that they are confident that is better for them.
Standing back this looks extraordinarily stupid and reckless
It's like they are children playing with a bomb, that even if it doesn't kill them all (it probably will), are okay with all the suffering and destruction because maybe just maybe (but almost certainly not) they will come out on top, when they are already on top right now.
In this framing Musk et al aren't trolling. They are literally trying to burn it all down and taking us all with them.