Like a lot of other people, I dont use my X account much anymore. I prefer to post on Threads, because X (formerly Twitter) has become such a cesspool of hate speech and conspiracy-mongering. The problem became especially acute following Hamass Oct. 7 attack on Israel when the platform was flooded with antisemitic and anti-Muslim misinformation. Its like watching a once-nice neighborhood go to seed, with well-maintained houses turning into ramshackle drug dens.
What galls me is that, as a taxpayer, I wind up subsidizing Xs megalomaniacal and capricious owner, Elon Musk. His privately held company SpaceX is a major contractor to the tune of many billions of dollars for the Defense Department, NASA and the U.S. intelligence community. He is also chief executive of Tesla, which benefits from generous government subsidies and tax credits to the electric-vehicle industry.
Musk needs to decide whether he wants to be the next Donald Trump Jr. (i.e., a major MAGA influencer) or the next James D. Taiclet (the little-known CEO of Lockheed Martin, the countrys largest defense contractor). Currently, Musk is trying to do both, and thats not sustainable. He is presiding over a fire hose of falsehoods on X about familiar right-wing targets, from undocumented immigrants to the woke mind virus to President Biden while reaping billions from Bidens administration!
The Center for Countering Digital Hate reported a surge of extremist content on X since Musk took over in 2022 and fired most of the platforms content moderators. The center found tweets decrying race mixing, denying the Holocaust and praising Adolf Hitler. The thin-skinned tech mogul responded by filing suit; early indications are that the federal judge hearing the case is skeptical of Xs claims.
Musk is unlikely to have any more success with his lawsuit against Media Matters for America, a nonprofit that documented pro-Nazi posts on X alongside ads for major companies, leading to an exodus of advertisers. Indeed, Musk, who styles himself as a free speech absolutist, appears to be using legal action simply to intimidate critics into silence.
Musks claims that his platform isnt spewing hate speech and conspiracy theories are undermined by the fact that he is one of the chief spewers. On his X account, which has 176 million followers, Musk has boosted the Pizzagate conspiracy theory, which holds that prominent Democrats are child molesters. He has endorsed a tweet suggesting that graduates of historically black colleges have low IQs and therefore U.S. airlines are risking disaster by recruiting them as pilots. (It will take an airplane crashing and killing hundreds of people for them to change this crazy policy of DIE, Musk wrote in January, referring to diversity, equity and inclusion programs, usually abbreviated as DEI.) He has echoed Donald Trumps unfounded assertions that the electoral system is riddled with fraud; for instance, Musk claimed that illegals are not prevented from voting in federal elections. In fact, only U.S. citizens can vote in federal elections and there is no evidence of widespread fraud.
Musks modus operandi, like Trumps, is not to retract or apologize for false statements but, instead, to insult his critics; he memorably told advertisers who have left X to go f--- yourself. One of the few times Musk has expressed any remorse was after he endorsed an antisemitic screed in November. An X user accused Jewish communities of promoting hatred against whites and added gleefully that western Jewish populations were coming to the disturbing realization that those hordes of minorities flooding their country dont exactly like them too much. Musks response: You have said the actual truth. After advertisers fled and the White House condemned this abhorrent promotion of antisemitic and racist hate, Musk said, I handed a loaded gun to those who hate me and to those who are antisemitic and for that I am quite sorry.
Yet within weeks of this apology, Musk was back to promoting the great replacement theory that liberal elites are plotting to change the character of the country by flooding it with non-White immigrants from the Global South. On March 5, Musk, himself an immigrant, tweeted this administration is both importing voters and creating a national security threat from unvetted illegal immigrants. It is highly probable that the groundwork is being laid for something far worse than 9/11. In another unhinged post that day, he accused Biden of treason for supposedly importing voters.
Musk also freely expresses unsettling opinions about foreign policy. Echoing the standard MAGA line, he recently argued against sending more U.S. aid to Ukraine because there is no way in hell Russia can lose and prolonging the war does not help Ukraine. (Does allowing Russia to win help Ukraine?) In 2022, Musk released a pro-Putin peace plan for Ukraine that would have granted Crimea to Russia and held referendums on the future of Russian-occupied provinces.
The same year, Musk suggested making Taiwan a special administrative zone of China a move that would lead to the destruction of Taiwans democracy. While Musk is a vitriolic critic of woke censorship in the United States, he is silent about Chinas far more grievous censorship and other human rights violations. No doubt its just a coincidence that Tesla has a giant factory in Shanghai producing roughly half of its global vehicle deliveries.
Musk, to be sure, is entitled to freedom of speech, and many other people also promote racist conspiracy theories or favor appeasing dictators. But Musk isnt most people. He is in a unique position to influence geopolitics because SpaceX controls the worlds largest constellation of satellites and a space-based broadband network, Starlink, which has become vital for both military and commercial operations.
Musk pursues his own foreign policy: He turned off Starlink around Crimea because he wanted to make it more difficult for Ukrainian forces to take the fight to Russian occupiers. He wrote on X that he didnt want to be complicit in a major act of war. Recently, members of Congress have accused SpaceX of turning off its Starshield service an encrypted version of Starlink used by the U.S. military in and around Taiwan. SpaceX denies the charge.
Musks role as a defense contractor also makes his personal behavior an issue. The Wall Street Journal has reported that he has used LSD, cocaine, ecstasy, mushrooms and ketamine. In response, Musk insisted that he has passed drug tests while adding, defiantly, Whatever Im doing, I should obviously keep doing it!
Retired Air Force Lt. Gen. James R. Clapper Jr., a former director of national intelligence, told me that given his dealings with the Chinese, and reported drug use, I would find granting Musk a security clearance risky and inconsistent with the standards applied to normal people. Yet, despite everything, Musk not only retains his security clearance but also his stranglehold over two vital national security capabilities: space launch and space-based broadband. In the third quarter of 2023, SpaceX launched 519 spacecraft, compared with only 86 for the rest of the world.
There is no good alternative to SpaceX at the moment, so, for now, U.S. officials might have no choice but to overlook Musks obnoxious and erratic behavior. But there are plenty of competitors on the horizon. Amazon and OneWeb are launching satellite broadband networks and SpaceXs rivals in the space-launch business include United Launch Alliance, Arianespace, RocketLab, Firefly Aerospace, Relativity Space, Astra, ABL Space Systems and Blue Origin. (Both Blue Origin and Amazon were founded by Post owner Jeff Bezos.) Its imperative that the government encourage competitors to SpaceX, even if it costs more in the short run, so that U.S. national security does not remain hostage to Musks whims.
Theres a good reason defense contractors seldom wade into political controversies: They know their business depends on keeping the support of both Democrats and Republicans. Musk thinks the rules dont apply to him. So far, they havent. But he will eventually learn that either he can espouse views that many Americans find abhorrent, or he can benefit from public largesse. He cant do both at least not indefinitely.
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Opinion | Elon Musks Starlink and SpaceX play too big a federal role - The Washington Post