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Becoming Elon Musk, Part Two

🕑 Added 2025-03-25 14:22:37 +0000 UTC

Comments

Alex

re: relationships with father figures and Donald Jr., I remember reading somewhere that after his parents divorced, he really hated his father because it was DJT's infidelity that broke up the family (the section on Wikipedia about this cites Ivana's book from 2017 so it's not exactly an unbiased source). Clearly Jr. eventually reconciled with his father, I suspect for financial reasons. But it's possible that he saw how showmanship and a projection of wealth were enticing to voters in the US and that he could use them to accrue political power conveniently. So he now performs the boisterous, combative Trump son on TV for personal gain. But who knows? The whole family is very intentionally dishonest in public, so I am never sure what conclusions can be accurately drawn from the evidence we have, besides their collective vindictiveness and capriciousness.

Axel Herrera

More creators I know have finally gone from insisting they “have” to be on X to dumping it. I hope KYE does so too!

Georges Simenon

I acknowledge that what I'm about to say is annoying, so bear with me, but why are you guys using the social media website that's overrun with Neo-Nazis? I look at threads Sam posts and all I see are hundreds of vicious white nationalists calling him a traitorous Jew. Sorry, big fan, etc.

Lillian Scarbrough

The ability of Musk to spend his whole life hating his father who mistreated him, in part, because of Elons failure to be the masculine South African man, and then turn around and disown his daughter because she isn’t the masculine man he wants her to be. Transmisogyny looks a lot of different ways but it is clear that many men violently hate the idea that women could choose to pursue something other than a masculine ideal.

Subodh Kafle

Tortoise media did a podcast miniseries called "Elon's Spies" about the pedi guy affair and Musk's other extensive uses of private investigators to go after people he dislikes. It's really quite insane + one of the only interviews of Unsworth out there where he talks about it.

Garett Smith

Unless I missed it, you guys still did not mention the Nazi salute. If you did, I'm sorry. But that's kinda THE thing that needs mentioning.

Know Your Enemy

Thanks Andrew, I agree with you. I only included a brief mention of the litigation over Musk trying to get out of buying Twitter in the Delaware Court of Chancery, and off the top of my head I can't recall if the Tesla compensation package litigation came before or after the Twitter litigation—but yes, I did see that story you mention and thought of some of this. Appreciate you drawing attention to this! (Matt)

colin delargy

stefano harney talks about the consultant's power comes in their ability to claim access. they make a claim to belong anywhere. there's a power of having access, sure, but also of _demonstrating_ access. which seems like a relevant lens to view this guy

Addison

Rick Perlstein (friend of the pod) has a 4-book series about just that :)

Roflmaocopter

One would hope, but the brain rot present in techno utopian weirdos is very very real. Elon reprimanding the one employee for not watching that birth means every other employee did.

Andrew Hoppe

Also, re: Tony Stark. Musk actually has a cameo in Iron Man 2.

Andrew Hoppe

FYI, one of the major driving forces of Elon and Tesla’s move to Texas was the Delaware Court of Chancery stalling and eventually striking down his attempts to have Tesla shareholders ratify his $59 billion compensation package. By reincorporating Tesla in Texas, he could (massive oversimplification incoming) circumvent Delaware law’s limitations on shareholder approval of compensation packages. In fact, the relocation was so significant that last night the Governor of Delaware signed into law some statutory revisions that constrain the Delaware Courts’ ability to police these kinds of things: https://news.bloomberglaw.com/litigation/corporate-capital-delawares-business-law-overhaul-explained

Gabriella Gruder-Poni

Great episode! Thank you so much! You do the dirty work and bring us gems. One small point: don’t you think the “Emily in SF” tweet is parodic? I ask because I follow a Facebook page called “Did Silicon Valley Just Reinvent the Bus?” and people regularly share stuff like that. And others regularly comment, “It’s a parody.” The way to find out is to go to the source and get some sense of the context, which I can’t do because I’m not on Twitter. But this attitude begs to be parodied, so skepticism is in order. Thanks again for your great work!

Nina VanHeeswijk

(and having been a comics fan for a long, long time, i am dead certain those people are out there, just not with the insane amounts of wealth.)

Nina VanHeeswijk

ok, yes, a *completely* different comic, but hearing y'all talk about elon's zeal to single-handedly "save the world" is like if the MOST insufferable nerd you've ever met read "watchmen" and their big takeaway was "y'know, ozymandias was REALLY onto something!"

Kal

https://archive.ph/gzGpF There too

Kal

Dammit! I suck at patreon commenting. I just posted a link to a threads/reddit that some reporters who tracked j6 folks organized re Elon musks educational bonafides and it’s I think a good addition to the fabulist origin story of Elon musk.

Kal

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1593307541932474368.html

Lisa M

Thanks for the reply Matt ❤️ I’m literally arguing semantics here, no hard feelings, your point totally stands. I’m VERY excited for the Covid retrospective ep!

Parker W

Man, that Herman Blume line was running through my head up until it was mentioned…”best chapel speaker I have ever seen”

Ben Rhiger

Great episode! Can anyone find that twitter quote from the person in SF with the “elite” friends who dislikes succulents?

Garett Smith

It is genuinely disturbing at a root level. My heart goes out to you and all trans people just trying to live.

Rhianna79

Same, many of my coworkers at a home improvement store were surprised to be labeled "essentail" at the pandemic. So many large retail companies had ready made plans to deploy in case of a pandemic and Home Depot made out like a bandit.

Rhianna79

I remember his saying to not ride public transit b/c anyone could be serial killers. WTF? It's was around 2015.

Peter Flynn

My coworkers and I have been filled with dread over the thought of Elon looking into the US Postal Service and pretending to understand how the whole operation works, and this episode unfortunately did not help.

Tim Combes

I remember vividly that him accusing the diver of being a pedophile was when I first started being like “maybe this guy is no good”

Know Your Enemy

Thanks Lisa, I totally agree with your point and am sorry I seemed to suggest otherwise. In the context of my comment—the increasing use of social media during the pandemic and the rising value of Twitter stock in particular—I used "we all" pretty self-consciously to mean "people with keyboard jobs and some others who found themselves working from home," and wasn't trying to make a sweeping statement about literally everyone's experience of the pandemic. But I really and truly understand why such sloppy language would grate, and will try to avoid that in the future. Also, our next bonus episode is on the pandemic's fifth anniversary, and I hope we address some of your concerns! Thanks again for such a thoughtful comment. (Matt)

Richard Marshall

Incredibly grateful for these episodes as I want to know how to understand Musk, but sure as hell don't want to read books about him! Appreciate that you guys endured that so that I don't have to! As a Southern African unable to resist pointing out that the name Botha is even less intuitive to pronounce than Sam's valiant effort suggests in part one:)

Lisa M

Love the pod. Love the eps. Little bit of feedback here, and it doesn’t even have anything particular to do with this ep, I just heard Matt say it :P it irks me is when people who were stuck inside during the pandemic talk about how “we were all” stuck inside. I just don’t think that’s true. I don’t know what the numbers are, I’m going to have to go snoop around for some stats because Now I’m curious, but lots and lots of people were not stuck inside during the pandemic. I worked in a grocery store, and I’ve never felt more exposed or more socially used up in my life. Every day involved more interaction, more conflict, more interpersonal dynamics then any other time on my life. I think I’m not statistically alone in this. Lots of people in service jobs, health care jobs, factory jobs, transport jobs, we all still went to work every day. I just don’t think it’s true that we “were all stuck inside.” When I hear people say it, it always strikes a little resentful chord in me. I just always think, lucky you, you weren’t on the bus to work in your mask every day, but lots of other people were. Just some for thought :) Thanks for another fascinating ep.

Lucy Sakiewicz

There’s no questioning of why these women who rely on him and have an insanely unequal power dynamics would perhaps publicly express sympathy or positive attitudes? For someone who is obsessed with his image, cannot deal with criticism and is abusive on so many levels? That doesn’t indicate to maybe dive in to some interrogation of his relationship to these women who are essentially enslaved to him because they all have underage children? I would encourage y’all to speak with non men, women perhaps who are experienced or experts in DV, coercive control, or the relationship between powerful parents who are able to control their partners who have had their children.

Sam D.

Very cogent analysis- and I've listened to quite a few , since it's so relevant now. Depressing too, since I think you are quite accurate about how appallingly ill suited he is for what he's attempting to do.

Sam D.

That sounds quite plausible.

J English

Elon’s deep and abiding hatred for trans people scares me to my core. Now that he has weaponized X into a nonstop hate machine for people like me and my friends and loved ones, it’s very hard to not feel like we’re being crushed. Hard to describe to cis people, honestly. We’re a small minority, already ‘weird’ and aesthetically disturbing to the majority, with small and shrinking political sway, and the richest man on earth has us locked in his sights. The cruelty towards us and the language of dehumanization is terrifying. It’s a constant knot in your stomach, a headache, a fear of waking up in the morning to see what’s happened now. It is a real challenge to persist in ordinary life knowing that the powerful are working to make everyone around you hate you and ultimately remove you from existence entirely.

David Gillman

Thank you, Sam. Musk doesn't care about public service. I tell everybody that the same is true of Trump, and everybody yawns. Hardly Faustian, they say. A sense of public service is such a small thing to lack. Tell me, was it Reagan that brought us to this place? I always blame him, but I want to hear what you guys think.

erik w bjorke

Your ability to have empathy and compassion for loathsome people is of the great strengths of KYE.

Gussie

here again. I think a possible motive for Musk's messing with federal agencies and programs is his special attention to eliminating programs for the most vulnerable people--it fits with a eugenics motive. You haven't discussed that side of him, but from what I read, it's there. Beyond just sifting out the weak as a theory, maybe the weak represent his own weak inner child and he needs to punish them in some twisted way.

Gussie

the ways Elon and DJT operate seem remarkably similar. Both employing some kind of whimsical idea generation completely unfounded in facts, that they themselves actually believe is genius, because they know themselves to be universal geniuses...Then they use their huge media instruments to perpetuate their genius mystiques...

Zachary Roussie

Not particularly relevant to this episode (another great one, by the way) but I’ve just seen in that Trump has put L. Brent Bozell III up for ambassador to South Africa and I need somewhere to talk about this.

Colette Katsikas

I get a little thrill hearing The Ethical Culture Society mentioned on one of my favorite podcasts. My great, great Aunt Mabel was an administrator there for 30 or so years. My grandmother went to teaching college and then lived in NYC with Aunt Mabel and did her teaching practicum at the Ethical Culture School. If the event is held in the Mabel T. Burnham auditorium, raise a glass to my inspiring foremother!

Aric Rosenveldt

So glad to have this part two. Cheers KYE crew!

genrepunk

New Contrapoints last night, this and 5-4 this morning, it's like Christmas in...late March. This episode finished strong. Plus we got a D&D reference. Nice. This is tangential but the closing words reminded me: seems like there's a lot more media lately with directives on how we're supposed to feel, like that's become a more central part of the rhetorical toolbox in American political discourse. Has there been an uptick in this, maybe related to outrage fatigue, or am I imagining it?

pslerner

I refer you the character of Gerald Crich in the D.H. Lawrence novel, published in 1920, Women in Love. A prophetic version of Elon Musk, and pretty much every celebrity overachiever, in almost any field, in today's society. But you guys have yet to offer anything plausible that is better.