Elon Musk is a South African entrepreneur who has recently entered America’s cultural (and political) wars. Celebrated by Joe Rogan and Sam Harris, Elon Musk has carved out a level of celebrity most CEOs don’t get to enjoy, amassing 100 million Twitter followers, marrying his brand to his own persona, and encouraging a cult-like audience which publicly defends Musk against bad publicity. Long derided for his business practices, from poor employee and car safety standards, to Tesla lemon laundering, to a wild bet on purchasing Twitter which he is now trying to back out of, his recent foray into politics (including attacks from Donald Trump) has only increased this criticism. In this video, Alex Sheremet and Dan Schneider assess Elon Musk’s self-claims against reality and the documentary record.

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Timestamps:

0:18 – how Elon Musk outwore his welcome; body shaming Elon Musk; how Musk’s definition of Political Correctness & “wokeness” is applicable to himself; why has Elon inserted himself into the public sphere?

7:24 – Dan: how can Elon Musk be wrong on almost everything he says?

8:46 – Alex on Elon Musk’s free speech hypocrisy: the alteration of reality by money; SpaceX as having extracted from the commons; why the concept of the self-made man is incoherent

13:57 – Elon Musk’s early history; how Musk shares his father’s flaws while moralizing about them; what does it mean to be “against apartheid” while using slave labor analogues; family drama & blood feuds; why being “self-made” tends to only be about financials

19:54 – Elon Musk fails to understand the public commons; how the commons build up corporations; Elon Musk’s failures with autonomous driving; how the rich socialize costs by not thinking about outcomes

32:50 – Elon Musk is misleading the public on electric tax credits

40:00 – the top few posts in a subreddit critical of Tesla’s cars; Better Business Bureau ratings; the Tesla lemon laundering charges; are EVs greenwashing?

49:30 – Alex on the Inflation Reduction Act; true public investment vs. tax incentives for companies; the traps technocratic solutions create; hypocrisy on crime

59:00 – Elon Musk’s absurd COVID disinformation; Musk doesn’t understand the vaccine or lockdowns; disinformation on the nature of pre-existing conditions & COVID; Musk behaves as if he has no Twitter followers

01:09:20 – Elon Musk promotes the Great Replacement conspiracy theory; what Musk means when he says population “sustainability”

01:17:56 – Elon Musk on simulation theory; he makes a number of invalid assumptions, anthropomorphizes; assessing the typical Musk sycophant

01:27:00 – Elon Musk explains his political leanings; narcissism & virtue-signals; how does the world’s premier environmentalist forge an alliance with climate change skeptics?

01:40:35 – Elon Musk on art; says the video game Elden Ring is “the greatest work of art” he has ever experienced; Musk brings ideology to his Netflix critique because he is incapable of engaging art

Tags: #ElonMusk, #Tesla, #SpaceX, #ArtiFactPodcast, #simulationtheory