Elon Musk
Imperialism
Apartheid Emeralds
Elon Musk grew up in an very wealthy family in Apartheid South Africa. According to Elon's father, Errol Musk, “we had so much money at times we couldn't even close our safe.”[1] Much of this wealth derived from Errol's purchase and ownership of half a Zambian emerald mine in the 1980s. These emeralds helped to fund the Musk family's "lavish lifestyle of yachts, skiing holidays, and expensive computers" - a lifestyle which Errol says turned Elon into a "merchant adventurer" and influenced his "break the rules" approach to his businesses such as Tesla and SpaceX.[2]
Indeed, Errol's wealth played a pivotal role in providing the initial capital for Elon and his brother Kimbal's first venture, Zip2: "most of their startup costs were covered by their father, Errol Musk, who gave them $28,000 to get going."[3]
Bolivia Coup
In July of 2020, Elon responded to online criticism on Twitter: “You know what wasnt in the best interest of people? the U.S. government organizing a coup against Evo Morales in Bolivia so you could obtain the lithium there,” with a shocking confession:
“We will coup whoever we want! Deal with it.”
Only a week before the coup, the former president of Bolivia, Evo Morales, canceled a 2018 deal with ACISA, a German company that makes electric car batteries from Lithium.[4] This partnership’s ambition was to produce batteries for Tesla, one of ACISA’s clients,[5][6] by opening to ACISA & Tesla the Salar de Uyuni salt flats in southwestern Bolivia, home to an estimated 50-70% of the world’s lithium.
Despite having won the most votes [7] by November 10th, 2019, Morales was forced to resign by an unelected anti-Indigenous fascist coup government[8][9][10] which received covert support from the U.S. Military[11], forcing him to flee to Mexico.[12]
Transit
Hyperloop
"Musk’s ridiculous proposal is clearly little more than a cocktail napkin fantasy being publicized to keep Tesla’s stock price in the rarified strata where it presently resides so undeservingly."[13]
In 2018, Musk flew on his private jet from California to Chicago to advocate alongside former Mayor Rahm Emanuel for Musk's The Boring Company to build a hyperloop in Chicago with the backing of the City.[14]
Private Jet
According to the Washington Post, in 2018 Elon Musk flew more than 150,000 miles in 2018 as he "raced between the outposts of his futuristic empire." The plane is a 2015 Gulfstream G650ER that costs $70 million, operated by SpaceX and one of only a few hundred made.
The plane's use for frivolous, high-polluting activities was also juxtaposed by the Washington Post to illustrate Musk's hypocrisy regarding energy and climate:
In September, a few days after calling fossil fuels “the dumbest experiment in human history,” his plane burned thousands of pounds of jet fuel flying 300 miles from L.A. to Oakland so Musk could view a competitive video-gaming event.[15]
Hollywood Propaganda
In their book "National Security Cinema: The Shocking New Evidence of Government Control in Hollywood," authors Matthew Alford & Tom Secker drawn on declassified documents and other materials to illustrate how the U.S. government - primarily the U.S. Military and the CIA - have influenced the production of over 2,000 Hollywood movies and U.S. television shows.
As a high-profile oligarch with extensive U.S. military contracts, Elon's occasional appearances in such productions and above-all his self-cultivation as a kind of real-life "Iron Man" illustrate how this propaganda machinery has played an important role in whitewashing and fictionalizing Elon's public image.
Iron Man
In 2010, Elon made a brief cameo in Iron Man 2, as a rival/friend of the fictional Tony Stark who briefly discuss business as fellow 'iron men.'[16]
In 2021, Forbes Magazine referred to Eon Musk as "America's Real Iron Man" in the title of an article which celebrated the oligarch as a "billionaire genius playboy philanthropist" and "real-life superhero."
The cultivation of this image in the capitalist press is clearly and explicitly designed to empower billionaires through promoting the mythology of their genius:
"More power to Elon Musk and the other deca-billionaires. What would life be without them designing, building, and running the engines that drive economic and technological progress?"[17]
Also in 2021, a photo-op was staged at the SpaceX launch site with the creator of an "iron man"-esque suit in south Texas meeting with Elon Musk as captioned by RGV Aerial Photography on Twitter: "Real life Iron man finds his suit!"[18]
Since purchasing Twitter in 2022 and taking over the company as its new CEO, Elon's profile picture has primarily been a photo of him wearing an "iron man" suit, illustrating the public image he projects of himself amidst increasing controversy and criticism.
Machete Kills
In the 2013 Film "Machete Kills," Elon appears as himself in the role of the CEO of SpaceX. In collaboration with the US government he helps Machete, the film's protagonist, by supplying him with a SpaceX rocket in order to defeat the film's antagonist.[19]
Big Bang Theory
In a brief cameo on the Big Bang Theory, Elon is portrayed as a selfless and generous person who devotes his free time to serving the poor.
When one of the show's characters exclaims "Elon Musk! What are you doing here?" - questioning why he was in the kitchen of a food pantry on Thanksgiving doing dishes, Elon responds: "I was demoted for being too generous with the gravy."[20]
The veritable hero-worship displayed by the protagonist's adoration of Elon when he first appears in the scene illustrates the show's portrayal of Elon as an ideal "nerdy genius" to which the heroes (and audience) should naturally admire and aspire to emulate.
Sources
- ↑ https://www.businessinsider.co.za/elon-musk-sells-the-family-emeralds-in-new-york-2018-2
- ↑ https://www.businessinsider.co.za/how-elon-musks-family-came-to-own-an-emerald-mine-2018-2
- ↑ https://www.sitebuilderreport.com/origin-stories/elon-musk
- ↑ https://en.mercopress.com/2018/12/13/bolivia-germany-agree-to-join-efforts-in-extracting-lithium-from-uyuni
- ↑ https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-12-03/bolivia-s-almost-impossible-lithium-dream
- ↑ https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/11/11/bolivian-coup-comes-less-week-after-morales-stopped-multinational-firms-lithium-deal
- ↑ https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/bolivia-election-1.5333134
- ↑ https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/nov/20/bolivia-el-alto-violence-death-protest
- ↑ https://thepostmillennial.com/burning-the-wiphala-flag-how-canada-and-the-u-s-fueled-chaos-in-bolivia/
- ↑ https://sfbayview.com/2019/12/pachamama-and-the-pope/
- ↑ https://thegrayzone.com/2019/11/13/bolivian-coup-plotters-school-of-the-americas-fbi-police-programs/
- ↑ https://branchoutnow.org/elon-musk-tells-the-truth-about-teslas-anti-democracy-profiteering-we-will-coup-whoever-we-want/
- ↑ https://www.counterpunch.org/2013/08/14/the-problem-with-elon-mush-and-the-hyperloop/
- ↑ https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/elon-musks-highflying-2018-what-150000-miles-in-a-private-jet-reveal-about-his-excruciating-year/2019/01/29/83b5604e-20ee-11e9-8b59-0a28f2191131_story.html
- ↑ https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/elon-musks-highflying-2018-what-150000-miles-in-a-private-jet-reveal-about-his-excruciating-year/2019/01/29/83b5604e-20ee-11e9-8b59-0a28f2191131_story.html
- ↑ https://www.hindustantimes.com/entertainment/hollywood/when-elon-musk-rubbed-shoulders-with-iron-man-and-men-in-black-a-look-at-new-twitter-boss-screen-appearances-101650970440228.html
- ↑ https://www.forbes.com/sites/robertzafft/2021/12/24/americas-real-iron-man-elon-musk-and-his-50000-home/
- ↑ https://futurism.com/the-byte/musk-iron-man-suit
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fbc3iF9DxcE
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGR5HP3KSBk