my hot take on Elon Musk

I'm especially interested in the psychology that drives his choices.

• He has surrounded himself with sycophants, "yes men" [2] [3] [4]
• He popularized the term "woke mind virus". [1] [2] [3]
• He has strong negative opinions about his daughter who came out as trans and started supporting communist beliefs. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]
  • And about pronouns in particular [1] [wikipedia]
• He was very upset at the closing of his Tesla factory in Fremont due to COVID-19 restrictions. [1] [2] [3] [4]
• A lot of articles have been written postulating on what motivated Musk to buy Twitter, given how much money he's lost on the deal:
  • In an Oct 2023 podcast appearance, Musk said he bought Twitter because the woke mind virus was "extinctionist" and "a death cult".
  • There are some accounts that say his daughter Vivian's transition triggered some of his feelings about the "woke mind virus" [1] [2] [3] [3b] [4]
  • The COVID restrictions also may have played a part in his rightward shift.

More about Musk's rightward shift [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]