Elon Musk: the global supervillain with a grudge

It’s not just Americans who need be afraid.

An audio version (by me) is available below:

When British diver Vernon Unsworth refused Musk’s help during the rescue of the boys stuck in a flooded cave in Thailand in 2018, Musk didn’t just lash out by calling him ‘pedo guy’ on Twitter, he doubled down when criticised saying, “Bet ya a signed dollar it’s true.” Then, according to Tortoise Media’s podcast ‘Elon’s Spies’ (which is well worth a listen), Musk hired private investigators to follow, hack, and invent stories about Unsworth in order to undermine him. Amber Heard allegedly received the same treatment in 2017, with Musk hiring a private securities firm to spy on the actress when they were dating and feed stories about her to the press. Same goes for a Tesla whistleblower after he spoke out about issues within the company.

Musk holds onto grudges tighter than I hold onto good jokes. His longstanding pique against Sam Altman of OpenAI fame came to a head earlier this week when he made a public $97.4bn bid for the artificial intelligence research organisation (that you may know best through ChatGPT). While many hope that this is just classic Musk mischief-making, others believe it is a legitimate salvo to reclaim the company that he co-founded with Altman in 2015. Despite Altman laughing at the bid and Musk later claiming that he’d withdraw it if OpenAI remains a non-profit company, the thought of Musk eventually owning arguably the biggest AI company in the world, merging it with his own, xAI, and creating a colossus is terrifying.

(You know how in your most paranoid moments you think someone might be watching you via the camera on your laptop or listening via the voice controls on your phone? Well, firstly, that’s not actually considered that paranoid nowadays, more just realistic. Secondly, the person listening? Oh yeah, that might soon be Musk. And thirdly, with the rate that AI and AGI is developing and the embarrassing lack of world regulation, being watched or listened to might be the least of our problems.)

This is all happening at the same time as Musk is busy dismantling any governmental agencies that could ever, or would ever, regulate him (or, you know, save lives) via his so-called ‘Department of Government Efficiency’, aka DOGE. With or without OpenAI, Musk has created an environment at the heart of the US government where he – an unelected billionaire with zero empathy (and no charisma) – is allowed to do whatever he wants. He is on course to becoming not only the most powerful person on the planet, but possibly the most powerful person there has ever been on the planet.

An overlord from a dystopian novel

Musk is a living, breathing paradox, giving absolutely zero fucks – saying mad things whenever he likes to whomever he likes – while also giving all of the fucks. What we, in our normal everyday lives, would brush off, deal with professionally, or moan about to our mates, Musk will brood over for years, plotting retribution like a supervillain from a comic book, an overlord in a dystopian novel, a Bond baddie in a bad t-shirt. Meanwhile, the heroes are busy tripping over their own capes and indignation.

---

Thanks so much for supporting my work. If you enjoy what you read/listen to and would like to buy me a coffee, I would really appreciate it.

---

What he and his DOGE-bags are currently doing to the US federal government is unprecedented, illegal and completely nuts… and no one seems to know how to stop it. Listing all of the agencies they have gutted and what that means in real terms is time-consuming and complicated; please google the details if you’re interested (or ask ChatGPT while you might still be able to get an un-Musk fanboy answer). Suffice to say though, many of his moves have been attributed to long-standing personal as well as ideological grudges. He is destroying safeguards, amenities, guidance and protections preserved for anyone who isn’t like him – as well as for anyone who might ever stand in his way.

He is achieving this through sheer bravado, creating chaos and appeasing the mob through snappy soundbites. He and Trump both understand the power of looking busy. Of producing content. While Joe Biden pretty much disappeared off the face of the earth for the last six months, Trump and Elon were, and still are, everywhere and that presence is felt and appreciated. It doesn’t matter what they’re doing, as long as they’re doing something.

Elon, a gaming fan, often lays out simplistic narratives that could be derived from game plots or comic books. He called USAID – the government agency responsible for administering foreign aid – a “criminal organisation” involved in “rogue CIA work” that should “die”. He did not elaborate nor provide evidence. In fact, the specific claims of fraud he has laid at the feet of the agency have been debunked. But the language sticks. The inference sticks. That, coupled with the smash-and-grab action of tearing through the government – literally and figuratively – not only appeals to people looking for a simple answer to everything that’s wrong with current society, but also signals a return to basics. Let’s burn this shit to the ground! The fact that people (including sick and malnourished children) will die because of his actions is either ignored or brushed off – it’s either not true or it’s a necessary evil to combat the grand conspiracy.

But someone will stop him, right? RIGHT?

People are trying – and trying hard. As of yesterday, attorney generals from 14 US states filed a lawsuit challenging the authority of DOGE, stating that this completely made-up department staffed by racist twenty-somethings is exercising “virtually unchecked power”.

The question now is: will Musk or Trump simply ignore any legal judgements against them – and, if that happens, then what? Republicans are already laying the groundwork for this, with Vice President JD Vance (remember him?) tweeting over the weekend how judges who had temporarily halted some of Trump’s executive orders were acting illegally, which is simply not true. You can see how this could play out, with Musk and Trump turning the tables, loudly proclaiming the legal system itself to be at fault. It’s hypernormalisation at its finest: “Don’t believe your own eyes, please.”

Musk’s recent address in the Oval Office proved – just in case further proof was needed – that he has the full backing of the presidency. It shows how far things have sunk that he was allowed to let his kid pick his nose and eat it in the most famous office in the world and hold forth while the actual President sat there looking a little lost. A law unto himself, Musk and Trump’s relationship is constantly analysed for signs of fraying, yet perhaps this event more than any other raised the question of just who holds the real power?

Just One More Thing

If Musk isn’t stopped or at least waylaid soon, the potential consequences are so extraordinary that trying to verbalise it makes you sound exactly like the kind of nutter the ‘dark MAGA’ folk want you to sound like. Musk is working his way to becoming Skynet, basically – a supervillain with a global reach unimagined in the times of Roman emperors. Those in power don’t know what to do about it so are turning inwards instead. As always, it’s going to be up to us – the normals, the plebs, the people who actually keep the engine of life running – to demand change. I know we’re all tired, but fuck it – when’s the revolution? Sign me up.

---

*Exceedingly modest reminder that I have written eight bestselling mental-health books which have been translated into at least 10 languages. I’ve also written a book about the TV show Friends which would make a delightful gift for any Friends obsessives. All are available to buy online or at your local bookshop.