Smart move for a billionaire that wants to influence public opinion. The usual route is to buy a magazine or newspaper but in our new world, being a highly influential stock owner of a social media company is the way forward.
(I'd suspect Musk of wanting to run for office, except I don't think he'd accept a lesser office than President which he's ineligible for. Maybe a state governor like Arnie?)
> He was born in South Africa so he could never become President of the United States.
Didn't know that was a requirement. TIL :D
It's not completely clear that you need to be born in the US - several presidents and presidential candidates weren't - but it's pretty clear that foreigners who become naturalized US citizens later in life are not eligible to run for president.
Or maybe you can elect a district attorney and go after an enemy of yours, but even that's not an easy win. And you can always buy influence for this sort of thing without going through the trouble and cost of running
You certainly can't wave a magic wand and garner favor and respect from people. People hate politicians in the US.
I don't know, I just don't see the "power". It's just an appeal to narcissism as people in the media would be obsessing over you and dissecting every word you say. But that's definitely not power.
Sadly we did not heed their wisdom and we have over the course of time consolidated power in the the hands of fewer people by putting more things into the hands of the federal government, allowed congress to shift their responsibility to the executive, and failing to increase the size of congress.
Obama to this day loves to brag about how he sent SEAL Team 6 to deal with enemies of the US; you can't do that either when you're just a successful author.
Hollande (former French president) also bragged to journalists, many times, about assassinating ISIS leaders.
These are "normal" leaders elected in democracies; it's much worse of course with more authoritarian regimes.
Real power is the power to kill other human beings and not suffer any consequence for it. We don't usually talk about that when discussing politics, but this is what aspiring leaders really crave.
Well put. It makes sense in that context that Musk's fans think he has no interest in politics and his detractors think he must.
As insane as Musk's fanbase can be, I still find his detractors' view of the world less realistic. There's a metric to assess that opinion by. As a fan, I predict he won't run for political office on Earth.
Musk has never shown a desire to murder random people and he has never shown particular hatred for those in the Middle East. Why would he want the power to murder people who are basically unrelated to him?
True, but Musk has a fleet of absurdly huge rockets at his command. If he really wanted to, he could de-orbit something large on top of Tehran.
Given the rate at which he is progressing toward his stated goals, he’s not that far from being able to do that and get away with it - by moving to Mars.
Yeah, this post is mostly tongue-in-cheek, but there is some truth to it. SpaceX is a company with assets that could easily be weaponized far in excess of many country’s militaries. I’m now imagining a future where a crazed trillionaire executes a first strike against some country with kinetic energy weapons, flees to a different planet, and all the governments of the world are scrambling trying to figure out if they can retrieve him.
This is an excellent plot!!
However, read the book Charlie Wilson's War. Wilson had no money to speak of, but the book reveals the incredible power that he wielded, largely by sidling up to selective groups (like the Israeli lobby) and getting key committee appointments. And Wilson wasn't even a U.S. Senator! (Generally speaking Representatives have far less power than Senators)
Countries have armies. Armies enforce international (and eventually planetary) rights. Countries also make laws. Laws that Musk must follow or risk consequences.
> If he establishes a base on mars, it is essentially his. Earth based countries are forbidden (in treaty at least) from claiming ownership of celestial bodies. What's to stop him declaring himself emperor of Mars.
He’d be a paper emperor. No method or means of enforcing his claimed dominion.
> The person that controls the flow of supplies to an isolated world is pretty much all powerful.
Countries control the right to launch those supplies. Musk is a few steps below that in the chain of power.
By the way this is totally off-topic, Musk may say a few stupid things and piss a few people off but he is no Putin or James Bond Super-Villain.
Does he though? If the US wants to boot him out you don't think he'd move everything to Russia or China?
Without SpaceX Can the US even launch anything beyond mini-sats into LEO?
Probably the other colonists.
Realistically, Mars isn’t going to be in a position to act independently for hundreds of years.
Or a TV channel/network, let's not forget those!
I think you're on point.
He’s going to cut the head off by redoing the algorithm and establish an insane amount of power / influence by reducing everyone else’s.
Bezo's "philanthropic" Washington Post purchase just became honest.
Every popular power account and blue check mark is about to get blown up. It's no secret he kind of hates them.
If your largest shareholder says the current methodology used for content manipulation and account banning is bad for business, then there will be systemic changes as a result.