Fix It, Daddy!
Elon Musk, Jordan Peterson, and the economics of fascist cosplay.
by Ben Cohen
I noticed a strange phenomenon after Elon Musk bought Twitter and turned it into a hellscape of conspiracy theories and right wing disinformation. Prominent voices in the Alt right Twitterspehere would send endless tweets to Musk asking him to fix issues with their account:
Not only did the army right wing culture warriors genuinely appeared to believe that Twitter was going to turn into a bastion of free speech under the benevolent leadership of Musk, they also thought that Elon Musk would personally intervene on their behalf if the platform censored or restricted their posts.
The tweets revealed several things about Alt right personalities, from their severe distortions of reality to their unyielding devotion to Musk.
But what fueled this weird belief in Musk as a savior to all of their problems?
The savior myth
Unless you inherited a fortune, the ultra wealthy become ultra wealthy by being far more ruthless and greedy than everyone else. Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates etc, dominated their respective industries with astonishing levels of greed. Bezos for example destroyed not only physical retail stores, but most other online retail outlets in America. He did this deliberately by subsidizing Amazon products so that no one could compete on price. Once this had been achieved, Amazon jacked prices back up leaving buyers with nowhere else to go. Amazon now controls more of the retail e-commerce market than 10 of its biggest rivals combined. Zuckerberg made his fortune illegally harvesting Facebook user data and selling it to ad companies. Gates built Microsoft by stealing code from his competition.
Most of these men are not brilliant visionaries. They are hard nosed capitalists willing to do whatever it takes to increase their market share. And Elon Musk is no different.
Contrary to public perception, Elon Musk did not create Tesla, and has made much of his fortune dubiously pumping the price of Tesla stocks (the company he did found, Space X, has almost never made money). Musk takes government cash while railing against government handouts, and convinces his fans he is a proponent for free speech while helping authoritarian governments censor it when it helps him make a profit.
Musk is no savior of free speech, or humanity. He’s an opportunistic billionaire interested in expanding his business empire and personal influence.
In what could be Musk’s ultimate grift, he has managed to get his fans to pay him directly for the privilege of getting their data harvested for profit. As Cory Doctorow writes:
Useful idiots on the right were tricked into thinking that the risk of Twitter mismanagement was "woke shadowbanning," whereby the things you said wouldn't reach the people who asked to hear them because Twitter's deep state didn't like your opinions. The real risk, of course, is that the things you say won't reach the people who asked to hear them because Twitter can make more money by enshittifying their feeds and charging you ransom for the privilege to be included in them.
While scandalous and deeply immoral, Musk’s ruse also reveals a real weakness of Alt right devotees, namely their love for authoritarian father figures.
Fascist fantasies
The German Jewish philosopher Theodore Adorno believed that fascism was a Freudian submission to the presence of an authoritarian father figure. As Jennifer Izaakson notes, “Adorno wrote how the father is inaugurated in the mind not just as a terrorising object but, if remote, disciplinarian or unforgiving, give shape to a self-assailing super-ego.”
This explains much of the behavior of Donald Trump supporters, almost all of whom have no concerns about their idol’s grotesque private and public behavior. They view Trump as a savior figure sent by God to cleanse America of liberalism, and they have little concerns about his moral character. Just as Hitler could cure Germany of its Jewish infestation, Trump had been sent to cure America of the invading immigrants, Deep State Democrats, and trans predators lurking in our public restrooms. Right wing provocateur Milo Yiannopolous summed up this bizarre projection best when insisting Americans call Trump ‘Daddy’.
Jordan Peterson’s online success as ‘The Internet’s Dad’ came about precisely because of this phenomenon. Peterson’s austere, angry demeanor has attracted millions of disaffected young men who hang on his every word. Peterson preaches extreme discipline, self reliance and deep hatred for anything he perceives as weak — namely trans people, liberals, and women:
Peterson it should be noted, seems to be obsessed with Elon Musk, tweeting at him on a regular basis and fawning over him at every given opportunity. “I’m struck with admiration,” Peterson responded to podcaster Lex Fridman when ask what he thought about him.
While Peterson plays into the fantasies of fatherless young men, he also has his own projections about powerful men and their powerful rockets.
Daddy Elon
Musk has become a new father figure on the Right for obvious reasons. The combination of Musk’s extreme wealth and icy personality has turned him into what can only be described as a fascist icon. He’s a ruthless billionaire unconcerned with liberals and their concerns.
Musk’s takeover of Twitter for example, was an astonishing spectacle that appeared to be entirely orchestrated for his fanbase of right wing bros. Musk publicly humiliated staff, fired disabled engineers via Tweet, and forced the “diehards” to sleep in the office to prove to him how “hardcore” they were. To most people this looked like a Nero-esque exercise in cruelty and narcissism. But to the online right this was a display of unbridled manliness and power. Musk decimated the Twitter workforce, but he attained legendary status in Alt right circles where cruelty is seen as huge virtue.
Musk has always been an eccentric narcissist, but this new, Twitter troll incarnation of the billionaire is something far more concerning. Musk isn’t necessarily spreading fascism, but he is taking advantage of its rise. He has seen how opportunistic grifters have monetized the American right’s daddy issues, and is milking the opportunity from another angle.
Because when you own the platform where internet dad gurus ply their trade, what does that make you?
Read the latest for Banter Members:
“Musk isn’t necessarily spreading fascism, but he is taking advantage of its rise.”
I don’t really think you can say he isn’t aiding in its spread. When someone encourages something, makes it possible for those who actively promote it to do so, and interferes with the ability of those who oppose it to do so, you really gotta acknowledge they’re helping the spread.
Of topic but I have to talk about MSNBC, is always talking about Biden’s age. Never hear about the Queen or the Pope. They had Jim Carville on today talking about Biden’s age. I remember last year Carville and Bill Maher was talking about a red tsunami that didn’t happen so why put them on.