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Script: The age of the new automobile is here, and one man is ushering it in. Someone who has revolutionized and disrupted the car market, expanding and making his factories more efficient and crushing his laborers into submission. He's reaped superprofits off the back of disbanding unions, and with that wealth and power have fueled antisemitic ideologies and the rise to power of Nazis. The man I'm talking about is Henry Ford. Long before Musk became the richest man in the world off the back of electric car manufacturing, Ford blazed a trail of wealth accumulation, support for Nazis, and brutal treatment of
labor. And now the echoes of the past seem to haunt us in Elon Musk. A man who's worked hard to present an image of himself as a green savior, a genius who will save the planet and take us into the stars, but behind that flimsy facade lies the violent, sexist, transphobic, and racist vitriol of fascism. Musk seems to be a man of contradictions, one moment he's championing our need for climate action, and the next he's claiming that climate change is no big deal. But are these contradictions or is there a core throughline that connects his decades of seemingly
erratic actions? Today we try to understand Elon Musk. Unpacking not just how he's recently gained even more significant political sway over the United States and the entire world or his blatant embrace of fossil fascism, but also uncovering an insidious rot at the core of Silicon Valley. Oligarchy Rising: The inauguration of Donald Trump was noticeably different this time around. Eight years ago, tech billionaires like Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, and even Musk seemed to abhor the idea of Trump and what he represented. The tech ruling class at times butted heads with the president on social media or went so far as banning him from
their sites. But, as the currents of power have shifted, so too have the ideologies of the robber barons of the tech industry. At this inauguration, the dons of Big Tech lined up to kiss Trump's ring and capitulate to the fossil fascist regime he represents. A generous interpretation of this flip-flop is that they're just doing business. As Adam Clark Estes from Vox writes, "After the tumultuous first Trump administration, these leaders learned that the president-elect responds best to flattery and praise. They've actually been sucking up to Trump for months in hopes that they
might have some sway in the event of his return to office." So, perhaps they're just performing for Trump to assure Facebook, Google, Tesla, and X are left untouched. This analysis, however, ignores the increased conservative, misogynistic, and fascistic tendencies creeping into the language of these Tech capitalists- especially Elon Musk. Whether it's Zuckerberg claiming the need for more masculine energy: ["I think having a culture that celebrates the aggression a bit more has its own merits"] and then ending Facebook fact-checking, or Jeff Bezos commanding the
Washington Post's editorial team, which he owns, to only defend personal liberties and the free market, and finally Elon Musk carving up Twitter, while amplifying far-right hate speech, and espousing views like: [XX play clip]. And if we follow the money, it's clear that at the head of this charge to fascism by tech capitalists is Elon Musk. During Trump's re-election campaign, Musk poured $242.6 million into the new president's political coffers. What is happening? Why are all of these Big Tech capitalists suddenly changing their tune? Or are
they, is this a contradiction or a return to normalcy for these scions of Silicon Valley? To drill into that question and to better understand the culture that forged the Elon Musk we know today, we have to rewind back to the 1990s. The decade of big suits and even bigger computers. Silicon Valley Has Always been Right-wing: As a young Elon Musk took his first-year courses at Queen's University in Ontario, across the continent, journalist Michael Malone concocted an article for the upstart tech magazine Upside. The cover of that magazine issue read,
"Has Silicon Valley Gone Pussy," and the article was titled "The Pussification of Silicon Valley." The year was 1990, and Malone's article would decry the "pussification" of the tech industry, claiming that the rapidly accelerating computer industry epitomized in Silicon Valley was becoming too politically correct and "falling victim to feminization." But this misogynistic rhetoric wasn't isolated to the fringe writings of a startup tech magazine, indeed, in part due to that article, Upside became a popular source of news during the 1990s tech boom.
The world of tech has never held the benevolent and progressive views some like to think it has. [play clip] At the core of the tech world (even in its infancy) lies a deep belief in a conservative masculinized individuality. In Silicon Valley, investors hunt ideas. They are investing as much in the entrepreneur as they are in the product. Historically, this has meant cash has flowed liberally to the genius men who stop at nothing to achieve their visions. The Steve Jobs's and the Bill Gates's who were not just building code and hardware, but were also
supposedly changing the world with their ideas. In short, rampant financial speculation inherent to Silicon Valley, created a fixation on the male genius. Investment is not based on the material reality of factories or production, but instead on a single person's idea. And in an industry based on individual ideas, as this Guardian article notes, "hype was everything." A notion that one of the richest tech CEO Larry Ellison corroborated, arguing that "There's no place like Silicon Valley, where your talents can be magnified, and the projection of that magnification is cash." So,
creating the illusion that you are a genius ideas maker in Silicon Valley regardless of whether your product exists, like Elizabeth Holmes did with Theranos, is perhaps more important than actually producing material goods. The goal is to sell the capitalist class, who are predominantly older, white men, on your idea. So whether it's misogyny, climate action, or anti-fact-checking, causes and morals, or lack thereof are championed to attract investors, which means that as postdoctoral fellow at Stanford, Becca Lewis, writes "in a world increasingly based on individual personalities
and the ability to grab (mostly white, male) investors' attention, politically incorrect showmanship could be good for business." To put it bluntly, Silicon Valley is steeped in pageantry and hype. Performing for capitalist investors is key to getting your business up and running. Financial investment has led to a twisted valorization of the individual capitalist. A "worshipful treatment of entrepreneurs" that elevates them to god-like and corporate dictator status. And this culture of never being told no and unchecked corporate power has birthed
a right-wing, tech-based politics, known as cyberlibertarianism. ["cyber libertarianism as it is practiced across the political spectrum can be summarized into a single paradoxical tenet"] That's an expert on the intersections of tech and fascist ideology, David Golumbia. He goes on to explain, ["mass adoption of ubiquitous computerization directly produces social and political freedom this adoption is directly tied to economic power."]. In short, more computers produce more democracy and freedom. And freedom, in the libertarian
sense usually means economic freedom. It's here where we see the core principles of Elon Musk laid bare. His politics revolve around the notion that the advancement of tech ushers in individual, but more importantly economic freedom [play clip of Elon musk]. Core to this ideology is that state regulation and market meddling hold back new tech and ultimately hinder freedom. A small government and free market fuels mass adoption of computerized technology and vice versa. Conveniently for Musk, the result of this unregulated adoption of technology is a world
where tech oligarchs hold all power. If Zuckerberg or Musk desire to eliminate fact-checking on their platforms or that all leftist sympathizers be banned from using their sites, they could do so, unchecked. A cyberlibertarian world is a world of false truths and capitalist dictators. And this world is quickly coming to pass, as Musk grabs the clay of government and molds it to his vision. A dark vision that's a far cry from the green tech saviour Musk has long claimed to be. Because, as we're about to see, Musk has wielded the persona of "climate savior" to drum up hype around
Tesla and his other companies. In the same way, so many other tech figures don mirages, Musk has used this green genius illusion to make money, and now that he's achieved the pinnacle of wealth he can cast aside this mirage for his true values. Forged in the cyberlibertarian fires, Elon Musk, at first glance, seemed to buck the trend of the conservative tech capitalist. Tesla is one of the largest electric car companies in the world, and has helped (with the aid of massive government support) to usher in the beginning of an electric car transition. Whether that's actually a good thing, is for a whole other video. But Musk has
stressed the importance of climate action and even claimed in 2016 that ["the fossil fuel industry is the biggest industry in the world they have more money and more influence than any other sector so I mean the more that there can be sort of popular Uprising against that the better."] He's even backed carbon removal projects with $100 million in funding through the XPrize. Compared to many other of his capitalist billionaire kin, Musk seemed to have an interest in combating climate change. But of course, as I've talked about in all of these videos, there is no such thing
as an ethical billionaire, and we'll soon see that's especially the case in the tech world. We're now seeing this climate savior person shredded to smithereens. Musk's past calls for climate action appear to be in direct contradiction to his current status as the primary funder of Trump's fossil fascist regime. Musk recently went so far as to claim climate change is "overblown," arguing that ["I don't think we should vilify the oil and gas industry… there is some risk I think it's not the risk is not as high as uh you know a lot of people say it is with
respect to global warming."]. This might seem like a contradiction, but in reality it reveals Musk as just another disciple of the capitalist logic of Silicon Valley. He is an opportunist. Perhaps Musk is serious about global warming, but more and more, his stance on climate change appears as if it was just a tool to ascend the ranks of power and profit. As Robert Zubrin, the man who introduced the idea of human exploration of Mars to Elon Musk, notes, "[Musk's] central motivation is the desire for eternal glory for doing great deeds. He wants to save civilization
because he wants to be famous for saving civilization." In this light, Musk appears much less a climate savior than an opportunist- he will embrace the rhetoric and political tendencies that will make him look good and bring profits rolling in. Appearing as a green savior was Elon Musk's progressive-styled gilding that masked his true libertarian and fascistic political tendencies, at the center of which was a core desire for more money, power, and fame. In a time when ethical and sustainable investing was all the rage, Musk built himself up as a champion for capitalist investors
hoping to do some good. But hrom his South African roots of wealth, where his dad claims their family "had so much money at times we couldn't even close our safe," from selling blood emeralds, to taking over Tesla and ousting the founders, all the way to the dictatorial operation of his companies, Musk seems to have never really been interested in ethics. Indeed, he seems much more interested in appearing as a genius, as evidenced by the recent scandal of claiming he was one the best players at the video game Path of Exile, but very clearly had paid people who were actually good to get
him to the top of the leaderboard, and some who pointed this out were banned from X. And second, pushing his cyberlibertarian and fascist politics on the world. At the end of the day, there seem to be two threads penetrating Musk's worldview. He wants to be seen as a civilizational savior genius, a real-life Iron Man ["People have called you the real Tony Stark."], a desire that has long appeared in the form of caring about climate action, but also holds at his core a cyberlibertarian worldview that balks at any attempt to regulate or crackdown on wealth and power. The former has long masked the latter, but now with the ascendency of Trump thanks to Musk's financing, the
illusion has been lifted. Musk no longer needs to pretend. The true Elon Musk is on display. Fossil Fascist Musk The comparison between Henry Ford and Elon Musk has become more and more apt with each passing day. Ford and Musk were both car industry barons who detested unions, surveilled workers, espoused anti-Semitic views, and supported fascist regimes. They represent the dangers of a capitalist system unleashed. The dangers of a free market system where, unchecked by state power, capitalists can accumulate immense profits and then wield those profits to gain political power. Power that those capitalists can then wield to further shore
up their monopolistic economic and political positions by eroding democratic and state regulation even further. In short, a death spiral into capitalist dictatorship. Authoritarianism is the end result of capitalist libertarianism. Tech capitalists, with Musk at the tip of the spear, are already charting this path forward. Since 2020, Musk has moved dramatically to the right, launching tirades about the scourge of the "woke mind virus" and the need to dismantle the democratic state. In recent years, Musk has boosted the messages of the number of fascist
figureheads across the world from Italy's Giorgia Meloni ["someone who is uh even more beautiful on the inside than she is on the outside. Georgia Maloney is someone that uh I admire uh that uh has done an incredible job as the prime minister of Italy."], to claiming that "only AfD" the German far-right party, "Can save Germany," and much more. Musk has embraced fascism. Or, perhaps he's always been a fascist behind that green tech facade. Going even further, I would argue that despite his prior rhetoric on climate change, Musk is more specifically a
fossil fascist. But why the specification? And beyond this platforming of fascist figureheads and his blatant use Nazi salute in the middle of his speech during Trump's inauguration, what else points towards his fascist politics? And more specifically fossil fascism? I examined the growing power and shape of fossil fascism in the 21st century throughout this video, but to sum it up, fascism paints the racialized other, in this case immigrants, people of color, and leftists, as enemies outside the gates (or sometimes within) as threatening to ruin,
or already ruining the great nation. Fascists then wield that narrative to drum up fear, take power and engage in a systemic purge of all perceived enemies of the nation. Put another way by Andreas Malm and the Zetkin Collective explain in their book White Skin, Black Fuel, fascism is a politics of palingenetic or palindefensive ultranationalism that emerges in a moment of deep crisis, "and if leading sections of the dominant class throw their weight behind it and hand it power, there ensues an exceptional regime of systematic violence against those
identified as enemies of the nation." Fossil fascism is a particular thread of fascism that protects the interests of the dominant class- so many of whom are tied up in the continued success of the fossil fuel industry- by shielding and promoting the acceleration of fossil fuel production. In Trump's words, this means [American energy dominance]. Simply put, fossil fascism seeks to make the nation great again by unleashing fossil fuel production and use. So how does Musk, a man who's built his wealth on specifically not using fossil fuels, fit into this equation?
To start, he has very clearly wielded his power and his immense wealth to pave the way for fascist leaders. Whether it be Trump or the parade of other fascistic figureheads we saw earlier. Coupled with this support has been the backsliding of his climate views. Downplaying the threat of climate change and instead emphasizing false specters like birth rates. But how on earth could Elon Musk be a fossil fascist considering that his wealth is predicated on technologies that make fossil fuels obsolete? The old illusion of green savior Musk has now been thrust aside to make way
for his fascist and cyberlibertarian tendencies. Because now that Musk holds political sway, he seems discontent with just sitting back in the shadows and letting Trump shield his interests. Musk (as he's always done with his businesses) wants to directly manage the U.S. government, and through that process be valorized as the man who saved America from the woke left. Unfortunately for him, this micromanaging has backfired as the nation is increasingly exposed to his racist and authoritarian views. Musk, instead of ushering in some green revolution,
is instead rolling out the red carpet for fossil fuel production by slashing crucial federal departments to align with his cyberlibertarian worldview. Enter the Depart of Government Efficiency, which, true to Musk's middle-school-boy online humor, has been shortened to DOGE. This governmental department has opened up vast halls of power to the unelected Musk, and with it, Musk has quite literally taken a chainsaw to any department he perceives to be corrupted by the "woke mind virus," the racialized other,
or just feels is gumming up the gears of the "free market." And among the vast chaos this has caused from defunding and firing thousands in the Department of Education, Interior, and Labor, DOGE has set its sights on departments focused on climate. One of the key departments in DOGE's crosshairs is The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration or NOAA for short. NOAA provides immense amounts of data for understanding and monitoring climate change, as well as provides crucial information on hurricane, tornado, floods, and even helps respond to oil spill disasters. In
short, if NOAA ceases to exist, not only will the United States' disaster and climate resilience drop, but water contamination by fossil capital will be far worse than it already is. And Elon Musk is already hard at work carving up NOAA. As of writing this, DOGE has forced the department to fire 20% of its workforce, and they're hoping to eventually cut the workforce in half. These firings are often indiscriminate and cut critical staffers like one worker, who, according to journalist Kate Arnoff, "ran 'all the code' for the network of buoys that collect the information
necessary to produce" forecasts for search and rescue missions. Or it meant the firing of the director of NOAA's program on ocean acidification, a crucial wing of the department helping to understand the extent of the ocean's carbon dioxide removal capacity. With dramatically fewer staff, NOAA has already had to axe its monthly climate change calls for the media.As if this indiscriminate culling of crucial personnel wasn't already enough, Musk hamstrung operations by placing a $1 spending limit on vast swaths of federal departments including NOAA. A limit
that has made the job of an already short-staffed department even harder, like in the case of the team that monitors toxic algal blooms in the Great Lakes that have historically made the water of whole cities like Toledo undrinkable. Unable to spend money on needed radar, buoys, and filters, the monitoring team is "…uncertain that they're going to have what they need to keep municipal water corporations informed on the status of algal blooms in the Great Lakes." But DOGE has by no means stopped at NOAA in its quest to cut government regulation and in the
process free up fuel production. Musk's team has already identified and cut $20 billion in Environmental Protection Agency grants, much of which has been for the express purpose of emissions reductions. The EPA has had to eliminate all of its environmental justice offices, and DOGE has canceled the leases of numerous EPA offices. But it's not just EPA leases that have lapsed, all over the country DOGE has canceled NOAA leases, Forest Service leases, conservation leases, energy regulation leases, and even the leases of nuclear waste disposal
offices. In short, Musk's arm of political power, DOGE, has quickly worked to loosen the restraints of fossil capital under the guise of minimizing government expenditure and the mythical "woke deep state." In this time of climate crisis, Musk, together with Trump, is hunting down and ousting any perceived threat to the prosperity of the American ruling class. In the process, the Musk/Trump regime shreds any agency focused on climate or environmental regulation, thus shielding the fossil fuel industry. In this light, Musk appears to be a fossil fascist.
Now that he's unmasked himself- Tesla stock is tanking. But for one of the richest men in the world who has the ear of the president of the US and immense, unchecked power to control the American government, this is trivial. As of writing this in mid-March of 2025, Musk has lost more than the GDP of over 100 countries, and yet he's still the richest man in the world. The scope of Musk's wealth is hard to fathom. Indeed, if you made $100,000 a year you would need to work 3.35 million years to achieve Elon Musk's wealth, and he's used that wealth to
buy his way into power. Power that he's able to use to carry out his fascist politics without needing to appear progressive or appease investors or voters. So although Musk might be taking a hit financially right now, that economic hit is chump change for Musk. Not to mention, Trump's tax-cutting agenda will certainly be a boon for Elon Musk and his companies. In a sense, Musk has become too big to fail. And ultimately, even if Tesla stock plummets, the massive lapse in federal service caused by DOGE clears the way for the privatization of a huge number of sectors,
further increasing the power of capitalists like Musk. If the climate crisis continues to worsen after all, Musk's companies, could, for example, ferry rich people into space to escape collapse. Or more realistically, Musk has positioned himself perfectly to head up a privatized and highly lucrative geoengineering effort. As journalist Kate Arnoff writes, DOGE's butchering of federal departments like NOAA is "clearing the way for private companies like Accuweather to snap up lucrative new government contracts for work that has long been considered
a public service." Perhaps, in the aftermath of the governmental clearcutting Musk might suggest his companies should take over contracts, like he's done with SpaceX. It's too early to tell, but signs already point to that future. A future where the rich continue to shore up their wealth and power and the rest must live in the rubble that enrichment has caused. Dictatorship of the Rich: As we descend deeper into the climate crisis, Elon Musk is revealing the true face of big tech capitalists. The ruling class does not care about the working class. They don't care about our freedom or our say in what we
produce and how our country should be run. They only care about assuring their continued power and image. Musk unveils the inevitable course of capitalism unleashed. Of libertarianism and free market ideology unleashed. Without the checks of a regulatory state or democratic oversight, capitalists accumulate wealth and profits and then wield that fiscal power to control politicians and backdoor their way into unrestrained political power. A system that is particularly vulnerable to the predations of fascism. So, the way to truly prevent this fascism is not more ethical or green
capitalism- which is how Musk rose to power- but instead socialized production. A democratically owned and operated workplace, where people decide how and what gets made and everyone benefits from that production instead of one capitalist overlord siphoning profits off the top. This is socialism, an economic mode that is based on the ecological and social needs of the planet and people. Capitalism, and especially libertarian capitalism where democratically elected figures have minimal power over privately owned and unelected figures is inherently undemocratic. So, we need an
economic model that disperses the decision-making choices to all people to prevent future Elon Musk's from ever grabbing the reins of power again. We need to build an ecosocialist future. And when we dive down deeper into Musk's psyche, the world he wants to create is a scary one. I trawled through countless of Elon Musk's most disturbing tweets to better understand his worldview, and I made a whole nother video reacting to some of Musk's unhinged tirades and scariest tweets. That video wouldn't do well on YouTube, so I published it exclusively on Nebula,
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