Thread by @davetroy

1/So I'd like to share something personal... I've been following @elonmusk and his actions for many, many years and think he is on the wrong side of many important issues. Today I saw him speak at #TED2022 and I may marginally have more insight into his mindset.

2/I believe he is acting in good faith: he is who he pretends to be. That said, he is also a deeply neurodivergent person who has trouble to relating to societal norms or indeed to other people. I believe this makes him uniquely qualified to lead a kind of cult.

3/That cult is dangerous, in that it doesn't know what it doesn't know, and is deeply solipsistic and ultimately gnostic. To understand this cult... spend more time in it. That's deeply unhealthy. By wiring up his brain (by any measure impressive) to the internet, we...

4/enable a kind of cult creation machinery that is difficult to interrupt. It's a kind of "black hole of social capital," as I told one friend today. That kind of black hole can be difficult to escape. This ends up being in opposition to institutions and democracy...

5/and we need to defend those things against "deep solipsism." Ultimately I think Musk wants some positive things (renewable energy; exploration; an optimistic view of the future), but he may be so ideologically wedded to libertarian ideals as to be counterproductive.

6/After seeing Musk speak today I find myself conflicted; my left brain condemns most all of what he says, while my right brain empathizes. But in the end he can't retreat from the moral obligations of living in a pluralistic democracy...

7/and needs to recognize the primacy of the institutions that have birthed the west, and made his world possible. I think that's missing, and when he is at is worst, he is a very, very bad actor. I really believe he has created a kind of cult around himself.

8/So while I think he generally *means* well, his view of what that means compared to the views of nearly everyone else demand real scrutiny, and I think we've overlooked that. My hope is that he receives the full scrutiny he deserves and that democracy and its

9/institutions gain primacy and control over his plans, to serve as positive check and balance against his impulses. If that happens, things may work out okay, but if not, full capture may occur and things could get very dark. We need to guard against that.

10/Anyway, I think Musk is a complex character born mostly from his neurodivergence and the people who seek to use it to their advantage. We should respond accordingly. Stuff is complicated and we should seek to understand it deeply. (Photos are mine.)