Thread by @PnictogenHorses

we aren't sure how it happened or when, or how broad is the scope of the problem, but it seems as though #capitalism and corporate #management decided that there's power in *cult leadership*.

look up "corporate cult" and you'll find a lot! e.g.

archive.vn/Uctj3

~Mona

Mr. @elonmusk is a public and visible example of this phenomenon of corporate bosses ruling their companies as though they were Jim Jones or L. Ron Hubbard—demanding *personal loyalty* from all their associates, accumulating followers whose faith in their leader is total.

~Mona

the #ElonMusk cult is unusually prominent and well-promoted; many reactionary-bıgot celebrities like @ggreenwald and @mtaibbi have been furnishing Musk with lavish *service*.

but it can't be doubted that Mr. @elonmusk is only one of a huge crop of corporate cult leaders.

~Mona

Mr. @jack Dorsey, for example, has carried himself as though he were a high priest of technology and human achievement (q.v. archive.vn/DCOUq).

Dorsey puts much energy and publicity into purported spiritual achievements—starving his brain into submission, anyway.

~Mona

another believer in the power of cult leadership is Mr. @peterthiel, whose hands clutch tightly to Mr. @elonmusk's leash—it's a poorly kept secret of the #ElonMusk cult that Musk is a *tool*, a mouthpiece for the ideologies of cleverer and incomparably more powerful men.

~Mona

(whether Mr. Musk's lackeys like @bariweiss and @ggreenwald quite appreciate that their would-be Führer is mostly a figurehead is...unknown. permit me to suspect that Ms. Weiss is more likely to appreciate the truth of the matter than Mr. Greenwald, who needs Musk more.)

~Mona

@peterthiel, it would seem, condensed his fondness for authoritarian, cultish leadership into a popular book, "Zero to One" (most of these dullards, @elonmusk and @DavidSacks and the rest of them, haven't learned to count much higher than that—)

archive.vn/nrWwY

~Mona

"The book argues, among other things, that founders are godlike, that monarchies are more efficient than democracies, and that cults are a better organizational model than management consultancies." @peterthiel, like most fascıst #computer geeks, hates *group* decisions.

~Mona

however much lip-service and hypocritical praise that reactionary #conservative celebrities like @bariweiss or @elonmusk heap upon democracy and liberty (and "free speech"), these people are ultimately all believers in the Führerprinzip—the leadership of single persons.

~Mona

#conservatives are irrationally afraid of decisions reached by group consensus—they associate group decision-making with paralysis, endless discussion without conclusion, bureaucratic muddling, and "mob rule" (i.e. decisions that require democratic approval of the people.)

~Mona

they're all still drunk on the heady wine of Ayn Rand propaganda—@peterthiel, @elonmusk, even mere chumps and toadies like @mtaibbi or @ggreenwald all fancy themselves to be John Galt, uniquely gifted superheroes who stand astride the world and make ALL the big decisions.

~Mona

the natural endpoint of such belief in the Führerprinzip—this irrational adherence to mere individual or personal notions of human greatness and leadership—is *cult leadership*. fascɪst movements are basically cults; @elonmusk might as well be Mussolini or General Franco.

~Mona

I have been using the word "cult" in its pejorative sense, which is perhaps unfortunate of me; there's a _neutral_ sense of the word "cult" referring to subcultures centered on worship of any particular deity or creed; e.g. #Christianity can be said to be a cult of Jesus.

~Mona

the pejorative sense of "cult", referring to the toxic and abusive nature of cults or groups that demand an extreme degree of *personal loyalty* from followers—like the loyalty that Trump or @elonmusk crave from their fanbases—is, however, a firm fixture Western discourse.

~Mona

as it happens, #capitalism and the authoritarian culture of corporate #management and #executive leadership are a fruitful growth medium for toxic and dangerous cults. capitalist organization places enormous primacy on single-person leadership and strict power hierarchy.

~Mona

the average #CEO is a tyrant—someone empowered to make decisions on pure whim (Mr. @elonmusk is simply an *extreme* example of such an arbitrary and chaotic sort of corporate leader), someone who gives orders and expects them to be obeyed without question or explanation.

~Mona

it's almost inevitable for such authoritarian and tyrannical leadership methods—rulership by corporate execs who all fancy themselves to be generalissimos or supreme monarchs of their corporations—to result in frank cult worship of a celebrity #CEO like @jack or @elonmusk.

~Mona

servants of the #ElonMusk cult like @mtaibbi and @ggreenwald would have us believe that "free speech" can somehow emerge from petty dictators like @elonmusk, but...well, these people are handsomely rewarded for telling sweet-sounding lies—both to *us*, and to themselves.

~Mona

that's one of the "advantages" of cult leadership: your true believers are inclined to believe their own horseshıt. @mtaibbi, for example, since he views @elonmusk as a golden ticket away from the consequences of his own crimes, *wants* to believe that Musk is a good man.

~Mona

@mtaibbi is confronted with cognitive dissonance—the stark and irreconcilable conflict between @elonmusk's lies about loving "free speech" and his flailing attempts to get all his critics silenced (or even murdered, q.v. the @Tesla whistleblower Musk tried to get killed).

~Mona

*cult belief* is an easy way out of such cognitive dissonances. @mtaibbi and @ShellenbergerMD and other right-wing dullards now in orbit around @elonmusk's celebrity have an incentive to renewing and redoubling their fervent belief in their hero's "genetic" greatness.

~Mona

why should @mtaibbi or @ShellenbergerMD waste any time asking themselves why @elonmusk is such a tantrum-throwing brat, or why his clumsy arbitrary actions don't line up with any of his lofty language?

instead they can sink into cult belief in #ElonMusk like a warm bath.

~Mona

the cult leaders themselves—@elonmusk, @jack, @peterthiel, whoever—all view humanity as stupid animals anyway; they're not *supposed* to sweat themselves thinking about things that (in their view) only a tiny handful of gifted John Galt types are equipped to think about.

~Mona

as comical as it may seem to a dispassionate viewer, @elonmusk really does believe *himself* to be a genius—it's not just sycophants like @mtaibbi and @APompliano who believe the cult leader's tall tales, it's the cult leader himself.

the lies are, paradoxically, sincere.

~Mona

every scam artist and flim-flam man in #capitalism learns the salesman's trick of believing in the lies they tell—believing long enough to convince others, anyway. it's how you project *confidence*.

confidence tricksters and cult leaders are basically the same.

~Mona Drafter

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