Elon Musk Is Anything But 'Person of the Year' | Opinion

When considering whether billionaire Elon Musk should be elevated with a "Person of the Year" title, my answer would be a resounding "no."

Whether you want to believe he's one of the preeminent technological geniuses of a generation, or just a well-positioned venture capitalist who insisted on putting his own name on other people's innovation, Musk is undoubtedly a pioneer of electric vehicles and commercial space flight. It remains to be seen if he'll have equal influence in the fields of artificial intelligence, mass transit, and neural implant technology, but his impact on the world is undoubtedly wide-ranging.

It's his purchase of Twitter, however, that has pulled back the curtain to reveal who he is at his core, a dangerous ideologue hellbent on promoting hate, white nationalism, homophobia, antisemitism, and a long string of conspiracy theories. As Musk revealed last week, when telling his X advertisers to "go f---" themselves, while staring Disney's Bob Iger in the eye, it's nearly impossible to see Musk's over-priced purchase of Twitter as anything other than an attempt to dismantle the second biggest text-based social media platform in the world. The purchase was either a knee-jerk decision of a deranged man or an attempt to spread far-right ideologies and do damage to the mechanisms that preserve democracy around the world. At this point only the most ardent Muskophile could assert that Elon's playing three-dimensional chess and that he's truly in the social media business for a profit.

What Musk has proven, something that William Randolph Hearst and Rupert Murdoch knew well, is that money buys influence. The threat Elon Musk poses is uniquely sinister and it's not because he's the richest man ever to walk our planet. He's not. There have been richer men, accounting for present day dollars. Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller were both wealthier in their day, but while those men certainly were not without their moral failings and absolutely did collateral damage in their commercial pursuits, neither were the dangerous ideologues that Musk now presents himself to be. Elon seems to be putting his ideology above financial reward and mainstream reputation.

Henry Ford claimed the title of richest man in the world in 1922, although he was not nearly as wealthy in his day as Musk is now and may be the closest analog to Musk. Ford too was an ideologue, a white nationalist.

Comparisons between the two men have been commonplace and Musk apologists will typically say the parallels are unfair. Ford created periodicals to spread the influence of white nationalism and was read by Adolf Hitler, it is pointed out. I argue that Ford's "Dearborn Independent" had only a circulation of 1 million people. Musk's X reaches a quarter of a billion people. What dangerous demagogues he ultimately influences remains to be seen. His history is still being written.

What truly makes Elon Musk profoundly dangerous is the cult of personality he's obtained. He came into the world's spotlight posing as a selfless eco messiah and has gradually transformed to become a champion of the radical right and hero to autocracy-craving oligarchs. From opposite extremes he has collected a fantastically loyal fanbase, people who defend his every word and relentlessly justify his bad behavior, extolling his contributions to the planet. He is a cult leader.

In our lifetime, there has never been a "world's richest man" more driven by dangerous ideology and none with more of a blindly devoted following. Moreso that his processors, Musk's control on us and our planet is like a virtual hand on our throats, his ability to limit our words and cut our communications and internet, his control over our space program, his desire to introduce his artificial intelligences into our vital systems, and his physical intrusions into our very brains.

Whatever promise he held as a grandiose benefactor of our world is fading rapidly and we're seeing him instead as a dangerously impulsive narcissist, perhaps deranged, or perhaps driven by dark desires. Today's Musk is certainly unfit to hold government contracts and he's absolutely undeserving of accolades such as "Person of the Year," such titles only go to give him further undeserved credibility and feed his cult. Such titles only provide him with more power, which he will not use responsibly. It would serve to increase the threat of Musk.

Peter Schink is a retired screenwriter, film editor, and educator.

The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.