Elon Musk: From The King's Gambit to The Pawn's Endgame

Written by nebojsaneshatodorovic | Published 2022/06/02
Tech Story Tags: decentralized-internet | elon-musk | twitter | freedom-of-speech | internet | spacex | tesla | hackernoon-top-story | hackernoon-es | hackernoon-hi | hackernoon-zh | hackernoon-vi | hackernoon-fr | hackernoon-pt | hackernoon-ja

TLDRThere is a Chinese curse that says “May he live in interesting times.” We don’t live in interesting, but desperate times. They say that desperate times call for desperate measures. Do desperate times call for heroes? Is that hero Elon Musk? Have the “elonists” made a hero out of him? How can an “absolutist” who’s also a business, and potentially a political opportunist, be a hero? Elon Musk has (literally) the world at his feet, and all we care about is - his next tweet. via the TL;DR App

I’m not an “elonist.” What’s that? Well, if we have a special name (term) for Elon Musk’s quotes and words of wisdom - “elonism,” why wouldn’t we have a name for his die-hard fans, admirers, and followers? It makes sense, doesn’t it?

I’m not a leftist. I’m not freaking out about the whole Twitter acquisition “saga.” I’m not a conspiracy theorist. I’m not into Elon Musk vs. “the world” thing. And, above all, I’m not a pragmatist, meaning I’m not taking an advantage of this “elonmania” phenomenon with this story.

Oh, let me write something about Elon. That’s always a safe bet. Everybody’s doing it, for this or that reason. Why should I be an “eloxception?”

You’d be surprised, but I actually, have only two simple questions to ask.

How did we come to this?

You may say, chill out dude, it’s just a joke. Is it? I showed this tweet to some of my friends, and not only did they like it - they bought it as 100 percent legit.

I’m a live-and-let-live type of person. You can’t get enough of everything Elon Musk does or says. OK. Whatever makes you happy buddy. You think that each of his tweets has a “deeper” meaning. OK. Keep looking.

We’ve reached the point of surreal trivialization of anything and everything that’s even remotely related to Elon Musk in any way. This is how I stumbled upon this breathtaking question on Quora:

Why should Elon Musk hire Justin Bieber to help him with his Twitter acquisition?

As you can see for yourself, this question is still waiting for its first answer. I wonder, why is that? What do you think?

My second question is, don’t worry, I’m not going to ask “does Elon Musk swim?” Yes, someone asked that question for real. Yes, it’s important. You know, water on Mars and stuff. You never know when it might come in handy.

So, Elon, is all of this, whatever it is, for whatever reason(s) was/is/will be worth your time, money, energy, and - legacy?

From Mars to A Farce

If you thought that Trump is the most polarizing person in modern US history, well, you’re obviously wrong. The richest man in the world (checked) and the smartest (not checked, but you have to be smart to be rich, I guess) can make the Earth stand still with a single tweet (more than once).

Decentralization is one of favorite Elon’s words, but not when it comes to the Internet.

Decentralized robots?! OK. Terminator bad. Elon good.

Decentralized finances. Nice. But…

I see, practice what you preach.

“Lots of people I talked to on the production lines at Tesla or building rockets at SpaceX own Doge,” Musk said. “They aren’t financial experts or Silicon Valley technologists. That’s why I decided to support Doge — it felt like the people’s crypto.”

I see. Tesla and SpaceX employees. Some of them the rocket scientists, but not “financial experts or Silicon Valley technologists” willingly and freely “support Doge.” That’s how you make “people’s crypto.” Elon’s people, Voodoo People (that’s the Prodigy’s timeless classic, I meant no disrespect).

Just in case, you’ve been living under a rock (again, no disrespect, but c’mon people, not necessarily Voodoo People) here’s an article with “a list of Musk's tweets and comments on Twitter, Web3, NFTs and free speech.” Knock yourself out with “elonisms.”

Being Controversial is(Not) The Same as Being (In)Consistent

First this…

Then this…

But, then this…

So, what do you make of this? Ah, I know.

Elon is “a free speech absolutist.” He’s not willing to compromise about it. He’s a person of principle. OK. Respect.

But, there’s that word - absolutist. Does it make you uncomfortable? Absolutist. Does it ring an (alarm) bell?

Nah, Elon is a Jedi Knight in shining new Tesla model or SpaceX armor.

Shanghai authorities helped Tesla transport over 6,000 workers and carry out necessary disinfection work to reopen its factory last month amid the city's lockdown, according to a letter that Tesla sent to local officials and seen by Reuters.

That was a special thank you letter, which “outlined the lengths to which the city went to help Tesla.”

They fought for three consecutive days, working round the clock and non-stop to guarantee our company's workers could return to the factory.

That must’ve been an epic three-day battle while at the same time “at least 27 Chinese cities are under some degree of Covid lockdown, affecting around 180 million residents, according to CNN's latest calculations last week.”

A free speech absolutist fighting shoulder-to-shoulder with the officials of the country that ranked 177th in 2019, 2020 and 2021 out of 180 countries according to Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and their annual World Press Freedom Index.

Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits.

Fruits of tweets?! I’m a bit confused here.

Remember, Remember, the 8th of November

Does Elon know something we don’t? For example, who’s going to “storm” the Capitol during this year’s midterm elections, BUT with votes instead of flags and unforgettable outfits.

Did “The Grand Chessboard” by Zbigniew Brzezinski age well after 25 years since it was published? I don’t know. I haven’t read it. Can you build a colony on Mars for $44B? I don’t know. I’m not a rocket scientist.

Is Elon Musk the King or just a Pawn in his own chess game? Is he an absolutist or an illusionist or both? I don’t know. What I do know is that these are the questions to ask, and not the ones about his swimming skills or teaming up with Justin Bieber.

I also know that one of my stories didn’t age well. God no longer follows Justin Bieber on Twitter. That was a shocking revelation.

Can Elon Musk suspend God, on Twitter? I mean.

I’m “borrowing” one of cryptic “elonisms,” just in case, you know.

There is a Chinese curse which says “May he live in interesting times.” Like it or not, we live in interesting times. (Source: quoteinvestigator)

We don’t live in interesting, but desperate times. They say that desperate times call for desperate measures. Do desperate times call for heroes? Is that hero Elon Musk? Have the “elonists” made a hero out of him? How can an “absolutist” who’s also a business, and potentially a political opportunist, be a hero?

Elon Musk has (literally) the world at his feet, and all we care about is - his next tweet.


Written by nebojsaneshatodorovic | Eight-Time "Noonies" Award Winner
Published by HackerNoon on 2022/06/02