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Muskism: A Guide for the Perplexed
A New Yorker Most Anticipated Book of the Year • A Financial Times Most Anticipated Nonfiction Book of the Year • A Kirkus Most Anticipated Nonfiction Book of Spring 2026• A Literary Hub Most Anticipated Book of the Year
A pyrotechnic examination of Elon Musk as a symptom and avatar of our postliberal age
Everyone’s got an Elon take. He’s a messiah. A menace; a genius; a clown. The verdicts differ, but they share one they treat him as an individual.
Muskism argues otherwise. Elon Musk isn’t a glitch in the system—he is the system. His worldview promises sovereignty through plug in, power up, and become self-reliant. But the more you connect, the more he owns you.
If Fordism defined the capitalism of the twentieth century, Muskism may define the twenty-first. Fordism helped build the welfare state. Musk undoes it. He thrives on dependence while preaching freedom. His cars run on subsidies; his satellites run the battlefield; his social networks train the AI that trains us.
Muskism sells itself as the future but entrenches age-old hierarchies. It offers autonomy for some and exclusion for others. It’s pro-natalist but anti-immigrant, futurist but reactionary. It speaks of humanity but warns against empathy.
Quinn Slobodian and Ben Tarnoff cut through the hype and the hate to reveal what Musk really a new political economy, where to be “free” means to serve a Technoking. Muskism isn’t about the man. It’s about the machine that made him—and the world he’s making next.
A pyrotechnic examination of Elon Musk as a symptom and avatar of our postliberal age
Everyone’s got an Elon take. He’s a messiah. A menace; a genius; a clown. The verdicts differ, but they share one they treat him as an individual.
Muskism argues otherwise. Elon Musk isn’t a glitch in the system—he is the system. His worldview promises sovereignty through plug in, power up, and become self-reliant. But the more you connect, the more he owns you.
If Fordism defined the capitalism of the twentieth century, Muskism may define the twenty-first. Fordism helped build the welfare state. Musk undoes it. He thrives on dependence while preaching freedom. His cars run on subsidies; his satellites run the battlefield; his social networks train the AI that trains us.
Muskism sells itself as the future but entrenches age-old hierarchies. It offers autonomy for some and exclusion for others. It’s pro-natalist but anti-immigrant, futurist but reactionary. It speaks of humanity but warns against empathy.
Quinn Slobodian and Ben Tarnoff cut through the hype and the hate to reveal what Musk really a new political economy, where to be “free” means to serve a Technoking. Muskism isn’t about the man. It’s about the machine that made him—and the world he’s making next.
256 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 21, 2026
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 71 reviews
May 18, 2026
I fear this is one of those books that I’m going to be “oh, this was really interesting” and then in about 3 years I will realize that maybe this was one of the most important books ever written on understanding the theory of how power works in modern society.
I can’t understand why this book wasn’t 300 pages, and maybe that’s my fault as a thinker of needing more of this explained to me.
The book is 80% there and maybe the other 20% that I desire is a matter of my understanding and not what the author chose to do with this work.
I can’t understand why this book wasn’t 300 pages, and maybe that’s my fault as a thinker of needing more of this explained to me.
The book is 80% there and maybe the other 20% that I desire is a matter of my understanding and not what the author chose to do with this work.
May 5, 2026
Not really what I wanted!! I think if you are going to write a book about how one person is the key to understanding the 21st century economy, you need to write more than 170 pages! I think this book suffered a lot from trying to be the first of its kind. Many sentences in here deserved a reread and a touch up. It uses a lot of Elon tweets and quotes in Rogan interviews as primary sources, and then just takes them at face value??? Another book that you probably don't have to read if you have been following the news for the last 10 years - perhaps a great gift for someone coming out of a 10 year meditation retreat with no contact to the outside world.
I liked that they cite Rumsfeld's Sept 10, 2001 speech as a critical moment in 21st century history... Surprised that doesn't come up more often.
I hate to sound like a broken record, but Millennials have NOT found our footing in writing mass market nonfiction yet!!
I liked that they cite Rumsfeld's Sept 10, 2001 speech as a critical moment in 21st century history... Surprised that doesn't come up more often.
I hate to sound like a broken record, but Millennials have NOT found our footing in writing mass market nonfiction yet!!
May 11, 2026
V good book. Particularly a fan of the production line stuff. A new capitalist strata of self-identified warrior messiahs arising out of a synthesis of Britain's residual outposts and the limitless funding required for the American death machine is dialectical as hell
March 24, 2026
Slobodian und Tarnoff versuchen hier etwas ziemlich Ambitioniertes. Sie behandeln Elon Musk nicht einfach als exzentrischen Unternehmer oder genialen Tech-Visionär, sondern als Symptom einer größeren politischen und ökonomischen Entwicklung. „Muskismus“ nennen sie dieses Phänomen und stellen es damit in eine Reihe mit Begriffen wie Fordismus oder Thatcherismus.
Das Buch liest Musk also weniger als Person, sondern als eine Art Ideologie. Eine Mischung aus Tech-Kapitalismus, radikalem Staatsmisstrauen bei gleichzeitig massiver staatlicher Förderung, transhumanistischen Zukunftsphantasien und einem Kulturkampf, der heute nicht mehr in Zeitungen, sondern auf Plattformen, in Algorithmen und Memes geführt wird.
Besonders spannend fand ich den historischen Blick des Buches. Die Autoren versuchen zu zeigen, wie Figuren wie Musk aus bestimmten politischen und kulturellen Konstellationen hervorgehen. Von libertären Silicon-Valley-Ideologien über die PayPal-Generation bis hin zu einer neuen Verbindung von Tech-Kapital, Staat und geopolitischer Macht. Plötzlich erscheint vieles, was sonst wie eine Reihe isolierter Ereignisse wirkt, als Teil eines größeren Musters.
Ganz frei von politischer Schlagseite ist das Buch allerdings nicht. Der kritische Ton ist deutlich spürbar und manchmal kippt die Analyse ein wenig in polemische Rhetorik. Außerdem bleibt eine wichtige Frage offen. Wenn die Diagnose stimmt, wie könnte eine gesellschaftliche Antwort darauf aussehen? Hier bleibt das Buch eher vage.
Trotzdem ist „Muskismus“ ein äußerst interessantes Buch. Vor allem deshalb, weil es Musk nicht einfach als verrückten Milliardär oder als einsames Genie darstellt, sondern als Ausdruck einer größeren Verschiebung unserer Zeit. Der engen Verbindung von Technologie, Kapital, Plattformmacht und Politik.
Ein unbequemes, streitbares Buch und genau deshalb ein wichtiges, wenn man verstehen möchte, in welche Richtung sich unsere digitale Gegenwart gerade entwickelt.
Das Buch liest Musk also weniger als Person, sondern als eine Art Ideologie. Eine Mischung aus Tech-Kapitalismus, radikalem Staatsmisstrauen bei gleichzeitig massiver staatlicher Förderung, transhumanistischen Zukunftsphantasien und einem Kulturkampf, der heute nicht mehr in Zeitungen, sondern auf Plattformen, in Algorithmen und Memes geführt wird.
Besonders spannend fand ich den historischen Blick des Buches. Die Autoren versuchen zu zeigen, wie Figuren wie Musk aus bestimmten politischen und kulturellen Konstellationen hervorgehen. Von libertären Silicon-Valley-Ideologien über die PayPal-Generation bis hin zu einer neuen Verbindung von Tech-Kapital, Staat und geopolitischer Macht. Plötzlich erscheint vieles, was sonst wie eine Reihe isolierter Ereignisse wirkt, als Teil eines größeren Musters.
Ganz frei von politischer Schlagseite ist das Buch allerdings nicht. Der kritische Ton ist deutlich spürbar und manchmal kippt die Analyse ein wenig in polemische Rhetorik. Außerdem bleibt eine wichtige Frage offen. Wenn die Diagnose stimmt, wie könnte eine gesellschaftliche Antwort darauf aussehen? Hier bleibt das Buch eher vage.
Trotzdem ist „Muskismus“ ein äußerst interessantes Buch. Vor allem deshalb, weil es Musk nicht einfach als verrückten Milliardär oder als einsames Genie darstellt, sondern als Ausdruck einer größeren Verschiebung unserer Zeit. Der engen Verbindung von Technologie, Kapital, Plattformmacht und Politik.
Ein unbequemes, streitbares Buch und genau deshalb ein wichtiges, wenn man verstehen möchte, in welche Richtung sich unsere digitale Gegenwart gerade entwickelt.
May 9, 2026
Muskism is a bit of biography broadly theorizing on Musk's political economic philosophy. In four chapters it looks into Musk's childhood in apartheid years of South Africa (fortress futurism), his pursuit of domination like Thiel's strategy in achieving monopoly, with emphasis on the state-fusion using it as "funder, enabler, and backstop for high-risk, high-reward ventures" in symbiotic promise for sovereignty-as-a-service, and electronic autonomy which is more freedom and abundance for few (walled gardens) but entrenchment of hierarchy for others.
Muskism has an interesting premise of explaining this new capitalism a la 20th century Fordism, but Slobodian's loosely connected dots do not provide a clear picture of Musk's ideology as intended. It is speculative narrative falls short in explaining the structural forces it claims. It is still very readable and thought provoking, though a balanced analysis would have been more convincing.
Muskism has an interesting premise of explaining this new capitalism a la 20th century Fordism, but Slobodian's loosely connected dots do not provide a clear picture of Musk's ideology as intended. It is speculative narrative falls short in explaining the structural forces it claims. It is still very readable and thought provoking, though a balanced analysis would have been more convincing.
March 19, 2026
Ist eine gute Aufarbeitung des Phänomens Muskismus. Zeichnet mit Beispielen und Zitaten seine persönlich-ideologisch-unternehmerische Entwicklung von der Kindheit in Südafrika, über die verschiedenen Phasen des Internets bis hin zu DOGE & heute nach. Für mich waren einige interessante neue Fakten und Interpretationen dabei. Seine Radikalisierung wird behandelt, ich denke da wäre aber noch Potential für tiefere Beschäftigungen (war aber auch nicht ausgewiesener Fokus). Mein größter Kritikpunkt ist, dass es sich sowohl inhaltlich als auch sprachlich etwas auf Krampf zusammengeschustert anfühlt. Gerade die abschließenden Sätze in den Kapiteln versuchen oft zu gewollt das behandelte Thema (oder Ausblick auf das nächste) mit einem dazu passenden sprachlichen Bild zusammenzufassen (z.B. "[...] Arm in Arm mit den erschöpften Riesen aus Fleisch und Stahl."). Diese Bilder hätte es mMn nicht unbedingt gebraucht. Inhaltlich fand ich das "Zusammenschustern" bspw. als argumentiert wurde, dass Musks Problem mit Transgender-Personen u.A. darin bestehen könnte, dass man sich diese als eine Art "Cyborg" vorstellen könne, die mit Technologie & Chirurgie die Grenze zwischen Natürlichem und Künstlichen aufhebt (was Musk an sich ja ebenfalls will), aber quasi progressiv und damit entgegen Musks Ideologie (oder so... wie gesagt, fand ich etwas weit hergeholt).
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May 1, 2026While I appreciated the purported aim of examining not so much Musk the individual as the ideology and systems that he is both a symptom of and actively perpetuates (a la Fordism), this book reads like a fairly straightforward biography of Musk himself, which—putting aside that this makes for deeply unpleasant reading material—also severely undercuts its aim. True, it is helpful to understand the contexts that shaped him, such as the apartheid South Africa of his youth and the technofascist aspirations of present-day Silicon Valley. And yes, Musk represents in many ways a nexus for the ailments of our present age. But the balance between biographical material and cultural analysis feels skewed, enough that the end result evokes the same kind of “Trump bad” mentality of American liberalism that assumes everything would be good and fine if not for a small handful of bad actors ruining an otherwise functional system. I was particularly surprised by how uncritically the authors repeat a lot of outright propaganda—for example, “Musk read the entire Encyclopedia Brittanica as a youth!” Yeah, and George Washington chopped down that cherry tree. Right. Don’t get me wrong, there’s some good and helpful analysis here, but I think there are probably better sources that don’t focus so heavily on a single individual at the expense of the bigger picture.
April 27, 2026
Was not impressed by this. Starts with an interesting premise that promises an explanation of how/why Elon turned out this way, as well as an explanation of the way he thinks, even if it isn’t an explicit philosophy. Instead the bulk of the book is basically a Wikipedia-level look at Elon’s career, with some tweets thrown in to show where he went publicly racist. I didn’t get any sense for why any of this happened beyond the supposition that his birth in South Africa formed his beliefs. There was almost nothing on his increasingly bizarre behavior, documented use of ketamine, etc., and how that relates to his changing beliefs (if at all). If you’ve paid a little attention to the news for the past decade or so, there’s nothing here that’s new.
June 15, 2026
Izredno zanimiva knjiga, ki spremlja Elona Muska od njegovega dedka, Tehnokrata, ki je verjel, da bi morali družbo voditi inženirji (in še marsikaj bolj smešnega), preko življenja v južnoafriškem apartheidu, ki ga opisujeta kot "reakcionarno tehnokracijo", katere cilj je bil "biometrična država" in kjer je mali Musk začel družbo razumevati kot računalniški sistem (v katerem je pa vseeno treba ločevati po rasi, spolu in razredu), pa do odhoda v ZDA. Tam se Musk nauči, kako zgraditi vertikalno vodeno, samooskrbno podjetje in kako ga pripeti na državne pogodbe - najprej v vojni proti terorju, pozneje v razvijanju zelene tehnologije. Kot to opišeta avtorja, predvsem v povezavi z njegovim sistemom satelitov Starlink - državam preko naročnine oddaja suverenost. Med pandemijo in iz sovraštva do trans hčerke je nato še radikaliziral svoja stališča in začel iz sistema preganjati "woke" virus ter sanjariti o človeku kot resničnem kiborgu, neposredno povezanem z UI in spletom. Pri čemer bi edino na ta način ljudje lahko nadzorovali UI in ne obratno. Projekt DOGE je znotraj tega poskus vodenja države kot tovarne, "čiščenja" odvečnega (ljudi, da se razumemo) z UI, ki je tudi edina prava dediščina tega projekta - namreč UI, implementirana v državi nadzora. Žalostno, da je pri tem Musk navdih črpal tudi iz popularnih z-f franšiz (Zvezdne steze, mecha animeji ...). Ampak predvsem škoda, da avtorja na nek način z zasledovanjem zgolj njegove biografije (naj to počneta še tako ekonomično in kritično), njegovih dejanj in izjav še vedno pristajata na Muskovo legendo in njegove ideje še vedno premalo vpenjata v družbeno-politični kontekst našega časa. Mi je pa vseeno zelo všeč konciznost in neposrednost knjige.
May 6, 2026
Muskism: A Guide for the Perplexed is a critical and analytical examination of the cultural, political, and technological forces surrounding Elon Musk and the broader system he represents. Rather than treating Musk as a traditional biography subject, the authors frame him as a symbol of a larger ideological shift in contemporary capitalism and technological governance.
The book’s central argument is that “Muskism” is not a fixed doctrine held by one individual, but an evolving set of practices, narratives, and power structures that reflect a post liberal, crisis driven era. This framing allows the authors to move beyond personality analysis and instead interrogate the systems that elevate figures like Musk into global significance.
A key strength of the book is its structural approach to interpretation. It connects themes from technology, state power, labor, and digital culture to show how modern technological ambition often merges with political and economic transformation. The result is a broader critique of how innovation, ideology, and power increasingly overlap.
The tone is academic and interpretive, but still accessible to readers familiar with contemporary debates around technology and capitalism. It encourages readers to think critically about narratives of progress, disruption, and technological salvation.
Overall, Muskism is a thought-provoking and intellectually dense work that challenges simplistic interpretations of influential tech figures. It is best suited for readers interested in political economy, technology studies, and the ideological forces shaping the modern digital world.
The book’s central argument is that “Muskism” is not a fixed doctrine held by one individual, but an evolving set of practices, narratives, and power structures that reflect a post liberal, crisis driven era. This framing allows the authors to move beyond personality analysis and instead interrogate the systems that elevate figures like Musk into global significance.
A key strength of the book is its structural approach to interpretation. It connects themes from technology, state power, labor, and digital culture to show how modern technological ambition often merges with political and economic transformation. The result is a broader critique of how innovation, ideology, and power increasingly overlap.
The tone is academic and interpretive, but still accessible to readers familiar with contemporary debates around technology and capitalism. It encourages readers to think critically about narratives of progress, disruption, and technological salvation.
Overall, Muskism is a thought-provoking and intellectually dense work that challenges simplistic interpretations of influential tech figures. It is best suited for readers interested in political economy, technology studies, and the ideological forces shaping the modern digital world.
June 7, 2026
Musk develops these very thoughtful, coherent ideologies rightttttttt up until the ideology gets in his way and then he’ll completely flip to whatever new idea lets him keep control. It’s pretty insane to see it all spelled out. He’s pro-freedom until you depend on Starlink, pro-humanity until humans become inefficient, anti-establishment until the Pentagon check clears, etc.
Anyway, some of my favorite terms I wrote down from the book: grift-o-nomics, troll capitalism, Memes as big business…
And lastly, extra half star for getting below the surface and connecting some dots in under 200 pages!
Anyway, some of my favorite terms I wrote down from the book: grift-o-nomics, troll capitalism, Memes as big business…
And lastly, extra half star for getting below the surface and connecting some dots in under 200 pages!
June 28, 2026
究竟什么是“马斯克主义”？我认为是从马斯克的经历、思维和决策方式提炼出一种意识形态（虽然作者从来没有使用ideology这个词）。
1. 书里最重要的一句话是“Muskism does not distribute rewards broadly. Its promise is sovereignty through technology. ”——马斯克主义“通过技术实现主权”的承诺，与一个去全球化世界的政治格局相契合，在这个世界里，各国日益重视独立而非融合；马斯克为一部分人提供自主权，同时将另一部分人排除在外，与新的反人道主义不谋而合；马斯克致力于减少对外部供应商的依赖，并尽可能将生产集中在公司内部（对缩短供应链和垂直整合生产的强调），这与21世纪初的全球化浪潮背道而驰，然而在特朗普两个任期的贸易战/去全球化/地缘政治紧张时期却再好不过；
2. 作者认为南非的经历对塑造马斯克冷酷的人群优劣观念非常重要：“南非白人生活的一个特点是，他们对庞大且大多面目模糊的劳工阶层漠不关心地依赖。”“种族隔离教导了一个双重教训：某些经典的权力等级制度应该得到维护，而那些维护它们的人应该被视为颠覆者，甚至是受误解的受害者。”“种族隔离时期的南非和硅谷，并非像它们看起来那样相距遥远。两者都信仰技术和技术官僚思维。两者都痴迷于工程师和工程思维。”马斯克主义始终致力于极力维护等级制度。有些人天生就该统治；另一些人，则天生就该被统治。阶级、性别和种族是其结构性原则。
3. 在政商关系上，马斯克的大多数生意盈利模式其实是To G的：目标不是消灭国家，而是使其附庸化。Starlink、星盾、SpaceX——当一个私人个体掌控多国依赖的基础设施，他不需要执掌政府就能影响地缘政治。"Sovereignty as a Service"：国家用自主权换来廉价服务，然后被迫分期将其赎回。
4. 马斯克收购Twitter改造成X（对应共产国际的当代“民族主义国际”，去除所谓的“woke”病毒），并将X平台的数据集训练grok，无比魔幻；
5. 最后一章DOGE尤其恐怖，完全可以说是马斯克以赛博希特勒法西斯主义治国的预演。马斯克将美国政府视为一个需要清理和优化的故障数据集，工程师管理工厂车间的逻辑被平移到社会治理。但社会不是工厂——它包含儿童、老人、残障者，以及所有市场定义为"低效"的生命。
1. 书里最重要的一句话是“Muskism does not distribute rewards broadly. Its promise is sovereignty through technology. ”——马斯克主义“通过技术实现主权”的承诺，与一个去全球化世界的政治格局相契合，在这个世界里，各国日益重视独立而非融合；马斯克为一部分人提供自主权，同时将另一部分人排除在外，与新的反人道主义不谋而合；马斯克致力于减少对外部供应商的依赖，并尽可能将生产集中在公司内部（对缩短供应链和垂直整合生产的强调），这与21世纪初的全球化浪潮背道而驰，然而在特朗普两个任期的贸易战/去全球化/地缘政治紧张时期却再好不过；
2. 作者认为南非的经历对塑造马斯克冷酷的人群优劣观念非常重要：“南非白人生活的一个特点是，他们对庞大且大多面目模糊的劳工阶层漠不关心地依赖。”“种族隔离教导了一个双重教训：某些经典的权力等级制度应该得到维护，而那些维护它们的人应该被视为颠覆者，甚至是受误解的受害者。”“种族隔离时期的南非和硅谷，并非像它们看起来那样相距遥远。两者都信仰技术和技术官僚思维。两者都痴迷于工程师和工程思维。”马斯克主义始终致力于极力维护等级制度。有些人天生就该统治；另一些人，则天生就该被统治。阶级、性别和种族是其结构性原则。
3. 在政商关系上，马斯克的大多数生意盈利模式其实是To G的：目标不是消灭国家，而是使其附庸化。Starlink、星盾、SpaceX——当一个私人个体掌控多国依赖的基础设施，他不需要执掌政府就能影响地缘政治。"Sovereignty as a Service"：国家用自主权换来廉价服务，然后被迫分期将其赎回。
4. 马斯克收购Twitter改造成X（对应共产国际的当代“民族主义国际”，去除所谓的“woke”病毒），并将X平台的数据集训练grok，无比魔幻；
5. 最后一章DOGE尤其恐怖，完全可以说是马斯克以赛博希特勒法西斯主义治国的预演。马斯克将美国政府视为一个需要清理和优化的故障数据集，工程师管理工厂车间的逻辑被平移到社会治理。但社会不是工厂——它包含儿童、老人、残障者，以及所有市场定义为"低效"的生命。
May 17, 2026
Directionally good, but suffers from spending too much time as a biography. There's sadly not a ton of new analysis here, particularly around the future implications of and antidotes to Musk's philosophy.
But worth a read if you haven't already inundated your brain with podcasts and thinkpieces about Elon's (and Silicon Valley's) reactionary turn.
But worth a read if you haven't already inundated your brain with podcasts and thinkpieces about Elon's (and Silicon Valley's) reactionary turn.
May 2, 2026
The first half of this book was penetrating, insightful, and thought-provoking. The second half was conspiratorial, melodramatic, and useless. I’ve never read a book that started out so promising and ended in such disappointment. Still, it deserves three stars for the first half.
April 30, 2026
Finally a book about musk that focuses on him through a lens of political economy and not the smokescreen of his bizarre personality and grandiose self-promotion.
July 4, 2026
It’s cool to feel like Musk has a consistent life philosophy, and even though it’s verifiably whack, this book made me like him just a bit more? Definitely not what it intended to do.
May 19, 2026
Musk is a freak, water is wet, etc.
July 3, 2026
A brief book on the intensely anti-human ideas of the world’s richest man. The section on DOGE was an interesting comparison with my experience at the USDA during this time.
Want to Read
April 16, 2026Muskism. A Guide for the Perplexed by Quinn Slobodian and Ben Tarnoff is a sharp and critical examination of the ideas and systems associated with Elon Musk’s influence on modern technology and politics. Rather than treating Musk as a singular figure, the book explores the broader ideology and structural forces shaping his impact. A thought provoking read for those interested in technology, power, and contemporary political economy.
June 13, 2026
That was largely a waste of time. You had to live under a rock for the past two decades to find anything new here: so Muskism means building business and fortune on public funds and state-funded research? Marianna Mazzucato described this years ago. Muskism doesn't like trade unions? Which business does? Muskism is about online surveillance and AI and data economy: what's new here? And my biggest issue with this book is that it didn't even manage to present a coherent line of argument on the "muskism". Instead it's a tabloid biography of Musk and I definitely wasn't interested in that.
July 3, 2026
Elon Musk first entered my life in 2016. I’d somehow been blissfully ignorant of his existence until a more tech-minded friend excitedly showed me YouTube videos promoting something called the “hyperloop”, which would allegedly make it possible to travel between San Francisco and Los Angeles in 30 minutes. It was hard for me to see why either of us should care about this in Ireland, but Musk inspired comparable excitement amongst many of those working in technology or assigned to write about it. Normally sober-minded people wrote articles on how anyone who cared about technology should be invested in his visions for driverless cars or space travel, and he was regularly feted as a visionary across the media.
It was also around this time that the techno-optimism of the early 21st century which had driven so much public interest and investor capital towards Musk was starting to curdle into a widespread cultural awareness that the real impact of the internet and what was increasingly being called “Big Tech” on society was much darker than first appeared.
A decade on, Musk’s public image is a much more contested one. He may have recently become the world’s first trillionaire, but little press coverage takes the excitable tone which characterised much coverage of him a decade ago. Musk is increasingly associated with the dissemination of far-right politics through his ownership of X (formerly Twitter) and backing of movements like Restore Britain and the re-election campaign of Donald Trump. He appears to spend much of his time posting and sharing content online about what he perceives as the imminent demise of the white race or the “manosphere”.
Musk himself has gone from being someone who didn’t affect my life or interest me to someone who affects everyone’s and can’t be ignored.
The hyperloop between Los Angeles and San Francisco has yet to commence service.
In this book, Quinn Slobodian and Ben Tarnoff explain how Musk found himself on this trajectory, taking many of the world’s most powerful people with him. The authors argue that his efforts amount to “Muskism”, a form of capitalism that defines our present moment, much as “Fordism” did in most of the twentieth century - the authors term this an “operating system for the twenty-first century”. Neither Ford or Musk ever set out an explicit philosophy underpinning their work, but both emerged in reaction to particular historical circumstances and, unfortunately, the personal prejudices of their originators.
Musk, unusually amongst his Silicon Valley peers, identified less with the anarchist and libertarian trends amongst internet pioneers. Musk, in an interview from the late 1990s, claimed he instead saw the internet as a master system built on hierarchy, which could in turn fold in everything below it - the implication of this being that whoever controlled the internet would in turn dominate society. This parallels how neoliberalism replaced industrialism with rentierism in many capitalist societies, as owning assets such as real estate, intellectual property or drilling rights became a more important source of income than production. When the infrastructure which states require to operate is in private hands (as it is in much of the Global North), the owners of that infrastructure become major power brokers. Helped along by generous US government subsidies for military contractors and green technology, Musk came to establish monopoly power in several areas and attendant influence on government policy across the world through his control of the necessary infrastructure for internet access. This culminated in how the Ukrainian army was dependent on his Starlink system in their defence against the initial Russian invasion in 2022, with one counteroffensive allegedly disrupted by service being suspended at his behest.
Musk’s control of so much important infrastructure is cause for concern in itself, but what is far more concerning is that it has been coupled with a steady political radicalisation towards far-right positions over the last decade. Musk, having been largely unengaged with social media prior to the mid-2010s, began to embrace it - particularly what was then the “hellsite” known as Twitter. The far-right presence on these websites, which had been empowered by the election of Donald Trump in 2016, began to increasingly influence the previously Democrat-inclined Musk towards adopting much more extreme positions on race and gender. The authors see the roots of this in Musk’s upbringing in apartheid-era South Africa, which was an early adopter of computer technology and mass surveillance to sustain racial oppression much like the Nazi regime beforehand or contemporary Israel. This bred both a siege mentality much like that common to many Afrikaners who saw external influences such as pop music or television as seeding internal resistance, and a sense of technosolutionism wherein technology could be used to protect a minority from the barbarian hordes in the young Musk.
Both these tendencies would inform his latter-day turn towards increasingly extreme positions, and his preoccupation with endorsing them. Musk has spent a lot of time denouncing the “woke mind virus” in recent years, and echoing arguments that Western values are under assault from enemies both material (inward migration from the Global South complemented by declining birth rates in wealthier countries causing the ethnic demographics of Western countries to change) and ideological (the authors see the Black Lives Matters demonstrations as having provoked Musk to purchase Twitter so as to control the flow of information and thus ideology to one more amenable to his worldview). Musk has become more and more integrated into these information flows on a personal as well as professional level, and they have increasingly warped his worldview in turn to leave him resembling “the new flesh” from David Cronenburg’s 1983 film Videodrome, in which a TV executive played by James Woods, with unfortunate prescience given his own trajectory into becoming a far-right activist in the aftermath of social media, loses his grasp on reality following exposure to ever more extreme content. Twitter, in its latter-day incarnation as X, now has the potential to disseminate content promoting eugenic justification for racism and sexism, to say nothing of transphobia, into any smartphone or computer in the world.
This mirrors Henry Ford’s own unfortunate impact on the politics of the 1920s. Ford was a committed antisemite, and spent massive amounts of money on disseminating The Protocols of the Elders of Zion and antisemitic positions which he published under his own name (collected as The International Jew) throughout newspapers he owned and even his own car dealerships. Ford, in turn, was cited by Hitler as an inspiration both for his efforts to popularise antisemitism and for his innovative production methods, which informed Nazi social and industrial policy. Ford publicly recanted many of these positions following the rise of Nazism and the outbreak of the Second World War, but nevertheless exerted a considerable influence on both fascist movements and the wider public which can only have had a negative influence on the political climate, particularly in the US, in the interwar period.
These comparisons aren’t explored at great length by the authors, but do point at another interesting dimension of Muskism and Fordism - should we understand them as particular incarnations of capitalism and racism corresponding to major changes in technology and society (the car for Ford, the internet for Musk) or as part of a longer story in which racism and misanthropy take on new forms as the world around them changes, reviving or discarding ideas like eugenics or conspiracism as suits them?
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
What Fordism was to the twentieth century, Muskism is to the twenty-first
Elon Musk is a polarising figure: idol to some, memelord to many, and evil in the eyes of countless others. A single tweet from him can move markets, and the media hangs on to his every word. Yet, as Quinn Slobodian and Ben Tarnoff argue, he is best understood neither in terms of his personality, nor his ever-changing beliefs. Instead, he is, like Ford in his time, the figurehead of a doctrine that has come to define our new postliberal age.
Muskism draws a clear link between Musk's rise to the top and the principles of this mission of economic and political domination. Like his grandfather Joshua Haldeman – a leader of the technocracy movement in 1940s Canada who emigrated to South Africa to support the data-driven Apartheid regime – Musk too would come to see the world as something that could be engineered into efficiency. He would ride the dot-com boom into Silicon Valley success by using government assets for profit, buy out Tesla at the head of Obama's Green New Deal, build fortress factories in the US as well as in China, and leverage the growing geopolitical trend of national self-sufficiency by selling sovereignty through supply chains and autonomy through electrification to all sides.
Just as climate change turned to climate crisis came SpaceX. But Muskism would first need, ironically, to create the conditions for the civilisational implosion that would necessitate colonies in space (an idea inspired by gross misreadings of sci-fi authors like Isaac Asimov and Douglas Adams). SpaceX would become a defence contractor and a high-speed internet provider, anticipating the privatisation of the national security state on the one hand and the bipartisan consensus towards digitising economies and everyday lives on the other. Unlike other tech founders, Musk approached the ascendance of social media by integrating himself into the meme economy, and Muskism took a cyborg turn as our devices began to manifest into extensions of our selves. Enter OpenAI, which Musk co-founded with Sam Altman, and Neuralink, which aims at achieving AI-human symbiosis. Now a billionaire, the hitherto liberal-ish Musk began to wither at the Biden government's proposition of a wealth tax, its (relative) support for labour unions, and its imposition of Covid-19 regulations that, above all, hurt his profits. Enter the 'Woke Mind Virus', which Musk – like his new buddy Trump – sought to eradicate at the root:
. And who owns that superset?
To emphasise: though he best typefies it, Musk alone does not make Muskism. Those perplexed by the wholesale and only seemingly sudden rise of technofascism will benefit from this accessible work of political economy and its fine weaving together of the small ways in which the memeworld, the manosphere, the Republicans / Tories / Reformists of the world and the Asimov/Adams-toting white supremacists converge into a terrifying reality. One wonders if things may have been different if they could only comprehend the sci-fi they read, but the time for wishful thinking is far gone.
Elon Musk is a polarising figure: idol to some, memelord to many, and evil in the eyes of countless others. A single tweet from him can move markets, and the media hangs on to his every word. Yet, as Quinn Slobodian and Ben Tarnoff argue, he is best understood neither in terms of his personality, nor his ever-changing beliefs. Instead, he is, like Ford in his time, the figurehead of a doctrine that has come to define our new postliberal age.
Muskism draws a clear link between Musk's rise to the top and the principles of this mission of economic and political domination. Like his grandfather Joshua Haldeman – a leader of the technocracy movement in 1940s Canada who emigrated to South Africa to support the data-driven Apartheid regime – Musk too would come to see the world as something that could be engineered into efficiency. He would ride the dot-com boom into Silicon Valley success by using government assets for profit, buy out Tesla at the head of Obama's Green New Deal, build fortress factories in the US as well as in China, and leverage the growing geopolitical trend of national self-sufficiency by selling sovereignty through supply chains and autonomy through electrification to all sides.
Just as climate change turned to climate crisis came SpaceX. But Muskism would first need, ironically, to create the conditions for the civilisational implosion that would necessitate colonies in space (an idea inspired by gross misreadings of sci-fi authors like Isaac Asimov and Douglas Adams). SpaceX would become a defence contractor and a high-speed internet provider, anticipating the privatisation of the national security state on the one hand and the bipartisan consensus towards digitising economies and everyday lives on the other. Unlike other tech founders, Musk approached the ascendance of social media by integrating himself into the meme economy, and Muskism took a cyborg turn as our devices began to manifest into extensions of our selves. Enter OpenAI, which Musk co-founded with Sam Altman, and Neuralink, which aims at achieving AI-human symbiosis. Now a billionaire, the hitherto liberal-ish Musk began to wither at the Biden government's proposition of a wealth tax, its (relative) support for labour unions, and its imposition of Covid-19 regulations that, above all, hurt his profits. Enter the 'Woke Mind Virus', which Musk – like his new buddy Trump – sought to eradicate at the root:
Eradicating contagion can mean disinfeting the body – or, if you believe in cyborgs, building a new one. Yet the future that Musk was creating through X and Grok wasn't one where humans transcended their limitations by merging with machines. It was one where the worst human impulses were automated, scaled, and distributed at the speed of light.DOGE was launched by an executive order of the US government in January 2025, allowing Musk to move from feeding on public subsidies and contracts to stepping inside the state itself. If people were the bugs in the system, everyone suspect must go; AI integration into governance was – is – only the start of governance by AI and the horrors beyond and beneath
... To succeed, he would need "God mode," an overview of the whole, root access to the stack.
. And who owns that superset?
To emphasise: though he best typefies it, Musk alone does not make Muskism. Those perplexed by the wholesale and only seemingly sudden rise of technofascism will benefit from this accessible work of political economy and its fine weaving together of the small ways in which the memeworld, the manosphere, the Republicans / Tories / Reformists of the world and the Asimov/Adams-toting white supremacists converge into a terrifying reality. One wonders if things may have been different if they could only comprehend the sci-fi they read, but the time for wishful thinking is far gone.
May 3, 2026
Crucial book on the broader underpinnings of Elon Musk's politics, what they call "Muskism". Where Fordism at the outset of the 20th century foresaw a future that would improve everybody's lives through mass production, Muskism paints a picture of a future for a select few.
Muskism consists of the pursuit of sovereignty through technology, private companies exploiting the state, and the convergence of human and machine intelligence. Sovereignty through technology materializes, for example, through Tesla's centralized mode of production, a counterpoint to globalized supply chains. The exploitation of the state through private companies is sth Musk picked up through his early expore to the Silicon Valley in the 1990s, where companies where able to benefit from state-funded basic research (e.g., the internet). This materiaizes through firms like Space X or Tesla. Finally, the convergence of human and machine intelligence is seen in Musk's firms Neuralink or Grok. Crucially, this convergence of intelligence, however, is bound to the maintenance of boundaries of race, gender, and class (what the authors contrast with Haraway's "cyborg feminism".
Overall a really important intervention into how we think about the broader principles structuring the politics of Elon Musk. What leaves me a little skeptical, however, is how the authors contrast Muskism with Fordism. Precisely because Muskism is so specific to Elon Musk's upbringing (South African apartheid; early Silicon Valley days, etc.), it seems difficult to imagine that Muskism might become a broader model for the organization of societies. At least I would've loved the authors to discuss a little more how they see the potential for Muskism to spread beyond the confines of the U.S., if indeed it is poised to become a model for social organization throughout the 21st century in the same way that Fordism was in the 20th century...
Muskism consists of the pursuit of sovereignty through technology, private companies exploiting the state, and the convergence of human and machine intelligence. Sovereignty through technology materializes, for example, through Tesla's centralized mode of production, a counterpoint to globalized supply chains. The exploitation of the state through private companies is sth Musk picked up through his early expore to the Silicon Valley in the 1990s, where companies where able to benefit from state-funded basic research (e.g., the internet). This materiaizes through firms like Space X or Tesla. Finally, the convergence of human and machine intelligence is seen in Musk's firms Neuralink or Grok. Crucially, this convergence of intelligence, however, is bound to the maintenance of boundaries of race, gender, and class (what the authors contrast with Haraway's "cyborg feminism".
Overall a really important intervention into how we think about the broader principles structuring the politics of Elon Musk. What leaves me a little skeptical, however, is how the authors contrast Muskism with Fordism. Precisely because Muskism is so specific to Elon Musk's upbringing (South African apartheid; early Silicon Valley days, etc.), it seems difficult to imagine that Muskism might become a broader model for the organization of societies. At least I would've loved the authors to discuss a little more how they see the potential for Muskism to spread beyond the confines of the U.S., if indeed it is poised to become a model for social organization throughout the 21st century in the same way that Fordism was in the 20th century...
May 5, 2026
They dismantle the cult of personality surrounding the world’s most visible billionaire to reveal something far more insidious. This isn't just a critique of a man. It is an autopsy of a specific stage of late-stage capitalism.
Walker often points out how the British media class is enamored with "disruptors." Slobodian and Tarnoff argue that Elon Musk is less of a visionary inventor and more of a subsidy-extractive state actor. The book brilliantly illustrates how Musk’s empires - SpaceX and Tesla - are not triumphs of the "free market," but are bolted onto the infrastructure of the public purse. It’s "socialism for the billionaires, and cutthroat competition for the rest," as we frequently hear on Democracy Now.
The authors move beyond the "mean tweets" and the erratic behavior to analyze the political economy of Muskism.
The Enclosure of the Commons: Whether it’s the literal heavens with Starlink satellites or the digital "town square" of X, the book tracks the transition from public utility to private fiefdom.
Reactionary Futurism: There is a part into the ideological roots of Musk’s world view - a blend of "longtermism" and pro-natalism that mirrors the exclusionary politics of the far-right, packaged as a quest to "save consciousness."
As Michael Walker might frame it: the danger isn't that Musk is "crazy"; the danger is that he is the logical conclusion of an unregulated tech sector. The book serves as a vital warning. We are witnessing the rise of Digital Feudalism, where a handful of men control the transit, communication, and energy networks of the 21st century.
For anyone tired of the hagiographies found in the mainstream financial press, this is an essential antidote. Slobodian & Tarnoff provide the intellectual scaffolding needed to understand why we must democratize technology before the "Muskist" model becomes the inescapable blueprint for our global future.
A must-read
Walker often points out how the British media class is enamored with "disruptors." Slobodian and Tarnoff argue that Elon Musk is less of a visionary inventor and more of a subsidy-extractive state actor. The book brilliantly illustrates how Musk’s empires - SpaceX and Tesla - are not triumphs of the "free market," but are bolted onto the infrastructure of the public purse. It’s "socialism for the billionaires, and cutthroat competition for the rest," as we frequently hear on Democracy Now.
The authors move beyond the "mean tweets" and the erratic behavior to analyze the political economy of Muskism.
The Enclosure of the Commons: Whether it’s the literal heavens with Starlink satellites or the digital "town square" of X, the book tracks the transition from public utility to private fiefdom.
Reactionary Futurism: There is a part into the ideological roots of Musk’s world view - a blend of "longtermism" and pro-natalism that mirrors the exclusionary politics of the far-right, packaged as a quest to "save consciousness."
As Michael Walker might frame it: the danger isn't that Musk is "crazy"; the danger is that he is the logical conclusion of an unregulated tech sector. The book serves as a vital warning. We are witnessing the rise of Digital Feudalism, where a handful of men control the transit, communication, and energy networks of the 21st century.
For anyone tired of the hagiographies found in the mainstream financial press, this is an essential antidote. Slobodian & Tarnoff provide the intellectual scaffolding needed to understand why we must democratize technology before the "Muskist" model becomes the inescapable blueprint for our global future.
A must-read
June 8, 2026
„Muskizm” to świetnie napisany, niepokojący esej, który boleśnie weryfikuje nasze utarte wyobrażenia o współczesnym kapitalizmie i potędze technologicznych gigantów.
Wydawało mi się, że Musk to po prostu genialny (choć mocno kontrowersyjny) wynalazca. Slobodian i Tarnoff udowadniają jednak, że nie o jednostkę tutaj chodzi. Autorzy proponują zupełnie inną perspektywę - Musk to zwiastun całego systemu, tytułowego „muskizmu”. Podobnie jak fordyzm zdefiniował gospodarkę XX wieku, tak XXI wiek należy do doktryny, w której kapitał, technologia i władza skupiają się w prywatnych rękach na niespotykaną dotąd skalę.
Autorzy znakomicie punktują to, o czym zazwyczaj milczą entuzjaści Doliny Krzemowej. Wyjaśniają, jak to w ogóle możliwe, że naczelny piewca skrajnej wolności i wolnego rynku buduje swoje gigantyczne imperium (od Tesli po SpaceX) głównie w oparciu o publiczne dotacje i rządowe kontrakty. Z jednej strony dostajemy futurystyczną wizję ratowania ludzkości, z drugiej – bezwzględny model biznesowy, który oferuje autonomię wybranym, a empatię traktuje jako słabość.
Książka wnikliwie analizuje, jak szybko szczytne idee ustąpiły miejsca walce o wpływy. Im głębiej wchodzimy w infrastrukturę oferowaną przez miliardera - korzystając z jego platformy społecznościowej, opierając pole walki na jego satelitach czy jeżdżąc jego samochodami - tym bardziej stajemy się od niej uzależnieni.
„Muskizm” to chłodna diagnoza i konkretne ostrzeżenie. Zdecydowanie polecam każdemu, kto chce zrozumieć, jak naprawdę działają mechanizmy współczesnej władzy i co tak naprawdę dzieje się w głowach najbogatszych ludzi tego świata.
Książkę otrzymałem od Wydawnictwa Krytyki Politycznej w ramach współpracy barterowej, za co bardzo dziękuję.
Wydawało mi się, że Musk to po prostu genialny (choć mocno kontrowersyjny) wynalazca. Slobodian i Tarnoff udowadniają jednak, że nie o jednostkę tutaj chodzi. Autorzy proponują zupełnie inną perspektywę - Musk to zwiastun całego systemu, tytułowego „muskizmu”. Podobnie jak fordyzm zdefiniował gospodarkę XX wieku, tak XXI wiek należy do doktryny, w której kapitał, technologia i władza skupiają się w prywatnych rękach na niespotykaną dotąd skalę.
Autorzy znakomicie punktują to, o czym zazwyczaj milczą entuzjaści Doliny Krzemowej. Wyjaśniają, jak to w ogóle możliwe, że naczelny piewca skrajnej wolności i wolnego rynku buduje swoje gigantyczne imperium (od Tesli po SpaceX) głównie w oparciu o publiczne dotacje i rządowe kontrakty. Z jednej strony dostajemy futurystyczną wizję ratowania ludzkości, z drugiej – bezwzględny model biznesowy, który oferuje autonomię wybranym, a empatię traktuje jako słabość.
Książka wnikliwie analizuje, jak szybko szczytne idee ustąpiły miejsca walce o wpływy. Im głębiej wchodzimy w infrastrukturę oferowaną przez miliardera - korzystając z jego platformy społecznościowej, opierając pole walki na jego satelitach czy jeżdżąc jego samochodami - tym bardziej stajemy się od niej uzależnieni.
„Muskizm” to chłodna diagnoza i konkretne ostrzeżenie. Zdecydowanie polecam każdemu, kto chce zrozumieć, jak naprawdę działają mechanizmy współczesnej władzy i co tak naprawdę dzieje się w głowach najbogatszych ludzi tego świata.
Książkę otrzymałem od Wydawnictwa Krytyki Politycznej w ramach współpracy barterowej, za co bardzo dziękuję.
July 3, 2026
Really interesting! A lot of people wished it were longer, but I felt it was a good length for the premise of the authors, which was that Elon's philosophies and influence on society are both a major force in themselves, and the result of many other forces which influenced him (either directly or indirectly). I have whole books about how he fucked up Twitter or whatever, I didn't really need more detail on the specifics of the things he did, which is good as the authors didn't provide a lot of that. I actually didn't know that much about his youth (other than the basics) or the actual ways in which he IS good at business (I actually have more respect now for some of his decisions, at least earlier in life).
It actually kind of made me sad... while I'm not saying he was ever a great humanitarian or anything, I felt like his actions when he was younger didn't have the same feel and didn't HAVE to lead to where he is now. I guess I just don't see how one could read the same influential scifi novels I did in my youth, then immediately turn into what he has become... what's clear to me is that he thinks he is controlling the internet and social media, but in fact, he's been influenced and radicalized, not unlike tons of other conspiracy-believing weirdos who don't get out enough. It's just he has the money and power to really act on and spread those crazy ideas, unlike most people who slowly lose their sanity under the grip of paranoia. It's tragic that he's decided to put his organizational skills (his real strength, not engineering or programming or computer stuff) into working to make the lives of other people worse, especially when his own life is already so good.
It actually kind of made me sad... while I'm not saying he was ever a great humanitarian or anything, I felt like his actions when he was younger didn't have the same feel and didn't HAVE to lead to where he is now. I guess I just don't see how one could read the same influential scifi novels I did in my youth, then immediately turn into what he has become... what's clear to me is that he thinks he is controlling the internet and social media, but in fact, he's been influenced and radicalized, not unlike tons of other conspiracy-believing weirdos who don't get out enough. It's just he has the money and power to really act on and spread those crazy ideas, unlike most people who slowly lose their sanity under the grip of paranoia. It's tragic that he's decided to put his organizational skills (his real strength, not engineering or programming or computer stuff) into working to make the lives of other people worse, especially when his own life is already so good.
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
Really a 4.5 but this dreadful website does not allow nuance. This book does though, and is rather fascinating in quite how seriously it takes this monster. Avoiding lots of the cliches (Nazi salute, Grimes, 'let that sink in', hyperloop, ketamine, and much else is ignored) this begins and ends with fascism -- first, in apartheid South Africa, second, in a putative future in which Musk gets everything he wants. But about half of it is a convincing argument about how much this apparent clown is actually an extremely astute and influential industrialist, who effectively anticipated much of the Green New Deal agenda of 'onshoring' and green tech, twenty years ago. The leap midway through to the apparently insane hyper-online fascist of today is reasonably well handled, though I think it's a little more irrational than the pair make out, and the tech is perhaps not all equally plausible, especially as the man gets more addled (cheap batteries =/= 'Neuralink'). The Fordism analogy is reasonably apt, given Ford's belief in racial conspiracies, his enthusiasm for first-wave fascism, etc, and there's a huge amount of deep cuts aimed at practically all leftist non-fiction of the last twenty years (the last chapter is literally a riff on Peter Frase's Four Futures, but if all the futures were written by E. Musk). Came out with a long reading list, which is always a good sign, but this is also a real 'there but for the grace of god' for those of us who also like Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, electrification, utopian SF, anime, and outer space.
July 4, 2026
Ein Buch für Anfänger. Wer sich noch nie mit Musk, digitalen Kapitalismus und seine rechten politischen Fantasien beschäftigt hat, findet hier einen Einstieg. Wenig analytisch, dafür anekdotisch. Bunte "Analysebegriffe" klingen gut, bleiben aber dünn und repetitiv (Begriffe werden nicht wahr, wenn man sie oft wiederholt). Zum Beispiel wird das Konzept Muskismus als eine mögliche Nachfolge des Fordismus vorgestellt und gibt dem Buch seinen Namen; aber die für mich notwendige Analyse, ob wir in der Gegenwart wirklich einen neues Re/Produktiongsregime inklusive eines neuen politischen Paradigmas erkennen können, diese Analyse ist sehr schwach. Hier wurde ein Buch um einen gut klingenden Titel herumgebastelt.
Die Herrschaftsansprüche Musks und Konsortens sind bspw. bei dem neuen Buch von Adrian Daub (Was das Valley herrschen denkt) viel plausibler aus dem historischen Kontext abgeleitet. Der interessanteste take-away des Buches war für mich noch direkt zu Beginn: die technopolitischen Ambitionen des Apartheid Regimes in Südafrika, in dem Musk groß geworden ist und das sein rassistisches Menschenbild geprägt hat. Während bei den Linken die Allende Regierung in Chile während der 1970er Jahre ein Vorbild für kybernetische Kontrolle einer sozialistischen Planwirtschaft war, wurden fast zur gleichen Zeit die technologischen Erneuerungen von Verwaltung in Südafrika zur Kontrolle und Ausweitung der Rassentrennung eingesetzt. Auch hier sind die Referenzen und Fußnoten von Slobodian interessanter als das Buch selbst.
Die Herrschaftsansprüche Musks und Konsortens sind bspw. bei dem neuen Buch von Adrian Daub (Was das Valley herrschen denkt) viel plausibler aus dem historischen Kontext abgeleitet. Der interessanteste take-away des Buches war für mich noch direkt zu Beginn: die technopolitischen Ambitionen des Apartheid Regimes in Südafrika, in dem Musk groß geworden ist und das sein rassistisches Menschenbild geprägt hat. Während bei den Linken die Allende Regierung in Chile während der 1970er Jahre ein Vorbild für kybernetische Kontrolle einer sozialistischen Planwirtschaft war, wurden fast zur gleichen Zeit die technologischen Erneuerungen von Verwaltung in Südafrika zur Kontrolle und Ausweitung der Rassentrennung eingesetzt. Auch hier sind die Referenzen und Fußnoten von Slobodian interessanter als das Buch selbst.
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