VICTOR JOECKS: Why Musk is so fascinating on X

Elon Musk is the real life Tony Stark, But that’s not the main reason his forays into politics are so engrossing.

Musk needs no introduction, but his list of accomplishments is still staggering. He’s the richest person in the world. He co-founded and leads Tesla, which produces electric vehicles. The other companies he runs are working on rockets, sending humans to Mars, brain chips and tunnels under the Strip. Good thing he never took an interest in column writing.

This alone would be enough reason to pay attention to Musk’s political musings. He has influence. He even bought Twitter, which he rebranded X, after the previous management banned the Babylon Bee, the hilarious satire site.

His comments, however, are intriguing for reasons beyond that. He seems genuinely interested in learning what’s really happening. This is most obvious when Musk acknowledges he doesn’t know something.

Consider Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ presidential launch on Twitter Spaces. DeSantis answered a question on the accusation that he banned books. DeSantis, as he usually does, gave a home-run answer. He noted, “There’s not been a single book banned in the state of Florida.” What the law he signed allows is for parents to review books in school libraries and object to inappropriate ones. DeSantis noted that some books were so explicit they couldn’t be shown on the evening news.

“Yeah, that makes a lot of sense,” Musk responded. “I mean I was actually under the impression that there were some books banned, so this is news to me.”

It’s hard enough for me to tell my 5-year-old, “Daddy, got it wrong.” But Musk casually informed the world he didn’t know something and implied it changed his view. That is a rare level of intellectual humility in a political discussion.

Another example of this happened days ago. “California hasn’t required proof of citizenship to vote since 1994,” he noted Tuesday. In follow-on comment, he wrote, “I only learned this recently.”

Following Musk gives one the chance to watch a political evolution in real time. Musk said he voted for President Joe Biden in 2020. In May 2022, he wrote, “In the past I voted Democrat, because they were (mostly) the kindness party. But they have become the party of division and hate, so I can no longer support them and will vote Republican.”

Musk realized there was a disconnect between his values, such as free speech and prioritizing merit, and the left’s embrace of critical race theory. Often when that happens, the left cudgels people into silence using its institutional power. Or it cancels them by firing or silencing them.

Government and social media companies worked in tandem to suppress COVID dissent and Hunter Biden’s laptop story. Saying “men are not women” will get students in trouble at many major universities. Leftists have spent more than a decade hounding baker Jack Phillips for his biblical beliefs.

But Musk refuses to be intimidated, pointing out the obvious, but often unsayable, with abandon.

“Discrimination on the basis of race, which DEI does, is literally the definition of racism,” he wrote earlier this month.

“People will die due to DEI,” he wrote recently responding a story about a recent Boeing plane losing a door panel midflight. Boeing has embraced DEI, which is CRT repackaged for public consumption. “Merit should be the only reason for hiring, especially for jobs where your family’s lives are at stake,” he wrote Wednesday.

“At its heart, wokeness is divisive, exclusionary and hateful,” he said in an interview with the Babylon Bee. “It basically gives mean people a shield to be mean and cruel, armored in false virtue.”

Amid all his other ventures, Musk is helping lead the charge to defeat the “woke mind virus.” A remarkable man.

Contact him at vjoecks@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4698. Follow @victorjoecks on X.