Elon Musk and the war for ‘Western Civilization’

I'd like to extend a sincere thanks to Elon Musk. In his recent interview with The Economist’s editor-in-chief, Zanny Beddoes, the world's richest man™ was absolutely blunt about his ugly intentions and utter lack of empathy. It would be easy to retitle Musk's appearance "Interview with the Sociopath," except that what he was putting forth was more than just his personal beliefs.

This is the manifesto of the right; the clearest definition of what they mean when they say they are fighting to save "Western civilization." And the TL;DR of it all is simply this: They reserve the right to determine who counts as a human being.

When asked if he was concerned about the children in African who had died because of his ferocious cuts to USAID, Musk had an immediate response.

Beddoes: You don't buy the idea that anybody, and put it really crudely and simply, any kid in Africa died because of the suddenness with which—

Musk: Zero [makes a circle with finger and thumb].

Beddoes: I just don't think that's right. I mean, I've had people reporting in Africa who—

Musk: How many NGOs are there that could step in? Bear in mind, it happened quickly and there are literally tens of thousands of NGOs.

Beddoes: Not everyone functions as fast as you do. If funding is cut off overnight for antivirals, and it just stops, then people will die if they don't have access to them.

Musk: No. No. Only if they can not get funding for that. The Gates Foundation has $50 billion. What about them? What about any of a number of organizations. What about umm… umm… umm… What about, whatever her last name is, who used to be Bezos'. He gave her $50 billion. What about that?

At numerous points in the interview, Musk indicates that the amount DOGE cut from USAID was trivial and that any number of organizations, including those answering to Bill Gates and MacKenzie Scott could step in. However, DOGE claimed "savings" from USAID total $68.2 billion, well over the $50 billion that Musk cites as the wealth of those foundations.

All of these numbers must look about the same from a trillionaire's lofty perch.

Musk then claims that "USAID funding was not stopped," When Beddoes restates that many programs were ended, he says 'These claims are false. They're nonsense" before declaring that USAID was a "fraudulent organization" that is now spreading lies about deaths in Africa.

Musk: Do you think they're going to say, well, 'Please keep funding the fraud?' or are they going to come up with a sad story that sounds sympathetic in order to get the funding restored? Obviously, it will be the latter. And that's exactly what they did. But zero died [makes a circle with finger and thumb] because of DOGE. Zero point zero.

Beddoes spent years in Africa working as an economist for the International Monetary Fund, she joined The Economist over thirty years ago as their specialist on emerging markets. She makes it clear that she is talking to people on the ground in Africa. Musk ignores all of this.

When Beddoes expresses sympathy for Musk's concern about corruption in the system, but again warns that the suddenness of the DOGE cuts "will have almost certainly caused unnecessary suffering and death," Musk cuts her off again and repeats his claims that "private organizations" have the money to do this work.

Musk then declares that Scott, who he calls "MacKenzie Bezos" has given away tens of billions of dollars, so she is "equally to blame" for the deaths that he says have not occurred. Because ... she ... I don't know how this works.

It's true that Scott has given away tens of billions. In fact, despite internet memes to the contrary, her wealth is shrinking fast after giving away $26 billion. She has signed the Giving Pledge, making a public commitment to give away the bulk of her remaining wealth, which seems to currently be around $33 billion. She certainly doesn't have as much wealth as what Musk claimed to have cut from USAID.

But Musk isn't actually concerned with whether Scott or anyone has the available funds, or the in-place infrastructure, or the thousands of contacts with individuals, institutions, and governments around the world that made it possible for USAID to deliver food and medicine to meet critical needs.

Musk: Zero people died because of DOGE [makes a circle with finger and thumb]. Zero.

It may be a total coincidence that the hand gesture that Musk makes repeatedly when saying that "zero" people had died is one that has become associated with the white supremacy movement. But whether or not Musk was giving the finger to dead children, his meaning was clear.

For those who might have missed it the first time, Musk drew an underline under his intentions two days later when he declared that, for the crime of questioning him, Beddoes was a "traitor to the West."

A traitor to "the West." What does that mean?

It helps to know that the person Musk is replying to when he made this post, Rael Braverman, is the husband of a British politician who left the Conservative Party to join Nigel Farage in Reform UK. But that's not the whole story.

Like Musk, Braverman is an immigrant from South Africa whose family moved out in the 1990s. He was one of the first to join Farage in the anti-immigrant movement, despite being married to a second generation immigrant. But that's okay. Because while she was Home Secretary, his wife Suella Braverman proposed tearing up the UN Refugees Convention to "deny sanctuary to women and gay people" who are under threat in their home countries. She has earned her reputation as "The face of 'Cruel Britannia.'"

Her mother, Uma, came from Mauritius and her father, Christie Fernandes, from Kenya. They arrived in the UK in the 1960s, during a period of strong anti-immigrant sentiment, “with absolutely nothing,” as Braverman has said, “and it was Britain that gave them hope, security, and opportunity.”

That was then. Today, Suella Braverman has a dream. A dream for how she'd like to treat other immigrants trying to come from Africa to the UK.

“I would love to be having a front page of the Telegraph with a plane taking off to Rwanda … That’s my dream, it’s an obsession.”

The best thing about Rael Braverman may be that, in many articles, he's just "Suella Braverman's husband" without even being named. That part is kind of refreshing.

But I'm sure Rael hates it.

Elon Musk moved to the United States in 1992 when he was 21. Rael Braverman moved to the United Kingdom around the same time (he now refuses to give an exact date) when he was a teenager.

Why did they move at that time? Musk has told a story about being severely abused at home, and wanting to avoid mandatory service in the South African military (a story that his father refutes). Braverman has refused to say.

As it happens, the newly integrated South African government rolled back the key pillars of Apartheid in 1991, ending mandated segregation and repealing laws that kept Black South Africans from owning land. For both Musk and Braverman, Apartheid South Africa is the land of their youth, the home they can never return to.

But, as Musk has repeatedly made clear, he can use his wealth and influence to recreate that lost paradise elsewhere and restore the clarity of place he experienced as a child. When he talks about "the West," what he means is a place where white people are superior and Black people are seen as one faceless, inferior, mass.

Musk also reposted other messages claiming that British Prime Minister Keir Starmer “hates white people,” and another sharing an image of the stabbing suspect, who is Black, alongside the caption declaring “millions must go.”

And Musk warns, white people should never, not for a moment, take their knees away from the throats of Black people.

"If white men become a minority, we will be slaughtered. Remember, if non-Whites openly hate White men while White men hold a collective majority, then they will be 1000x times [sic] more hostile and cruel when they are a majority over whites. White solidarity is the only way to survive."

Yes, if Black people are angry about white people using power and money to abuse them, so we have to keep abusing them. After all, they might even seek … truth and reconciliation.

It doesn't take Bletchley Park to crack the code on what Musk was saying in his interview with Beddoes.

When he says "zero" children have died, he means zero children who count. The children who are dying are mostly, if not entirely, Black children. Musk has no concern about their loss. If he feels anything, it's satisfaction.

When he says USAID was corrupt, he doesn't mean that people at the agency were pocketing those billions. He means that the money was going to support the health and education of Black people. Which makes the agency an opponent in his war for white supremacy.

When he calls Beddoes a traitor to "the West," what he means is that she not only expressed concern for Black children dying, but tried to claim that he shouldn't tell lies that create racial hatred—as he did in supporting racist claims that lead to deadly anti-immigrant riots in Northern Ireland; or saying that a "civil war" in the UK was inevitable; or supporting an awful film where the "hero" shoots immigrants, women, and kids who are too rowdy on the bus.

An American vigilante tears across an unnamed European country, killing dozens of police officers and judges, slaughtering a gang of rapists, and killing a refugee family and a random civilian - all in the name of a crusade against Muslim migrants and "woke" government officials.

Musk made this film free to view on Twitter because it's his idea of an appropriate film for Western civilization—one centered on a slumlord, illegally in a European country, who goes on a killing spree because he gets tired of filling out forms to have people evicted. Meanwhile, another film has gotten nothing but negative attention. Musk can't stop attacking Christopher Nolan's version of The Odyssey because it suggests people who are not white can still be considered valuable.

Musk has promised a "historically accurate" version of a two thousand year-old mythic poem generated entirely by his Grok AI. Personally, I can't wait to see a historically accurate cyclops.

Musk's idea of "the West" isn't based on Greek poems, the Magna Carta, or any founding document of the United States. Its flag is the simplest banner imaginable, a field of pure white.

DOGE didn't destroy USAID by accident. The deaths of over 750,000 people didn't happen by accident. These are brazen attacks against people who Musk sees as not only without value, but a threat to his lily-white, oh-so-fragile West.

Beddoes did a generally competent job in interviewing Musk, and it was good to see him facing something other than the simpering worship that greats most of his pre-arranged media appearances. But there was one curious omission in her questioning.

Why, as Musk kept insisting that Gates or Scott could step in to restore the irreplaceable assistance provided by USAID, did Beddoes never ask the simple question: Why not Musk? Why shouldn't the world's richest man chip in to repair the damage he created?

After all, Musk has a foundation. However, while Scott gave away $26 billion in two years, the foundation of the world's first trillionaire has only managed to give away $1.1 billion dollars over a space of 16 years. And almost all of that "charity" has gone to creating towns Musk houses workers of his businesses.

Musk's foundation is staffed only by a trio of unpaid volunteers and he has complained that it's hard to find places worth supporting. That's probably true if you don't bother to look.

He did once give $1.8 billion to support the World Central Kitchen's mission in Ukraine, But that was before Musk declared Chef José Andrés "an asshole" for asking him to be more thoughtful.

In 2021, Musk transfered $5.7 billion in stock to his foundation. This followed a series of posts in which Musk had been challenged by the United Nations World Food Program director to donate $6.6 billion to save 42 million people from starvation. Musk promised to sell Tesla stock and donate the money "immediately" if the UN promised to provide a detailed account of how the money would be spent. The UN provided that detail in a report delivered to Musk.

“The world is on fire," wrote the program director. "I’ve been warning about the perfect storm brewing due to Covid, conflict, climate shocks & now, rising supply chain costs. IT IS HERE.”

Musk remained quiet. Over the next two years, many other requests were made, including a proposal from Forbes. However, Musk sent no money. Not to the UN. Not to anyone. Musk probably got a good laugh out of how he had teased all those hungry people.

But he did have something to say about Scott's generous donations.