Elon Musk is epistemological poison in a way Donald Trump never was. 1/

Donald Trump bullshits transparently. He lies constantly, changes his story with his interest, (almost) everybody understands that and looks through it into the values that are motivating the schtick (love them or hate them). 2/

Musk, on the other hand, affects himself a supergenius, a knower of truths. He attaches superficially plausible logics to his lies, concocts stories and “evidence” to support them is relentless support of persuading people to believe what he wants them to believe. 3/

In Trumpworld, there have been the Qs, frightening, but discernibly fringe, weird. 4/

Musk, with his determined activity, with the reach and the epistemological deference his money can buy, is intent on reshaping the mainstream with his tendentiously concocted stories. 5/

It’s working. Centrist institutions “triangulate” towards him. He increasingly defines one side a set of conventions that presume “both sides” equally worthy, equally suspect. Trump couldn’t really do that, because he couldn’t put together a platform, hold a consistent line. 6/

Trump was bad enough. But Musk and his crew are much worse. Under Trump, nothing was true, there were always alternative facts. Musk is molding lies of his choosing into a version of truth towards which much of our lucre-tropic society may quietly bend. /fin