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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 39 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 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
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!!
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.
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).
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.
Read
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.
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.
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.
May 19, 2026
Musk is a freak, water is wet, etc.
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.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
Like everyone, I had of course heard a great deal about Elon Musk, but after reading this book I found that I hadn't really understood what his guiding principles were. Unexpectedly, it turns out that Musk does have principles, though they are odd ones: he literally views life as a game, and he wants to win. He plays video games a lot, that is the kind of game he has in mind. His goal to maximize his score. He is evidently intelligent and creative, and he is doing well.
Musk is upfront about being completely amoral. He has said many times that he views empathy as a system vulnerability; he likes to use coding metaphors. He is now the richest man in the world, but he does not in any way feel satisfied. He is sure he can get more, and that he can do it by exploiting other people's system vulnerabilities. As he puts it, most of them have weak firewalls, which makes it easy to inject mind viruses and reprogram them. He appears most often in the news because of his involvement with various high-profile business ventures (SpaceX, Tesla, xAI) but now those are secondary to his real interest, dominating the world by spreading memes through the web.
He is evidently doing this together with Donald Trump, though the book doesn't make clear what the relationship between them is. Presumably no one knows, maybe not even Trump or Musk. Trump could be using Musk, or Musk could be using Trump, or they could have some kind of de facto partnership. Whatever it is, they have developed the meme technology very quickly and effectively. I have felt for some time that an important aspect of Trump's policies is like a scientific experiment; they have a way to control large masses of people, and they're testing it on more and more extreme scenarios to find out where the boundaries are. (Latest example: why would you try to make Casey Means the Surgeon General, except to find out whether it's possible?) This book presents a lot of evidence suggesting that my suspicions were not just a paranoid fantasy. Musk is upfront about his interest in the power of memes: one of the most memorable quotes is when he says "I am become meme", a reference to Oppenheimer's famous "I am become Death".
Musk is hinting that he thinks the meme technology is as powerful as atomic bombs. Maybe he's right; he likes science-fiction (Asimov, Heinlein, Douglas Adams are frequently mentioned), and here I'm reminded of the less well known Arthur C. Clarke short story "Second Dawn". An alien species which has no technology but telepathic powers is in the middle of a terrible war, where one faction looks like they are encircled and about to lose. But they develop a mind weapon which can be deployed to turn their enemies, en masse, into helpless idiots; the process is irreversible. The aliens vow never again to use the deadly mind weapon and instead to collaborate with another race, who have figured out ways to make tools; right at the end, we understand that they have just discovered radioactivity. Both alien races are puzzled and slightly alarmed, but it evidently can't be as dangerous as the thing they've just banned. I wonder if Musk knows about this story, and if so whether it influenced him.
Musk is fascinatingly, other-worldly evil. Taking a first sip from the glass, the dominant notes are Bond villain and superintelligence, though Musk wants to turn the universe into money rather than paperclips. But a second sip reveals hidden complexity. Maybe a hint of Milton's Satan, recast as a Transformers Decepticon? Even more exotic things suggest themselves: Bobby Fischer, Marcel Proust. Fischer wanted to become the greatest chess player of all time, Proust wanted to write the greatest novel of all time. Both of them were willing to sacrifice anything to achieve their dreams, and arguably succeeded. I have a great admiration for Fischer and Proust, but they weren't experimenting on the whole human race, just on chess players and litterateurs who were willing subjects. If only Musk had had their restraint. It's not clear why he's doing it: the book notes briefly that he was bullied at school. Kids, don't be bullies. You may live to regret it.
More and more, I feel the world is turning into a largely incomprehensible postmodern science-fiction novel. Muskism might help you extract some sense from it.
Musk is upfront about being completely amoral. He has said many times that he views empathy as a system vulnerability; he likes to use coding metaphors. He is now the richest man in the world, but he does not in any way feel satisfied. He is sure he can get more, and that he can do it by exploiting other people's system vulnerabilities. As he puts it, most of them have weak firewalls, which makes it easy to inject mind viruses and reprogram them. He appears most often in the news because of his involvement with various high-profile business ventures (SpaceX, Tesla, xAI) but now those are secondary to his real interest, dominating the world by spreading memes through the web.
He is evidently doing this together with Donald Trump, though the book doesn't make clear what the relationship between them is. Presumably no one knows, maybe not even Trump or Musk. Trump could be using Musk, or Musk could be using Trump, or they could have some kind of de facto partnership. Whatever it is, they have developed the meme technology very quickly and effectively. I have felt for some time that an important aspect of Trump's policies is like a scientific experiment; they have a way to control large masses of people, and they're testing it on more and more extreme scenarios to find out where the boundaries are. (Latest example: why would you try to make Casey Means the Surgeon General, except to find out whether it's possible?) This book presents a lot of evidence suggesting that my suspicions were not just a paranoid fantasy. Musk is upfront about his interest in the power of memes: one of the most memorable quotes is when he says "I am become meme", a reference to Oppenheimer's famous "I am become Death".
Musk is hinting that he thinks the meme technology is as powerful as atomic bombs. Maybe he's right; he likes science-fiction (Asimov, Heinlein, Douglas Adams are frequently mentioned), and here I'm reminded of the less well known Arthur C. Clarke short story "Second Dawn". An alien species which has no technology but telepathic powers is in the middle of a terrible war, where one faction looks like they are encircled and about to lose. But they develop a mind weapon which can be deployed to turn their enemies, en masse, into helpless idiots; the process is irreversible. The aliens vow never again to use the deadly mind weapon and instead to collaborate with another race, who have figured out ways to make tools; right at the end, we understand that they have just discovered radioactivity. Both alien races are puzzled and slightly alarmed, but it evidently can't be as dangerous as the thing they've just banned. I wonder if Musk knows about this story, and if so whether it influenced him.
Musk is fascinatingly, other-worldly evil. Taking a first sip from the glass, the dominant notes are Bond villain and superintelligence, though Musk wants to turn the universe into money rather than paperclips. But a second sip reveals hidden complexity. Maybe a hint of Milton's Satan, recast as a Transformers Decepticon? Even more exotic things suggest themselves: Bobby Fischer, Marcel Proust. Fischer wanted to become the greatest chess player of all time, Proust wanted to write the greatest novel of all time. Both of them were willing to sacrifice anything to achieve their dreams, and arguably succeeded. I have a great admiration for Fischer and Proust, but they weren't experimenting on the whole human race, just on chess players and litterateurs who were willing subjects. If only Musk had had their restraint. It's not clear why he's doing it: the book notes briefly that he was bullied at school. Kids, don't be bullies. You may live to regret it.
More and more, I feel the world is turning into a largely incomprehensible postmodern science-fiction novel. Muskism might help you extract some sense from it.
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
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.
April 23, 2026
This was a real fun read. Fast-paced narration, impeccably researched and sourced, and eerily prescient in their vision of where Musk and other far-right technocrats want to take society in their quest to “save Western Civilization.”
As the authors point out from the start, the frame of the books is Musk as a system vs Musk as a human. This is no fan-boy biography, à la Walter Isaacson, but rather a critical look at how the various influences at different stages of Elon’s life, such as growing up in apartheid South Africa or moving to Silicon Valley in the early days of tech bro culture, shaped his ever-evolving worldview.
Although the authors do expose Elon for the grifter that he is (none of his companies would have survived or even launched without heavy government subsidies and free transfers of gov technology to him), their overall outlook is even bleaker, as they acknowledge that he is just one member of a growing group of psychopathic far-right billionaires and politicians (and their cultish followers) intent on ensuring that the digitization/virtualization of our society entrenches (or even strengthens) existing racialized power structures.
To understand this growing movement better, I highly recommend Quinn Slobodian’s Crack-Up Capitalism (2023)
As the authors point out from the start, the frame of the books is Musk as a system vs Musk as a human. This is no fan-boy biography, à la Walter Isaacson, but rather a critical look at how the various influences at different stages of Elon’s life, such as growing up in apartheid South Africa or moving to Silicon Valley in the early days of tech bro culture, shaped his ever-evolving worldview.
Although the authors do expose Elon for the grifter that he is (none of his companies would have survived or even launched without heavy government subsidies and free transfers of gov technology to him), their overall outlook is even bleaker, as they acknowledge that he is just one member of a growing group of psychopathic far-right billionaires and politicians (and their cultish followers) intent on ensuring that the digitization/virtualization of our society entrenches (or even strengthens) existing racialized power structures.
To understand this growing movement better, I highly recommend Quinn Slobodian’s Crack-Up Capitalism (2023)
May 11, 2026
A shorter read even than I expected. Shaking my head on the metro while reading this in case people judge the book by it's cover.
Really interesting reading that I think I wouldn't have appreciated if I hadn't also read Crack Up Capitalism and Hayek's Bastards. It feels almost like an appendix to both, or perhaps a combined mega chapter. Slobodian's other writing has been reassuring in a strange way, that there's really an ideological link between white supremacists, crypto/gold hawking scammers and billionaires that goes beyond mere solidarity on the fringe, and Musk is the embodiment of all three.
If anything, all three really come down to the dreams of the sovereign individual, a world where no one call tell you what to do. Muskism is the economic and political arrangement of that, but in truth for the chairman only. A part of the state only in so far as the state is dependent on you, aside from the state only up to the point where it should provide you with resources and labour. The sovereign individual is the one who's realised they're trapped in the matrix but doesn't believe anyone else is, everyone else is just a simulation, a bot, and agent of the system, so bad others should be deleted or overwritten as you do with bug fixing.
Really interesting reading that I think I wouldn't have appreciated if I hadn't also read Crack Up Capitalism and Hayek's Bastards. It feels almost like an appendix to both, or perhaps a combined mega chapter. Slobodian's other writing has been reassuring in a strange way, that there's really an ideological link between white supremacists, crypto/gold hawking scammers and billionaires that goes beyond mere solidarity on the fringe, and Musk is the embodiment of all three.
If anything, all three really come down to the dreams of the sovereign individual, a world where no one call tell you what to do. Muskism is the economic and political arrangement of that, but in truth for the chairman only. A part of the state only in so far as the state is dependent on you, aside from the state only up to the point where it should provide you with resources and labour. The sovereign individual is the one who's realised they're trapped in the matrix but doesn't believe anyone else is, everyone else is just a simulation, a bot, and agent of the system, so bad others should be deleted or overwritten as you do with bug fixing.
April 27, 2026
A quick, polemical overview of the business and political activities and expressed ideologies of the world's richest man, aiming to find connections between these spheres. I would guess the business components, and many of the personal and political actions, are widely known, though it's nice to have a summary not so tied up in the hagiography widely disseminated by someone whose net worth is strongly tied up in investor perceptions. The business analysis probably could have done with a bit more on the financials and compensation schemes, which seem to drive a lot of the decisions, but was adequately descriptive for a book by authors more focused on the political ideology. The description of those ideas doesn't really make them less bizarre, aside from clearing up which 80s and 90s sci-fi are being referenced, but that is a presumably intentional shared feature with Slobodian's earlier books, which take a primarily cui bono functionalist approach to ideology. This would bother me more if the book were overlong and not so engagingly written, but as is it is worth the read.
May 10, 2026
Interesting but not satisfying. Their preference seems to be for the cancelation of Elon musk and everything he stands for but instead in many ways they make the case for him as an innovator and doer. They are upset that he is breaking some “woke” things they hold near and dear, but offer nothing as a replacement. We are moving ahead into a more technological age and musk is a part of that but past use of social media to cancel those who were not of their political leftist progressive is not a problem with the authors. They are just upset that their vision has been pushed to the side for now to make way for a more middle of the road approach.
According to the authors musk and his beliefs must go but what are the proposing instead. They don’t say.
According to the authors musk and his beliefs must go but what are the proposing instead. They don’t say.
Read
May 22, 2026You could skip the book and read this article and not miss out on much: https://lpeproject.org/blog/muskism-a.... The authors there do a much quicker job at historically situating "Muskism", synthesizing their idea of sovereignty-as-service through technology and summarizing the function of financial fabulism (a feature of the tech economy overall). The book is a little shaggy and it seems intended for the very perplexed (pages are dedicated to explaining what a meme is). It is a hybrid of service journalism, a kind of revised great man theory of history, and some disconnected political economy and cultural analysis. The ending is a dystopic fairytale without even the gesture to possible self-devouring growth the article concludes with.
March 30, 2026
This is a great, informative book about Elon Musk and I found it to be fascinating. The majority of this was new information for me and I really enjoyed learning about Musk’s childhood in South Africa. It was really interesting to see where some of Musk’s ideas come from such as the link between tanks in South Africa during Apartheid and the Tesla Cybertruck. This is written well and I found this to be a very compelling read. I really enjoyed this and how this breaks down the absurd ideas and lies Musk has come out with in the last few years regarding his turn to the right.
April 24, 2026
Slobodian is always a pleasure to read - his scintillating intellect helping to put together puzzle pieces in a way that, in retrospect, you cannot believe you didn't see yourself. This latest foray - his most trade-friendly book yet (undoubtedly because of his partnership with journalist Ben Tarnoff) is no exception. Highly recommended for understanding the chilling logic behind the absurdity in which we live.
May 8, 2026
Well written but creepy as hell, just like everything else you’ll read about the Muskrat. The United States and other countries have given over control of the world to a group of nerds with body image issues and white savior complexes
May 24, 2026
There isn’t really a lot of new information in this book. The authors are primarily describing how Musk took advantage of the symbiosis of state power and global capital. I will say that every time I read one of these Silicon Valley book, I’m struck by how much their worldview is influenced by works of classic science fiction.
Review of advance copy
Excellently written and scrupulously edited. Resisted the temptation to get into tabloid sphere but not left any corners exposed.
Let's hope for the scenario 1 in the end to unfold!
Let's hope for the scenario 1 in the end to unfold!
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