Muskisme: Een gids voor de verbijsterden

by Quinn Slobodian, Ben Tarnoff, Inge Pieters (Translator)

Who on earth is Elon Musk and what is he doing? Is he a hero, a villain, or does he swing constantly between those two poles? According to the constant media gush driven by his every act and pronouncement, Musk is best understood in personal terms. This book argues differently. Rather than seeing Musk as an individual, it sees him as an avatar of something called a playbook for our new postliberal age.

It’s not that Musk himself holds a coherent set of beliefs; you could say his life is one long improvisation. And he’s certainly never used the word Muskism – just as, a century ago, Henry Ford never used Fordism to define his own post-liberal modernity. In exploring the forces that have shaped Musk, from South Africa to Silicon Valley, Space X to DOGE, Quinn Slobodian and Ben Tarnoff outline the motifs and practices that have come to dominate our own crisis-ridden world.

Muskism, they show, speaks the language of crisis and emergency to invoke a less human where humans are purged from the productive process and, through social media and video games, merged with the machine. This is a worldview in which the technocrat is king; which piggybacks on the state to achieve supremacy; and in which only a select few deserve salvation. If you enter, this book warns you, you will grind and you will live in the shadow of one man – but the rewards could be priceless and the alternative might be extinction.

Genres: Nonfiction, Politics, Audiobook, History, Biography, Technology, Business

276 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 21, 2026

Reviews

[Manny]

[Original review, Mar 19 2026]

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.
_____________________
[Update, Jul 1 2026]

My review has now been up for over three months and has considerably more likes than any of the others. I would have expected it to be listed first, but it's languishing somewhere around the middle of page 2.

I have been using Goodreads since 2008 and have posted over 3000 reviews, and I can't remember this ever happening before.
_____________________
[Update, Jul 4 2026]

And now it's got a hundred likes, and is nearly at the end of the last page. Some of the reviews ranked ahead of it are a line long and have no likes at all.

Whatever is going on? Has anyone noticed similar behaviour elsewhere?

[Meike]

Lately, I've been feeling like anyone who can start internet explorer feels like they should write a scathing examination of how Silicon Valley will destroy us all, and I'm also quite sick of people who think that pointing to the existence of echo chambers is peak science, so I went into this with low expectations. But hell, Slobodian and Tarnoff have pulled off quite a feat here: Instead of stating the obvious and crying about ketamin Elon's fragile state of mind, they have developed a synthesis between technological, economical and political aspects to create a high-definition lense through which we can take a close look at the end boss of platform capitalism and the way he has changed the global landscape.

Much like Fordism, Muskism is a system of production that changes capitalism as a whole. Musk exploits the state for subsidies, promising jobs and innovation, then cooperates with right-wing powers to undermine democratic structures to be able to further his goals without state intervention. His technological optimization and production systems aim to eliminate the human factor, to streamline the masses in favor of a few techno capitalists: He knows that if he globally targets human minds via his products and platforms, nation states will struggle to maintain power. Markets shall be privatized, Neuralink turns us into cyborgs, welcome to The Matrix.

This book is a very prescient analysis of platform capitalism, which becomes especially clear in case you read the prophet of MAGA-politcians, Nick Land, who advocates for the end of democracy and the rise of transhumanism. Yes: People like J.D. Vance subscribe to these plans, merging their power with basically unrestricted wealth.

This is great, enlightening non-fiction.

[Trevor]

People have been asking me how I can bring myself to read so many books on these crazy people like Altman and Musk, and it is not an easy question to answer. Their disciples probably assume that I’m envious. This is one of my favourite things – the way people can’t tell the difference between envy and disgust. Anyway, if you want another reason to be disgusted by Musk, this is as good a place to start as any – not least since it is quite short.

The authors say that in some ways Muskism is the Fordism of the 21st Century. I think I would have referred back to Bauman here and said that the differences between Musk and Ford are also instructive. Bauman says that Ford was a man of solid modernity. He had his factories and these were very much solid things. For Musk, his wealth is based on much more intangible things – Bauman’s liquid modernity. He is a creation of liquid assets and of, as the authors say a couple of times throughout, memes. This is more than just him spinning stories and believing his own bullshit – but more that his success is as much due to being able to convince people of his vision of the future and to back that vision with their capital. He has repeatedly come very close to seeing his house of cards come crashing down around him. He would probably see the fact that he has succeeded against the odds as proof of his superior will and foresight. There may even be something to this – although, he has been lucky along the way too.

The end of the book where the authors talk about him buying Twitter and his various exercises in building a right-wing information landscape is worth the price of the book and definitely worth reading. He is trying to overcome the ‘woke mind virus’, and if sometimes that goes too far, and becomes indistinguishable from fascism, then that is the price to pay. This is the second time recently I’ve read the quote from him that if we don’t overcome wokeism we will never become an interplanetary species. It seems like such a stupid thing to say. Not least since so much of what he is doing is likely to make us an extinct world species. But also because, of all the things I feel we should be striving to achieve, living on Mars literally doesn’t appear on my list.

Like I said, this is a quick read and is terrifying because it brings so much of what Musk has done and said together in one place. How in the world we allow such a man to have so much wealth and so much power is quite frightening. The concluding chapter of this – where the authors speculate about what a woman of the future thinks in a world where Musk has achieved his dreams for us should be made compulsory reading. God help us if that becomes our collective future. His racism, his lack of empathy, his viewing people as expendable scaffolds towards a world populated by cyborgs is as terrifying as it is repulsive. Well worth the read.

[Nathan Shuherk]

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.

[Ben Ingraham]

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!!

[Differengenera]

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

[Bücherangelegenheiten]

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.

[Ali]

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.

[Mike Hartnett]

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.

[Florin]

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).

[Josh Fisher]

While 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.

[Travis]

This was not a good book. I appreciate the idea to take apart Musk as an emblem of 21st-century capitalism but this could have really benefited from having another six or so months of further development.

It combines the worst of pure narrative journalism and academic theorizing. There will be three pages giving you a history of something Elon Musk did or what his company did and then two pages of abstract theorizing with only the most tenuous of links between the two.

It also takes at face value everything Elon Musk says as accurate and true and does not really grapple with the fact he's not a reliable narrator.

I want to agree with what they are trying to argue but at the end it is not even clear what Muskism is. They go back and forth in the definition of it and do not have a clear idea of what they are actually arguing. Again I think there is a good gem of an idea in the book but six more months would have made it much stronger.

[Dinah]

3.5

[Molly Brinker]

there was not a single new idea or opinion presented in this book

[Socraticgadfly]

I was going to give this a gentleman's two stars, but call it 1.5 rounded down.

First, I don't know if, per another one-star reviewer, the whole book was written with ChatGPT. I do know the writing quality is not great.

I know even more, per another one-star reviewer, that the writing content does not rise much above Wikipedia. It's also kind of laughable to have just 170 pages of body copy but 70-plus pages of end notes, with the end notes in the same font and font size as body copy. It's like the authors anticipated both AI and general thinness concerns and critiques and decided to pad the book.

Two main problems.

One is the alleged "heel turn" of Musk to the right. The authors only thinly look at his grandfather Haldeman (nice Teutonic name) and the race issues part of his Technology party/movement in Canada. (Haldeman's Wiki page specifically note it espoused racism.) That said, can't totally blame Canaduh or South Africa. Joshua Haldeman's dad moved to Canada from Merikkka. Plus ça change? Of side note? Musk's dad Errol and his dad were English South African, not Boers. To fully invest in apartheid as English was a serious deal. That said, per Errol's Wiki page, there also appears to have been grifting in his background, and fudging on this issue of "owning" emerald mines.

Two is presenting this dichotomy between Musk wanting to sponge off the government vs the likes of Peter Thiel wanting to replace it. Last I checked, Palantir was making plenty of money off the gummint.

Not discussed in this book are other things like Elmo's ADD/ADHD, his use of ketamine and more. That's how weak it is.

BS/pablum is the only tag it gets, along with a new one: Again, I'm not saying this IS AI, but, I'm adding the bookshelf of "AI possible."

[Dorota]

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.

[Aljoša Harlamov]

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.

[Kas Nagelhout]

Musk komt aardig dichtbij een ‘evil genius’. En best actueel, nu hij - en andere AI-bazen - waarschuwen voor de vernietigende kracht van AI. Het boek beschrijft dat Musk daarmee niet zozeer daarmee meer afstand wil houden van machines, maar er juist naar streeft een cyborg-achtig brein te maken; een soort transhumanistisch verbond met AI. Met als redenering: if you can’t beat them, join them - beter dat we samensmelten met kunstmatige intelligentie en langzaam cyborgs worden dan dat ze ons overheersen. En dan nog zijn ronduit racistische en megalomane toekomstvisies. Het is allemaal doodeng.

[Adam Kalivoda]

Not that deep, especially for someone who is terminally online, but if you are not, certainly deserves a read - at times I was reminded of all the great scares I see on the internet so assured to elicit at least some emotion.

Like this ‘biography’? Or contemporary history idk

Anyway:

Ja milujem Slobodiana, to tam musite povedat

[Malaika Platypus]

Read for class

[Gabriel Nicholas]

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.

[Graeme Williams]

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.

[Matt Steinberg]

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!

[Sonia Nagra]

3.75

[Zach Person]

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.

[Greg Fournier]

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.

[Doug]

Musk is a freak, water is wet, etc.

[Hayden Gilbert]

3.5 rounded up

I lack retention, so all these really important facts are just floating in the ether and will remain unused in heated arguments with my brother lol

This book is undeniably capital-“I”-Important, but didn’t sing in the way The Nerd Reich did for me. Maybe it’s the authorial voice, or that I just don’t find Elon Musk to be as interesting as Peter Thiel.

This statement will please no one, but, while I concede Musk has gotta be smart on some level, (the guy can probably whip up an excel spreadsheet like nobody’s business), he’s so obviously just a dumb guy. It’s like he’s on the floor playing with memes while Thiel is sitting at the table saying “yeah yeah that’s cute” and writing some new satanic bible. It’s still terrifying for him to have any semblance of power, but there’s so little to him as a person or figure. He’s a a thoroughly unserious person, and totally uninteresting as a subject.

[Ryo]

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。

[Bart Derksen]

Dit boekje laat goed zien waar Musk zijn ideeën vandaan haalt en hoe die zich hebben ontwikkeld. Vooral zijn jeugd als nerdige jongen in apartheid-Zuid-Afrika is verhelderend. Musk verliet Zuid-Afrika mede om de dienstplicht te ontlopen (“spending two years suppressing Black people didn’t seem to be a great use of time”), maar bij hem lijkt dat niet voort te komen uit medelijden met de zwarte bevolking.
Ook Musks inspiratie uit sciencefictionfilms en futuristische fantasieën wordt duidelijk.

Sterk aan het boek is dat Musks obsessies met kolonisatie, bevolkingsgroei, technologie, beschaving en persoonlijke vrijheid als één samenhangend wereldbeeld worden gelezen. Zijn voorliefde voor een witte wereldbevolking, het liefst met zijn waarden en zelfs zijn DNA, komt regelmatig naar boven drijven. Dat maakt Muskisme erg ongemakkelijk.

Het laatste deel laat vooral zien hoe Musk past binnen een bredere cultuur van techbro’s die technologie zien als oplossing voor alles, van overheidsbeleid tot de toekomst van de mensheid. DOGE, de verheerlijking van efficiëntie, de droom van Marsreizen en het idee dat een kleine groep visionaire mannen bovenop de technologische ontwikkeling moet zitten, komen samen in één wereldbeeld. De toekomst wordt bij hem iets wat niet democratisch besproken hoeft te worden, maar gebouwd moet worden door mensen zoals hij; "Techno koning van Tesla" met meer macht dan verschillende landen.