It is annoying and exhausting to think, talk, and write about Elon Musk all the time. But simply ignoring a man with such a powerful platform who is determined to further an anti-democratic cause will not work. So, I wrote about Musk’s politics and the threat to democracy. Again.

Musk’s actions are fully consistent with the worldview that dominates among far-right reactionary extremists. And yet, many observers seem reluctant to acknowledge that what is happening is exactly what it looks like.

So, what’s up with Elon Musk’s politics? There are more or less fruitful ways to tackle that question. It is not very useful to obsess over what Musk “really” believes, or react to every one of his trolling attempts by trying to disprove and debunk them.

We should instead engage the underlying political project. Musk is yet another example of how short the path from a certain kind of libertarianism to the far-right is, a reminder that this type of libertarianism is driven by a desire for freedom from regulation and criticism of any kind.

Musk believes that the world works best if people like him are in charge, get to do as they please, unhampered by regulations or demands for equality – because they are convinced that their personal interest is identical to the interest of humanity itself.

It’s an inherently anti-democratic worldview that tracks very well with the reactionary political project and the conservative promise: that the world works best if it’s run by wealthy white men – and thus should always be run by wealthy white men.

But what about the fact that Musk doesn’t subscribe to all the typical “conservative” policy positions and never described himself as a “conservative”? Well, he certainly subscribes to the only position that matters on the Right today: He is rabidly anti-“Left.”

It has become dogma on the Right to define Democrats, liberals, “the Left” as an illegitimate, “Un-American” threat – that all measures, regardless of how extreme, are justified in the defense of “real America” against the “woke” onslaught. That’s exactly where Musk is.

This doesn’t necessarily signal a fundamental change of his politics and worldview. It’s more plausible to think of his trajectory as an activation of reactionary sensibilities and an accelerating process of radicalization, but not aberration.

But that certainly doesn’t mean Musk was ever on board with the idea of leveling traditional hierarchies of wealth, race, or gender – clearly, he was not. As soon as his elite status as an obscenely wealthy white man was scrutinized, his fundamental politics was activated.

And now that inherently anti-democratic, anti-egalitarian worldview is animating the man in charge of the world’s most important political communications platform, a virtual public square functioning as an essential part of democratic culture.

Twitter established a conversation between people in position to shape the political and public imaginary – because they are journalists, or politicians, or public figures – with people who would otherwise never have access to those levels of influence.

Most importantly, Twitter has been instrumental in amplifying the voices, demands, and the critique of traditionally marginalized groups. That’s where it really demonstrated its democratizing potential.

Twitter has been crucial in this uphill struggle of traditionally marginalized groups finally making their demands heard, being able to extract a political cost for certain discriminatory speech and behavior: a tool for organizing, a platform, a global amplifier.  

Twitter has enabled people with absolutely no traditional access to power to speak to powerful elites directly, criticize them in the public square. How valuable this has been is evidenced by the fact that many of those elites are so consistently bemoaning “persecution.”