Anand Giridharadas @ The.Ink (@AnandWrites): What Elon Musk is doing is what plutocrats have been doing: using money to buy power and power to protect their money, taking control of media to rig the discourse and hedge against resentment, and branding themselves the solution to the very problem they are.
Anand Giridharadas @ The.Ink (@AnandWrites): I tried to explain the moves here. This is my free speech, Elon.
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/539747/winners-take-all-by-anand-giridharadas/
Anand Giridharadas @ The.Ink (@AnandWrites): This isn't just some corporate takeover.
This is about a set of very specific moves that our oligarchs have been taking that have gradually concentrated economic, political, and discursive power in fewer and fewer hands.
The moves work in concert slowly, until a day like today.
Anand Giridharadas @ The.Ink (@AnandWrites): If he just did his regular businesses, it wouldn't work after a while. The resentment exposure would be too high. So at some point, you need an organ to help recast yourself and your fellow plutes in the public eye. You need a way of potentially punishing those who question you.
Anand Giridharadas @ The.Ink (@AnandWrites): Elon does all the moves. Reputation laundering. Win-win-ism. Prediction as advocacy. Astroturfing. Thought-leadering. Recasting interests as ideals.