Seth Abramson on Elon Musk's megalomania

[misanthrope]

Abramson posted a shudder--inducing thread at Bluesky today discussing Musk's personality and aims. At one point, the phrase "the most dangerous man in history" is used.

Over 2+ years of working on a biography of Elon Musk, I've learned that his ambitions are significantly grander than anyone realizes. He wants to be the first trillionaire ever. He wants to be the most famous human who ever lived. He wants to rule the world. He wants to live forever.

All literally.

He's positioned himself atop or near the top of the industries required to control geopolitics—robotics, AI, bioengineering, satallite communications, mass transport, international diplomacy, green energy—lacking only networked markets, which he seeks to enter with X as a so-called "everything app."

I see no coherent argument for him being anything but the most dangerous man in history. He's on drugs, doesn't experience empathy, and is a white supremacist, the richest man on Earth, media illiterate, a pathological liar, unscrupulous, a fraudster, and candidly (sans one subject) barely educated.

But none of that is what really makes him scary.

His sociopathy is at a different scale than we have ever seen before because he simply doesn't see himself as responsible to humankind as it exists today.

He is the most dangerous combination of two ideologies imaginable: a narcissist transhumanist.

There is far more here:
https://bsky.app/profile/sethabramson.bsky.social/post/3lcwm2t4atc24

[Ocelot II]

1. Luigi Mangione might have picked the wrong target.

If anyone thinks murdering people in cold blood is OK (and I don't), maybe they should at least consider which murders would be most beneficial to society.

[Johnny2X2X]

2. I've never seen a public figure

I've never seen a public figure who so obviously revels in human suffering as Musk does. Nothing gives him greater joy than to see others in pain. Nothing gets him more excited than to be directly responsible for hurting people.

And it's only going to get worse from here as he is given the power of the Federal Government to inflict pain and suffering.

He considers himself a god and all of humanity as his play things to suffer for his joy.

[AZSkiffyGeek]

3. Not even Trump?

But overall I agree with what you are saying.

[Johnny2X2X]

4. Not even Trump

Trump is more on the malignant narcissist scale, where everything is about him and he's indifferent to suffering as long as he's been adored. Where Musk is a pure sociopath and sadist who can't enjoy himself unless he knows someone is being hurt.

[Redleg]

5. He's not bullet-proof either.

There may be some nutter out there that sees Musk as the pinnacle of the system that crushes people and they believe they will receive great fame (or infamy) for offing the bastard.

I am not advocating such action but can see where an unstable person might think this way.

[Johnny2X2X]

6. He has an army of security

He’s been paranoid for years about getting shot because he’s harmed so many people.