Reflections on Independence
And the absence of independent thought
If you are fortunate, perhaps you had the luxury of spending your Independence Day weekend with friends, family, and loved ones. Perhaps, like so many others in these United States, you found yourself in conversation that found its inevitable way to politics. Perhaps you found comfort in the like-mindedness of your loved ones. Perhaps you found that your loved ones demonstrated a certain close-mindedness that keeps them from having much hope of meeting you in the middle on certain subjects. Today, we would like to explore one such conversation with one such family member who demonstrated their freedom of speech in an apparent absence of independent thought.
In the context of a broader discussion on the future of NASA and how that is in conflict with the future of commercial space travel, they declared that “Elon Musk is obviously a fascist.” Hearing this, our Dictionarial Disintegration article immediately came to mind. It has long been clear that Democrats and their compliant arm of the news media do not bother with understanding words and meaning, so we thought we would summarize what a “fascist” is and explore some understanding of how Musk fits that label.
What is a Fascist?
Here is a summary of key characteristics of a fascist, which is someone who supports or promotes the “far-right” and authoritarian ideology of fascism. A fascist favors centralized control under a strong leader and often embraces a rejection of democratic processes. A fascist exhibits intense loyalty to the nation, which might be characterized by xenophobia or racism. A fascist is willing to use force, censorship, and propaganda to silence dissent and suppress opposition. A fascist reveres the military, often demonstrated by a desire for expansion or war. A fascists supports state controls over the economy, often favoring large businesses while suppressing workers' rights. Fascist leaders are often portrayed as infallible.
What is “Far-Right”?
Far-right refers to the extreme end of the right-wing of the political spectrum. "Right-wing" generally indicates support for individualism, free markets, national sovereignty, and traditional values, but the far-right carries these ideas to more radical extremes. Far-right ideology has a strong focus on national identity and support for strong, centralized power that rejects political and cultural pluralism. Far-right ideology tends to reject principles of equal rights and civil liberties for all people. The far-right tends to resist global cooperation, instead preferring a focus on national self-interest. The far-right often prefers a more traditional social order and works in opposition to social progressivism.
Labeling Musk a Fascist
There are several glaring examples of Musk’s public behavior that are in conflict with the claim that he is a fascist. Let’s start with his free speech advocacy. Musk spent $44 billion to purchase Twitter, a social media platform that had become an a tool of authoritarian “Far-Left” ideologues who would trample the free speech rights of anyone who dared counter the Leftist narrative of the day. He literally liberated this social media platform from Leftist authoritarians. His stated goal with the Twitter purchase was to protect open discourse and end censorship. While the focus of those concerns centered around incendiary topics like COVID-19, gender identity, and speech related to all aspects of cultural and political debate, it is has carried on to all political and cultural issues across the spectrum. He reinstated banned accounts, including those that were not in alignment with his own. He opened the archives of internal communication to reporters who published “The Twitter Files,” a series of exposés that revealed the extremes to which Twitter executives and their algorithms would go to squash truth that would harm Democrats and their mission to defeat Donald Trump (that sounds very partisan, but it Twitter Files lay out that story very clearly and irrefutably). Musk’s anti-censorship ideals align far more with libertarianism and not at all with fascism. However, lest we forget, he was also discussed in our very first article — he petulantly banned (albeit temporarily) a Twitter Files journalist for his association with Substack, which had at the time recently launched a social platform that Musk saw as a risk to his recent massive investment in Twitter.
Despite his recent foray into politics with the Trump administration, Musk has no party affiliation. He has acknowledged that only in recent years did he vote for a Republican for the very first time. Prior to that, he was a staunch supporter of Democrats — having donated large sums to the party and their candidates for years. A self-described “moderate independent,” his political support shows no evidence of supporting far-right ideals, much less fascist ones.
A fascist is supposed to revere the military, often in support of expansion or war. Let’s consider his record with the controversial war in Ukraine. He directly supported Ukraine’s defense against Russian attacks with his company’s Starlink satellite communications. However, he restricted their use for offensive measures. Does that sound like a reverence for the military in support of war? In fact, he acknowledges that the Ukraine-Russia war has reached a stalemate and has advocated strongly for peace.
Like every other human on Earth, Musk is not perfect. But to call the man fascist is just irresponsible.
Bringing It On Home - Being Provocative
Why do Musk’s critics call him a fascist when he clearly is not? Part of it is that they are using the word provocatively to suggest that he exhibits support for fascist ideals. The claim that he platforms or amplifies authoritarian voices is framed by his critics as fascist rather than being more intellectually honest about how any alternative to platforming those voices would be censorship, which is authoritarian. He is criticized for promoting fear-based narratives by the same critics who promote fear-based rhetoric at far more alarming rate. Ironically, calling Musk a fascist is itself fear-based rhetoric.
When you call someone racist when they are not a racist, you abuse the power of the word. When you call everyone you don’t like racist, you remove the power of the word. Now, when someone uses the term racism, you immediately lose credibility and much of the population immediately tunes out. The Left has watered down a very important word that needs to have power for the sake of battling actual racism. And now they have done it with the term fascism. Even if you are a beloved and respected family member, you simply lose credibility by calling someone like Elon Musk a fascist. Seems counterproductive to your goals, no?
Sure, Musk might demonstrate authoritarian tendencies in how he runs his businesses — coincidentally, the family member who prompted this article marveled at how great the culture at SpaceX is despite Musk’s fascism. And sure, Musk might engage in anti-establishment rhetoric (formerly a hallmark of liberalism). And sure, there is conflict to be found in his pro-free speech stance and his moderation of critics. But Musk is a man of complexity and nuance who is more difficult than most to label. Like many of us, he is evolving and responding to the political and cultural environment — and if we are giving him the benefit of the doubt, he is doing it in a pretty transparent and intellectually honest way.
This family member who called Musk a fascist is, sadly, an example of the multitude of people who adopt the narrative without giving it due examination. This discussion on our Independence Day weekend was a reminder to push back on oversimplified or partisan takes. In a way, they exercise their own independence by buying into the oversimplified narrative. We would like to advocate for an alternative: independent thought! Please, armor yourself against those who have not yet achieved independent thought on their own. Reject name calling. Reject the watering-down of the English language. Strive to demonstrate integrity and demand it of those upon whom you rely for news and other critical information. In short…
BE independent!