Note: In this letter, whenever I write „you“ I mean Elon Musk.
Dear Elon Musk,
you don’t know me and I don’t actually expect that you’ll bother reading this.
Nevertheless, I shall proceed with this letter to let everyone else, who happens to come across this, know what I think about you and why I despise you.
Before you decided to actively involve yourself in American – and now German – politics by joining sides with right-wing extremists and other reactionaries, I didn’t like you either.
The way you treat your workers in the Tesla factory was barely any better than how Jeff Bezos treats his warehouse workers in Amazon, but that is a very low bar to begin with.
How about your ruse that cost Californians a high-speed rail line from Los Angeles to San Franciso, because you insisted that a Hyperloop was better and falsely claimed it was less expensive? You sure did a good service to the automobile indus-, oh yeah, Tesla right?
Considering how you acted during the Covid-19 pandemic, your views on the worker as an individual human who actually has rights and dignity doesn’t have shifted a bit. If anything, it has gotten worse by that point.
Out of every 1,000,000 patients that received the second shot of the Covid-19 vaccine, only 4.5 reported anaphylaxis (a severe reaction to it) at the time. It seems poor judgement is a trait of yours, may God have mercy upon the Americans now that you are in an even more powerful position. But this world is very likely god-forsaken.
Then you decided to buy Twitter for whatever reasons in late-2022, it was a toxic place before and the moderation already left much to be desired. You, however, managed to make it an even worse place after your acquisition, yapping about „freedom of speech“ – antisemitism, for instance, has been on heigthened levels ever since your purchase completed. Surely, you must be aware of it but decided to ignore the problem.
It’s a good thing I left that hellscape of a platform in December of 2022.
Around the same time in September, you also decided to not allow Ukrainians to attack Russian naval vessels in Crimea. Despite Russia’s genocidal war against Ukraine where civil infrastructure – from residential houses and schools to energy infrastructure – is being targeted, and at a time Ukraine would have every right to attack military structures of Russia outside and within Russia according to International Law, you showed how chicken-hearted you are. Do you really think China would be fine with a trigger-happy Russia?
Russia depends on China, and since Putin started this criminal imperial war the reliance has only grown ever since. Threatening with nuclear weapons is psychological warfare, and Vladimir Putin counts on weaklings like you, unfortunately he has been quite successful.
Let’s move on to your involvement in US politics, shall we?
You made the decision to support the convicted felon Donald J. Trump and turned Twitter, which you renamed into „X“, into a propaganda platform. Paving the way for Project 2025 and not shying away from buying votes by running a lottery of sorts.
You claim Americans would have to undergo hardship by crashing the economy, that being everyone but the wealthiest Americans – you, Trump, the GOPs wealthy donors, Jeff Bezos and others. Let’s see, you claimed $2 trillion should be cut from the federal budget, currently the discretionary funding is $1.7 trillion which includes transportation, housing and environmental programs. However, instead of tackling tax evasion through which the superrich hoard nearly $2 trillion in offshore tax havens and which practices in 2021 alone cost the US $688 billion according to the IRS, you and your buddy Vivek Ramaswamy seek to cut the funding for food stamps entirely (75% of the recipients are in poverty) as well as federal cuts to the federal healthcare program for lower-income children and Americans.
Moreover, recently you made disgusting comments about homeless people and spread conspiracy theories. Americans struggle with affording basic needs like food and rent:
„A full-time worker earning minimum wage cannot afford to rent a two-bedroom home at market rate anywhere in the country. An hourly wage worker would need to make at least $15 an hour working for 104 hours a week to afford an average one-bedroom home at fair market rent.“ (Independent)
The policies that would actually help the homeless and low-income are policies that would make you and your billionaire friends pay, and any kind of responsibility to the workers and your own country – with its infrastructure, institutions and constitutional state – leads to an allergic reaction. It was never about long-term economic growth that benefits everyone, all you care about is preserving your status, wealth and power – you are not any better than the typical GOP politician.
Let’s move on to Germany, my country, now that I reminded everyone about your awful track record. Apparently, you are a big fan of far-right political parties. In Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia and Saxony, the local branches of the AfD are already confirmed right-wing extremist (and thus anti-constitutional) movements and in Brandenburg, Lower Saxony, Bremen, Hessen, Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria they are a right-wing extremist suspected case. In Germany we’ve got something called a Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, you know, as a lesson from the early 20th century when a far-right antisemitic party exploited the young Weimar democracy in times of crisis to destroy the democratic system from within and later on started the Second World War in Europe.
Furthermore, our constitution allows for anti-democratic parties that actively seek to abolish our democratic system to be banned. And a ban of the AfD has already been proposed in our federal parliament with over 100 signatures – one can only hope it succeeds, so our constitutional court can finally do its work. Recent developments strengthened this very institution of our modern democracy, agreed upon by the democratic parties (CDU/CSU, FDP, die Linke, SPD and die Grünen – 600 votes in favour).
Anyway, you do realize that the AfD seeks to deport millions of Germans with immigration background? You know, an issue you’ve got in a heated discourse with Trump’s MAGA base?
This mass deportation plan discussed at a conference in Potsdam, which would violate our constitution, was already adopted as a policy by the Bavarian AfD in 2024.
What have we learnt from this meeting?
That there is a retired dentist who has a conspiratorial network of fellow far-right extremists. That representatives of the AfD were willing to meet with radical right-wing activists and neo-Nazis. That they have a ‘masterplan’ to deport German citizens because of their ‘ethnicity’ – a plan which would undermine Articles 3, 6 and 21 of the German constitution. And that there are a number of wealthy potential donors for this project. We’ve learnt that there is an expert in German constitutional law who has sketched out legal methods to systematically cast doubt on democratic elections. That there’s an AfD politician who wants to organise election donations that would bypass the party. And that there is a hotel owner in Potsdam who earned some money to cover his costs.
I recommend reading the translated article of the research done by Correctiv:
https://correctiv.org/en/latest-stories/2024/01/15/secret-plan-against-germany/
I doubt you’d actually care about that, since the AfD is an extremely neoliberal party too that seeks to slash funding for the welfare state and is just as prone to nepotism as Trump himself. You do realize that the AfD seeks closer cooperation with Russia and China, moving away from the US? And they hate electric cars, your giga factory in Brandenburg wouldn’t exist if they had been in charge. Not to mention another main goal of the AfD: leaving the EU which would cost Germany €690 billion ($711.63 billion) within five years, decrease the GDP by 5.6% and lead to the job loss of 2.5 million people. On the other hand, it probably won’t bother you as you plan to crash the US economy too.
Fortunately for you, the Axel Springer publishing company is trash and they allowed the richest individual in the world with an already large platform to speak on another podium. Now producing cheap excuses why they let you write an article in the first place in the most pathetic manner.
You, Mr. Musk, are nothing but an enemy of the people and an enemy of democracy.
As such you should be treated everywhere. But I know what you secretly desire is a society like in Cyperpunk 2077, warnings about corporate dominance and a hopeless reality for most people in said world would be a dream-come-true for you. And that’s what you had in mind while designing the failure of a car that is the Cybertruck. After all, who needs bullet-proof glass if the goal was to finally let everyone benefit from economic prosperity?
The truth is, the luxury you and your friends enjoy is only made possible by existing supply lines, institutions and the working masses. Once they breakdown, it is over.
Here I’ll also remind everyone that Musk plans to interview Alice Weidel (AfD) on X.
All democratic politicians and German media should leave the platform formerly known as Twitter, it’d be foolish to think that Musk acts impartial all of a sudden. His agenda is clear and it is harmful and dangerous to Germany as whole: her democratic institutions, future prospects and civil society. X will only remain relevant as long as influential people, news agencies, governmental institutions and companies keep using it. There is leverage.
Let’s treat Musk as the threat he is. Period.
Last but not least: I personally believe that billionaires shouldn’t exist at all, they are a burden to society and extremely harmful to democracies. Consequently, I disapprove of any billionaire who gets involved in politics. Another reason being that you cannot become a billionaire ethically, exploitation is necessary for this group to exist – in their own country and globally. It will be an uphill battle to defeat them, but our future is at stake.
If you, Elon Musk, still decided to read this and got until this point: congrats, I guess.
You seem very desperate for the approval of others. Your carefully designed image crumbling away as I write this blog entry brings me at least a little joy.
You should have stayed with SpaceX and Tesla, would have saved everyone the trouble.
Alas, poor humanity! May your reign be short and your fall deep.
Kind regards,
Thomas Baroque
Baroque 