Elon Musk accused of becoming far-right by MSNBC columnist. (Photo by Britta Pedersen-Pool/Getty Images)
Yet another MSNBC column smeared Tesla CEO and potential Twitter owner Elon Musk. This time, columnist Zeeshan Aleem accused the world’s richest man of becoming far-right and even being a fan of the "hard core authoritarian" right.
According to Aleem’s reasoning, Musk is a fan of authoritarianism because he voted for a Republican recently and has expressed interest in possibly voting for Governor Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., for president in 2024.
"While the world’s richest man has claimed to have centrist inclinations and has held political views that are all over the map, he appears to be drifting toward hard-right Trumpian territory," Aleem warned.
After all, Musk "revealed that he voted for a QAnon-affiliated Republican for a U.S. House seat in Texas," he wrote, describing Texas congressional candidate Mayra Flores,who just won a special election in the state. Aleem added that Musk was "leaning toward supporting Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for president in 2024."
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Republican congressional candidate Mayra Flores, who recently won a special election in Texas' 34th Congressional District. Flores becomes the first Mexican-born woman ever elected to Congress (Mayra Flores congressional campaign)
Aleem clarified that it’s worth knowing the politics behind the person who could potentially own Twitter soon. "If he does indeed take over it, and if he continues to identify increasingly with the right, his politics could shape the kind of culture and rules he tries to enact on the platform."
The author then explained Musk’s political evolution over the last couple of years.
"He’s called himself a ‘socialist’ while simultaneously seeming to decry the redistribution of wealth, and despite a history of hostility to labor unions. He’s also expressed ideas that align with a libertarian worldview," Aleem noted, adding, "He’s also advocated for centrism and supported the libertarianish universal basic income champion Andrew Yang in the Democratic presidential primary in 2019."
"But something seems to have changed. As Business Insider notes, Musk’s political donations have shifted to Republican candidates and causes in recent years. On Twitter in recent months, he has repeatedly disparaged Democrats and expressed a newfound fondness for the right as an alternative home," Aleem wrote, referencing Musk’s tweet about the Democratic Party being the party of "division and hate."
The columnist then mentioned how Musk had nothing nice to say about Democrats, "nor did he elaborate on how the increasingly white nationalist, militant and antidemocratic Republican Party served as a preferable alternative for someone looking for kindness in a party."
Elon Musk was linked to the far right in a Tuesday MSNBC column because he has contemplated voting for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for president. ((Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images))
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According to Aleem, Musk "seemed to pivot rather plainly to the Trump wing of the GOP. He said he had cast his first ballot for a Republican, but not the kind of conventional business-friendly moderate that an earlier version of Musk might have been most fond of."
The columnist smeared Flores as a "right-wing extremist congressional candidate … who declined to distance herself from Trump’s ‘big lie,’ called for people to buy ‘more guns’ three days after the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection and has promoted the authoritarian QAnon conspiracy theory that Trump is on a mission to reveal a secret cabal of pedophilic Democratic elites."
Aleem subsequently picked on Musk’s interest in DeSantis, which, he said, "suggests that he’s comfortable with the white nationalist, authoritarian wing of the GOP."
He concluded his piece, stating that "Whatever is inspiring him" to vote GOP, "it’s a pivot worth paying close attention to, given that he could be on the brink of holding a huge amount of control over our civil discourse."
In June, Elon Musk announced that he voted for a Republican for the first time. (Getty images | istock)