Despite becoming popular with the conservative right in recent years, in the past Musk was seen as a symbol of progressive causes like the clean energy move. What happened?

The meeting between American billionaire Elon Musk and President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) at an event in Brazil this Friday (20/05) has excited supporters of the Brazilian leader, who took to social media to celebrate the meeting and praise the performance of both.

Organized by Communications Minister Fábio Faria, the meeting took place in the interior of Sao Paulo during the launch event of a project involving the satellite network of the billionaire aerospace technology company SpaceX.

Musk said the project will bring high-speed internet and connect schools in rural areas, as well as “follow Amazon.”

Not just in Brazil, right-wing activists also celebrated when Musk announced his intention to buy Twitter for US$44 billion (R$225 billion); This deal has not yet materialised.

In addition to Bolsonaro, the billionaire’s course of action has delighted other right-wing politicians. He has already been praised by former US President Donald Trump and met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan last year.

How did the billionaire, now considered the world’s richest man, transform from someone who describes himself as “socially progressive” to someone admired by conservatives and right-wing activists?

About

The Tesla entrepreneur and founder of SpaceX has declared himself “moderate” and “socially progressive and conservative in tax policy” while donating to the campaigns of both Democratic and Republican politicians in the US over the years.

Musk has donated a total of $1.2 million to politicians and parties since 2002, according to data compiled by Open Secrets, an organization that monitors lobbying activities in the United States.

The money was split almost evenly between Democratic and Republican politicians, but about $85,000 went to two local left-wing lawsuits in the state of California, where he lived at the time.

Their companies also invested substantial money in lobbying (which is legal and regulated in the US): Tesla spent $5.5 million and SpaceX $9.7 million.

Meanwhile, Musk has publicly championed causes linked to the progressive space, particularly on Twitter, a network he frequently uses.

One of these is the fight against climate change and advocating efforts to reduce fossil fuel consumption and develop clean energy. The reason is in line with Tesla’s actions, which see electric cars as more sustainable than conventional cars powered by petrol or diesel.

The businessman also advocated the decriminalization of marijuana and the release of people imprisoned by the war on drugs, which are often left-wing agendas in both the US and the rest of the world.

In 2018, Musk even declared himself a “socialist.” He joked about socialism on Twitter, later saying, “I’m actually a socialist, by the way. But it’s not the kind that reallocates resources (…) pretending to do good and actually causing evil. True socialism seeks the common good.”

However, in recent years the billionaire has given more and more signs that his political leanings are moving to the right, and he is more and more praised and seen as an ally by people in this political space.

In April this year, Musk said he plans to vote for Republican candidates in the 2022 midterm elections, although he has voted for Democratic politicians in the past.

“I voted Democrats in the past,” he said, “because they were (generally) a party of kindness. But they’ve become a party of discord and hate, so I can no longer support them and I will vote Republican.” In another post, he also stated that he “strongly supports Obama for president.”

In 2020, Musk told his followers to “take the red pill,” a phrase commonly used by groups associated with the American right and spreading conspiracy theories.

The speech is a reference to a scene from the movie. Matrix (1999) is that the protagonist must choose between the blue capsule to live trapped in a world of illusion or the red capsule to receive the revelation of the truth behind everyday reality.

While the film’s creators, sisters Lilly and Lana Wachowski, are clearly left-wing, “taking the red pill” in the current American political context has become a metaphor used by radical right-wing groups.

In Brazil, it is common for right-wingers to use the adjective: redpiladoEnglishization of English red pill (red pill) to describe themselves as the only ones who truly know “the truth behind the scenes.”

right ally

The billionaire’s displacement across the political spectrum has been particularly evident in two cases in recent years: the unfinished acquisition of Twitter and his stance on the pandemic.

The negotiation over the Twitter acquisition sparked controversy as Musk strongly criticized the company’s moderation policy and said changes would be made after the acquisition.

While the right, who found the change beneficial for “free speech”, welcomes a possible reduction in content moderation, one of the backgrounds is the restriction on posting some content that is labeled as fake news. ban. Profile of former US President Donald Trump. Right-wing militant groups believe there is content persecution with a conservative bias.

After Musk announced a deal to buy Twitter in April of this year, right-wing and radical-right influencers suddenly gained thousands of followers, showing that there was an influx of users from this political space to the platform.

At the same time, there was a wave of leftist users who announced that they would leave the social network with more leftist personalities who lost thousands of users.

But Musk has already been receiving praise from the right since the start of the pandemic, joining voices criticizing the measures taken to stop the spread of the coronavirus.

He wrote on March 6, 2020 that “the coronavirus panic is stupid” and weeks later that “fear will cause more casualties than the virus itself” – by then there were already thousands of deadly covid victims in the US.

He has also campaigned against quarantine and stated that children are “essentially immune” to covid-19, both false claims and false claims, as research and experience throughout the pandemic have shown, and that using chloroquine is “better than nothing” in treating the disease. .

Unpredictable and alarming

For Professor Michael Cornfield, director of research at the George Washington University Center for Political Management in the United States, Musk’s political orientation is “both ideologically simplistic and disturbingly unpredictable.”

“A tech libertarian who wants as few government restrictions as possible,” Cornfield says in an interview with BBC News Brazil: “No regulation, no taxes, no public-private partnerships.”

At the same time, says Cornfield, the billionaire has no problem accepting subsidies, tax breaks, and using publicly funded research.

“And Musk takes malicious pleasure trawl (play a joke) on opponents and officials. Therefore, what he says or publishes can be inconsistent and immature as long as it gets attention,” says the researcher.

American political analyst Ross Douthat writes in a published article that Musk’s classification of terms like “conservative” or “libertarian” is incorrect and “associates Musk with a range of ideas he doesn’t care about.” The New York Times newspaper.

For him, Musk is what could be termed a “dynamist”. “Someone whose main commitments are exploration and discovery,” writes Douthat, argues that at its most extreme, this orientation may lead him to favor authoritarian government over democratic government that does not prioritize innovation.

Cornfield argues that Musk’s unpredictability could make him an unreliable political ally, even for the right. So, even if Musk aligns politically with people he can draw from, “he will not make more lasting commitments to any politician, party or country.”

“In short, he’s going to use Bolsonaro to get everything he can,” comments Cornfield of the billionaire’s meeting with the Brazilian president.

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