The Real Reason Musk Is Mad at Us
The anatomy of a conspiracy theory
ELON MUSK, OUR NEW UNELECTED OVERLORD, is mad at Bill Kristol. Very, very mad. And because this is the world we live in now, his hordes of online minions are mad, too.
Let me explain. This week, Elon has been amplifying several tweets alleging (falsely) that the Defending Democracy Together Institute, a group Bill and I run, received funding from USAID. The real story is this:
USAID—the development agency that Elon is shuttering—gives grants as part of its regular operations. In the past, it gave money to a philanthropic foundation. That foundation has at some point in its history given funds to a donor-advised fund. And that fund has, at some point in its history, supported DDTI.
Got that?
Now here’s Elon’s version: The government is funding Bill Kristol!
That’s not how this works. That’s not how any of this works.
WHAT’S REALLY HAPPENING is much more straightforward: A donor-advised fund granted money to DDTI for the express purpose of supporting center-right, pro-democracy organizations. Bill is on the board of DDTI.
It’s all pretty routine, unless you’re a ketamine-addled, terminally online, X-brained wackjob with a tenuous grasp on how the government you now run actually functions.
What’s really going on here is Elon thinks that by siccing an online mob on Bill, he can intimidate him—and all of us—into silence. Into just going away.
But it doesn’t just stop with online harassment. Implicit in all of this is the threat of real-world violence, which hangs over anyone on whom these goons decide to turn their ire. Today it’s Bill; tomorrow it’ll be somebody else. Here’s just some of the craziest stuff Bill has gotten thrown at him so far:
Bill isn’t alone in receiving these weird smears and creepy attacks. The New York Times, Politico, the BBC, the Associated Press, Ben Stiller, Orlando Bloom, Jean-Claude Van Damme—all have also been accused of receiving USAID money for various normal things they did that Elon and/or his online fanboys do not like.
I can’t possibly say this in simpler terms: They’re just making it all up.
I’D LIKE TO POINT OUT that this is a first for us as Americans. Never before has a presidential administration so openly wielded the power of the federal government as a blunt-force instrument to be used against fellow Americans, journalism outlets, and, yes, its political rivals. We’re in a new place now.
Their working theory seems to be that maybe they can cow their critics and the media itself into submission. Maybe they can more easily turn the government into a plaything for their own personal enrichment.
It isn’t the craziest theory. Just look at how some other esteemed institutions have responded to real and perceived threats and harassment from Trump, Elon, and their allies in recent months:
Mark Zuckerberg and several other tech oligarchs bent the knee, lining up like ducklings at Trump’s inauguration, contributing to his transition slush fund, and generally sucking up to him.
Jeff Bezos prohibited the Washington Post from issuing an endorsement against Trump, while the Los Angeles Times owner has pretty much gone full red-pill.
ABC News opted to pay off Trump over a lawsuit against George Stephanopoulos.
CBS News appears to be considering doing the same thing over Trump’s lawsuit against 60 Minutes for allegedly deceptively editing its Kamala Harris interview.
You see the playbook, yes? First they threaten you. Then they create conspiracy theories about you. Then they hound you with an online mob to make sure you fall in line.
That’s gonna be a no from me, dawg.
This is the authoritarian playbook. If nothing else, Elon and his friends get points for being brazen. Because he isn’t hiding what he’s trying to do here. He’s doing it right out in the open.
But here’s the thing: The authoritarians only win if you let them.
So unlike the Big Tech lickspittles, we’re going to keep doing our thing and calling out Trump’s and Elon’s BS. And we’ll keep raking in those sweet, sweet imaginary USAID funds in the meantime.