Elon Musk has recently advocated for positions that tilt heavily towards Russia and China. He's suggested a "peace plan" for Ukraine that is basically Putin's wish list, thrown out there at a time when Ukraine looks to be turning the tide - perhaps for good. He then advocated for Taiwan to be returned to Chinese rule. Not great, Bob!
Now, we have reports of the Starlink satellite terminals that Musk ostentatiously "donated" to Ukraine not working as Ukrainian forces advance. This was followed up by Musk now claiming that he - the world's richest man - can no longer afford to fund Urkaine's Starlink "subscription."
I don't know a ton about Starlink, but it seems like a commercial monthly fee is around $60 and Musk wants to charge the Pentagon $4500 a month. There MIGHT be some sort of reason why military bandwidth for Starlink is greater than other applications, but charging 75 times as much seems like price gauging. Or war profiteering, though Musk is likely protected by the fact that the United States is not at war.
Musk was a creature of apartheid - a democracy in form but not in practice. His family's wealth came from emerald mines that exploited African labor, and while he's never overtly embraced apartheid, there is a clear subculture of TechBros who embrace a post-democratic future. A form of stateless techno-anarchy where rich dudes like them are unfettered by the whims of little people. Peter Thiel is the cartoonishly evil version of this, but Musk is demonstrating that he's authoritarian-adjacent, too.
All of this is to perhaps argue that
A) having private companies involved in national security without some form of restraint is highly problematic
B) billionaires suck
Musk strikes me as a guy who shares with Trump a fundamental brokenness as a human being that has been sheltered and excused because he has known nothing but wealth his whole life.
Oh, and the DoD should just seize the Starlink system and take it over.
UPDATE: I mean...Jesus.
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