Earlier this week I noted the odd dichotomy between Right Wing media’s continual freakout about Bill Gates’s nefarious but unproven plans to control freedom-loving Americans and their fulsome praise for Elon Musk, who’s been openly plotting the integration of his tech into the brains of those self-same Americans.
Well, during this morning’s survey of the interwebs I stumbled upon two stories that may signal a shift in the Right’s glorification of Tesla’s “master of the recall.”
The first story, which I included on the RUNDOWN in a must-read thread on animal experimentation, comes from Charisma News. The “charisma” in Charisma News refers to the “Charismatic” Evangelical movement. It took off in the 70s, propelled in no small part by its embrace of End Times eschatology. If you are of a certain age you’ll recall the cultural phenomenon that surrounded “The Late, Great Planet Earth,” by Hal Lindsey. It was THE book that launched a thousand conspiracy theories. It also laid the groundwork for the “Left Behind” series and, it could be argued, for much of the Evangelical culture that took root in American politics throughout the 80s.
Not surprisingly, the folks at Charisma News see portends of the End Times in Elon’s first foray into our grey matter. The story they posted shortly after noon yesterday asks: “Is Neuralink Brain Chip Next Step to Mark of the Beast?” Interestingly enough, it’s a question they never answer. In fact, the story quickly moves from Elon’s experiment to other examples of “chipping” and settles on Neuralink’s “potential threat to privacy,” while also suggesting that those who fear the “mandated use of such a device in an Antichrist-ruled world” would be well-advised to seek “clarity through continuous time spent in the Bible” to guide them through “a society that is increasingly hostile to the Lord.”
That’s pretty thin gruel coming from a website that repeatedly sees signs of the apocalypse in a variety of news items, public figures and international crises. But somehow, the spirit moved them to downplay St. Elon’s accomplishment in actually “chipping” a human being right in the noggin. For context, I searched their site for Elon-related stories and a distinct pattern emerged …
Mark Cuban, Elon Musk and the Question of Diversity Hiring in the NBA
(24 January 2024)
Charisma News Brief: Elon Musk's 'Grok' Will Answer Questions ChatGPT is Too Afraid (07 November 2023)
Elon Musk's Triumphant Gain: Tucker Carlson Announces New Show on Twitter
(10 May 2023)
Musk: 'AI Has the Potential for Civilizational Destruction
(21 April 2023)
Elon Musk Tells Tucker Carlson: 'I've Seen No Evidence of Aliens’
(19 April 2023)
Musk Calling for Harsh Penalties on Anyone Sterilizing, Mutilating Children
(18 April 2023)
As 'Doomsday Clock' Ticks, Musk Warns of 'Catastrophic Scenario’
(30 March 2023)
Twitter Confirms Conservative Voices Were Silenced by Former Regime
(09 December 2022)
Elon Musk Fires Top Execs at Twitter to Fight 'Great Danger’
(28 October 2022)
Elon Musk's Stick Figure Graphic Illustrates What Happens When Our Nation's Moral Standards Shift
(02 May 2022)
Franklin Graham Praises the World's Richest Man for Pro-Free Speech Stance
(28 April 2022)
There was one non-praiseworthy title among the cavalcade of kudos:
Elon Musk's Neuralink May Open Door to End Times Dystopia
(01 December 2022)
A-ha! There it is … or is it? Because a quick read of the story tells a different story. Instead of warning of his Bill Gates-like malicious intent, Charisma News praises him for developing “a way to fight AI fire with human biotech fire: the Neuralink.” They go on to say that “Musk and Neuralink are adamant about using this technology for good,” but do end with some circumspection:
Musk himself has never given the indication that he has any nefarious intentions for any of the various tech he and his multiple companies are responsible for. But how many dystopian, cyber-punk movies do people have to watch before they realize that technology often can be used for purposes it was never originally intended to fulfill?
So, despite the fact that he’s the man who is literally diving this Beastly bus, they cannot bring themselves to hang any blame on St. Elon. Alas, it’s not much of shift after all.
The other potentially shift-signaling story popped up early today on The Federalist. Written by John Daniel Davidson, the title pulls no punches: “Musk’s Neuralink Heralds The Beginning Of A Dystopian Future.” Unlike Charisma News, Davidson doesn’t buy the “veneer of altruism” represented by Elon’s stated goals of helping the paralyzed walk and helping Stephen Hawking “communicate faster than a speed typist or auctioneer.” Instead, Davidson warns of a return to paganism through transhuman technology. Forget what they say, Davidson warns, the real goal “is to usher in a transhuman future by creating human-machine hybrids that will be ‘superior’ to natural or non-enhanced humans.”
That’s pretty strong stuff.
And although there is no mention of the Number Of The Beast or Evangelical eschatology in his critique, Davidson does get Biblical:
In reality, what Musk and Neuralink are doing amounts to building a second Tower of Babel or a revisiting of the serpent’s offer in the Garden of Eden: You will not surely die, you will be as gods. They want godlike intelligence and, ultimately, eternal life — and they’re willing to tinker with the human body and mind, deconstruct and reconstitute it even, if that’s what it takes.
What Davidson doesn’t see is the future benefit to mankind or the forgivable naïveté that Charisma News sees in Elon’s designs. Rather, he warns of a tech-fueled paganism “dressed-up” in “Silicon Valley jargon” that will be reserved for “him and his fellow neopagan elites.”
Now that’s an identifiable break with the cult of St. Elon. And it is indeed a “break,” because I also surveyed The Federalist’s archive of Elon stories … and there are plenty to peruse. I counted a total of 48 stories dating back to January 10, 2023, which led off the year with a headline touting Elon Musk as “The John Durham Of ‘Free Speech.’” To be fair, Musk’s name doesn’t appear in the headlines of each of those stories. Those were all the stories he was tagged in, meaning he is at least mentioned in the text. But he is mentioned a lot and those mentions are positive and almost without fail centered on Musk as a champion of free speech. The other topic that comes up is Elon’s criticism of Mitch McConnell, which is another “plus” for the crowd that reads The Federalist.
So, what we have here is a split decision. While the folks at Charisma News simply couldn’t bring themselves to transgress St. Elon’s glowing image, the hardcore righties at The Federalist did make their first significant break with the cult, although it was to attack a Silicon Valley-promoted “techno-paganism” I am not sure really exists. I guess that’s as close to progress as we can expect. It will be interesting to see if others follow.