How Elon Musk’s radicalisation can be pinpointed to a single event
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Experts warn that the owner of X is being radicalised by his own platform, Anthony Cuthbertson writes. A week before Christmas in 2021, Elon Musk tweeted: “Traceroute woke_mind_virus”. It referred to a networking command to determine the source of information, in this case the woke culture of progressive social-justice activists. The centi-billionaire believed that it was this virus that had caused him to become estranged from his transgender daughter.
According to Musk’s biographer Walter Isaacson, the transition of his child had a profound impact on Musk’s world view, with the rejection of him as a father triggering his descent towards fringe conspiracies and setting him on a trajectory towards becoming a leading figure in the culture war.
When she turned 18 in April 2022, his daughter legally changed her name from Xavier Musk to Vivian Jenna Wilson, declaring to the court: “I no longer live with or wish to be related to my biological father in any way, shape or form.” Musk’s girlfriend at the time – Claire Boucher, known professionally as Grimes – told Isaacson that she had “never seen him as heartbroken about anything”.
Having previously donated to Barack Obama’s Democratic Party, Musk now associated the party with this “woke agenda” that had turned his child against him. “This woke-mind virus resides primarily in the Democratic Party,” he told Isaacson. He set out his shifting political stance in a tweet in May 2022.
At the time, Musk still had a “deep disdain” for Donald Trump, but his anti-woke comments drew in right-wing provocateurs like the Canadian psychologist Jordan Peterson, while also distancing himself progressive friends and even partners. When he sent alt-right memes and conspiracy theories to Grimes in 2022, she reportedly replied: “Is this from 4chan or something? You’re actually starting to sound like someone from the far right.”.
