Tesla chief Elon Musk: Smasher of elites or self-serving pragmatist?
He has scorned organized labor, mocked political correctness and espoused small government -- so the deluge of tweets from conservatives congratulating Elon Musk on his move to buy Twitter was hardly a surprise.
Yet smoking marijuana during interviews, courting the Hollywood set with movie cameos and musing about nuking Mars make him an improbable talisman for political traditionalists.
In polarized America, the 50-year-old triple divorcee's opposition to Covid-19 restrictions is often taken to demonstrate Republican sympathies, although his occasional disdain for draconian immigration control has suggested the opposite.
The world's richest man has berated President Joe Biden for proposing a tax credit for electric cars produced by unionized workers. He has also gone much further, calling for an end to all US federal subsidies.
Yet he has aggressively pursued government support himself, taking billions in handouts for his own companies.
International investor James Hickman, founder of the libertarian-leaning Sovereign Man newsletter series, sees Musk as a check on the "tyranny of the minority" -- a supposed cabal of elites in tech, media and academia who make decisions for the rest of us and yet "consistently get it wrong."
"What makes someone a true libertarian is an outright rejection of labels and being completely independent in one's thinking," Hickman told AFP.
"Musk clearly qualifies in this regard across both politically and professionally."
Other analysts have suggested that, as inconsistent as his political philosophy appears, Musk rarely diverges from his own business interests.
Yet even that thesis needs some finessing.
If it's all about money, why has the Tesla CEO, with his extensive green business interests, called
Read more on tech.hindustantimes.com
