The Problem With Elon Musk

The Billionaire Who’s Not Like Other Billionaires

Is Elon Musk a net positive or negative for society? We spoke to people he’s worked with and researched his childhood, past business ventures like Tesla, SpaceX, Neuralink, and X (formerly known as Twitter), and what he’s currently working on to answer this question.

Special Thanks to:
- Rachel Konrad, former Head of Communications at Tesla
- Imran Ahmed, CEO of Center for Countering Digital Hate
- Everyone we spoke to for this story

-- VIDEO CHAPTERS --
00:00 Intro
01:34 The Rise
04:29 The X Factor
12:05 Musk’s Playbook
21:23 The Pivot
22:48 Twitter
38:07 Conclusion
41:10 Credits

About:
Johnny Harris is an Emmy-winning independent journalist and contributor to the New York Times. Based in Washington, DC, Harris reports on interesting trends and stories domestically and around the globe, publishing to his audience of over 5 million on Youtube. Harris produced and hosted the twice Emmy-nominated series Borders for Vox Media. His visual style blends motion graphics with cinematic videography to create content that explains complex issues in relatable ways.

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[AmitSingh-jjho]

Pls make the same kind of video for Bill Gates

[GSRCAOR]

I dislike that at the beginning of the video you suggest there will be interviews with former employees and even show a 5 sec clip of one. Yet, for there are none throughout the remainder of the video. I watched this whole 40 min ordeal just to not even see that part that had me interested in the first place.

After scanning your references, they don't appear to be in there either. So idk why even bring them up in the video if you don't actually reference them or showcase them in any part of the video.

[PikeyAz]

I thought it was 2 guys who started tesla, engineered the Electric batteries and designed the car. Elon Musk took the company public, then pushed them out.

[meganmueller]

His daughter is transgender. That’s the missing piece in the story. He said it’s a major reason he bought Twitter, because he thinks she was brainwashed to be trans by her California University. It’s personal.

[RickyRyanRay]

The fact that they didn’t name his perfume “Elon’s Musk” makes me sad

[LarryBert]

I want to see Ground news bias meter on this one

[AwakenCanada]

I just read through the comments on this video. Some people are supporting Elon despite some of the evidences that he doesn't need their support and doesn't care if they do. Others are against him. The real take-away is that one should never idolize another human being. We all have our virtues and our failings. Elon has his virtues - I think buying Twitter was a virtue since the algorithms are much more favourable to me - so it's a personal opinion. I do NOT idolize him because I don't trust him as I don't trust any wealthy people, nor do I trust any politicians - even the ones I vote for. I watch what these people do and I call them out if they do bad things. Sure, we can debate good and bad, but there are standards that are biblical and there are standards that are moral. Those are the ones I care about. Point being, Elon is a human being with the ability to good and bad like anybody else. He's larger than life because of his wealth, but he is neither good nor evil.

[rodbenson]

Interesting reading the intense heat in the comment section (wow lots of angry people) with Musk fans accusing this video of being biased against Musk while others accusing the video of being way too favourable.

The video was definitely balanced which is why I guess it is drawing such heat from both quarters. I guess in defence of people accusing the content creator of leaving stuff out, the stuff you want included would make the video a lot longer. In my view he covered enough to show that Musk is a very clever but very strange individual who has a dangeous nasty streak in him and so his control of Twitter is very worrying. I am afraid I am not a Musk fan especially after the roll he helped play in stoking the UK riots and his support of Trump.

[andrewehyang]

“Elon buying Twitter is like a cigarette addict buying a cigarette factory” Nilay Patel

[sylvelvholm]

Elon's family were not rich??
BS, his mother is a model who net worth 45mill dollar.
His father engineer, politican and businessman.

[kunaldutt]

This video itself feels like a propoganda lol

[Kmlcvlk]

I can not stress enough how important twitter is for turkish opposition. Twitter is only social media platform in Turkey that is widely used and you can interact with. It is the organizing place of Gezi Park Protests, it is the place where journalists publish their investigations, it is the place where people who had forced to escape Turkey get their news and share their beliefs and information with Turkey, it is the place that international news enter to Turkey unfiltered. It is vital. It is the radio of 3rd world countries.

[oldschoolben]

Hey Johnny, you’ll probably never read this comment but I think I know why Elon had his pivot. I’ve been a shareholder way longer than most Tesla stans and have been watching Elon’s progression in real time, before most people had even heard of him.

The pivot came because of the pandemic but it was the final straw of 4 events I see as formative to his current world view.

There was the jury trial Tesla lost regarding racism and resulted in a gigantic jury award (later overturned). Elon prides himself on being race-agnostic, and as a youth, he was much more willing to be friends with black South Africans than other whites. He was very confident Tesla was going to win the trial, and likely blames the “woke mind virus” for the unjustifiably high award.

Then there was his daughter coming out as transgender. There are few details about this but I think it is safe to say Elon did not take this well. They have no relationship with each other and again Elon likely blames woke ideology for this. He keeps saying that he “is a liberal”, but he thinks the political spectrum has moved so far left that it makes him look like a conservative.

Then there is his sense of betrayal by the Democratic Party, (which he voted for up until either the 2016 or 2020 election) which has never embraced him despite the fact that he made the electric car happen (along with improving large-scale electrical storage). Because Tesla is not unionized, the Dems cannot get too close to him for fear of alienating their union base. He has been repeatedly shut out or ignored by the Dems on many initiatives, whereas e.g. Mary Barra was given undue credit for innovating in the EV space.

Lastly, the pandemic happened, and as someone else here had mentioned, he was angry that the government had the power to shut down his factories. He himself had a different view of the seriousness of the pandemic, and felt that he was being muzzled and censored for his view in the early months and days of the pandemic.

[onlirier]

I find it very interesting how so many in the comment section are calling this video incredibly biased against Musk, when in my opinion it was far more favorable to him in its tellings of certain events than other sources I've seen, and nowhere near as accusatory. Really goes to show how polarization works. This video paints the picture of a brilliant entrepreneur twisted by assholeness and conflict-seeking, as opposed to a real life tony stark or to a businessman hijacking dreams and manufacturing hype so that he can sell a future only he will benefit from.

[rodbenson]

Very good video. I remember seeing an interview with Musk many years ago where the interviewer joked to Musk that his activities had the grandeur of a Bond villian so the world was lucky he wasn't one. Musk response was odd and I remember at the time thinking wow this man could be really dangerous.

Sadly, despite his great intelligence, he also has always had some very odd beliefs. Like many who have studied the sciences, he always swallowed the mistaken idea that anything is possible for humanity hence why he thinks we can colonise the universe. Folk like him need to be reminded of Newton and his fellow alchemists who were convinced they could change a base metal into gold. I honestly think if you had asked Newton which would be easier, to send a man to the moon or alchemy he may very well have answered the latter. The problem with humans is we remember science's successes but quickly forget its failures. I am sceptical we can even get people even to Mars alive once a space craft leaves the protective earth's magnetosphere for any length of time, let alone travel light years to other solar systems that just might have an earth-like planet.

As for his latest behaviour, it is at best very eccentric but sadly more likely has quite an evil component to it. Autism cannot really excuse this.

[OMDAT]

I bet Elon really enjoyed this video until 18:10

[zuferik]

Musk after watching this video: How much for YouTube ?

[Truth-Seeker]

I have an alternative suggestion to using an app that highlights bias reporting within news headlines and articles. Contemplate the efficacy of consuming the news itself, and find that it is pointless outside of specific context and is a harmful general practice.

[SliceOfFish]

8:08 "Patents were not copyrighted"
That's not how patents work. Patents and copyrights are two distinct forms of intellectual property protection, patents can't be copyrighted.

[sterlthepearl]

“The further a society drifts from the truth, the more it will hate those who speak it.” George Orwell