The Tech-Bros at Home

Sung to the tune of 'Old Folks at Home' or 'Suwanee River'

Pensito Illustration

(With apologies to Stephen Foster and thanks to Paul Krugman for coining “Muskaswamy”)

Way down upon the Muskaswamy
Far, far away,
That’s where my H-1B visa takes me —
That’s where the tech-bros play.
Outside the techno-libertarian coalition,
MAGAs sadly roam,
Stuck in mediocre stultification,
Far from the tech-bros at home.

(Chorus)

All along the Muskaswamy,
Brilliant immigrants roam,
Oh, MAGAs how your hearts grow weary,
Far from the tech-bros’ new home.

Musk Paid a Quarter-Billion to Elect Trump

$250 million

“Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, spent over a quarter of a billion dollars in the final months of this year’s election to help Donald Trump win the presidency, federal filings revealed on Thursday,” the New York Times reports. “The sum is a fraction of Mr. Musk’s wealth. But it is nonetheless a staggering amount from a single donor, who poured the cash into allied groups and is now playing a role in helping shape the next administration.”

Musk’s Wealth Hits Record $348 Billion

$348 billion

“Elon Musk’s net worth hit an all-time high of $347.8 billion on Friday, driven by Tesla Inc.’s ongoing stock rally and a new funding round valuing his artificial intelligence startup xAI at $50 billion,” Bloomberg reports. “Musk’s numerous businesses have been surging in value since Donald Trump’s election victory propelled Musk, the so-called ‘first buddy,’ into the political spotlight.”

Musk to Donate $45 Million a Month to Trump

$45 million

“Elon Musk has said he plans to commit around $45 million a month to a new super political-action committee backing former President Donald Trump’s presidential run,” the Wall Street Journal reports. “Formed in June, America PAC is focused on registering voters and persuading constituents to vote early and request mail-in ballots in swing states.”

The Atlantic: Twitter Is a Far-Right Social Network

The Atlantic: “As a public figure, [Twitter owner Elon Musk] has demonstrated an unwavering commitment to the right’s culture war against progressivism—which he refers to as “the woke mind virus”—and his $44 billion Twitter purchase can easily be seen as an explicitly political act to advance this specific ideology. Now the site itself has unquestionably transformed under his leadership into an alternative social-media platform—one that offers a haven to far-right influencers and advances the interests, prejudices, and conspiracy theories of the right wing of American politics…

“Twitter is essentially following the playbook of platforms like Rumble, which used to be the go-tos for canceled and deplatformed right-wingers seeking a soft landing and the promise of revenue. Like Rumble, which pivoted from a struggling YouTube alternative into a full-fledged far-right platform in the late 2010s, Twitter appears to be dipping into the well of popular right-wing shock jocks as a way to revive the financially adrift website…

“If Musk weren’t too preoccupied lapping up approval from trolls, reactionaries, and Dogecoin enthusiasts—a few of the constituencies left on his site that still seem to adore him—the Parler statement should worry him. Right-wing alt-tech platforms may attract investors and a flood of indignant new users with persecution complexes, but they are, ultimately, bad businesses.”