Progress

I'm not right about everything, but I have had Musk's number for years. For a long time, correctly describing him and the likelihood of any his promises being realized was akin to suggesting Saddam Hussein wasn't actually a threat to the United States.

Elon Musk expands his empire of misinformation

Allison Morrow

Analysis by Allison Morrow, CNN

...

Steve Jobs, the late Apple co-founder, was famous for his “reality distortion field” that often sold less-than-stellar products on sheer charisma. But Musk’s reality distortion field is something else entirely — hardly limited to overly optimistic timetables or pie-in-the-sky projections for Tesla’s delivery schedule. Whereas Musk might actually face some pushback from shareholders or market regulators for stretching the truth or failing to deliver on his promises, he’s free to promote conspiracy theories and far-right talking points with impunity on his own personal social media megaphone, X.

That’s where Musk and others promote racist conspiracies and false rumors about federal hurricane relief to his more than 200 million followers, even as officials are pleading for help to stop the misinformation (which former President Donald Trump is also spreading).

That is far from harmless musing on the internet.