Starlink, Space X, Tesla and X are economic and political vehicles created not just to enrich but to empower their owner Elon Musk—an ignorant narcissist who supports America’s enemies and anti-democratic worldviews. Supporting Musk’s companies in any way aids him and the toxic movement he is helping to lead; to do so is anti-American, dangerous to our allies and destructive to our institutions and values.
So as Musk uses his power with President Donald Trump and within this administration to advance his personal agenda, those who oppose that agenda must view acting against the interests of those companies as fair political game.
(This is also true, of course, of Trump’s companies and the businesses of his other closest supporters, because those enterprises produce the wealth that they have used to gain power.)
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Ultimately, to reclaim democracy in the United States we must recognize it has been undermined by the actions of authoritarian extremists promoting a minority-rule agenda. We must reckon with the fact that certain companies and financial institutions have become politically weaponized against us—and we must act accordingly. Our values may and should constrain how we do so. But one thing is clear, failing to acknowledge the role they play is a mistake.
We the people have every right and indeed, the obligation, to use the power of the marketplace to express our views. It is time we did so.
In fact, I do not understand why there is not a permanent series of protests around every Tesla dealership or Starlink facility. Musk has invited this. His boards of directors have tacitly approved it. They have chosen sides against us and what we value.
I do not understand how anyone with a conscience still owns a Tesla. Yes, many people invested in these cars for the right reasons—a Tesla was an innovative electric vehicle. But a Tesla is now the pace car in the race to a drill-baby-drill ravaging of our environment, if not a race to the bottom more broadly.
Likewise, X was once a platform that helped advanced free exchange of views and the flow of information. Now, though, it actively works to promote lies, to bully opposing views into silence and to celebrate racism, conspiracy theories, junk science and authoritarianism. There is no reason to patronize it. Arguments that it is a window into the views of the other side ring hollow. There are plenty of other ways to discern those views without directly contributing to Trump, MAGA, Russian propaganda and neo-Nazism.
When the Supreme Court handed down its Citizens United decision, it did not just equate spending money with free expression, nor did it just undercut our democracy in a profound and perhaps irreversible way. It promised—and it continues to promise—that an inequitable tax code (economically reckless and socially unfair) directly leads to the inequitable distribution of power; it represents a path for the richest Americans not just to become richer but to gain ever greater political power over the rest of us.
While our system in the U.S. is particularly corrupted and inequitable in favor of the billionaire class and big corporate and financial power, all Western societies—and many others— tilt in such a way to some degree.
It is a fundamental problem that needs fixing, if history is to someday record that human progress and the growing empowerment of all people were somehow positively linked to one another. We must recognize that the political crises we face today are linked to deeply flawed economic philosophies, notably the rise of the perversion of what is good and productive about capitalism known as Anglo-American capitalism, vulture capitalism, Darwinian capitalism or frankly, often, as “the Washington consensus.”
But before we can get into a healthy (and woefully overdue) debate about economic or political philosophies, we must first stop the erosion of our political and personal liberties and the hyper-concentration of power in the hands of a few who do not share our interests or values.
And yes, our system provides a way to do that. We can—and we should—boycott the companies of Musk and his billionaire peers. Make it a personal priority. Help persuade others to do the same. The alternative is to strengthen forces that are actively seeking to destroy our country, system and values—and who seek to steal the futures of our children, grandchildren and other generations to come.
A version of this column appeared previously on Substack.
