Tipsheet

NYT Published a Totally Insane Hit Piece on Musk, As One GOP Senator Nailed Why the Left Hates Elon

Matt Vespa
Matt Vespa  |  March 08, 2025 6:00 AM

When you wallow in a tantrum and cannot scrutinize your ideas or even subject them to debate, this is where you could land, and it’s ugly. Elon Musk, who not so long ago was an Andrew Yang Democrat, has become the source of intense hatred from the Left. It might surpass Donald Trump at this point. Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency have exposed government waste and the pork projects that made the political elite rich.

So, what does the Left do? They get The New York Times to trot out neo-nativist trash like this—one would think that Bill Cutting wrote it. If you knew that a major publication would highlight Musk’s South African roots, apartheid, and that whole business to take this laughable swipe at the genius businessman, take a bow: 

Born in Pretoria in 1971, Mr. Musk had an upbringing typical of the white South African elite. The family was wealthy, despite his parents divorcing when he was young, its economic standing shaped by a system designed to assist whites. Mr. Musk doesn’t appear to have enjoyed his elite education — there are stories of bullying and loneliness — but he still benefited from the advantages it conferred. Though his father, an engineer, was for a time a member of the anti-apartheid Progressive Party, there is little evidence Mr. Musk inherited his political convictions. Like many white South Africans, Mr. Musk left the country before the collapse of racial rule, settling in 1989 in Canada, where his mother was born. 

He never returned, but South Africa clearly stayed with him. Take his recent intervention into the debate over the country’s land reform as an example. In response to a bill passed in January that allows in specific circumstances the expropriation of land without compensation, Mr. Musk used his platform to suggest that white South Africans are uniquely persecuted. Never mind that land restitution is a broadly accepted norm in postcolonial societies or that eminent domain or compulsory purchase laws do something similar in the United States and elsewhere. The Trump administration — amplifying fringe voices, promoting distorted narratives of racial victimhood and using Mr. Musk’s claim as a symbolic cudgel — was only too happy to play along. 

[…] 

Mr. Musk is one of a number of reactionary figures with roots in Southern Africa who found an unlikely home in Silicon Valley and now wield disproportionate influence in shaping American and global right-wing politics. These men, such as Peter Thiel and David Sacks, emerged from a historical tradition that revered hierarchy and sought to sustain racial and economic dominance, only to find themselves in a world where that order was unraveling. Their politics reflect an instinct to preserve elite rule, cloaked in the language of meritocracy and market freedom, while channeling resentment toward new power structures they view as threats to their position. 

For them, southern Africa is never very far away. They are part of a global right that has long been fascinated with Rhodesia and its successor, Zimbabwe. For them, the loss of white-minority rule in Zimbabwe represents the model of civilizational decay — a formerly “successful” colonial state plunged into chaos through decolonization. The specter of Zimbabwefication is wielded as a warning against any redistribution of power. Now South Africa — “openly pushing for genocide of white people,” according to Mr. Musk — is being made to take on the mantle of scare story. The implicit argument is that settler power, once displaced, leads only to ruin. 

It doesn’t help that South Africa has stood against Israel’s genocidal aggression in Gaza, leading the charge in attempts to hold it to account under international law. This outspoken opposition has further alienated the country from the Western powers that support Israel, reinforcing the perception of South Africa as a rogue state in the eyes of the global right. One of the front-runners to be Mr. Trump’s pick for ambassador to the country, the South African-born Breitbart commentator Joel Pollak, certainly believes it is. For figures like Mr. Musk, South Africa’s stance against Israel no doubt confirms their view of the country as a lost cause — a once “civilized” outpost of white rule now succumbing to the chaos of majority rule and decolonization. 

Oh, what a load of crap. It’s so predictable, and the only thing shocking is that it took until February for someone at some lefty rag to lead the ‘he’s South African’ line. No one cares. What a waste of ink, and it’s not the first time the Times has trotted out this swipe at Elon.

While he wasn't directly addressing the hit piece, what Sen. Kennedy said nails why there's so much hate directed at the Space X founder and Tesla CEO: The libs are attacking the man because "when you trim fat, pigs squeal." He's systematically dismantling the gravy train.