How Musk Serves Monopoly Capital Against America’s Youth
Last election cycle, current President of the US Donald Trump successfully utilized his presidential campaign to avoid prison time and preserve the Republican Party’s agenda for the privatization and corporatization of every facet of American life. Let’s analyze a MAGA government’s approach to governance on youth issues from a young communist’s perspective.
A key player in Trump’s pseudo-populist crusade is none other than Silicon Valley tech tycoon and neo-Nazi sympathizer Elon Musk, a multi-billionaire whose companies’ reputations are deeply intertwined with that of Musk’s public image. Musk relies on publicity, good or bad. When one thinks of any of the companies Musk leads, be it SpaceX, Tesla, X, StarLink, etc., one can not omit Musk and his ambitions for each of these firms. Elon Musk, now head of the “Department of Government Efficiency,” (DOGE) is at the forefront of overseeing the internal logistics and operations of the US Government’s executive branch. Obviously, this is a conflict of interest.
Musk has every incentive to oppose Trump on a personal level. During Trump’s first term as President, Musk visited the White House and met with Trump personally. Based off of Trump’s recollection of his interaction with Musk on Twitter, it became very clear what Musk’s intentions in meeting with Trump were:
“When Elon Musk came to the White House asking me for help on all of his many subsidized projects, whether it’s electric cars that don’t drive long enough, driverless cars that crash, or rocketships to nowhere, without which subsidies he’d be worthless, and telling me how he was a big Trump fan and Republican, I could have said, ‘drop to your knees and beg,’ and he would have done it…” Taken from Trump’s Twitter account in 2022 [block quote]
It was apparent then, as it still is now, that Elon Musk was not an asset, but a liability.
Nearly a decade later, the reality has changed. Elon seems to not mind Trump’s humiliating remarks on Twitter (now X), nor does Trump seem so skeptical about Musk and his intentions. It is apparent that Musk is a useful idiot for the rest of monopoly capital, the ugly duckling who is only kept in the loop to fulfill what he’s appointed to do: short-hand America’s youth to pad corporate profits, and derail the public sector.
Both of Musk’s assignments are deeply intertwined with each other.
Dissolving the Department of Education would mean a complete shutdown of federal grants and new student loans for American students, the majority of whom are youth. A reversal of workplace and child labor regulations means more dangerous and unhealthy conditions for young American workers.
When it comes to Musk’s interpretation of social issues, Musk is also an operative of Trump’s visceral attack on the LGBT+ community. The issue of LGBT+ rights is deeply intertwined with America’s youth, as nearly 30% of adult Gen Z Americans identify as gay, bisexual, transgender, or otherwise gender and sexual non-conforming. Trump and Musk’s attacks on transgender Americans is especially dangerous, as the ultra-right’s targeting of transgender women also creates a hostile environment for cisgender women, who may be ostracized from certain aspects of public life simply for “looking trans.” This is especially true for black trans women, who are disproportionately targeted in hate crime incidents.
Many young American workers now also work for firms which are adapting to the new political climate by reeling back their diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs. These programs aim to give working class Americans in marginalized demographics and communities more equal footing in both the job market and the workplace as a whole.
For as long as monopoly capital continues to trample on the future of young Americans unimpeded, we will continue to observe further regression in the health and well-being of the future of the working-class movement, and humanity as a whole.
Driss El-Hassan
League of Young Communists USA
