Musk-skepticism doesn't always pay

Instapundit likes to put up news about Elon Musk, especially now, as Musk seems to be acting like a red-pilled leftie who's wising up to the virtues of a more right-leaning point of view. I remain skeptical, given that Musk has, up to now, donated significantly more to Democrats than to Republicans. He is also an advocate for Universal Basic Income, which is insane, especially for someone as financially astute as Musk. Lastly, Musk has Tesla facilities in China: a plant in Shanghai, and a showroom in Xinjiang (where the Uyghur concentration camps are). So you'll pardon me if I don't see how Musk can suddenly be a conservative golden boy. I periodically voice my skepticism about Musk on the boards at Instapundit, and people are normally polite even if they don't agree with me, but once in a while, a rude asshole comes along. Here's a recent example. I posted the following:

I like what Musk is doing and how he's thinking, especially lately, but if I'm really to respect him, he'll pull entirely out of Shanghai and Xinjiang. His presence in China cheapens whatever moral authority he's trying to cultivate.

A couple responses to this were fairly tepid. One person wrote:

He isn't all that he is made out to be.. I don't think he is actually worried about moral authority.. as long as it's profitable for him, he will continue to deal with the Chicoms

Another responded:

To me, that's his biggest weak spot. He should never have built anything in China. He won't be able to leave on his terms, and the CCP will just steal all his tech when they kick him out (as if they aren't already stealing everything).

Then came the following reaction:

It's a pity that people will make assertions without doing their homework. He's not trying to cultivate any moral authority, he's trying to build the infrastructure to help humanity become multi-planetary. Each of his companies supports a necessary technology in that endeavor and makes a profit besides. His Tesla company in China is one of the few, if not the only, foreign company that the CCP doesn't have any part of the ownership, which should tell you something about the power dynamic there. The Chinese are supposed to be oriented to the "long game", but Musk is truly playing the long game, and if profits from a Chinese company can help make humans multi-planetary he'll take them.

Tesla and SpaceX are not successful because of any seekrit high tech, they are successful because Elon has fostered an innovative, driven engineering organization. The top two jobs sought by the best engineering graduates are SpaceX and Tesla. SpaceX's "test-first" approach is drawn from the current best practices in software engineering, as well over 100 successful returns of the Falcon 9 booster (something that space "experts" said was impossible) will attest. China, unlike our dinosaur space companies, has seen the light; have you been keeping up with their space-related activities like the space station they've put up?

That pissed me off, so I wrote the following response:

Not an assertion at all—a fact. Musk called the banning of Trump from Twitter "a morally bad decision" (exact quote). If that's not an evocation of morals, I don't know what is.

By your own reckoning, Musk wants us to become an interplanetary species. Why? For totally amoral reasons, or maybe because he's interested in humanity's survival? There's no moral component to that?

And why is "test first" a value at all? Is that totally unrelated to morals, or possibly related to making sure people don't die during the developmental phase of any given project? You don't see a moral stance hidden in any of that?

Musk's announcement that he's planning to vote Republican comes from a moral evaluation of the Democrats whom, up to now, he's funded more than Republicans. (You knew this, of course, because you've done your homework, just as you knew Musk had made the moral pronouncement I quoted above.) According to Musk, the Democrats have become the party of "division and hate." (Another exact quote—more homework!) Division and hate sound like axiological terms to me!

Morality suffuses everything Musk is doing, like it or not—and whether Musk knows it or not—so my question is: how seriously do we take any of his decisions as long as he's got facilities in China, the land of slave labor and slow ethnic cleansing?

I'm not pointing this out because I hate Musk. I'm merely saying he'd be easier to take seriously if he didn't rely on a malicious power to aid him in his success. I'd like to see him address this China issue head-on (oh, maybe he has—guess I'll do my homework!), and it's a good one for conservatives to point out—the ones who aren't enthusiastically fellating Musk because they've misidentified him as a fellow conservative, anyway.

You know who I'm talking about: the righties who immediately rush to Musk's defense when someone merely expresses light skepticism.

Personally, I think there's cause for circumspection. Musk bears a burden of proof, and his conduct over time will reveal much. Big truths about human character usually take time to reveal themselves. But if you're happy in your romantic haze, then by all means, suck away!

Of course, I'm merely venting, and this comment is a waste of time. I know I'm not changing any minds. Bye.

I don't suffer fools gladly, and the guy's response pissed me off on several levels. Despite accusing me of not having done my "homework," the guy offers no evidence in the form of links or exact quotes in his own comment. Even as he's accusing me of making assertions, he's busily asserting. That's not merely vexatious—it's downright obtuse. 

So I felt justified in calling the guy a Musk-fellater. I know that that doesn't make me look like a saint, but I'm not too concerned about my public image.

Instapundit commenters come in all shapes and sizes. Overall, they're a polite group, but there are some who, like the lefties they purportedly despise, have hair-trigger tempers and are always waiting for a reason to be offended. Idiots and hypocrites, all.