Listen to this full episode of The New Abnormal on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon and Stitcher.
Tech billionaire Elon Musk wants to give away $1 million each day to registered voters in battleground states who sign a petition for his America PAC, he announced while stumping for Donald Trump over the weekend.
It’s unclear if this latest masterful gambit of his might stray into criminal territory, but it’s certainly a “stunt” worthy of federal scrutiny, according to The New Abnormal’s co-hosts extraordinaire, Danielle Moodie and Andy Levy.
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“That’s exactly what it is. It’s a stunt,” says Moodie. “Elon Musk could give a damn about democracy.”
And yet, nary a peep has been heard from the Department of Justice, nor U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, who may or may not be asleep at the wheel in this most crucial final stage of the election cycle.
“Is Merrick Garland still with us?” asks Moodie. “Because I’m confused. I haven’t heard from him or seen him in a very long time.”
“I think he’s still there,” Levy replies. “I think he clocks in every day and—I don’t know, reads the paper and goes home. Maybe he’s quiet quit.”
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Then, a conversation with Brian Merchant, a former technology columnist for the Los Angeles Times and the author of Blood in the Machine: The Origins of the Rebellion Against Big Tech. Merchant breaks down exactly how Musk’s tech projects have become inseparable from his authoritarian aspirations.
“Nobody wants to admit that the world’s most successful billionaire, the most successful tech tycoon, is also engaging in this really often repulsive political program and doing so nakedly and openly,” Merchant says, “and it’s just we need to start squaring these images.”
Listen to this full episode of The New Abnormal on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon and Stitcher.
