"That'll kill you."

Dark Road

Elon Musk is allegedly a fan of several psychoactive drugs. But according to the venerable Silicon Valley chronicler Kara Swisher, the vice proving most destructive to the SpaceX and Tesla CEO is a little less tangible than the others.

"The drug that's hurting Elon Musk is all his enablers, who suck up to him. And needing to be adored," Swisher recently told The Guardian when asked about the mercurial CEO's very public slide — mostly documented via X-formerly-Twitter, the platform he purchased for $44 billion in 2022 — into red-pilled conspiracyville. "That'll kill you."

"You could see him getting more and more radicalized," Swisher continued. "He suddenly got obsessed with the woke mind virus, whatever the hell that is, and angry all the time."

In other words, according to Swisher, a lack of accountability from those in his inner circle combined with a very obvious need for others to like him have led Musk — the world's richest man and arguably its most powerful unelected official — down a deeply destructive and conspiracy-laden road. And given Musk's immense real-world power, it's led to serious consequences for himself and his companies in turn. (Or, at least, as real as consequences might get for the richest person in history.)

Sycophant Symphony

Swisher certainly wouldn't be the first to call out Musk's penchant for surrounding himself with sycophants. In late 2022, shortly after Musk took over Twitter, the venture capitalist and longtime Musk pal Chris Sacca noted that he'd "recently watched those around him become increasingly sycophantic and opportunistic."

"Simply put, agreeing with him is easier," the investor added, "and there is more financial and social upside."

Not Angry, Just Disappointed

Swisher's comments to the Guardian were prompted by some statements she reportedly made about Musk in her newly-released book, titled "Burn Book." In the book, per the Guardian, Swisher says that Facebook founder and sword guy Mark Zuckerberg has been the "most damaging man in tech," while Musk has, to her, been the "most disappointing."

"Here's someone who actually was doing serious things," the journalist told the Guardian. "There's a lot of people in Silicon Valley who are always doing a dry cleaning app. He was thinking of everything from cars to space to solar."

Indeed, Swisher's sentiment seems to capture why Musk's descent into red-pilled conspiracy-mongering has been so jarring. Musk has never been without his faults, but for a long time, his public image was one of a true visionary. But now, between his rampant antisemitism and racism, erratic antics, and otherwise disappointing behavior, his once-inspiring vision has never looked so clouded.

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