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In the new book, Muskism: A Guide for the Perplexed, authors Quinn Slobodian and Ben Tarnoff look at the worldview that shaped Elon Musk and the ideology that has coalesced around him. They call Muskism “an operating system for the 21st century.”

Musk runs rocket company SpaceX, AI startup xAI, electric car maker Tesla and the social media platform X, formerly Twitter. Musk’s political influence extends from his use of X to advance controversial ideas, to his political donations, to the role he played leading the so-called Department of Government Efficiency. “He’s not just building a rocket company or a satellite company — but what we see is a vertically integrated ideological stack where he can kind of build an echo chamber from low Earth orbit all the way back to Earth and create a kind of closed loop for the ideology that he wants to push out,” says Slobodian, professor of international history at Boston University.

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMY GOODMAN: We end today’s show with a look at the ideology and influence of Elon Musk, the richest person in the world, with a fortune estimated by Forbes at $800 billion. Musk runs rock company SpaceX, AI startup xAI, electric car maker Tesla and the social media platform X, formerly Twitter. His political influence extends from using his massive platform to advance controversial ideas, his political donations, as well as his role leading the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, a quasi-governmental agency that oversaw chaotic layoffs and cutbacks across government agencies.

In the new book Muskism: A Guide for the Perplexed, authors Quinn Slobodian and Ben Tarnoff look at the worldview that shaped Musk and the ideology that’s coalesced around him. They call it “Muskism,” “an operating system for the 21st century.” In a review of the book, prominent science fiction writer and journalist Cory Doctorow wrote in a review, quote, “Muskism doesn’t seek to exit the state, it seeks to colonize and control it.”

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For more, we’re joined in New York by Quinn Slobodian, professor of international history at Boston University, co-author with Ben Tarnoff of Muskism.

Thank you so much for being with us. If you can talk about the latest news right now and the empire that Musk has acquired? There’s been a lot of news about space in the last few weeks. And particularly start off by talking about SpaceX and what he’s doing.

QUINN SLOBODIAN: Yeah, SpaceX is kind of a — you know, a tough wake-up call for people who have this impression that Musk had disappeared from the news, had had some kind of feud with Trump, and everything had now passed into the rearview mirror. In fact, we’re gearing up for what is going to be likely the largest IPO in history with SpaceX, likely in June, projected to be somewhere between $1.5 trillion and $2 trillion valuation, which will put it immediately as one of the top 10 biggest companies in the United States, potentially more valuable than Meta.

And that’s interesting, because SpaceX itself has now become a kind of a merger of many of Musk’s ventures. xAI, the AI company that was mentioned, is........

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