Elon Musk does not like failure.
His growing influence over the past two years has enhanced this proposition.
Since last year, the whimsical and charismatic serial entrepreneur has made it one of his missions to defeat what the right wing calls the woke mind virus.
This expression symbolizes progressive ideas such as gender equality, the fight against racism and antisemitism, and the battle for inclusion and diversity, among others. In the business world, progressive ideas are encompassed by the acronym ESG, or environment, social and corporate governance.
For Musk, these ideas promote intolerance and have spawned cancel culture. Like many conservatives, he has made them the object of a new culture war.
As a result, he presents as the new hero of the conservatives, particularly after he acquired the social network Twitter, which he has transformed into a bastion of free speech. Users can say whatever they want on the microblogging website as long as they don't violate the law.
This laissez-faire approach is a response, according to Musk, to the muzzling of conservative voices practiced by Twitter 1.0 and other platforms that the right wing accuses of liberal bias.
Elon Musk's Dark Portrayal of San Francisco
Since the end of October, Twitter has become the battleground of the new culture war. Musk and his millions of fans mock, denounce and criticize anything they deem woke. Their targets range from progressive politicians to mainstream media to institutions and organizations to personalities whom they accuse of intolerance.
But fighting a broad but invisible enemy like a virus isn't often the best way to keep the troops engaged and boost morale. Musk is aware of this, and he and his tech bros have put a face to the enemy. And the face of the virus is San Francisco, the city that is the cradle of progressive ideology and the temple of American tech. San Francisco, like other U.S. big cities since the pandemic, has seen its downtown empty out.
This exodus is due to multiple factors, particularly office closures by companies because many employees have chosen to work remotely.
The city’s vacancy rate grew to a record 32.7% in the first quarter of 2023, from 32.1% in the fourth quarter of 2022, according to Savills. "We expect office availability (in San Francisco) to continue to increase in 2023 as the slowdown in the technology sector persists,” Savills said.
In addition, long before the pandemic San Francisco was experiencing a homeless crisis and a fentanyl-driven drug crisis. This cocktail of problems has thus completely transformed the streets of Downtown San Francisco, exasperating the city's inhabitants and deterring tourists.
Musk and his tech bros use this frustration to portray all of San Francisco as an apocalyptic, lawless city, where danger lurks at all times. They regularly fuel this perception through warnings on Twitter, despite the fact that the crime figures in the city contradict their narrative.
Recent crime data from the San Francisco Police Department show that homicides and rapes are down by about 25% this year from a year earlier, while robberies are up by 10%. Assaults are about the same, burglaries are down by 11% and motor-vehicle thefts have decreased by 6.4%. Based on the numbers, crime is down by 10% year-on-year.
'Bleak Outcome' for the World
Last month the tech entrepreneur Bob Lee, 43, was stabbed to death on the street in an upscale part of town. Musk and his friends tried to use the murder in their culture war -- but as things turned out, the alleged killer was an acquaintance of Lee and not a homeless person as Musk and his friends had asserted.
Now the billionaire has set off to attack San Francisco again. Musk just warned the world against copying the progressive city.
"Facts. SF has become a place to avoid due to crime and the fact that your car will most likely be broken into," a Twitter account with which Musk interacts regularly said on May 3.
"So many stores shuttered in downtown SF. Feels post-apocalyptic," the tech mogul commented the following day. "The philosophy that led to this bleak outcome will be the end of civilization if extended to the world."
A Twitter user then reminded him that he had voted for the previous two Democratic presidents -- Barack Obama and Joe Biden.
"Didn't you vote for Obama and Biden? Things didn't turn to shit because of magic," the user said.
"Yes, but they are not to blame for San Francisco," replied the techno king, as he's known at EV maker Tesla (TSLA). "Fundamentally, states and cities must occasionally vote for the other party or you have a one party system."
He added: "SF is what happens when one party has control for several decades – no feedback loop for correction, because they never lose, no matter how bad it gets."
Musk and some of his tech friends want to use their influence to encourage the people of San Francisco to vote out the Democrats in the next election cycle. If they and others like-minded succeed, it would be one of the biggest defeats for the progressives.
