‘The Terror Is Real’: An Appalled Tech Industry Is Scared to Criticize Elon Musk

[u/hypersmell]

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2025/04/04/elon-musk-silicon-valley-fear-00260273

A huge swath of Silicon Valley is horrified by what Elon Musk is doing — but they’re increasingly afraid to say so.

[u/IamRidiculous]

Have the bots do it then. It’s what they’re doing to the rest of us. 

[u/coconutpiecrust → u/IamRidiculous]

Like, oh my god, he is one guy. Do they not understand that he needs lots and lots of serfs to do his bidding? Just. Don’t. Obey. 

[u/hypersmell → u/coconutpiecrust]

I don't think you understand how small the tech world actually is. My SO works in tech - he would lose his job in a heartbeat if he spoke up in any way. People throw around the word 'serf' without questioning the implications. He has 3 children and an ex wife to support. How I wish he had the luxury to Just. Not. Obey.

[u/coconutpiecrust → u/hypersmell]

I know, I know, no one can stop this. If only there was someone else to do it for us. 

I’ve disobeyed enough in my life and have suffered because others choose to turn away and hope that master won’t hit them next if they stay silent. Unfortunately, master still hits them. 

[u/hypersmell → u/coconutpiecrust]

I feel the same way - how do we break free from a system that is almost impossible to operate outside of? I escaped the 'system' because I chose to not prioritize a career and procreation. You and I are outliers. FWIW, I will not remain silent.

[u/coconutpiecrust → u/hypersmell]

This is definitely a good way to do it. 

It’s always frustrating to stand up for something and not have full support of others. I’ve had to do it alone and with a few other people, but it’s usually “one step forward, two steps back type of thing”. 

[u/Competitive-Cow-4522 → u/coconutpiecrust]

Just because people aren’t “disobeying” in the way you prefer doesn’t mean they aren’t doing it. There are a myriad of ways to disobey besides throwing up the middle finger. Gumming up the works, or sharing information are but two examples.

My preference for myself is the middle finger. But I also understand that other people have both different temperaments and different factors to consider.

[u/fantasy-capsule → u/hypersmell]

At the very least he could try dragging his feet, making things more difficult for the tyrants, help and support those who can actually do something about this, and not obey in advance. 

[u/CorticalVoile → u/hypersmell]

Unlearn to code and get a real job

[u/AcronymNamNomicon → u/coconutpiecrust]

The country is getting one-guyed…to put it in e-parlance lol

[u/hypersmell → u/IamRidiculous]

I would assume the tech workers that disagree with Musk also have morals, therefore, I do not see them employing the same subversive techniques as Musk.

However, I am curious as to what you envision. Are you suggesting the dissenters program bots to infiltrate social media with their (counter)messaging?

[u/Cookies78 → u/IamRidiculous]

Realest comment. I swear 80% of the internet is bots.

[u/SophieCalle]

He's got the opposite of the midas touch, literally go for it people. You have nothing to lose.

Also his brain is COOKED by all the K he's taking. He's not going to succeed in anything big in the future.

[u/Lucky-Clown → u/[deleted]]

Buddy, he inherited his wealth and then used it to buy his way up. You don't have to be a "leftie" to figure that out.

[u/CinnamonMoney → u/[deleted]]

The irony of including two black men who had complete different paths to mastery to Elon Musk. Woods — a singular sport superstar who was trained by his father from very young while Lebron was a multi sport athlete who had more hype than any prep player ever — and surpassed it.

Musk received loans from Thiel, Ellison, the government, etc and takes solace in being reckless. Why is the richest man in the world involved in a two year war with a Delaware judge over a 60 billion dollar payday instead of lowering his compensation so the judge would approve?

His actions with Trump are to capture the government’s power to extend his own. Kicking Verizon out of the air traffic control business, sabotaging as many government lawsuits as he can, forcing advertisers to pay X or else he will block their mergers, teslas and spacex w/ the military, and so forth.

Reading comprehension is not your strong unit. The poster wrote of his future success, which relies on the premise that humans will inhabit and terraform Mars. Zero shot. He had a first mover advantage with Tesla as well as prestige identity because of his association with Ironman & the capability of the early tesla models. Based off of this, his stock price has no basis in reality. It is untied to financial gravity.

He tarnished his brand completely, while the rest of the west-allied auto industry and China make serious inroads into his market share. On the satellite front, Apple & others are diligently working to takeover his virtual monopoly. His antics have only grown the investments into this industry.

[u/SophieCalle → u/[deleted]]

Fella, Tesla is tanking, there are daily protests, them being tagged left and right, people burning them, the Cybertruck is a failure, his election moves in the AfD and Wisconsin were total failures, Starship still cannot work end-to-end, x/twitter is at it's lowest valuation ever (even if he then inflated it by buying it back to himself) and virtually no one is interested in xAI/Grok.

Nothing he has done has succeeded in ages, and all we're seeing is a ponzi scheme of debt based on the back of Tesla stock which is cratering right now. And this was before Trump decided to tank the economy to set up a system of global patronage.

Now PRIOR to all of this I might say otherwise, that he was doing well (however he was falling upwards) but this is a trajectory down and he's crashing to zero fast.

Believe what you want, the stock value speaks for itself.

[u/Mysterious_Eye6989]

It's time for all the 'clever' men and women of Silicon Valley to grow some damn backbone and stand up for what's right. There's no doubt about the deranged tyranny and corruption that Musk & pals represent.

[u/Shilo788 → u/Mysterious_Eye6989]

I have sent a lot of videos of very young men recently around GOP electeds and at events. We have our own version of the Hitler youth or taliban rural young bloods. But they have no clue of what harm they are doing , just brash arrogance being used by older men to do the dirty deeds.

[u/Mysterious_Eye6989 → u/Shilo788]

Interesting, and of course very frustrating as well, to see such young fools acting in such a way. Though I think there's a bit of danger in seeing these "dangerous young men" and fearing them as we might fear Hitler Youth or the Taliban, to the extent that such fear leads to compliance...like a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy!

I think there's definitely a really tricky balancing act for non Trump supporters of being very cautious while at the same time not needlessly ceding power to thugs.

At the same time I think it would also be a good idea for these 'very young men' to be aware that many of the rest of us don't plan on forgetting their 'youthful political indiscretions' any time soon. We need long memories, in the same way that the French following the Second World War had long memories of the collaborators in their midst.

But most of all we need to be willing to go to the ends of the earth to root out the older bastards who put them up to it!

[u/SiWeyNoWay → u/Shilo788]

They are about to learn some really hard and painful history lessons

[u/Multigrain_Migraine]

"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing"

-- apparently not actually Edmund Burke, per Open Culture, but the point still stands.

https://www.openculture.com/2016/03/edmund-burkeon-in-action.html

[u/CinnamonMoney]

He and his girlboss X CEO bullied dozens of executives into spending tens of millions of advertising dollars or else face antitrust scrutiny

[u/SiWeyNoWay]

Honestly, they can all fuck right off. Those fuckers were the first people begging for a handout when they crashed that silicon valley bank.

Like, you wanna gamble with VC money? Then you can fucking crowd source the funds to bail yourselves out

[u/SgtBaxter]

Once the world collapses the stock price of Tesla, everything else collapses with it. He’s over leveraged against its value and those bills come due. He can’t pay them.

[u/SiWeyNoWay → u/SgtBaxter]

Isn’t that all Saudi money?

[u/tikifire1 → u/SiWeyNoWay]

Saudi and Russian money.

[u/Whambamthankyoulady]

The whole conservative movement is too but they're more afraid of Trump.

[u/MorkelVerlos]

It’s so easy! There’s almost nothing you can’t make fun of him for. Sure he has more money than god, but he’s still a miserable loser. Nothing will ever fill the void in his soul.

[u/Equivalent-Battle-68]

The article paints a picture of silicon valley as a liberal utopia prior to a certain point. In reality tho, tech bros have always been extremely racist and sexist. Combine this with libertarian philosophy they also share and it doesn't take much imagination to understand how we arrived where we are

[u/Manap301]

Honestly, that was beautiful to read. They now have a very small idea of being a 'reactionary' in deep blue territory. These are people who take joy in excommunicating others for even mild transgressions. I hope they are afraid.