“The fundamental weakness is empathy,” Musk recently told radio podcast host Joe Rogan. “There is a bug, which is the empathy response.”
As Musk has established himself as at least the second most powerful person in an administration seeking a wholesale remaking of institutions, rules and norms, what he said matters, because it encapsulates a political plan. What the Project 2025 report set out in over 900 turgid pages, Musk’s remark captures in a simple pithy mantra for the social media age.
It’s likely due to all the DMT, weed, supplements, and head trauma he’s had over his career. Rogan has been bashed around like an old soccer ball in a LatAm favela, and his pivot to ‘PodcastBro Extraordinare’ came with so much drug use, it makes your local pharmacy blush.