Why Elon Musk is the new Henry Ford – but different than he believes

Dark side of the car king
Why Elon Musk is the modern Henry Ford – but different than he believes

Elon Musk is on stage at a trade fair

Elon Musk has a lot in common with Henry Ford – and not just good things

© Marc Piasecki/Getty Images

For years, Elon Musk has been compared to Henry Ford – in terms of his achievements in the auto industry. But the comparison increasingly fits Ford’s dark years.

He was considered a visionary: Within just a few years, Elon Musk revolutionized the car market. Brought the electric car out of its niche and made it attractive to broad sections of the population. This is how he became the richest man in the USA. When you look at the parallels, it’s no wonder that Elon Musk’s success at Tesla has often been compared to that of Henry Ford.

In recent years, however, the parallels have shifted to Ford’s dark years. After he withdrew from the car business, he built up a second source of business. At this point at the latest, the analogies should give Musk something to think about. Ford bought the Dearborn Independent, a weekly newspaper, in 1919. He converted it into a personal, political language organ according to his own convictions. And drifted further and further away.

Model Ford

The fact that Musk saw Ford as a role model is initially understandable. When the South African native started his company Tesla, the market for electric cars was practically non-existent. His pioneering spirit, his vision and his persistence contributed to the steady growth of the electromobility market.

How much he saw himself in the role of Ford can also be seen in the naming of his own cars: While the Ford Model T once made cars ubiquitous, Musk tried to emulate it with the Model S. A few thousand quickly turned into hundreds of thousands of cars per year.

Elon Musk uses X as his personal mouthpiece

In recent years, however, this success has been overshadowed by Musk’s purchase of Twitter. He had repeatedly emphasized that he would make the short message service a bastion of freedom of expression. In practice, however, this meant one thing above all: Musk had his team reverse the alleged censorship of conservative voices, which he had accused the previous operators of, and fired all of the moderators. Users who were once banned for racist insults or homophobic attacks were allowed to return. There is de facto no moderation anymore. Even the most insane conspiracy theories without any factual core can be spread as fact. The community should fix it with small tips.

Musk is diligently participating. It’s not just the overall mood at X, as the service is now called, that has slipped significantly to the right. Musk’s own political views have also noticeably shifted. After repeatedly criticizing immigration policy, trans rights and the Biden administration, he now openly supports Donald Trump. Musk is convinced that the left wants to destroy the country. “If Trump doesn’t win the election, it will likely be the last,” he predicted darkly.

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Anti-Semitism in newspaper form

Henry Ford also pursued this type of media battle against a clear enemy. The almost insolvent “Dearborn Independent” became a national mass-market newspaper under his leadership and thanks to his financial resources. And at the forefront of anti-Semitism in the USA.

Ford hated Jews with a passion. He spread conspiracy theories in a campaign that ran over 91 issues of the newspaper. Heinrich Himmler called Ford “one of our most valuable, important and cleverest fighters”, and he is mentioned positively in Adolf Hitler’s “Mein Kampf”. With the “Dearborn Independent” hatred of Jews reached the masses in the USA. Ford dealers had to display copies of the magazine, which was read by almost a million people.

Stage for hate

Musk has already provided a large platform for hatred of Jews on several occasions. This also has to do with how his platform X works. With more than 200 million followers, Elon Musk is by far the most subscribed user on X, and his posts are automatically shown in the feeds of people who don’t follow him, a leak revealed. So if Musk comments on a post or even shares it himself, it appears in millions of feeds.

For example, he recently distributed an interview as “worth watching” in which the extreme right-wing moderator Tucker Carlson had a self-proclaimed Holocaust expert explain why the systematic mass murder of millions was actually due to the incompetence of the Nazis. Musk backtracked, explaining afterwards that he hadn’t seen the entire interview.

But it wasn’t an isolated case. The billionaire repeatedly recommended accounts of open anti-Semites as sources about the war in Israel and actively spread anti-Semitic conspiracy theories.

Financial consequences

One thing in particular shows how serious Musk is about his political commitment: he is leaning further and further to the right – even though X is suffering financially as a result. Because they don’t want to see their products next to radical or inhumane statements, more and more advertising customers are turning their backs on the short message service. This has consequences: If Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion, X is according to the US investment firm Fidelity only worth just under ten billion dollars.

Tesla is also increasingly suffering from the reputation of its managing director. With the electric transition, Musk’s company primarily appealed to modern, environmentally conscious people. However, they feel increasingly put off by the public statements made by the 53-year-old, who is still closely associated with the brand. At the same time, classic car manufacturers and especially start-ups from China are catching up in the electric market – this paints an increasingly bleak picture for Tesla.

Ford also only ended its anti-Semitic campaign when its car business suffered significantly. In 1927 he closed the Dearborn Independent and apologized for public hatred of Jews. “He really had it in for the Jews,” comedian Will Rogers joked about Ford’s about-face. “Until he saw them driving around in Chevrolets.”

Sources: Guardian, Yougov, Wall Street Journal, Business Insider, Barrons, Financial Times

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