It’s Only a Ponzi Scheme If Elon Takes It From Us

Elon Musk’s relentless political meddling isn’t just exhausting—it’s dangerous. For years, he’s masqueraded as a visionary while quietly bankrolling agendas that serve his ego and power rather than the public good he claims to care about. His latest stunt—a desperate telephone rally held on March 31st to campaign for the Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Candidate Brad Schimel— was littered with lies, bribes, and apocalyptic fear mongering. I wish I could say this kind of thing is surprising, but it’s just another chapter in his playbook of undermining democracy to reshape society according to his own twisted image.

In keeping with his favorite president’s penchant for Blatant Lies™, Musk claimed during the telephone rally that 40% of Social Security calls are fraud rings; which is a claim so far in the wrong that it finds itself comfortably nestled in the Alt-Right, next to Tim Pool’s claim that he didn’t know the Russians were paying him to bash Ukraine. The Social Security Administration’s own data shows fraud accounts for less than 1% of payments, a far cry from his hysterical 40% fabrication. Even former SSA officials have called him out for peddling “flat out wrong” numbers. But why let facts get in the way of a good scare tactic? Musk knows fear sells, especially when he’s trying to justify gutting safety nets he’s labeled a “Ponzi scheme”^[1]^[2]. If you’re wondering if he even knows what a Ponzi Scheme is, he does. Because he’s the Ponzi here.

Musk also offered $20 bribes, I mean “awards” from his PAC, just for pictures of people with thumbs up next to Brad Schimel Signs, the far-right Candidate for the Wisconsin Supreme Court. Offering cash for performative loyalty isn’t grassroots activism—it’s a pathetic attempt to buy influence. We can’t forget the $1 million checks he’s doled out at rallies through America PAC, which is little more than a slush fund that’s funneled $119 million into pro-Trump campaigns^[3]^[4]. This was never patriotism. This is a billionaire treating democracy like a vending machine.

His obsession with “saving civilization” reeks of hypocrisy. On the tele-rally phone call, Musk worried about declining birth rates — meanwhile fathering 14 (or more) children — and rails against immigration as a “threat,” all while ignoring both the fact that HE is an immigrant, and that immigrants built this country^[1]^[5]. He has previously dismissed empathy as a “weakness” and a “bug” in Western civilization, arguing that caring for others is somehow destroying society^[6]^[2] — and then promptly whining that his favorability ratings are plummeting faster than his Tesla Stock Prices. His vision of “saving” us apparently involves dismantling every thread of social cohesion—privatizing public institutions, demonizing vulnerable groups, and replacing whatever shreds of humanity are left in us with cold, algorithmic efficiency. “Efficiency,” I might add, isn’t efficient at all. A whopping 40% of the “cuts” that Elon’s DOGE has made have been to contracts that the federal government has already committed to pay for; The contractors don’t have to deliver, but the U.S. Government still has to pay^[7]. A 40% Failure rate sounds a lot like Waste to me.

The purpose of the tele-rally was for Musk to hyperventilate about Wisconsin’s redistricting as if it’s an imminent threat to the fabric of society, despite the fact that new maps would take years to implement anyway. He claims that having Susan Crawford as the new liberal Supreme Court Justice would allow the redistricting to “disenfranchise” conservative voters, when in reality, Wisconsin is a 50/50 state with a 6-2 conservative majority in the state’s House of Representatives. Redistricting to account for that would likely result in a 4-4 House of representatives; you know, one that actually represented the population of Wisconsin.

After some questioning, He vowed arrests for Social Security fraud “Tomorrow.” But this sounds more like an April Fool’s Day joke. I wouldn’t believe in the culpability of anyone he recommended for arrest at this point. This promise resonates like a certain someone’s promise of releasing a Healthcare Plan “in two weeks” for the last ten fucking years. Empty threats and vague doom-saying are this administration’s currency. Meanwhile, Elon’s DOGE slashes funding for everything except his pet projects, all under the guise of “saving taxpayers money”^[2].

What’s truly galling is Musk’s god complex. He doesn’t want to fix society—he wants to bulldoze it and rebuild what I am sure he would consider “Utopia” where he’s the architect. His idea of “efficiency” means stripping away protections for workers, seniors, the disabled, and immigrants to create a world that serves only the wealthy and powerful. He’s not a savior; He’s a profiteer of death and chaos, an Oligarch and a Eugenicist. He’s a Fascist, and he’s proud of it.

Musk’s “mission” has nothing to do with saving civilization and everything to do with controlling it. If Western civilization is in crisis, it’s not because of empathy or immigrants, or what he calls “useless eaters” like the elderly and disabled—it’s because billionaires like Musk are hellbent on razing democracy to the ground and looting the ashes to decorate their mansions.

If you are in Wisconsin, please support Susan Crawford for Supreme Court Justice; If not to save democracy in Wisconsin, then at least just to piss off Musk.

To find out where you can vote today, April 1st, 2025, follow this link and enter your information:

https://myvote.wi.gov/en-us/Find-My-Polling-Place

It’s Only a Ponzi Scheme If Elon Takes It From Us

Written by:

Lilith Grieves