An American vigilante tears across an unnamed European country, killing dozens of police officers and judges, slaughtering a gang of rapists, and killing a refugee family and a random civilian – all in the name of a crusade against Muslim migrants and “woke” government officials. Citizen Vigilante, a film from German director Uwe Boll and starring actor Armie Hammer, is violent – and very schlocky – stuff. Initially denied a rating by Germany’s film regulator, it would likely have garnered very little attention had it not caught the eye of the world’s richest person.
Elon Musk made the film free to view via his social media platform X for 48 hours in late June, and the subsequent attention briefly pushed the movie into the top of the charts of several streaming providers including Apple and Amazon. At one point, he reposted a message about the film that described vigilante murder as the “moderate response” to violent crimes committed by immigrants. It’s just one of many recent examples of the tech titan’s increasing interest in extreme ideas and activists, and in particular his support of political parties and politicians on the right in Europe.
Musk left the Trump administration more than a year ago, and his Doge project, which aimed to slash the size of the US federal government, has since been wound down. But he has recently sought to conquer other political territory. “This is a crusade,” says Georgios Samaras, an assistant professor of public policy at King’s College London who studies the European and US far right.
“Musk uses the power he has to amplify the ideas that he thinks should dominate society. He knows he has the money and he knows he has the influence.” ‘Radicalised by his own network’ Much of that influence comes via X, formerly Twitter, the social media platform that Musk bought outright in 2022. Since stripping away many of the old Twitter’s content moderation rules – derided as censorship by Musk and others – the network has become a haven for far-right beliefs and conspiracy theories.
In turn, X appears to have shaped Musk. Although it’s difficult to glean a cohesive worldview from social media fragments – Musk did not respond to requests for comment for this story – his output has demonstrated a growing obsession with race and white people in particular. He has posted and reposted a slew of messages – often from white nationalist and f…
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