The Grooming of Elon Musk: A Psychological Profile - Part III

Dystopias, Dystopians & Elon's Roy Cohn

This four-part psychological profile was written with the intention of answering lingering questions about Musk and to be a springboard for showcasing what Counter-Narcissist Intelligence can do to help individuals, companies and organizations better understand our world and types of narcissistic people in it.

The profile became something special when the idea that Elon should read it came into being, so it is speaking to him in a way. The concept was a tough but fair profile could help him see the light and find a healthier and happier path for himself and us, if he could just take it to heart and had the strength of will to become a better person.

Unfortunately since its publishing, Elon’s behavior has only become weaker, more pathological, erratic, accelerated, downward spiraling and malignant. Clearly unleashing himself and his hostile takeover of Twitter has triggered his worst narcissistic behaviors and instincts.

Note: The three areas marked in bold are the parts that have been refined or updated. In contrast, the much more psychological Part II had 17 areas clarified and updated.

Part III - Originally published 2/21/23

Elon said Twitter is free. Substack articles are censored there.

Trying to understand Elon’s psychology can give the sensation of falling down a rabbit hole, because he has so many complex and intermingled prisms he sees reality through besides “Asperger’s,” parental narcissistic abuse, vicious school bullying and the science fiction that maybe we all live in a simulation.

To say what levels of which parts have definitively compelled, molded and conditioned him into the person he is today is impossible without Elon really opening up, but because his AS occasionally makes him be a bit more open than most narcissistic CEOs, many aspects of his grooming now seem apparent. 

Apartheid (Apartness) - 1948-1991

Fortunately, one area of my International Relations education was Apartheid South Africa during the Cold War, so I am well versed in the extremely brutal, cruel, predatory, white supremacist, police-state dystopia, Elon grew up in.

For a quick Apartheid refresher, in 1948, a white European minority elected a government mandated to segregate the black majority from the nicest parts of South Africa, put them on reservations called bantustans, and treat them as cheap, abusable and disposable labor.

As with any system of injustice, the white society was further toxified with and groomed for accepting larger doses of disrespect, cruelty, supremacy and violence against the black majority, to keep them from acquiring equal rights Nelson Mandela eventually helped achieve with dignity, honor and intellect, after being imprisoned for decades. Of course global disapproval and sanctions helped accelerate Apartheid’s fall.

Essentially, the first 17 years of Elon’s life were lived in a very cruel time, in a very cruel place, all about white male supremacy, while most others had few civil rights.

The Musk family South African narrative is they were against Apartheid, but all affluent white males were societally groomed by this racist, misogynist, fascist dystopia to believe they should rule over others, and Elon being so hard on his workforce infers a continuing view of workers as disposable assets.

An example of South African misogyny would be how Elon’s mother couldn’t divorce his father until spousal abuse laws were changed. Apartheid itself was certainly fascist. Black protestors were regularly beaten, killed and popular leaders like Mandela were often unjustly detained, or assassinated like Stephen Biko was by the security services while in custody.

Affluenza

Unfortunately, wealth often creates its own form of apartness, unhealthy narcissism and disconnect from most people’s reality. This dynamic has recently become labeled “affluenza.” The Musks report Errol became wealthy quickly and had one of the biggest houses in Pretoria so Elon’s affluenza started early, which suggests a more affluent life was why he left his Mom for his abuser.

Although anti-tech, he said his father did eventually contribute to his first computer. Additionally, to be more popular, he invited schoolmates to parties, but it is understandable that he would use any resource to not be bullied.

Certainly, billionaire affluenza creates a unique brand of mental challenges and disconnects from reality. It drives many in that position to feel superior, and entitled to have everyone do what they say, because they are always correct or so sycophants tell them.

Therefore, affluenza is another grooming prism Musk must work to keep in check to limit unhealthy narcissism. He does discuss not wanting his kids to be spoiled, but he also said it bothers him that his sons are not being “hardened” like he was, whatever that means?

I don’t believe he wishes his kids were bullied or suffered the fatherly narcissistic abuse he did, but saying his trans daughter hates him because she was taught, “if you’re rich, you’re evil” bears the hallmarks of misogynist affluenza, since he somehow thinks it’s his wealth and not his anti-trans comments and support for transphobic policies that she hates.  

Libertarianism

Having grown up in fascist Apartheid, neurodivergent Elon has said he feared being taken away because he was different. Instead his experience with “authorities” was nobody doing anything to stop his father’s abuse or keep others from bullying him.

It is a common attitude among American immigrants who come from authoritarian countries to overly fear our government. Unlike democratic governments, authoritarian governments are almost never there to help the people. They are there to dominate and help themselves to what the people have, so the people habitually fear and avoid them.

Additionally, when someone grows up with an abusive authoritarian in their home, it is a normal reaction to want to be free of any restrictions or rules, hence they are vulnerable to the false utopian lure of libertarianism.

There is also a virulent strain of Silicon Valley Libertarianism which no doubt groomed Elon as well. The part of libertarianism that makes sense for techies is they do not want any rules, regulations or governments holding them back from developing their tech. They are engineers trying to build something great, and this is definitely the image Elon wants presented.

How ironic that no rules, laws or accountability are the exact same things narcissists, sociopaths and psychopaths want for themselves in everything. So you can understand how these pathological narcissists in Silicon Valley are eager to sell “libertarianism” to all the techie idealists who just want freedom to design, create, build new technologies and be themselves.

Additionally, I suspect what subconsciously drives his “free-speech absolutism” is he has almost no social filter and no doubt wants the freedom to say anything without repercussions, because if it’s on his mind it’s out his mouth. I “tweet more or less stream of consciousness” says Elon. As one tech friend put it, “I’ve seen lots of Silicon Valley Libertarianism over the years, he's only different in that he's doing Silicon Valley Libertarianism more loudly and publicly.”

However, he has shown he does have a self-aware business filter. He was recently asked, “How is Tesla viewing geopolitical risk between the US and China?” “Now what could possibly go wrong answering this question?” Elon said with a smirk. He then went on to give the most skillfully diplomatic answer possible by saying he “hoped for peace and respect.”

This proves he is capable of holding his tongue when he realizes he should, something an unfiltered narcissist often can’t do. In Elon’s case, it clearly takes extreme effort to filter out his negative and snarky comments, but it is important to note he can make the effort to be diplomatic when he clearly recognizes it is in his self-interest to do so.

Elon’s Roy Cohn

Author’s note: I refuse to capitalize trump unless referring to Mary Trump.

For those who don’t know, Roy Cohn was trump’s mentor in New York, and was likely a psychopath. In trump, he saw a rich narcissist he could easily groom and manipulate as his flying monkey due to trump’s massive Daddy issues and other insecurities.

I highly suspect Musk’s PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel had similar instincts when he met a clever young Elon, and then further groomed him with narcissism labeled as libertarianism every chance he got, since a top goal of wannabe authoritarians is to recruit and place in power those who can be made to serve them, as Thiel seems to have accomplished to great effect with his “PayPal Mafia.”

It’s easy to imagine Thiel as Musk’s Roy Cohn when they built up PayPal together, grooming the young and vulnerable savant Elon with his own mix of cold-blooded behaviors, completely self-serving business practices and cut-throat processes.

As previously noted, as the bullied son of an abuser, Elon is certainly very vulnerable to being manipulated and having his buttons pushed by any older, dominant and organized pathological narcissist, because if reports are accurate, his father installed plenty of narcissistic abuse buttons to be pushed and triggered by dominant narcissists in the future.

In many ways, it is hard to separate “Silicon Valley Libertarianism” from Peter Thiel since he and his “PayPal Mafia” have seeded tech ideology with it from their beginnings. However, I don’t remember hearing about Thiel until 2015. It is hard to forget someone being labeled in a tweet as a “proto-fascist vampire,” and I have never seen anything since that has contradicted Thiel’s metaphorical blood-sucking nature. No surprise, Thiel served himself well as top technology “advisor” to easily triggered narcissist trump.

Using the themes of Elon’s favorite Sci-Fi movie, Star Wars, Thiel very much seems like Silicon Valley’s Sith Lord, Emperor Palpatine who groomed, gaslit and eventually turned Musk into his libertarian Darth Vader.

However, it has been recently reported that Elon thinks Thiel is “a sociopath.” No doubt Elon remembers the cold-blooded lesson of how Thiel’s allies ruthlessly replaced him as PayPal CEO with Thiel when Elon went on his honeymoon.

Understandably, this life event has driven Elon to feel like he must always be in control, so he is not replaced again. However, Thiel’s most noteworthy flying monkey for his self-serving ideology is still the newly anointed Darth Twitter.

Sam Ray © 2023 - 2025

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