Bleecker Street
Last week, I sat down for all three hours and 52 minutes of the new Alex Gibney documentary, "Musk." It promised to detail Elon Musk's rise as a tech mogul, rocket builder, car builder, and political figure, and it promised to do so with such honesty that Elon himself threatened to sue over it. In all that footage, though, Gibney explains a phenomenon that folks in the industry have long known: Everything Musk does is connected.
See, whenever we at the good ship Jalopnik write a piece about Elon Musk funding right wing politicians (at home or abroad), working within the Trump White House, funding eugenics research, or generally just being a politically objectionable guy, we can always rely on the same few comments coming up. We'll get responses like "Why does this matter?," "His politics aren't Tesla's politics," or most directly, "Stick to cars." It's all connected, though, and you need look no further than "Musk" (the film) to understand this about Musk (the man).
The money keeps moving, in a circle
Amber DaSilva
I'm not going to say that "Musk" is a perfect film — it's hard to cover a man who's done so much in just one movie, and even at four hours there are things I wish the documentary had taken the time to cover — but it's very good at showing how money and data link all of Musk's endeavors. Zip2 gave him the money to do PayPal, which gave him the money to do SpaceX, which (through government funding) gave him the cash to invest in Tesla. Tesla stock skyrocketed, based largely on Musk's promises of autonomy, and that cash allowed him to buy politicians — politicians that keep investigations off Musk's back and government funding in his pockets. No part of the network exists without the others, and all are necessary for Musk's goals.
The "Musk" documentary is only in limited release right now, but it's worth seeking out when it comes to your town — it's well worth the time it spends building its story. For those of you who ask why we cover the man's politics, look no further than this film.