People need to keep in mind that a large portion of alternative media receives funding from what I refer to as the “Thielverse.” By this, I mean figures like Peter Thiel, but more broadly, individuals associated with the so-called “PayPal Mafia”—those affiliated with PayPal to various degrees. This group, of course, includes Elon Musk. These individuals wield significant influence not only over alternative media but also over content platforms like Rumble.

This group has been funding so-called “libertarian” movements and related initiatives. However, I don’t see them as genuinely libertarian at all. Take Peter Thiel, for instance. He claims to be a Bitcoin maximalist, yet he also stated, during a panel discussion alongside former CIA Director Mike Pompeo, that Bitcoin is a “Chinese financial weapon against the U.S. dollar.”

Moreover, Thiel claims to be a libertarian but created Palantir, which is arguably the most invasive surveillance tool the CIA possesses today. Essentially, he handed the state one of the most powerful tools for surveillance, despite claiming to oppose government overreach.

Similarly, with Elon Musk, it’s important to examine his actions rather than just his words. People often fail to scrutinize the disconnect between what someone says and what they do, whether it’s Musk or anyone else. Words can be deceptive, and unless you look at the actions behind them, you’ll never truly understand what’s going on.

For Musk, the question remains: did he purchase Twitter (now X) to save free speech? Or did he buy it to gain access to a vast amount of data for training AI and developing other products? Alternatively, as he has openly admitted, did he acquire Twitter to transform it into “X,” the so-called “everything app”? This app wouldn’t just be social media—it could potentially control a large part of the financial system, becoming a kind of American WeChat. In China, WeChat’s dominance allows it to accumulate massive amounts of data and exert significant control over users.

This level of control is something people tend to overlook. Elon Musk is often viewed as the richest man in the world because of his entrepreneurial efforts, but is his wealth solely the result of his business acumen? Or has it been heavily supported by government subsidies and collaborations with the state?

For example, SpaceX, one of Musk’s companies, is currently a contractor for both military and intelligence agencies. Its success is closely tied to those contracts, as well as to previous government subsidies that allowed Musk to build his empire. Without these subsidies and state support, his trajectory might have been very different.

Whitney Webb