Elon Musk and the Narratives of the Far Right

The richest man in the world likes to talk about the decline of culture and a longed-for salvation. Just like all anti-democratic movements.

AI-generated photo of a large room with empty cribs and an abandoned rocking horse. — Too few children in the world would also paint a bleak picture for ChatGPT: The language model interpreted Felix Schilk‘s text for ATTEMPTO.

It’s the birthrates. It’s the birthrates. Its the birthrates,” echoed the introduction line in the manifesto of the Christchurch shooter who killed 51 people in a mosque in 2019. His claim was that white people are being “replaced” by other races and wont survive without action. A few years later, the same obsession with birth rates has become a catchphrase of Elon Musks daily social media activism. Dont get me wrong, Elon Musk is not a right-wing terrorist. Yet, like other people with extremist opinions, he promotes the view that society is in decline and that action is needed to prevent a related apocalypse. These rhetorical overlaps are hardly coincidental. They stem from a reactionary philosophy that has a long history of going viral. Anxiety that low birthrates inevita- bly lead to population collapse has been haunting the west since mass consumption became its dominant lifestyle¹. This flips the older Malthusian fear of exponential population growth that will outpace our ability to produce food. Seen in the bigger picture, both are variations of a generic narrative known as decadence. The idea of decadence – moral decline triggered by excessive indulgence – informs many parts of everyday sense-making, especially cultural criticism.

Ever read American historian Christopher Laschs famous bestseller about the contemporary culture of narcissism? Ever come across the popular meme that claims “weak men create hard times”? Ever followed the Cultural Tutors tweets about the loss of beauty in architecture? Ever doomscrolled through Jordan Petersons 1,437 YouTube videos? The detail varies, but the overarching theme of decadence is the same every time.

Men should be subordinate. Women should bear children. A new nobility should replace the liberal elites.

Crumbling ancient statues on a bridge, modern skyscrapers in the background. — Fans of ancient sculptures should be horrified: ChatGPT illustrates the “decay of civilizations” with crumbling statues.

Decadence is a useful double-edged sword as a narrative.

It frames the masses as sluggish and in need of discipline. The corrupt elites, meanwhile, simply need to be replaced. It bemoans the erosion of authority and draws on the premise that every society rests upon eternal hierarchies. Too much freedom, fun and flexibility, the story goes, jeopardises order and, thus, prosperity. Hence, some rules for life: men must subordinate and obey for the sake of the greater good. Women must breed to secure the existence of our people and a future for our children. A new nobility shall replace the liberal elites and recreate culture. Otherwise, civilisation, or at least nations, are at stake. Does this sound familiar? Ever since the biblical legends of Sodom and Gomorrah and the Hindu myth of Kali Yuga², adversaries of equality and the rule of law accused societies of being decadent. From ancient populists in the Roman empire to Italian fascists, decadence is the transhistorical scaffolding that binds together the branches of anti-liberal philosophy. Today, neoreactionary philosopher and advocate of a “dark enlightenment”, Curtis Yarvin, declares in the New York Times that democracy is “dead”. He longs to replace it with an American monarchy.

Political scientist Patrick Deneens claim of a “nearly complete disassociation of the governing class and a citizenry without a cives” equally draws on a decadence narrative. All these ideas rest on a cyclical perception of time. Rise and fall. Blossom and decay. Apocalypse and palingenesis, meaning a national or ethnic rebirth. In my research, I’ve analysed hundreds of German and French neo-fascist magazines³. In the end, the data was the same endless repetition of decadence and apocalypticism. I dubbed it conservative crisis narratives.

If I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then that‘s what I‘m going to do. - J.D. Vance

A city burns on huge screens, thousands of people stand in front of the screen and watch. — A city burns on giant screens and everyone watches - the vision of the apocalypse according to ChatGPT.

The Politics of Crisis

In most cases, theres no need to worry. Decadence is just a cliché. But that is why everybody can so easily sell own versions of this story – as long as they recap the grand narrative. Facts don’t matter and the devil isn’t in the detail. “If I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then thats what Im going to do,” Donald Trumps vice-president J.D. Vance frankly admitted during the 2024 campaign. His confession reveals a sociological truth about the function of crisis narratives. According to American anthropologist Janet Roitman, who delved into what she calls the “politics of crisis”, such a narrative “cannot be taken as a description of a historical situation nor can it be taken to be a diagnosis of the status of history”. Instead, she elaborates, it is a “necessarily political denunciation”. Every crisis narrative strengthens the call for redeemers. “The 2024 election is the last shot to save America,” claims Donald Trump. “Only the AfD can save Germany,” reposts Musk. Its a scaleable story.

Only the AfD can save Germany. - Reposts Elon Musk

Many people are standing in front of a huge statue of a ruler. Above him is a symbol based on the swastika. — ChatGPT is not allowed to use a swastika as a symbol for fascism. Instead, the language model outputs nested squares standing on corners. Cautious and suggestive at the same time.

Elon Musks Philosophy

In France, the far-right philosopher Guillaume Faye, who inspired the identitarian movement, invented a reactionary philosophy called “archeofuturism”⁴ . It aims to combine skyrocketing technical progress and a medieval morality of heroism and hierarchies. Thats not far from how Musk answers the decadence narrative with a call to radical long-termism.

The “digital town square” that X claims to be, for instance, is a signifier of the feudal public sphere. Musks digital reenactment of ancient Romes aesthetics reflects the far-right desire for an American Caesar. Oswald Spenglers Decline of the West, the most influential book in pre-fascist Germany, promoted the very same idea. Musks philosophy appears to be that men shall submit to the CEO-kings long-term ambition. To conquer space, colonise Mars, and merge human brains into one singular artificial intelligence, the individual and its needs become negligible. And thats what the decadence narrative is all about in the first place.

Felix Schilk works at the Institute of Media Studies on the project “Rechte Immersionen und engagierte Öffentlichkeit”.

The sociologist completed his doctorate at TU Dresden. His dissertation “Die Erzählgemeinschaft der Neuen Rechten” was published by transkript Verlag in 2024.

¹John Markert: “The Malthusian fallacy: Prophecies of Doom and the crisis of Social Security”, Social Science Journal, 9. Dez 2019

²Carol Schaeffer: “Alt-Reich: The unholy alliance between India and the new global wave of white supremacy”, The Caravan, 1. Jan 2018

³Felix Schilk: „Die Erzählgemeinschaften der Neuen Rechten– Zur politischen Soziologie konservativer Krisennarrative“, transcript Verlag, 2024

⁴Stéphane Francois, Adrien Nonjon: “Guillaume Faye (1949–2019): At the Forefront of a New Theory of White Nationalism”, Journal of Illiberalism Studies, 8. April 2022

Text: Felix Schilk

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