Where did Elon Musk’s epic ambitions begin? In search of clues we return to his sheltered youth in apartheid South Africa, a world engineered for white supremacy. Along the way, we connect the dots between a bizarre White House ambush of South African president Cyril Ramaphosa to teenage Elon’s ego-powered quests in video games. Finally, was his “draft dodge” from military service a moral act or an opportunist’s exit?
Guests in this episode include:
- Rudolph Pienaar, childhood friend of Elon Musk
- Will Shoki, South African journalist and writer
Topics in this episode include:
- Donald Trump’s Oval Office ambush of President Cyril Ramaphosa with conspiracy theories about an anti-white Afrikaaner farmer genocide, or “white genocide” in South Africa
- Elon Musk’s South African childhood, including his time at Pretoria Boys High School and his approach to fantasy role playing video games
- Apartheid and structural white privilege/supremacy
- The South African Border War, conscription and draft-dodging
Apartheid, Elon Musk, Racism, South Africa, The Far Right, The Far Right in the US, United States, White Supremacism
Views: 29
More content from this blog
- Crackdown in Indonesia, Anarchists Appeal for Solidarity, by Cristina Sykes – 27 October 2025
- The ICE Storm: A Year-Long Escalation, by Christina Pagel – 26 January 2026
- Trumpism in Nigeria, by Nanre Nafziger and Adam Khalid Muhammad – 27 March 2026
- As a Palestinian Woman, It Is My Duty to Support the Ethiopian Struggle, by Samah Salaime – 15 July 2019
- Campism and the Geopoliticisation of African Civil Society, by François Polet – 20 December 2024