Election Misinformation: How Trump & Musk Spit Out Fallacies That Undermine Democracy – CleanTechnica

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Fallacies have been rampant throughout the Trump for President campaign. Standing alongside the guy who perfected the Art of the Steal Deal is Tesla CEO Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, who has committed more than $70 million to boost Trump in the election. The New York Times reports that in private conversations “Mr. Musk is obsessive, almost manic, about the stakes of the election and the need for Mr. Trump to win.”

Yet this is the same Musk who once called Trump a “stone-cold loser.”

What’s behind Musk’s newfound allegiance to Trump?

The largest reason by far is Musk’s goal to shortcut federal regulations that he perceives inhibit his various companies’ rush to production.

Speaking on Tesla Inc.’s third-quarter earnings call, Musk called for national rules to allow self-driving cars on US roads without traditional driver controls. Current US policy poses several hurdles for vehicles designed without traditional foot pedals or steering wheels, including the Cybercab concept Musk revealed earlier this month. Also, regulations on self-driving vehicles are set state by state. Musk is of the opinion it would be much more efficient to have top-down policies from the US government on this topic. “If there is a Department of Government Efficiency, I will try to make that happen,” Musk said.

Similarly, on the matter of his rocket ship company, anticipating some pushback from the Harris administration about SpaceX funding, Musk wrote: “Unless Trump wins and we get rid of the mountain of smothering regulations (that have nothing to do with safety!), humanity will never reach Mars. This is existential.”

It’s all about the profitability, stupid.

Meanwhile, The Zeitgeist Around Tesla Just Keeps Rollin’ On

As I write this article, after market closing on Friday, Tesla [NASDAQ:TSLA] entered the weekend at a share price of $248.98. That’s down quite a bit from the high a week ago of $269.19. Both, though, are a significant increase over April’s basement low of $144.68. Part of the performance was October’s reported better-than-expected third-quarter profitability.

Ark Invest delivered a comment in a note then to shareholders about Tesla after the company traded up ~21%. With record-low vehicle costs, additional revenue recognition for Full Self-Driving (FSD) software, and significant growth in energy storage and services, Tesla shares soared. Ark Invest referred to Tesla as “an artificial intelligence (AI) company that sells vehicles, energy storage products, and autonomous driving solutions.”

Tesla’s reaffirmed plans to release a low-cost vehicle in the first half of 2025 should support its target for 20–30% vehicle growth, Ark suggested, with support of its launch of a ride-hailing service in California and Texas next year.

Compressing the big picture of mercurial Musk into a tight little bundle like Ark has allows Musk’s allure to remain strong, even with the political headwinds that batter him.

Musk’s Social Faux Pas Fall Short of Credibility

We know that a number of investment firms have raised concerns for shareholders about senior leadership at the company, going so far as to urge shareholders to vote against Musk’s 2018 option award. While Musk was awarded handsomely with a compensation deal valued at around $46 billion, it’s been a tumultuous ride ever since.

After a very unfortunate Trump assassination attempt, Musk mused on X, “And no one is even trying to assassinate Biden/ Harris.” The tweet was pulled very quickly, after which Musk muttered that it was merely a joke that fell flat given the context.

The news about Musk’s kissing up to Putin — someone who has been cast as an enemy of the US for decades — would have been the last straw for nearly any other CEO.

Musk’s misinformation on X has created a “huge problem” for election officials in key battleground states, including Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Arizona. Officials have tried — and largely failed — to fact-check Musk in real time. Several told CNN they’re struggling to combat the wave of falsehoods coming from the lies he’s “spreading wildly” on X. Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson described Musk’s flagrant attempts to manipulate the electorate:

“The bottom line is it’s really disappointing that someone with as many resources and as big of a platform as he clearly has would use those resources and allow that platform to be misused to spread misinformation when he could help us restore and ensure people can have rightly placed faith in our election outcomes, whatever they may be.”

Research reveals that the conservative or right-wing audience is more vulnerable to fake news and has greater vulnerability to conspiracy theories. Alongside Trump and his coterie of sycophants, Musk’s purposeful misleading of the US electorate may have significant consequences for our democracy. Musk’s shattered promises and grandiose dreams seem like nothing now as we realize the consequences of his intentional fallacies.

The Art of the Political Lie

Since 2021, the social media industry has undergone a dramatic transformation and pivoted from many of the commitments, policies, and tools it once embraced to help safeguard the peaceful transfer of democratic power. It’s widely accepted that Silicon Valley tech gurus bristle at notions of corporate social responsibility. That’s fueled a proliferation of blatant fallacies that Trump and his sidekick Musk have incorporated into their discourse. Let’s look at some examples.

Accusation in a mirror: Trump accused Joe Biden of trying to destroy American democracy, yet this year Trump advisors have issued Project 2025, which actually seeks to dismantle many democratic principles in the US government.

In August, Trump falsely claimed in a series of social media posts that “nobody” attended Vice President Kamala Harris’ Michigan rally the previous week. He argued that Harris should be “disqualified” over a “fake crowd picture.” As Susan Benesch of the Dangerous Speech Project explains, “The speaker accuses the target group of plotting the same harm to the audience that the speaker hopes to incite.” The technique, Benesch outlines, works in tandem with disinformation campaigns aimed at dehumanizing the enemy.

Joseph Goebbels instructed Nazi colleagues during World War II to “impute to enemies exactly what they and their own party are planning to do.” In other words, accuse the opposition of malfeasance in which your group is already engaged. It is an exact mirror of the perpetrator’s own intentions, drawing on claims that members of the target group pose a mortal or existential threat to the audience.

Logical fallacies: Fallacies are either flawed arguments or irrelevant thoughts that are commonly uncovered due to a lack of proof to back up their claims. Republican Vice Presidential nominee JD Vance has been called out, again and again, for making racist and xenophobic statements about legal Haitian immigrants in Ohio.

Musk addressed a crowded town hall in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, where he downplayed the January 6 US Capitol riot and suggested mail ballots were a “recipe for fraud.” There are a number of safeguards to protect mail-in ballots, with various ballot verification protocols, including every state requiring a voter’s signature.

Ad hominem: A candidate may purposefully commit the fallacy to deceive others, and Trump has been accused of being “the king of ad hominem.” In 2020, Trump claimed that Biden received $3.5 million from Russia through Putin, a misleading claim which reflects actions the Trump campaign has been found to engage in. Instead of addressing someone’s argument or viewpoint, this fallacy arises when you criticize the person or some feature of the person who is presenting the argument.

Trump attacked Harris after she promised to create an “opportunity economy” during their only debate. “Why hasn’t she done it?” he asked, failing to disclose his own economic policy would offer little opportunity to middle class voters.

In recent weeks, the former president has been ramping up his ad hominem attacks. Trump frequently refers to Harris as dumb, weak, and crazy.

Musk attacked new Australian legislation aimed at tackling deliberate lies spread on social media, accusing the Labor government of being “fascist.” Social media companies like Musk’s X could be fined up to 5% of their annual turnover due to the new rules. Anthony Albanese, the Australian prime minister, dismissed Musk’s claims, saying the US billionaire needed to recognize X “has a social responsibility.” If Musk fails to grasp his use of fallacies, Albanese continued, “that says more about him than it does about my government.”

Poisoning the well: These types of fallacies reject a critique or argument provided by another individual because of personal reasons or bad motives. It’s intended to denigrate the source of an argument or point of view in such a way that there is no need to consider the merits of that stance. This fallacy is distinguished by the presentation of biased information (whether true or false) about an opponent in an attempt to prematurely undermine the credibility of the opponent’s evidence or argument by using the future tense “will”and “would.”

As reported by The Economic Times, independent journalist Ken Klippenstein published an article with reportedly hacked material about Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance. Musk’s social media platform, X, moved to stop the circulation of the article and suspended the author’s account. It was reversed only after a user on X asked Musk why the reporter had been suspended.