This is a lightly edited transcript of the accompanying video from professor Peter St. Onge.
Recently, Elon Musk gave a talk detailing the government attacks on his companies since he came out as pro-free speech and, especially, since he came out as pro-Donald Trump.
These include endless made-up environmental rules—including a study to see if falling rockets hit sharks. It includes curbs on SpaceX launches specifically because Elon tweets pro-Trump things. And it includes a $600,000 fine for spilling … drinking water in a desert.
Not a joke.
Attacking dissident companies, of course, is a hallmark of authoritarian regimes. As Mussolini put it, “everything within the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state.”
For a true authoritarian no citizen is allowed to dissent—and certainly no companies, which are sitting ducks.
Of course, in…
