What does Elon Musk want with all of this data?
Elon Musk has been gaining access to vast amounts of data held by the U.S. government about its citizens. Assisting him in this effort are his own employees, some of whom have been seconded into government service to manage the process. At times, it’s hard to tell whether the Department of Government Efficiency is part of the U.S. government or just another extension of Musk’s private empire.
Ostensibly, this is part of a broader government efficiency initiative—one that appears to involve mass firings, only for some employees to be rehired later. The last time Musk carried out such a drastic workforce reduction, he tanked the share price of Xitter so severely that he suffered the largest single-day loss in corporate history.
As I discussed a few weeks ago, Musk’s ambitious plan to slash $1 trillion from the U.S. government budget is doomed to fail.
But there’s something much bigger at play here.
The Authoritarian Playbook
One of the defining traits of authoritarianism is the erosion of boundaries between public and private life. In a democracy, privacy is sacred. The right to a private life at home, free from government intrusion, is a core principle. In Britain, we cherish the idea of “minding your own business,” and few things are worse than being labeled a “nosy Parker.”
We expect that access to our health records, financial information, and private conversations will be restricted to those who genuinely need to know. But in an authoritarian state, privacy ceases to exist. The government knows everything about you and wields that data for its own ends.
This is exactly what Musk is orchestrating. He is constructing the architecture of a totalitarian state in plain sight—one that is far more sophisticated than anything the communists or fascists could have imagined. Unlike past regimes, Musk isn’t just leveraging government records. He has access to the overwhelming flood of personal information we willingly hand over through our digital lives. Every tweet, transaction, and interaction is another data point in an ever-growing web of surveillance.
Image if an authoritarian state had access to your DMs? To your private messages?
Power, Corruption, and Control
The alliance between Musk, Trump, and other political actors isn’t just about slashing government jobs. It’s about dismantling the institutions that serve as checks and balances against corruption and unchecked power. The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act has already been suspended.
In its place, new structures are emerging—systems that claim to boost efficiency but, in reality, are laying the groundwork for control and repression.
And then there’s DOGE—Musk’s meme-fueled cryptocurrency of choice. Some might dismiss it as a joke, but it’s also a test case for a new financial infrastructure—one that bypasses traditional banking oversight. When paired with his control over data, this could be another key pillar in an authoritarian system that operates beyond democratic accountability.
What we’re witnessing isn’t just government restructuring. It’s the transformation of power itself. Musk isn’t just playing with DOGE and rockets—he’s reshaping the future of governance, technology, and control.
The question is: Are we paying attention?
Post script
As you may have spotted I have started using AI to sub-edit my posts, correct typos etc. This week when I asked ChatGPT to sub this post it added in a whole new paragraph about Dogecoin which I hadn’t actually written.
Worth noting that Trump has his own cryptocoin too. Almost as if they were hedging against currency controls or a sudden loss in value of the dollar?
It also advised me not to refer to Elon Musk and has pals as the Nerd Reich. Which is probably for the best.