埃隆·马斯克想拯救西方文明，使其免于“同理心”的桎梏

CNN 2025年3月5日

https://edition.cnn.com/2025/03/05/politics/elon-musk-rogan-interview-empathy-doge

美国人仍然不清楚埃隆·马斯克正在通过“狗狗币”（Doge，即政府效率部）开展的工作究竟规模和范围。该部门致力于大幅缩减政府规模，目标是削减1万亿美元甚至更多的政府开支。

但我们对马斯克的动机有了一些了解——他试图对抗他所谓的“文明自杀式同理心”。

在2月28日发布的与播客主持人乔·罗根长达三小时的访谈中，马斯克谈到了他深信不疑的阴谋论：民主党人正努力引进尽可能多的非法移民，以便他们能够永远掌控美国政府。

“如果他们再执政四年，他们会在摇摆州合法化足够多的非法移民，让这些州不再是摇摆州，”马斯克告诉罗根。“这些州就会变成民主党州。然后他们就会……赢得总统大选；他们会赢得众议院、参议院和总统职位。”

这番想法异想天开，与已被驳斥的“替代理论”如出一辙。该理论存在诸多事实漏洞，首先，非公民在联邦选举中投票是违法的，而且非法入境者也没有直接获得公民身份的途径。

但接下来的对话或许更能揭示马斯克削减政府规模的动机，这与他在私营部门的收购、兼并和创办公司不谋而合。他认为，对个人的同情会损害集体利益。

马斯克指出，加州政府已采取措施，为符合低收入Medi-Cal计划资格的无证移民提供医疗保险。

“我们现在正经历着一种文明自杀式的同理心，”马斯克说道，他借用了加拿大学者加德·萨阿德（Gad Saad）的说法，萨阿德也是罗根（Rogan）节目的常客。

马斯克表示，他相信同理心，也认为“你应该关心他人”，但他同时也认为同理心正在摧毁社会。

“西方文明的根本弱点在于同理心，在于对同理心的利用，”马斯克说道。“他们正在利用西方文明的一个漏洞，那就是同理心反应。”

他表示，同理心已被“武器化”。

随着马斯克将矛头指向美国政府，这一点尤其值得我们铭记。尽管唐纳德·特朗普总统曾表示，除了打击欺诈行为外，削减开支不会触及社会保障、医疗保险和医疗补助等社会保障项目，但马斯克在采访中明确表示，他认为社会保障的概念就是一个“庞氏骗局”。

沃尔特·艾萨克森谈埃隆·马斯克的人生、自负和“缺乏同理心”

马斯克缺乏同理心是沃尔特·艾萨克森最近出版的传记中的一个主题。为了撰写这本传记，作者在马斯克接管推特期间获得了与这位亿万富翁的密切接触。

书中还贯穿了马斯克对其公司员工的漠视，包括在特斯拉和SpaceX的生产线上，他被描述为经常解雇员工。

在这些公司里，马斯克都表达了拯救人类的愿望：特斯拉的愿景是通过电动汽车；SpaceX的愿景是通过实现星际旅行；而推特的愿景则是捍卫美国宪法第一修正案。

“他喜欢这种帮助人类的想法，”艾萨克森在2023年接受CNN记者克里斯蒂安·阿曼普尔采访时说道。“事实上，他对全人类的同情心往往比对身边那20个人的同情心还要强。”

马斯克仍然把自己视为一个敢于冒险的超级英雄；他曾多次向罗根倾诉自己对死亡的恐惧。如今，他不再致力于拯救人类，而是认为自己是在通过削减数十亿美元的开支来拯救美国政府，即便这会影响到许多美国人的日常生活——比如让他们失业或削减政府服务。

Elon Musk wants to save Western civilization from empathy

CNN  Mar 5, 2025

https://edition.cnn.com/2025/03/05/politics/elon-musk-rogan-interview-empathy-doge 

Americans are still in the dark about the scope and scale of what Elon Musk is doing with DOGE, the Department of Government Efficiency, which is working to drastically shrink the size of government by aiming to cut $1 trillion or more in government spending.

But there’s some insight into what’s driving Musk — namely, an effort to combat what he referred to as “civilizational suicidal empathy.”

During a three-hour interview with the podcaster Joe Rogan released February 28, Musk talked about his deeply held belief in the conspiracy theory that Democrats are working to import as many undocumented immigrants as possible so that they can take over the US government forever.

“If they had another four years, they would legalize enough illegals in the swing states to make the swing states not swing states,” Musk told Rogan. “They would just, they would be blue states. Then they would … win the presidential; they’d win the House, the Senate and the presidency.”

It’s a wild idea along the same lines as the debunked “replacement theory.” And there are many factual holes in the theory, starting with the fact that it’s illegal for noncitizens to vote in federal elections and there’s no direct pathway to citizenship for people who enter the country illegally.

But what came next in the conversation may shine more of a light on what motivates Musk to cut down the size of government, and it melds with his takeover, purchase and founding of companies in the private sector. It’s the belief that empathy for individuals is costly to the collective.

Musk pointed to California’s move to provide medical insurance even to undocumented people who qualify for its low-income Medi-Cal program.

“We’ve got civilizational suicidal empathy going on,” Musk said, borrowing the term from Gad Saad, a Canadian scholar who is also a frequent Rogan host.

While Musk said he believes in empathy and that “you should care about other people,” he also thinks it’s destroying society.

“The fundamental weakness of Western civilization is empathy, the empathy exploit,” Musk said. “There it’s they’re exploiting a bug in Western civilization, which is the empathy response.”

Empathy, he said, has been “weaponized.”

It’s an important thing to remember as Musk turns his crusade toward the US government. While President Donald Trump has said cuts will not touch safety net programs such as Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, except to root out fraud, Musk made clear during the interview that he believes that the concept of Social Security is a “Ponzi scheme.”

And Musk’s disregard for individuals employed at his companies is also a throughline in the book, including on production lines at Tesla and at SpaceX, where he is described as quick to fire people.

At each of those companies, Musk expressed a desire to save humanity: with electric cars in the case of Tesla; by making humanity interplanetary in the case of SpaceX; and by sticking up for the First Amendment in the case of Twitter.

“He likes this notion of helping humanity,” Isaacson told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour in 2023. “In fact, he has more empathy for humanity in general than he often has for the 20 people around him.

Musk still has that view of himself as a superhero taking risks; he repeatedly told Rogan about his fear of being killed. Now, instead of saving humanity, he believes he is saving the US government by cutting billions of dollars in spending, even if it impacts many Americans’ daily lives — by costing them their jobs or by curtailing government services — in the process.