Elon Musk and Gov. Gavin Newsom’s public fights seem far more calculated than cross | Opinion

Are Elon Musk and Gov. Gavin Newsom using each other for publicity? At this point, I’m suspicious that they’re not the enemies they portray themselves to be on social media, but are actually friends propping up each other’s propaganda efforts.

Think about it: They’ve just had their second, very public spat in less than a month, where their names were plastered all over social media as they went toe-to-toe — or keyboard-to-keyboard, if you will.

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Last time, it was over Newsom signing Assembly Bill 1955, which banned school districts from forcibly outing transgender children to their parents. Musk lost his mind online over that one, going so far as to threaten to move both the SpaceX headquarters and the X headquarters (formerly and always known as Twitter to those of us who refuse to call it X) to Texas in a fit of toddler-esque pique.

Mind you, Musk has a child who is transgender, whom he has publicly insulted many times. Just this week, he called his very-much-alive trans child “dead,” killed by the “woke mind virus.”

Then, earlier this week, Long Beach Mayor Rex Richardson announced publicly that the city’s port would be the new home for SpaceX’s recovery operations. Clearly, Musk’s threats are as idle and useless as a malfunctioning Cybertruck.

This new spat between Musk and Newsom is about Musk sharing an AI-manipulated, deepfake video of Vice President Kamala Harris, which spurred Newsom to announce he would seek to pass legislation that made those kinds of manipulated videos illegal.

In response to this, the state’s largest employer, Musk, replied with an extremely juvenile: “I checked with renowned world authority, Professor Suggon Deeznutz, and he said parody is legal in America.”

Such wit; Voltaire must be quaking.

Jokes aside, AI video manipulation is a serious issue, if only because too many Americans have proved themselves incapable of recognizing it. So Newsom is right to push through immediate legislation banning it, even if it means he must gut and amend another bill already working its way through the legislative process.

Habitually, the American government lags far behind the speed of technology, so any laws that can slow the onslaught of media manipulation and political propaganda is a welcome change of pace.

I’m no great Newsom fan, but even I have to admit that it’s canny marketing to portray himself publicly as the Superman to Musk’s villainous, wealthy Lex Luthor. It’s too bad Newsom is no Clark Kent, but Americans will take what they can get these days in lieu of real-life superheroes.

Actually, the whole spat is giving me the same vibes as Musk’s public tiffs with another well-known Californian: Meta’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg. Those two agreed to a literal cage match last year (they both eventually balked, no surprise there).

Perhaps we’ll see Newsom in the ring at some point, too. I’d watch that; I think a nice uppercut to Musk’s smug face followed by a gut punch to Gavie would heal something in me.

Even if there’s no outright handshake deals happening between the two, the publicity is surely boosting their respective profiles among the faithful. On one hand, there’s Musk’s legion of internet fanboys and tech trash. On the other side are … Well, I think most of the 10 million-or-so registered California Democrats who would generally take Newsom’s side most of the time.

I beg them both to remember that public attention is short and the constant battling without movement is hollow. Newsom will continue to sign liberal legislation and Musk will continue to make empty threats.

Both men have likely read The Art of War — though I suspect only one will have understood it: Remember, “the wise warrior avoids the battle.”