The Dark Politics Behind Billionaire Fight Club

The Mark Zuckerberg - Elon Musk kayfabe is Paleo-Libertarian Outreach to the Working Class

Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk have agreed to battle each other in an actual “cage fight.” If this hasn’t been on your radar then bless your heart. Specifics are TBD, but it’s widely assumed to be a mixed martial arts bout, in the freaking Colosseum in Italy.

Honestly, I don’t think it will happen unless it’s rigged to make them both look good. Elon suffers from the same crippling narcissistic personality disorder that Trump has, and you would never see Trump putting himself in a situation where embarrassment is the only plausible outcome. And because of the age difference (Zuck’s 39 to Elon’s 51) and skill level (Zuck has been training in jiu jitsu for a year or so now, and competing), Elon can’t win.

The fight is meant to be a voyeuristic train wreck and a field day for content creators. In that sense, I’m primed to ignore it entirely—certainly not worth writing about. Except pundits seem to be covering this thing as if it’s nothing more than bread and circus at the end of history. A little more soma for our screen-addled minds.

That’s not wrong, but it misses the political forest for the clicks-and-likes trees. Pundits see this as nothing more than spectacle because they don’t understand that the fight world has a powerful, widespread identity politics.

These guys—Zuck and Elon—are making a nakedly political bid to appeal to the right-leaning, patriarchal, violence-venerating bro culture that I’ve been part of for most of my adult life. Through spectacle, they’re facilitating the convergence of two very different reactionary worlds.

This is not just about bread and circus. This is coalition-building toward an alternative future with fascist potentials.

Let me explain.