Katherine Long reported in the Wall Street Journal today that a member of Elon Musk’s elite tech squad resigned after some of his deleted tweets surfaced. The tweets portrayed their author as an enthusiast for racism and eugenics.
The 25-year-old employee, Marko Elez, resigned Thursday after The Wall Street Journal asked the White House about his connection to the account.
The deleted profile associated with Elez, who was embedded in the Treasury Department to carry out efficiency measures, advocated repealing the Civil Rights Act and backed a “eugenic immigration policy” in the weeks before President Trump was inaugurated.
“You could not pay me to marry outside of my ethnicity,” the account wrote on X in September, according to a Wall Street Journal review of archived posts. “Normalize Indian hate,” the account wrote the same month, in reference to a post noting the prevalence of people from India in Silicon Valley.
Elez is a graduate of Rutgers, where he majored in computer science. After college, he worked for Musk at Space X, Starlink, and X.
Musk personally urged people to apply to DOGE on X in December, promising long hours and little pay in exchange for the chance to fundamentally remake the federal government. Some of those who answered the call appear to be young Musk loyalists, steeped in internet culture, who share his worldview.
The account, @nullllptr—a misspelling of a keyword in the C++ programming language—was deleted in December, but hundreds of brash, sometimes-sophomoric posts have been archived.
The user appeared to have a special dislike for Indian software engineers. “99% of Indian H1Bs will be replaced by slightly smarter LLMs, they’re going back don’t worry guys,” the user posted in December.
“Just for the record, I was racist before it was cool,” @nullllptr posted in July.
In June, the user weighed in on the conflict in the Middle East, offering some sympathy for Israel but also posting, “I would not mind at all if Gaza and Israel were both wiped off the face of the Earth.”
We keep hearing how brilliant Musk’s team is, but this guy doesn’t sound brilliant. He sounds like a jerk.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
“Birds of a Feature Flock Together”
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Hi Lloyd: Is anybody really surprised? CBK
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Oh this arrogant and naive 25 year old kid may be able to write code like nobody else, but once something is on the Internet, he didn’t plan on it existing somewhere forever. In this case, I’m glad it came back to bite him.
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I am sure there are many, many people of all backgrounds who can write code better than this kid, but for Republicans, the definition of merit is “you got the job because a Republican wanted you to have it, so no matter no many more qualified candidates were passed over, you got it on merit.”
It explains why the media concedes that all Trump’s cabinet picks were all chosen by merit – the Republican definition of merit.
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I agree. They can call it “merit” all they want, but it’s actually a spoils system.
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Being a jerk is a job requirement in Trump’s government.
Ignorance helps, too.
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Consider being a stupid person is the top requirement for a job in Trump’s government, to wit…
“In his famous letters from [a Nazi Germany] prison, [Dietrich Bonhoeffer] argued, ‘Stupidity was a more dangerous enemy of goodness than evil. While we can protest and fight against evil, we are virtually powerless against stupidity. Neither protest or use of force has any effect. Even reason proves futile, because stupidity triumphs over it.
‘Another critical aspect is that stupidity becomes particularly dangerous when combined with power. Bonhoeffer observed that individuals and groups who are under the influence of authoritarian leaders become more susceptible to stupidity. The crowd provides them a sense of security, while responsibility for their actions is transferred to the group or its leadership. This explains why people are willing to ignore self-evident truth and support disastrous decisions. In authoritarian systems especially, stupidity is deliberated cultivated, as obedience and conformity ensure the preservation of power.’”
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What is the source for that quote? I like to be able to give the source when I share this. Thanks.
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Agreed. A lot of the undermining public education movement is so that the stupidity will flourish, and people will follow like sheep. Many of the authoritarians are also racist. They are anti-DEI and teaching factual history.
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“Bonhoeffer observed that individuals and groups who are under the influence of authoritarian leaders become more susceptible to stupidity. The crowd provides them a sense of security, while responsibility for their actions is transferred to the group or its leadership.”
How very perceptive. And it’s not just about stupidity, it’s about immorality. That is, either never having had, or abandoning one’s inner moral compass. Gaining a sense of power from being part of a like-minded group can blind one to occasions when the group breaches your own sense of right and wrong. Usually a failure to put yourself in the other guy’s shoes. That can morph swiftly into blaming the group (or it’s leader) when things go terribly wrong.
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rt, I am never convinced by the argument that those seeking to undermine public education are doing it out of the desire to create stupid sheep-like followers. That would take a very Machiavellian mind, & perseverance for long-haul results. There are a few such political manipulators, but I don’t see a real conspiracy there.
What I see is a confluence of motives that leads to a perfect storm (if nothing changes). Most prominent: the populist movement [‘we the people’ vs ‘the govt/ academic elites’]. Public ed is the part of govt closest to JQPublic’s daily life, whether as parent/ grandparent or local taxpayer, so very vulnerable to being smeared [motive = undermining the public’s faith in its govtl institutions]. Next comes the for-profit ed industry seeking public-paid trough. Perhaps of equal weight: all the low-info voters who think somehow they will glean lower taxes out of destroying public ed. Caboose is the once-fringe libertarian strain that has infected the Republican party, which doesn’t believe public ed is a public good that benefits the nation.
I think most of this is driven by spiraling rich-poor gap/ diminishment of middle class way of life/ near-halt to social mobility. People see that however they vote, they don’t get ahead.
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Not surprised. He works, sorry, worked for Musk and since Musk is associated with Trump this sorry dump a## works for Trump. That is about as low as a person can go in the work-a-day world. Of course, as the quote goes, “Stupid Is As Stupid Does”.
You would think that these low lives and all their minions would have some common sense but it is clear common sense isn’t common. Just because someone calls you a genius (Musk) doesn’t mean he has common sense. We know Trump is negative in the area of common sense.
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Common sense is called “common” because it’s so rare.
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I’d love to repost some of your sstuff on Bluesky, but when I paste links, its your face that shows up – not the best look for a story about a racist Musk-Minion and eugenics fanboy.
Anyway this can be changed?
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Michael,
It happens to me too. I wish I knew how to change it. If anyone has any idea how to repost without my photo appearing, please let me know.
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Marko is gone, but what damage did he do? And can someone correct it?
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Racist people on Elon’s staff? Pardon me while I faint from that surprise.
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Dime con quien andas y te diré quien eres.
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Now we know why Musk hired him.
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Did he resign to take on a new job as Trump’s Chief of Deportation?
I won’t be surprised to see this guy sitting next to Trump at the Superbowl. Hasn’t he become the new hero of the GOP, the poor guy being “victimized” by the evil woke mob?
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There is probably a name for this, but the avowed racist, it seems to me, by claiming racism as some sort of personal quality, secures their own place at the lowest rung of human existence. CBK
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Imagine my surprise!
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