Kat Ballou (@Kallou22)

Joshua N. Haldeman (1902–1974), the maternal grandfather of Elon Musk, was a chiropractor, aviator, and prominent leader of the Technocracy Incorporated movement in Canada during the 1930s and 1940s. The movement advocated for replacing democratic politics with a technocratic government run by engineers and scientists, a vision that historian Jill Lepore and biographer Walter Isaacson argue significantly influenced Musk’s own political and technological worldview, including his recent work with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Haldeman’s political career in Saskatchewan was marked by controversial beliefs; he was convicted for opposing Canada’s entry into World War II after the Canadian government banned Technocracy as a security threat. Following his disillusionment with the movement, he emigrated to South Africa in 1950, where he became a vocal supporter of apartheid and promoted antisemitic conspiracy theories, including The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. He died in a plane crash in 1974 when Musk was only three years old.