the phenomenon of going right wing after committing crimes so you can find a sympathetic ear feels rather troubling, especially because it seems to work no matter how blatant it is
What better way to "own the libs" than to openly transgress against sacrosanct values? There is a certain power when you demonstrate that shame, consistency, or principle has no hold on you. To avoid the internal backstabbing this would entail, you also need to convince the audience that it's all a kind of kayfabe, make-believe, and that you really ARE principled and trustworthy with your people, or for some short period of time to achieve a goal. It's foolish, but the world is full of foolish people believing simply because it feels good. Reality has no place in this calculus. This is NOT a partisan problem.
Oddly enough, Russell's political transformation came long before the world's least surprising revelations, probably because he'd got to the point of his "revolution" where the left considered him tiresome and the pandemic was a reboot opportunity.
Elon is the starkest example of "journalist contacts him about historic allegations that were never going to amount to anything other than embarrassment and within a couple of hours he's come out as a Republican and therefore rendered himself immune to shame over personal indiscretions of the sort only Teh Wokes care about". Again, trending that way because he was genuinely annoyed at pandemic regulations and not a fan of Teh Wokes but interesting to see how far he's taken it...
Musk was always one of those "both sides" libertarian tech bros that usually just end up right wing. Well before he became a household name with SpaceX and Tesla.
It reminds me of the joke: "libertarians are just Republicans who smoke weed"
