Yeah pretty much. If an extinction level asteroid pops up tomorrow it’s not going to be rugged individualism and entrepreneurial spirit that saves the day, it’s going to be the ability to efficiently coordinate millions of people to achieve a goal.

in that particular scenario i'm sure SpaceX will be a big part of the solution so... probably a mix of both. A weapon of mass destruction developed by a nation and a space vehicle developed privately by an individual tired of the status quo.

Developed "privately" only in the rather facile sense this can be said of anything done with the necessary support of massive federal funding, yes. It's bureaucracy that allocates and disburses that money.