Tesla CEO and X owner Elon Musk arrives for the inaugural AI Insight Forum at the Russell Building on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, Sept. 13, 2023.
Tom Williams | CQ-Roll Call, Inc. , getty images
TeslaSpaceX and X Corp leader Elon Musk issued a series of arguably bigoted tweets on Wednesday, sparking a critical response online.
First, Musk drew attention to and agreed with the anti-Semitic conspiracy theory, and then directly targeted “Jewish communities”, the non-profit Anti-Defamation League, and minorities for what he called “anti-white” messages and ideas. , alleged, without providing examples to support his allegations.
Musk, who is the world’s richest person with a net worth of about $225 billion according to Bloomberg, leads several companies that collectively employ about 150,000 people worldwide, including SpaceX, Tesla, The Boring Company. , Neuralink, X Corp and their latest companies. Artificial intelligence startup, xAI.
Musk, who has never reserved his social media posts solely for business matters, drew attention to a tweet that said Jewish people are “promoting the exact same kind of dialectical hatred against white people Which they claim they want people to stop using against them.”
musk replied Strongly agreed with that tweet, saying, “You told the real truth.”
“If Musk had not done so, this exchange would have sunk into obscurity replied For this staunch bromide,” wrote Yair Rosenberg in The Atlantic.
In response to Musk’s tweet, Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt wrote on However, using it to legitimize someone’s influence is undeniably dangerous.” Promoting anti-Semitic principles. #not now,
Among other things, the Jewish-led nonprofit works to fight anti-Semitic incidents, racist discrimination, and hate crimes in the US.
When Musk faced criticism for endorsing anti-Semitic tweets, he specifically took aim at the ADL.
He wrote, without providing any evidence for these claims, “The ADL unjustly attacks the majority of people in the West, despite the majority of people in the West supporting the Jewish people and Israel. This is because of their principles. “Can’t criticize minority groups.” Which is the primary threat to them. This is not right and needs to stop.”
CNBC contacted Musk and Couldn’t find it said, “Busy now, please check back later.”
In subsequent tweets, when a follower told Musk he wasn’t being fair or truthful, the billionaire responded, “You [sic] True, this does not extend to all Jewish communities, but it is not limited to ADL only. Anti-white racism or anti-Asian racism or any kind of racism. I’m sick of it. stop now.”
Musk has long posted inflammatory tweets and his companies, particularly Tesla, have faced lawsuits over alleged civil and workers’ rights violations. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission sued Tesla this year over alleged racial discrimination and harassment of black workers.
Musk had previously threatened to sue ADL, accusing them of trying to “kill” his social network business. He has blamed ADL rather than his own business decisions for the 60% decline in X’s revenue and has said he had “no choice” but to file a defamation suit against the group. However, no lawsuits have surfaced yet.
The ADL declined to provide further comment Thursday morning.
Hate crime expert Brian Levin, a professor emeritus at California State University, San Bernardino, told CNBC that law enforcement is already tracking a generational increase in anti-Semitic hate crime in North America and elsewhere. He said, “Elon Musk is promoting neo-Nazi type anti-white hatred of Jews by citing immigration, as did the convicted Tree of Life massacre killer.” As a result, anti-Semitic incidents and crimes may increase further.
Levin said, “Notorious anti-Semites are celebrating what they see as Musk’s complete transformation into a clear expression of Jew hatred. When we saw similar statements from Ye last October, anti-Semitism was rampant across the country. Crime increased.”
Meredith Benton at Whistle Stop Capital told CNBC that the move could affect Musk’s business interests.
“For Mr. Musk to escalate this type of rhetoric on Twitter reflects his disinterest in turning that platform into a cash-positive business; I expect that many of the corporate advertisers who had decided to remain on Twitter will now see their last Are trying.”
Benton said, “Unfortunately, it appears that the current leadership may be the source, not the solution, of the harassment and discrimination problems we have seen in Tesla factories.” Skip) They have already made clear that they have deep concerns over the allegations of racism and retaliation at Tesla factories, as well as the company’s continued use of cover-up conditions. This will be a very interesting proxy season for investors. “There’s no limit to where the CEO makes decisions. It can be polarizing.”
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