Tesla and X Corp. owner Elon Musk has come under fire for what critics are calling “racist and antisemitic” social media posts, drawing condemnation from advertisers, activist groups, and even the Executive Branch of the United States.
The backlash, which now threatens consequences for the billionaire’s free speech social media platform, came in response to Musk referring to the idea that Jews push anti-White racism and “dialectical hatred” against the West as “the actual truth.”
At the center of the Tesla executive’s latest online controversy is a public awareness ad from the Stand Up to Jewish Hate campaign. First released in March, the video features a father chastising his son for “hiding behind a screen spewing hatred and ugliness” against Jews. “If you’ve got something you wanna say, get out of the truck and say it to them,” the man says, gesturing to a group of multi-racial Jewish families emerging from a synagogue. The ad ends with a warning that “‘Hitler was right’ was posted over 70,000 times last year” and a call to stand against hate.
On Wednesday, Florida-based Jewish conservative Charles Weber reposted it with a challenge for antisemitic cowards to “say it to our faces.”
To the cowards hiding behind the anonymity of the internet and posting "Hitler was right":
You got something you want to say? Why dont you say it to our faces… pic.twitter.com/WGkwTrXyTF
— Charles Weber (@CWBOCA) November 15, 2023
But according to many critics, the ad’s decision to depict working-class American Whites as the face of modern antisemitism was not in line with reality. “Jewish communities [sic] have been pushing the exact kind of dialectical hatred against whites that they claim to want people to stop using against them,” wrote one user. “I’m deeply disinterested in giving the tiniest s**t now about western Jewish populations coming to the disturbing realization that those hordes of minorities that support flooding their country don’t exactly like them too much.”
Beneath this post, Musk replied: “You have said the actual truth.”
You have said the actual truth
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 15, 2023
Shortly after his initial post, Musk clarified his position, targeting the far-left Anti-Defamation League (ADL). “The ADL unjustly attacks the majority of the West, despite the majority of the West supporting the Jewish people and Israel,” he wrote. “This is because they cannot, by their own tenets, criticize the minority groups who are their primary threat. It is not right and needs to stop.”
The ADL unjustly attacks the majority of the West, despite the majority of the West supporting the Jewish people and Israel.
This is because they cannot, by their own tenets, criticize the minority groups who are their primary threat.
It is not right and needs to stop.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 15, 2023
Musk has maintained a contentious relationship with the ADL since taking over X (formerly Twitter) given the group’s pro-censorship policies and outsized political influence. The ADL has also advanced explicitly anti-White agendas and promoted the idea that all Whites — and only Whites — are inherently racist.
Further clarification from Musk recognized that these issues do not extend to all Jewish communities but are also not limited exclusively to the ADL. Other posts in separate X threads repeated this sentiment.
Yeah, this is super messed up.
Time for this nonsense to end and shame ANYONE who perpetuates these lies!
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 16, 2023
!
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 16, 2023
In response to Musk’s controversial social media activity, the ADL’s Jonathan Greenblatt condemned his actions as “indisputably dangerous.”
At a time when antisemitism is exploding in America and surging around the world, it is indisputably dangerous to use one's influence to validate and promote antisemitic theories. #NeverIsNow pic.twitter.com/vVlyOeoS5x
— Jonathan Greenblatt (@JGreenblattADL) November 16, 2023
This sentiment was echoed by the White House itself, with Biden administration representatives stating “It is unacceptable to repeat the hideous lie behind the most fatal act of Antisemitism in American history at any time, let alone one month after the deadliest day for the Jewish people since the Holocaust.”
At the same time, advertisers like IBM and others have suspended their content on X after reportedly seeing their content appear alongside antisemitic posts.
Add comment