Elon Musk’s Disturbing ‘Truth’
The billionaire affirmed the deadliest anti-Semitic conspiracy theory in recent American history.
Elon Musk’s Disturbing ‘Truth’
Yair Rosenberg
5–6 minutes
The billionaire affirmed the deadliest anti-Semitic conspiracy theory in recent American history.
Nathan Laine / Bloomberg / Getty
November 15, 2023, 10:52 PM ET
The Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society “likes to bring invaders in that kill our people … Screw your optics, I’m going in.” Those were the last words posted online by Robert Bowers before he massacred worshippers at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue in 2018. It was the single deadliest anti-Semitic attack in American history. In previous postings, Bowers explained the grievances that led him to commit mass murder. He shared meme after meme asserting that Jews were conspiring to flood the country with brown people in order to oppose and displace the white race. “Open you Eyes!” declared one. “It’s the filthy EVIL jews Bringing the Filthy EVIL Muslims into the Country!”
Enjoy a year of unlimited access to The Atlantic—including every story on our site and app, subscriber newsletters, and more.
Become a Subscriber
On Wednesday night, the world’s wealthiest man affirmed this same conspiracy theory on X, formerly Twitter, the social-media site he owns. Like so many of Elon Musk’s acts of self-immolation, it happened in the space of a tweet. The incident began with a post from a conservative Jewish user who complained about anti-Semitic content on social media during the current Gaza conflict. “To the cowards hiding behind the anonymity of the internet and posting ‘Hitler was right,’” he wrote. “You got something you want to say? Why dont you say it to our faces.” A small-time white-nationalist account soon responded by attributing this anti-Semitism to minorities, and blaming it on the Jews:
This exchange would have languished in obscurity had Musk not replied to this bigoted bromide with six words: “You have said the actual truth.”
Don’t miss what matters. Sign up for The Atlantic Daily newsletter.
It should not need to be said, but sadly it does: Jews—a famously fractious people that includes Jared Kushner, George Soros, Bill Maher, and Noam Chomsky—do not have a shared consensus, let alone a collective conspiracy to subordinate white people through immigration policy. And even if there were a unified Jewish agenda, it would make absolutely no difference. That’s because, contrary to deranged delusions of anti-Jewish conspiracy theorists, public policy is not set by the 0.2 percent of the world population that is Jewish, but by the 99.8 percent that isn’t.
Recommended Reading
More than an hour later, after it became clear that Musk’s missive was doing profound damage to his already dented reputation, the billionaire attempted to clean up his claims about the Jewish community’s perfidy by saying that he was only referring to the Anti-Defamation League—as though being anti-Semitic toward one group of Jews is somehow less objectionable. (It’s not.) In any case, the walk-back lasted five minutes. After another critic complained that it was “not fair to say or truthful to say that ‘Jewish communities’ promote dialectical hatred towards white,” Musk replied: “You right that this does not extend to all Jewish communities, but it is also not just limited to ADL.”
None of this is new. It wasn’t the first time Musk echoed anti-Semitic conspiracy theories from his social-media bubble. And it wasn’t the first time he blamed anti-Semitism on Jewish actions, pinning the prejudice on its victims. After months of marinating in the most conspiratorial cesspools of his own site, Musk arrived today at his inevitable destination.
But just because Musk’s affirmation of white-nationalist ideology was the unsurprising outcome of his online radicalization spiral doesn’t make it any less devastating—or dangerous. Anti-Semites believe that a minuscule Jewish minority controls the direction of the non-Jewish majority. But the truth is the opposite: The fate of the tiny Jewish community rests in the hands of non-Jewish society. Whether the anti-Jewish ideas of Musk and others become the new normal is not up to Jews; it’s up to everyone else.
