By Laurie Baron
SAN DIEGO — Musk is a scent used in perfumes, but the odor emanating from Elon Musk’s interviews and tweets reeks. He describes himself as a “free speech absolutist” except when an authoritarian leader like Erdogan requests that he censor Twitter in Turkey. Since acquiring Twitter, he has welcomed the return of unexpurgated hate speech to the social media service. If he adhered to the principle of truth in advertising, he would rename it Twattle.
Musk is a reincarnation of Henry Ford. Ford’s ghost possessed Musk because he recognized a kindred soul. They both are innovative auto manufacturers who employ mass media to scapegoat Jews and coddle dictators. Ford’s newspaper the Dearborn Independent serialized an American version of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion and reprinted it as the book The International Jew: The World’s Problem. Ford received an award from Hitler for maintaining his “full independence from the controlling Jewish producers” of the United States.
Under Musk, bigots like Andrew Anglin, the founder of the neo-Nazi website The Daily Stormer, have been permitted to return to Twitter to spew their racist invectives. Researchers who monitor social media report that anti-Black, anti-gay, anti-trans, and antisemitic posts have substantially increased under Musk’s Open Gore policy. Like Ford, I anticipate that Musk will compile the most offensive tweets into a volume titled The Protocols of the Trollers of Twitter.
Musk reserves much of his ire for George Soros whom he denounces for hating humanity. Right-wing extremists consider Soros the heir to the Rothschild conspiracies of the past. His crime is funding the Open Society Foundations which “support individuals and organizations across the globe fighting for freedom of expression, accountable government, and societies that promote justice and equality.” That mission statement sounds sinister!
If there’s anyone who knows about billionaires who employ their wealth to promote odious causes, it is Elon Musk. Musk apparently thinks that amassing a fortune renders him immune from projection. If the damage done to political discourse correlates to the amount of money a mega influencer like Musk can inflict, then Soros with his meagre 6.7 billion dollars is far less dangerous to American democracy than Elon Musk whose net worth is 184.7 billion dollars.
Musk recently said that he doesn’t care if his unhinged tweets cost him advertising revenue. We should test Musk’s disregard for profits. American Jews organized a boycott of Ford cars in 1922. In 1927 Ford apologized but shifted blame onto his subordinates for the antisemitic canards disseminated in his newspaper and shut down the Dearborn Independent. If Musk plows through the criticism of his incitement of bigotry like one of his autopilot cars, a boycott of Tesla might stop his unbridled prejudices better than the brakes on his self-driving cars.
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Baron is professor emeritus at San Diego State University. He may be contacted via Lawrence.baron@sdjewishworld.com