Elon Musk and Racism

[raincoatwarmcoatlongcoat]

Inspired by the other long running thread. I keep reading that he tweets and retweets racist comments. Can anyone link any or all of them please? I see tweets over illegal immigration, as opposed to immigration, but not racist?

So instead of opinions please can people post the actual words used or retweeted? Or anything he said in interviews, word for word?

Thanks!

I watched JPeterson debating annoying pro trans students and was so drawn in by his excellent argument. Yes I agree entirely with the absolute sense he spoke. I heard him talking about a few other things and thought oh no, not with you there. Ok I can really admire this part but totally reject this part.

Musk talking about the trans issue, yes, again, I am hearing what he says here. Other points, maybe not. Intent questionable, yes definitely.

I think there are posters who might think enough of this and EM certainly does open up discussion. I think that's what people like not actual reverence for everything he represents or believes.

Very much a he. Had the misfortune to be on a thread with him yesterday as he lectured women on their boundaries. Fond of porn. Worship of Musk and use of phrases such as 'woke mind virus' is unsurprising. Doubt he gets out of mum's basement much.

But...

If I am happy for the foreign billionaire with opinions I agree with to come and use his outweighted influence (owning a social media platform) and wealth (possibly funding UK political parties like reform) to massively influence UK politics I can't complain when a foreign billionaire with opinions I disagree with does the same. Georgia Melloni pointed out the hypocrisy on the left regarding Musk but that also applies to people on the right who think what Musk is doing is a "breath of fresh air".

What annoys me about the "need people to shake things up argument" is yes we do - but to what end. There are many in Silicon valley who see disruption as an end in itself which is madness. But also maybe you do need jesters - they can't be the same person as the king though. Mush can't be anti-establishment and also the actual establishment, He can't be a self styled Troll-in-chief owning those humourless woke types with his irreverant ironic humour and also at the same time be talking about deadly serious things like grooming. It just shows he doesn't give a shit about the (really horrific) things that happened or see the victims as people. Its just lol, triggered the libs, they be calling me racist again. And there is something tiresome about people who openly talk about how they want to generate outrage and then act like victims when they receive outrage.

Ahhh. Makes sense now

At the end of the day, musk will influence who he can. We live in a democracy and a world wide society, given the internet and way of travel. Our culture is heavily influenced by outside noise.

People who oppose musk wading in on our politics will call his supporters thick etc. Because they have nobody that influential on their side wading in on what they think should be a debate.

I would love to see Musk debate our world leaders, let’s start with Keir 😂

@biscuitandcake yes I can agree with that.

I think we'd all love something or someone completely different to what we have as our options. The options are pretty diabolical; not one political group or person that so many of us can feel comfortable with; to the extent that someone who is questionable seems like a beacon in the dark to many.

I didn't follow the recent US election because I've opted out slightly for my own well being. I am very opposed to Trump. I didn't follow enough to get to understand KHarris. But I saw enough of Biden to think no wonder. What hope is there. People like EMusk might potentially become attractive when people are flailing in despair at every option presented.

His son can't "decide" to be a girl. Its simply not possible to change sex.

Yes..

But I don't live in America. I didn't vote in the American election. Americans chose to vote for Trump. I and many non-Americans might chose to criticise that. I am not chanting for a civil war in America or saying that America should have another election right now!!! anyone doing so is crazy, irresponsible or incredibly uninformed. UK people voted in the UK election and election, Musk's comments on Twitter about the UK/Germany etc goes beyond the normal bitching about other countries we all do and veers into crazy/irresponsible/uninformed territory IMO. And he isn't a randomer on mumsnet like me.

I know enough about America to know that America and the UK are really, really different culturally and politically. For one thing, money is classed as speech in America which makes it much harder to restrict spending in elections - which is why the republican's and democrats both spend billions and billions every election cycle. Its completely crazy and so different to here - in that situation you kind of need, as a politician, to court very wealthy donors or be completely outgunned by the other side. They actually can't really help having to ask for donations from big banks, tech companies etc. So Musks donating there isn't much out of the ordinary and hey, if you agree with his views on the whole you might pragmatically say at least the billionaire I like is calling the shots this time.

The UK DOES have strict spending laws which are actually well enforced and usually followed. It means the parties need to worry about donations less (though they still need them, but a million is a large amount here). There are scandals etc but I actually have less sympathy for Tory/Labour/Libdem/Reform MPs allowing large donors to influence their policies because they have less of an excuse - it isn't actually a necessity for them. In that situation I bloody well do mind Elon Musk thinking he can buy UK politics and I think less of Farage for courting it (I didn't vote Brexit and think it was a disaster. The one thing I could respect was the sovereignty arguement because that is important and if leave voters genuinely thought that was at stake then it outweighs the economic arguments etc) But it turns out Farage isn't that fussed about soverienty after all. Oh well.

Also - when flailing in despair or any other emotion the correct response is to exercise some stoicism and stop flailing. Real actual stoicism not the "me manly man me, emotion for weak ladies" type. Its hard - the same way not flailing when thrown into icy water is hard. But doable with practice.

Sorry - that was super long. TL/DR this isn't America. Whether Musk is a credible alternative to Biden isn't my principle concern.

Oh my god, I think Elon Musk is on Mumsnet!

And he has two accounts! 😂

Musk has claimed that Black students have lower IQs, and that programs to increase racial diversity in hiring airline pilots make air travel unsafe.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/elon-musk-cosigns-racist-claim-153400769.html

Musk endorsed a tweet which blamed Jews for causing antisemitism by supporting “hordes of minorities” who are “flooding their country”, and implied that Jews are actually anti-white (a version of the antisemitic “Great Replacement” conspiracy theory).

https://www.forbes.com/sites/tylerroush/2023/11/16/elon-musk-condemned-after-calling-antisemitic-post-actual-truth

Musk drew attention to a tweet with false/misleading data about crimes committed by Black people, and suggested that the media misrepresent the truth about race and crime.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/06/18/data-race-murder-that-elon-musk-gave-deserved/

He spread claims that a mass shooting committed by a neo-Nazi was a “psyop” - a conspiracy to falsely represent the shooter as a racist.

https://apnews.com/article/twitter-musk-texas-mall-shooting-misleading-claims-c297797d1eb0f708cc84d05e0735d8cc

He retweeted a tweet in support of a Belgian politician imprisoned for racist hate speech, holocaust denial, incitement of violence, and breaching gun laws.

https://www.brusselstimes.com/962451/elon-musk-criticised-for-far-right-tweet-in-support-of-van-langenhove-tbtb

Musk called for the release of Tommy Robinson. Robinson was imprisoned for repeatedly libelling a young Syrian refugee whom he accused (without evidence) of attacking “young English girls”.

https://www.wired.com/story/elon-musk-disinformation-uk-grooming-gangs/

Musk has spread misinformation about election fraud by migrants and about immigration fraud.

https://amp.dw.com/en/fact-check-how-elon-musk-is-spreading-us-election-lies/a-70663408

Not posting a copy of Elon's tweets - but having spent years perceiving TR as racist I am now not sure that he is. He has tried to expose the grooming problem & looking back on old clips of him discussing it he was completely shut down & pretty much accused of making up rumours. But what he was saying he had discovered does appear to be true. He seems to have friends who are black & Asian so I don't see how he can be racist. However he has exposed one ethnic group & got into trouble for it. But I don't think he was making it up to be racist. Maybe if the authorities had looked into what was going on there would be less risk of racial tension. I can't see any of this ending well.

You don't know Tommy Robinson's crimes? Here are some:

He's currently in prison for contempt of court (again), and he pleaded guilty to the charge.

@biscuitandcake yes very good points there for consideration and informative, thankyou. I have become quite disinvested which isn't good as a voter with power. I'm very eager to sit in the middle and weigh up everything. I am not actually on twitter to see what's going on and think perhaps I should now. I don't think it's particularly healthy but how can we have proper debate if we aren't fully aware.

JP is generally a tit now in my opinion. I am very much in support of his argument on the trans debate though and I was happy to see someone eloquently argue the point as well as he did.

As much as I dislike the current situations and particular approaches, I can envisage worse for us. Things can always get worse and I can see how certain influencers could make things so much worse if certain outcomes were achieved.

Funny how that cultural movement is always one way? I know that there was a furore about UK people going to help the grass roots campaign for Harris (that is not new but is weird by the way). But rather than acting like victims it should be straightforward and non-controversial to pass legislation that stopped that if America wanted to. Its completely their prerogative. No-one in the UK would be at all bothered (except maybe some nerdy left wing types would have less opportunity to meet their love-match over the pond and tell the Guardian about how they met, and the MP for Clacton would have to spend some time in Clacton). Whereas, there seems to be an assumption that anything coming from America must be good for the UK - you saw that on the Left when the UK was the evil backwards terf-island. And now on the right when we need old winds of change Elon to save us from the opressive government we elected a few months ago. Happy to moan with Americans about the things I don't like about the UK. Happy to debate with them about the things they don't like and I do. Not so happy for them to buy my political parties. Even if they are like, a super cool driven autist on a vendetta.

For all its championing of free speech, the first amendment was mostly about "the people" (US citizens) rights t free speech. The US has at all sorts of times in its history reserved the rights to restrict the speech of foreign governments, foreign nationals that it deems harmful or obscene. But it is weird how, for some reason, Trump Musk etc don't think other countries should have that same soveriengty that America does. When the UK disusses the online safety bill (not a good idea in my opinion) Musk starts squawking about being opressed. (the issue is not whether, for example, the UK or US should regulate ban TikTok etc. Its whether they should have the right as sovereign countries to decide whether to regulate or ban Tiktok or if doing so is violating China's inaliable right.)

He also, stood on the steps of a court broadcasting live about an ongoing court case knowing full well (because he was warned) that doing so could face the collapse of the entire trial and a re-trial.** That would be a really annoying thing to do in a court case about theft (expense to the tax payer, waste of time for witnesses) but absolutely unforgiveable when the court case was about extremely horrific sexual crimes that had required the victims to give incredibly gruelling witness testimony. To jeopardise the case at that point was frankly evil and he deserved to be thrown in prison. But he then tried to make out he was a freedom of speech martyr and used it to drum up support for himself. Any benefit of the doubt I might have given him vanished at that stage. I would say exactly the same about an anti-racism campaigner pulling the same stunt. I can't see inside his head so I have no idea if he is racist or if its an act. But he is not a good man. Its also weird how he has a buddy thing going on with Andrew Tate. Sort of a "we have a problem with brown muslim men grooming women and girls. Except that brown muslim man who posted "satirical" online advise on how to groom women into online sexwork, and who boasted about moving to another country where he was less likely to be accused of rape, and who is currently on trial for sex trafficking. That brown muslim man is clearly innocent and has been set up. All his victims are lying. That refugee child on the other hand...". Musk's apparent support for both is odd too. Almost as if the real motivation has nothing to do with the truth or stopping sexual violence.

**He didn't need to expose the grooming in that particular case at that point because it was already at fucking trial.

I don’t disagree with you. However, irl on an individual level, I don’t think buying your way onto the international political stage to force your pov is the way to parent a child.

people still manage to keep a semblance of a relationship going with their children when they disagree with their legal choices and they’re half decent people. There are plenty of other choices his children could make in the future that he just doesn’t like. Is he going to buy his way to a position of power over them too?

And why would you raise the last point, which is actually a very accurate description of the cover up of the grooming gangs? Officials did bloody well fail the victims of the gangs, and should rightly be called out on it. Absolutely disgraceful and shameful that the gangs were allowed to get away with what they did for so long, and that you appear to be agreeing with it.

The words "grooming gangs" are misinformation: they were child rape and torture (sometimes murder) gangs.

Because its an AI and AIs by definition don't actually understand what they are writing. I wouldn't waste time arguing with it.

Maybe he just doesn't think hundreds of thousands of young, working class girls being mass raped, tortured and abused is a good thing?

WTF is a "woke mind virus"

Mumsnet has gone crazy today.

Ok I'm sold. That's really disturbing and such a crap word to use but; disappointing. It's harder to feel support for the intent if this is all true.

I'm not on Twitter/X. I don't follow EM but some part of me would have liked him to just be some reasoned , well intentioned guy who made a few gaffes in the past. Clearly not.
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I guess you don't become that rich without some significant defects on some human level.

Elon Musk strikes me as a man with a bottomless pit of inadequacy within him. Everything about him is so attention seeking and desperate. The desperate need to gain approval. It just rolls off him.

I know he likes to tweet in the middle of the night after a binge. I also know he posts under various usernames on X. I suspect he’s even on here on occasion.

He’s very bored - his companies are managed by others. You can’t tell me he doesn’t have Google Alerts set up for when his name is brought up online.