The self-described anti-Semitism watchdog and “leading anti-hate organization in the world” dismissed Musk’s raised arm as “an awkward gesture in a moment of enthusiasm” in a social media post on Monday.
Months earlier, however, Jonathan Greenblatt, the head of
the staunchly pro-Israel ADL, compared the Palestinian keffiyeh to the Nazi
swastika....
While speaking at the Capital One Arena following Trump’s
inauguration, Musk put his hand to his chest, then swiftly raised his arm as he
thanked the crowd for electing the Republican president.
The 53-year-old billionaire then turned around and did it again.
His motion resembled the Nazi gesture — known as the “Sieg Heil”, German for “hail victory” — which has roots in an ancient Roman salute.
“My heart goes out to you. It is thanks to you that the future of civilization is assured,” Musk said.
While it is not uncommon for politicians to extend their arms to greet an audience, the combination of Musk’s rhetoric about “civilization” and the repeated gesture raised many eyebrows.
However, on January 23, Musk went punny:
Don’t say Hess to Nazi accusations!
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 23, 2025
Some people will Goebbels anything down!
Stop Gőring your enemies!
His pronouns would’ve been He/Himmler!
Bet you did nazi that coming 😂
Later that day on the same format, the ADL, evidently not amused, responded
Making inappropriate and highly offensive jokes that trivialize the Holocaust only serve to minimize the evil and inhumanity of Nazi crimes, denigrate the suffering of both victims and survivors and insult the memory of the six million Jews murdered in the Shoah,
There was little or no reaction to the statement from the ADL as it seemed to roll off Musk's back. However, as explained by the Guardian, on October 1, FBI director Kash Patel
denounced the group and said the agency would cut ties with the non-profit.
Patel's announcement followed days of attacks by rightwing influencers and Elon Musk on the ADL over its online database on extremism, which included a page on slain far-right pundit Charlie Kirk's Turning Point USA and the organization's link to far-right extremists. On Tuesday, the ADL deleted its entire Glossary of Extremism, a flagship project which contained more than 1,000 entries on groups and movements with connections to hateful ideologies. the move failed to quell the backlash....
Over the weekend, several influential rightwing accounts
began posting screenshots of the ADL’s page on Turning Point USA (TPUSA),
attacking the organization for including Kirk’s group in its Glossary of
Extremism. One of the first posts, from a self-described “Twitter troll”,
accused the ADL of having “blood on their hands”.
The ADL did not actually list TPUSA as an extremist organization, but instead documented incidents where its leadership and affiliated activists had either aligned with extremists or made “racist or bigoted comments”. Other rightwing activists soon followed the troll with more posts about the ADL. Some spread a screenshot of the ADL’s page on the Christian Identity movement – an extremist ideology that espouses a racial holy war against Jews and other minorities – to allege that the ADL was biased against Christians as a whole.
The attacks by rightwing influencers had included
The ADL considers Christianity a hateful terrorist extremist belief.
— iamyesyouareno (@iamyesyouareno) September 28, 2025
You don’t hate the ADL enough. pic.twitter.com/6iThCkObcZ
Musk responded on X "The ADL hates Christians, therefore it is a hate group." But the organization's criticism was not of Christians but of Christian Identity, a movement said to date to 1989 and which is
characterized by a belief in white supremacy and anti-Semitism. Followers of Christian Identity believe that the covenant recounted in the Bible was actually made between God and the Anglo-Saxons and other European peoples, who are the real Ten Lost Tribes of Israel. Christian Identity characterizes Jews as the offspring of Eve and Satan and views people of African descent as subhuman. Though it has been largely unsuccessful in persuading “white Israelites” of their purported identity, small churches are active, mainly in the northwestern United States. The movement proselytizes through publications, recordings, and the Internet. Aryan Nations, a prominent Christian Identity-based hate group founded in the United States in the 1970s, developed a strong network of white supremacist groups, many of which congregated at a compound in Hayden Lake, Idaho.
The Anti-Defamation League threw Elon Musk a lifeline in late January. A prestigious and very reputable opponent of anti-Semitism, it could have called Musk out for what did appear to be a Nazi salute.
Instead, it defended his gesture, thereby tamping down criticism in establishment circles. Yet now, it has been pummeled by the world's wealthiest billionaire and his MAGA supporters.
Compare that to the controversy surrounding Jimmy Kimmel's remark(s) about Charlie Kirk's disciples. Disney's decision. The BBC noted that the decision
to suspend Kimmel was met with protests in California and lambasted by the writers and actors guilds, lawmakers and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), who argued that the suspension violated free speech rights and spurs a chilling effect.
Hundreds of celebrities and Hollywood creatives also signed a letter backing Kimmel.
Ben Stiller, Jennifer Aniston, Meryl Streep and Robert DeNiro are among those who called Kimmel's suspension a "dark moment for freedom of speech in our nation".
Critics of Disney also called for people to boycott Disney+, Hulu and other services in order to cut into the entertainment conglomerate's bottom line.
As fellow comedic talk show hosts Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, and Seth Myers ridiculed and condemned the suspension...
Dylan Byers from US media website Puck told BBC Radio 4's Today programme there has been "a lot of hand-wringing" at Disney since last week "about how to right this ship".
The "blowback was intense" and came from figures ranging from former presidents and Hollywood stars to ex-Disney executives, he said.
"And at a certain point, I think that became too much."
The "too much" included also denunciation from legislators, legal experts, and a social media postings from viewers who announced cancellation of subscriptions to Disney's online streaming platform and ABC's platform. And from September 17, when the suspension was announced to September 23 when it was revoked, the value of the stock of The Walt Disney company plunged 2.39%, $4.49 billion of its market value.
So the furious response to the initial Kimmel decision resulted in the company changing its mind and reinstating the talk-show host. That is a different situation than what prevailed with Elon Musk following his salute to the Third Reich. Nonetheless, there is a moral to the story: the right-wing which now runs this country is not interested in the left or the center reaching out and giving it the benefit of the doubt. Fighting the onslaught will not always work but a conciliatory approach will nearly always fail. Take the advice of the late Tom Petty, and never back down.
No comments:
Post a Comment