Elon and free speech

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Antisemitism

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+JMJ+

Source: The Atlantic
Link: theatlantic DOT com/ideas/archive/2023/05/elon-musk-george-soros-anti-semites/674072/
Elon Musk Among the Anti-Semites [Analysis]

〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰

Criticizing George Soros is not inherently anti-Semitic. But casting him as an avatar of evil is.

Last night, Elon Musk made two rookie social-media mistakes: He tweeted after 10 p.m., and he echoed paranoid anti-Semitic conspiracy theorists. “George Soros reminds me of Magneto,” he declared, likening the financier to the Marvel supervillain, both of them Jewish Holocaust survivors. In case the meaning was unclear, Musk quickly clarified to another user, “He wants to erode the very fabric of civilization. Soros hates humanity.”

Criticizing George Soros is not inherently anti-Semitic. He is one of the world’s richest men and most influential philanthropists, as well as the Democratic Party’s largest single donor, and his views undoubtedly warrant scrutiny and debate. But Musk was not taking issue with a particular statement or position put forward by Soros; he was presenting him as an avatar of evil. He painted Soros as a literal comic-book villain.

This is the language of anti-Semitism through the ages, which perpetually casts powerful Jewish actors as the embodiment of social and political ill. Rather than treat Jews like humans, who are fallible and often mistaken, this mindset refashions them into sinister superhumans who intentionally impose their malign designs on the masses. In recent years, Soros has been a particular target of this treatment, but any Jew or Jewish institution that accumulates some measure of wealth or status tends to attract it, whether the Rothschilds or the state of Israel. In such cases, legitimate criticism is overtaken by conspiracy; the issue is no longer the conduct of the Jewish actor but their very essence.

Musk echoing such a sensibility might seem surprising, but it was, in fact, inevitable. The Twitter magnate has spent months marinating among the site’s most conspiratorial characters. One of his first acts as Twitter’s owner was to share, then quietly delete, a bizarre anti-gay rumor about the October 2022 attack on Paul Pelosi, the husband of then–House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Since that time, Musk has repeatedly replied to and bantered with QAnon influencers, and suggested that the recent massacre in Allentown, Texas, by a reported white supremacist was actually “a psy-op.” As the BBC reporter Shayan Sardarizadeh put it, “These days, if you want to find the latest conspiracy theories trending on Twitter, the easiest thing to do is to check tweets Elon Musk replies to, you’ll find most of them.”

Seen in this context, Musk’s latest remarks are less a departure from past pronouncements than a continuation of them. Anti-Semitism is arguably the world’s oldest and most durable conspiracy theory. It presents Jews as the string-pulling puppet masters behind the world’s political, economic, and social problems. For those seeking simple solutions to life’s complexities, this outlook offers a ready-made explanation — and enemy. Anyone seeking a single source for society's travails may start with run-of-the mill conspiracy theories but will soon end up parroting anti-Jewish ideas. As I’ve written before, “Conspiracy theorists begin by rejecting mainstream explanations for social and political events in favor of supposedly suppressed knowledge and hidden hands. These individuals may not start out as anti-Semites. But anti-Semitism has a multi-thousand-year head start on their crooked conception of the world, and has produced centuries of material casting the Jews as its chief culprit. Once a person has convinced themselves that an invisible hand is manipulating the masses, they are just a couple of Google searches away from discovering that it belongs to an invisible Jew.”

It’s doubtful that Musk harbors personal animosity toward Jewish people. But he is a conspiracy theorist, and the arc of conspiracy is short and bends toward the Jews.


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Antisemitism

Post by Del »

Wosbald wrote: 17 May 2023, 09:35 +JMJ+

Source: The Atlantic
Link: theatlantic DOT com/ideas/archive/2023/05/elon-musk-george-soros-anti-semites/674072/
Criticizing George Soros is not inherently anti-Semitic. He is one of the world’s richest men and most influential philanthropists, as well as the Democratic Party’s largest single donor, and his views undoubtedly warrant scrutiny and debate. But Musk was not taking issue with a particular statement or position put forward by Soros; he was presenting him as an avatar of evil. He painted Soros as a literal comic-book villain.
Soros is a comic-book villain.

I had no idea that Soros was Jewish. Ben Shapiro never mentioned it....
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Elon and free speech

Post by tuttle »

What a crap article.

Musk's criticism of Soros isn't anti-Semitism.... but his criticism is actually anti-Semitism.... general woke-scolding.... a dash of homophobia.... It's doubtful Musk hates Jews, but in a year he will totally hate the Jews.
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Post by FredS »

What a load of BS Wos. The article doesn't say anything about Musk commenting on Soros' ethnicity, culture, religion or anything else that points towards him being Jewish. The author spent a lot of ink calling Musk an anti-Semite, so they certainly would have quoted him if he had. Saying someone an evil clown is anti-Semitic? That author is an evil clown, building his case on nothing more than his own imaginings.

(Note that I'm not a fan of Musk. He dreams up wondrous technical solutions to problems that don't exist, raises a ton of money, then fails to deliver. Every time. But I can't go where this author went based on the two tweets he quoted.)

[EDIT] Tuttle and I were writing at the same time saying much the same thing. I wonder if we should take a look past the article. Why would Wosbald post such a thing? He offers no comment. I won't do what I just blasted that author for doing - that is, building evil intent out of a couple comments - but I do wonder what Wos is trying to do here.
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Elon and free speech

Post by Del »

FredS wrote: 18 May 2023, 05:35 What a load of BS Wos.

[EDIT] Tuttle and I were writing at the same time saying much the same thing. I wonder if we should take a look past the article. Why would Wosbald post such a thing? He offers no comment. I won't do what I just blasted that author for doing - that is, building evil intent out of a couple comments - but I do wonder what Wos is trying to do here.
The simplest explanation is that our beloved Wos actually believes the well-written propaganda and fake narrative, and he believes that we should too. Rags like Atlantic have been pressing this message for a long time, and apparently some people have bought it. "If you don't agree with George Soros, then you must be some sort of anti-Semite bigot Nazi." Even Biden is saying that "white supremacy is the greatest threat to America," and crowds cheer.

[Atlantic writer pulled a clever propaganda trick. He describes Soros as a "Nazi Holocaust survivor," implying that Soros spent time in a concentration camp. That never happened, but his family hid from Nazis in occupied Hungary using fake ID and such. He has never in his life participated in Jewish faith, but he was of Jewish descent.]

For my part, I have viewed Soros as a comic-book villain for many years now.... since long before this "anti-Semite" narrative was invented.

Maybe not like Magneto, though. More like an aged Lex Luthor.

It's kinda cool that Elon Musk is thinking the same thing.

My favorite Soros conspiracy theory is that Soros made his life and money running hedge funds, those which profit most when stocks and economies fail and fall. He has spent his whole life profiting from promoting failure. He really wants to take out American society and the world before he goes. The life-dream of a super-villain!
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Elon and free speech

Post by Wosbald »

+JMJ+

If one
  • Demonizes Person 'A'
    and
  • Person 'A' happens to be Jew (or a Jewess)
then that is, by definition, Antisemitism.

To fit this definition, there doesn't have to be any additional caveats of "demonizing him cuz he's Jewish" or "demonizing all Jews" or whatnot.

You may now applaud.

:clap:


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Post by FredS »

Wosbald wrote: 18 May 2023, 08:04 If one
  • Demonizes Person 'A'
    and
  • Person 'A' happens to be Jew (or a Jewess)
then that is, by definition, Antisemitism.
But wait - - - Soros is also white. Does demonizing him make one anti-white?
But wait - - - Soros is also male. Does demonizing him make one anti-male?
But wait - - - Soros is also American. Does demonizing him make one anti-American?
But wait - - - Soros is also of Hungarian descent. Does demonizing him make one anti-Hungarian?
But wait - - - Soros is also uber-rich. Does demonizing him make one anti-uber-rich?

How can you separate out one aspect of someone - I suppose it's where he was born or his ancestral heritage in this case - and say that any criticism of that person is also anti-whatever-the-hell-you-say-it-is.

I dislike pretty much everything Nancy Pelosi does. I might even say some of he actions are demonic. Am I, by definition, anti-Catholic?
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Elon and free speech

Post by Wosbald »

+JMJ+
FredS wrote: 18 May 2023, 08:27[…]

I dislike pretty much everything Nancy Pelosi does. I might even say some of he actions are demonic. Am I, by definition, anti-Catholic?
Well, if you demonize her, then Yes.

If you might say some of her actions are demonic, but then qualify that with admission that some of your own actions might be similarly demonic, then' I'd hafta go with No.

If you simply find her personality disagreeable, then No.

If you disagree with or have rational criticism of her views/positions, then No.

See how quick and painless that was?

:techie-hourglass:


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Post by FredS »

Wosbald wrote: 18 May 2023, 08:45 If you disagree with or have rational criticism of her views/positions, then No.
Based on the tweets quoted in that article, I'd say that's exactly what Musk was doing with Soros. Doesn't rise to anti-Semitisem level if you ask me. One guy doesn't like what another guy does with his money, and says so. With no overt or covert references to his ancestry. Easy peasy. Why try to make it more than it is?
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Post by Del »

Wosbald wrote: 18 May 2023, 08:04 +JMJ+

If one
  • Demonizes Person 'A'
    and
  • Person 'A' happens to be Jew (or a Jewess)
then that is, by definition, Antisemitism.

To fit this definition, there doesn't have to be any additional caveats of "demonizing him cuz he's Jewish" or "demonizing all Jews" or whatnot.

You may now applaud.

:clap:
That's just dumb. If a person is behaving badly and everyone calls out the bad behavior -- doesn't matter whether he's white or blue or Presbylutheran. We have a social duty to judge everyone by his or her behavior.
=========================================
"Anti-Semitism" means that a person and his motives are pre-judged unfavorably in a purely bigoted way because he is Jewish.

I happen to like Jews -- as an historical, ethnic and religious group, they are fascinating. When I discover that a new acquaintance is Jewish, that person becomes immediately more interesting to me. Yes... this is a prejudicial stereotype. I intend to keep it. Same as my mistrust for Jesuits (although some are really awesome. Extremely good or mostly extremely bad, those Jesuits.)

I guess I have a phobic prejudice toward Hungarians, especially if they are over 90 and control too much money. Anyhow, Soros is a deadly cancer to our society.

Innocent people are dead and thousands live in fear (most of these are Black citizens) because Soros paid for DA's who are now liberally releasing violent criminals back onto the streets.
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