Elon Musk, the world’s richest man at $244.5 billion, continues to make life difficult for himself and his businesses, especially X, AKA as Twitter, making incendiary statements in the name of a free press. Musk recently said he agreed with a Twitter user saying essentially that Jews were trying to control the world, an old trope dating back to 1903 fake book out of Russia, “Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion.” Musk tries to get involved with too many issues unrelated to his work as CEO of Tesla Motors, SpaceX and many other ventures, greatly admired by many people. But when Musk is left to his own devices, exposes his eccentric thinking to the public, he gets into trouble, this time around watching X’s advertisers bail out in droves over anti-Semitic remarks. Walt Disney and Warner Brothers Discovery suspended all advertising because of Musk’s agreement with an anti-Semitic trope.
Musk unleashed a profane-laced rant at a New York Times “DealBook” event, accusing advertisers of blackmailing his company. Acting like a loose cannon, Musk must get a grip before he costs himself and his companies dearly from his unsightly comments, whether they’re inadvertent or not. Agreeing with an X user that Jews were “stoking hatred of white people” is preposterous, outrageous beyond the pale. In case Musk hasn’t looked from his days in South Africa, Jews are white. His X user remarks harks back to the “Protocols” days, where certain Christian fundamentalists blamed Jews for everything, just like the Catholic Church’s old lies that “Jews betrayed Jesus.” Forget about whether or not Jesus ever existed histori
cally at all or was once Jewish, when he rebelled against Jewish orthodoxy during the time of Tiberius or Pontius Pilatus.
Jews as a region or ethnic group dates back over 5,000 years into Western Civilization, the first of the modern monotheistic religions. Whether or not there has been prejudice against Jews through the millennia or not, it’s not befitting to watch the world’s richest man spew anti-Semitic tropes or agree with an ignoramus on X. Musk didn’t like when Disney CEO Bob Iger, who happens to be Jewish, said he didn’t care for Musk’s remarks. Musk’s remarks “was not a positive one for us,” Iger said, telegraphing to Musk that he should watch his tongue when it comes to offending Disney’s consumers or shareholders. “Companies need to protect the brands they work for,” said Lou Paskalis, founder of marketing onsultancy AJA Advisers. Must doesn’t see that affording bigots a platform hurts his X brand by offending many of his shareholders and users.
Questions about Musk’s mental health have been brought up in the past with his penchant for smoking marijuana or making incendiary comments. Musk threatened X advertisers with a “thermonuclear” lawsuit, suggesting he could stop advertisers from boycotting X, something patently absurd. No advertiser can be forced to patronize any company, simply because of a past history. Threatening lawsuits against advertisers only makes a bad situation worse for Musk. “This isn’t advertisers getting together in a secret clubhouse to support an agenda,” said Pasakalis. “If anyone’s killing X, it’s Elon Musk—not his advertisers,” said Insider’s Jasmine Enberg. “Should X collapse, an autopsy would reveal a series of platform policy decisions, staffing cuts, tweets and antagonistic comments by Musk that have drive away X’s primary source of revenue,” said Enberg.
When you consider Musk’s outburst openly cursing at X’s former advertisers, you know that he’s gone over the deep end.
Musk, like most eccentric billionaires or out-of-touch leaders don’t listen to anyone, having little receptivity for personal feedback. “[Musk] seems to be hell- bent on destroying his platform,” Enberg said. Musk bought Twitter Oct. 28, 2022 with plenty of controversy, largely over his plans to revamp the company. No one talked at the time about why the Tesla and SpaceX CEO would by Twitter, a company struggling to stay afloat. Musk saw it as a vanity buy to allow him a high profile way to communicate with the planet. Paying $54 a share, Musk overpaid at the time, closing today with the month-long market rally at $53. Advertising revenue has declined 64% over the last years, attesting to Musk’s toxic influence on the company.
Musk has a lot of work to do to reverse the reputation damage caused by his latest outbursts. Instead of excusing his behavior, Musk would be well-advised to get some therapy and figure out why he’s his own worst enemy. Whether admitted to or not, it’s become obvious that Musk has some issues to resolve, maybe related to an undiagnosed bipolar disorder or possibly lying on the autistic spectrum. Throwing a profanity-laced fit at New York Times DealBook event, Musk must take a serious inventory of how his emotions are out-of-control. An anonymous person at the DealBooK event was “aghast” watching Musk throw his fit. “It’s obvious [Musk] doesn’t want us there and we don’t want to be there,” describing his tirade as unthinkable. Many people hope Musk can turn himself around before it’s too late. Watching someone self-destruct isn’t pleasant.
About the Author
John M.Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
