Red pilling the great replacement
Let’s read that article that Media Matters has pinned on Twitter:
Ever in search of a new low, Elon Musk managed to find one on November 15 when he declared on X (formerly known as Twitter) that a paid X Premium (previously Twitter Blue) user’s antisemitic conspiracy theory attacking Jewish people was the “actual truth.”
We’ve already seen the tweet in question, and had a heated conversation over it. Jews pushing hatred against whites blah blah, Musk high-fiving.
The conspiracy theory, that Jewish populations are pushing “hatred against whites” and supporting “hordes of minorities” coming into the country, is the same one that motivated the 2018 Tree of Life shooter in Pittsburgh, as noted by The Atlantic’s Yair Rosenberg. Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes and other figures linked to white nationalism are cheering on Musk.
The Tree of Life shooter, who was found guilty this year, wrote on far-right platform Gab that he blamed Jewish people in the U.S. “for bringing in an invasion of nonwhite immigrants.” (Gab owner Andrew Torba is also one of the people cheering on Musk; Gab’s X account even bragged about red-pilling Musk on “JQ” – that is, the “Jewish question.”)
How did we get from a mass shooter writing something on a platform that most people have never visited to Musk endorsing it? First, Musk himself has rebuilt X around extremists like this, making a concentrated effort to lift up extremism, even providing financial incentives.
It will be interesting to watch his thermonuclear lawsuit.
It’s notable that when the Nashville trans shooter leaves a manifesto in line with woke attitudes demonising white people, then the manifesto is not released and the mainstream media makes no mention of its contents, and makes no link between that and anything else.
When, however, a shooter attacks a synagogue, then strong links are made between his attitudes and anything they dislike.
And, no, neither Musk nor the person he replied to referred to any supposed “conspiracy theory”, nor has Musk “rebuilt X around extremism”. These are just slurs intended to scare advertisers away from Twitter because Twitter doesn’t impose the moderation that they want.
It’s simply true that a lot of left-wing Jewish people in the US (not all, but “a lot of”) have promoted or gone along wiith CRT/DEI theory that paints white people as “oppressors” and “colonialists”. They’ve then had rather a shock, post Oct 7, to find themselves painted the same way.
Pointing out that (1) CRT/DEI is not in the interests of Jewish people, and (2) that some Jewish people had previously promoted it (the ADL for example, Soros for another), is neither anti-Semitic nor a “conspiracy theory”. And that’s all that Musk and the person he replied to were doing.
@Coel #1
The original tweet referred to “Jewish communities” and “western Jewish populations” not to some left-wing Jewish individuals. You are providing a motte and bailey defense of the tweet. The antisemitism lies in the sweeping accusation against a broad possibly universal ill-defined set of Jews, and in the choice of “Jewish” as the salient attribute. Are there not many non-Jewish white left-wing people who have supported CRT/DEI?
And I’m curious what you mean by “a lot”. A majority? Of all left-wing Jews? Of Jews you know personally?
@MartinH:
You’re right, but that wording can imply either some such people or most/all such people. And both Musk and the poster he replied to then clarified in subsequent Tweets that they meant “some” Jewish people/organisations. In such conversations it is entirely reasonable to clarify an intent, in which case that intent should be accepted.
Absolutely, lots and lots of them. But context! The background here is Hamas v Israel, and the widespread discussion of Jewish identity following Oct 7, and more specifically, the Tweet that Musk agreed with was itself a reply to a Jewish poster who had specifically invited criticism of Jews. Hence that poster’s comment, amounting to that (many) Jewish people are only now realising the toxicity of CRT/DEI whereas (in the poster’s opinion) maybe they should have done so earlier.
Sure, the Tweet was a bit crude and broad brush, but it was not “anti-Semitic” nor was it about any “conspiracy theory”.
Hmm, I’d go for a narrow majority. That is, a narrow majority (perhaps) of left-wing Jews can be faulted for having promoted or gone along with CRT/DEI. But then, so have large swathes of most other populations. It is only so widespread now because most have gone along with it and few opposed it.
Again, the point of the poster’s remarks were not to criticise Jews, they were to criticise CRT/DEI and its demonisation of “whiteness”! That’s the point most people are missing!
To sum up, “Jewish communities” have since Oct 7 been (quite reasonably) complaining “we’re being unfairly labelled as “colonialists” and “oppressors” by the CRT/DEI left”, to which a poster replied along the lines of “well they’ve been demonising whites as “colonialists” and “oppressors” for far longer, and many of you went along with it”.
The whole thing is not the most tactfully phrased Twitter exchange, and does indeed involve over-generalisation, but there was certainly no “anti-semitic conspiracy theory” being invoked and the freak-out over it is just ridiculous.
And just to reiterate, it is not the supposed “white supremacists” (too few to matter these days) from whom the anti-semitism is coming nowadays.
According to the news, today a group of Jewish students at the University of California San Diego have had to be escorted to safety by the police in the face of a baying mob of anti-Israel, pro-Palestian protestors. I’m willing to bet that (nearly) everyone in that mob is a left-wing supporter of CRT/DEI “social justice” and many of then would be “of colour”. That’s where the anti-Semitism is coming from.
But try getting the BBC or the Guardian to admit that.
Thank you, Coel.
I used to admire Media Matters. But like so many left-wing organizations, they’ve swallowed PoMo Woke/New Puritanism whole. Everybody who criticizes that worldview is now a “right-wing” or one of their fellow travelers. Makes it difficult to have a conversation of any nuance; you’re either with us or against us.
Musk is reckless and nutty and his tweet was bound to be misunderstood on Twitter (I continue to resist calling it “X”). But labeling him a “right-wing extremist” (as MM did) is bad faith.
I won’t bet against you.
He’ll probably turn into a right wing extremist eventually, just from being goaded… here MM just seized a particularly juicy weak point to fuck with someone they hate (mostly for buying Twitter).
I do hope it finally hollows out the vile hellsite, but we’ll see.
There are people who think that Musk was deliberately being anti-semitic; those who think that he was accidentally anti-semitic; those who think that interpreting his tweets as anti-semitic is wrong and unfair; those who wonder what the fuss is about, because the tweets are having no effect on the conflict; and those who are completely oblivious to the entire storm.
And then there are those who broadly agree with my rather cynical opinion, that Musk was deliberately trying to drive traffic to Twitter by making comments which could be interpreted in several different ways, so he could enjoy the ensuing tweet battles whilst claiming that everyone is misinterpreting his tweets; and so everyone will believe that he’s on whichever team they’ve joined.
In any case, he’s succeeded in making a lot of online discourse about him, instead of about how we deal with two populations, each determined to wipe the other out.
I still call it Twitter, for the very good reason that it’s still called Twitter; only the logo changed (from a blue bird to a capital X). The web address, which is twitter.com, never changed.
Here is an interesting Tweet by Colin Wright, which illustrates that “Media Matters” are a woke activist group.
Side with them if you wish, if you prefer woke activism and bans on misgendering to a “public square” forum where everyone may speak.
tigger#7: I think that in your ‘cynical’ opinion, you have hit the nail mostly on the head. Musk is, like other narcissists (such as Donald Trump or Dominic Cummings, who like to regard themselves as ‘mavericks’) a deeply unserious person who thinks it is clever to try to shock others since it draws attention to himself, and also allows him to play the satisfying role of victim when things don’t go quite the way he intended. Snowflakes galore.
The original tweet reads: ‘Okay. Jewish communties (sic) have been pushing the exact kind of dialectical hatred against whites that they claim to want people to stop using against them. I’m deeply disinterested in giving the tiniest shit now about western Jewish populations coming to the disturbing realization that those hordes of minorities that support flooding their country don’t exactly like them too much. You want truth said to your face, there it is.’
Well, all ‘sic’.
Musk’s response to that is ‘You have said the actual truth.’ On being challenged, he tries to weasel out of it (slightly), just as you may see Coel weaselling away when he responds in his frivolous and ostentatiously confident way to MartinH’s justified challenge:
‘You’re right, but that wording can imply either some such people or most/all such people. And both Musk and the poster he replied to then clarified in subsequent Tweets that they meant “some” Jewish people/organisations. In such conversations it is entirely reasonable to clarify an intent, in which case that intent should be accepted.’
And again when he (Coel) says this: ‘Again, the point of the poster’s remarks were not to criticise Jews, they were to criticise CRT/DEI and its demonisation of “whiteness”! That’s the point most people are missing!’
This is the sort of blatantly and brazenly disingenuous (‘See, I know it all! I dare you to disagree with me!’) rubbish that ‘mavericks’, and wannabe mavericks like Coel, indulge in. Too many people fall for it. Don’t.
I think you’re wrong, as well as uncharitable–about Coel, at least. You’re at least half right about Musk–he’s a narcissistic wannabe maverick–but it sounds to me like you’re unaware of current criticism of Critical Theory and the way the “Woke” left has been captured by it.
I’m fairly conversant with it (and agree with much of it, though I think that James Lindsay, for one, has gone off the deep end and become what he criticizes.)
The context Coel provides to the conversation between Musk and the original tweeter is unremarkable. Coel’s not reaching and he’s not being disingenuous. I can’t speak to Musk’s motives, but Coel’s interpretation of his meaning is a reasonable one.
Thank you, Lady Mondegreen. I’m afraid that I profoundly disagree with you.
To put it more bluntly, the first quotation from the offensive tweet speaks of ‘Jewish communities’ & ‘western Jewish populations’, who, according to the original tweeter, are ‘pushing’ hatred against ‘whites’. Coel responds when challenged by saying that ‘Jewish communities’ and ‘western Jewish populations’ could ‘imply either some such people or most/all such people.’ Those phrases, ‘Jewish communities’ & ‘western Jewish populations’ imply nothing of the kind. They are clearly meant to refer to all Jewish people who iive in the Western world (the writer of the original tweet is a neo-Nazi). I suggest that people who find Coel’s dishonest attempt to pretend that this is not so, should look up the words ‘community’ & ‘population’ in a dictionary.
Musk’s subsequent slight ‘climb-down’ is in fact not a climb-down at all, but as Judd at Popular Information (a website) says, he is ‘doubling down on the notion that Jewish people are involved in a conspiracy to oppress white people but concedes some undefined subset of Jews may not be involved.’ (This a conspiracy theory that is popular among extreme right groups.)
As for the ‘interpretation’ of the original tweet that Coel offers, I honestly cannot see how anyone who has read the original tweet could find Coel’s interpretation in any way other than wholly despicable and dishonest. I am sorry to say this, but Coel is a thoroughly unpleasant piece of work, who is using his intelligence & talents for contemptible and dangerous ends. I hope he will find a better use for that intelligence & those talents than the uses he is putting them to now, but rather doubt that he will.
Well, Tim, I’ve just had a look at some of @breakingbaht ‘s tweets (he’s the original tweeter.)
Here’s one”
Lady Mondegreen – I am sorry, but please read the original tweet carefully. It has nothing to do with Critical Race Theory, but peddles the anti-semitic theory popular among the extreme right that Jews are encouraging the immigration of minorities in order to undermine the West. I do not care what the original tweeter has to say about himself in subsequent tweets: it is irrelevant.