On the night of November 15, 2023, Elon Musk, the CEO of the social media platform X (formerly Twitter), wrote a series of posts railing against Jews and the Anti-Defamation League for "unjustly attacking the majority of the west." Musk also responded to an X user who was writing to a Jewish user. The Jewish X user asked that those that think "Hitler was right…Why dont you say it to our faces." The original user replied: "Jewish communities have been pushing the exact kind of dialectical hatred against whites that they claim to want people to stop using against them," and that they support “hoards [sic] of minorities flooding their country.” Musk replied to the post, writing: "You have said the actual truth."
The discussion has energized neo-Nazis and white supremacists online who believe Musk's comments have significantly shifted the Overton Window—that is the boundaries of acceptable and mainstream political discourse. These people cheer that, thanks to Musk, antisemitism has moved from periphery discussions to the mainstream.
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The following is an overview of neo-Nazi and white supremacist social media discussions surrounding Musk's comments on X.
Neo-Nazis And White Supremacist Users On Gab And Telegram Laud Musk For Shifting Overton Window
Following Musk's endorsement of antisemitic tropes on X, neo-Nazis and white supremacists celebrated his comments as a significant shifting of the Overton Window, bringing antisemitism into mainstream discourse.
On Telegram, a neo-Nazi account posted a screen capture of a November 16 discussion thread on X involving Elon Musk. Musk responded to a tweet stating: "Everyone is allowed to be proud of their race, except for white people, because we've been brainwashed into believing that our history was somehow 'worse' than that of other races. That false narrative needs to die – and if we really want to do the comparing game, white people have also done A LOT of good for the world." Elon Musk replied, "Yeah, this is super messed up. Time for this nonsense to end and shame ANYONE who perpetuates these lies!" The neo-Nazi user commented via Telegram, "Our ideology continues to grow into the mainstream narrative. Everyone is playing catchup to us now."
Subsequently, on the same day, the same account posted comments regarding the spreading of antisemitic, white supremacist, and neo-Nazi content online. The post stated: "All of these 'influencers' are having an internal struggle right now. On one side is their desire to not run afoul of the system that allows them access to large platforms and funding. On the other side is the evolving opinions of their mostly White audiences, and possibly their own evolving opinions. The days of getting away with being a kosher-right shill are coming to an end, but the days of being one of Our Guys without massive backlash aren't quite here yet. Everyone's starting to put a toe over the line so they can say they were ahead of the pack when it happens."
Official Gab accounts praised Musk and Gab's comments were reposted by many of their users. On Gab, an antisemitic user reposted, on November 16, a screengrab of a post from an official Gab account which stated, "Pray for Elon. There's no going back from yesterday's Overton Window-shattering moment and they are extra sensitive and enraged with everything going on now."
Neo-Nazis And White Supremacists Use The Opportunity To Post Antisemitic And Racist Comments And To "Name The Jew"
On X, a neo-Nazi account posted a video, on November 16, which begins with Elon Musk's tweet agreeing with the antisemitic comment. Underneath Musk's words are comments by the account who wrote: "Dude. What are you talking about. What Jewish people are pushing hate towards whites." The video then highlights Jewish authors of different academic studies concerning racial and white racial identity. Each Jewish author's last name is circled. The post continues: "Anti white hatred being forced on the west is a complete conspiracy theory. To even suggest jewish intellectuals are behind it is the definition of anti-smetatavism and unadulterated hatred. Name one jew promoting this. Hate ends now. Jew power."
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