A few years ago, on his CBS The Late Show, Stephen Colbert had a "nice" conversation with Elon Musk.
– Are you really trying to save the world?
-I try to do good things, I don't know whether to save the world.
– And you're a billionaire.
– Yeah .
– Does this sound a little superhero or supervillain?
Musk was silent.
Over time, the businessman with even more companies and, above all, owner of X, which was called Twitter when he acquired it, looks less and less like Tony Stark, the Iron Man of the Marvel universe he served face, and more to Magneto, the reverse of the heroes.
As Walter Isaacson explains in his recent biography, today's richest man in the world can be "cold and brutal" and act "guided by demons".
This facet emerges as usual on his X platform. His messages often cause scandals among his more than 163 million followers, an absolute record.
But few like the one he sparked this week by amplifying the anti-Semitic conspiracy theory of displacement, in which whites are replaced by invaders of other ethnicities under Jewish leadership.
This old conspiracy already guided Hitler. For some time now it has jumped from the dark margins of society and has become mainstream, partly because of the quotes in the manifestos of three gunmen who in recent years have caused massacres in the USA, and because of the invaluable collaboration of the 'media star of the extreme right, Tucker Carlson, friend and associate of Musk who is now embracing Santiago Abascal.
It was no coincidence that his message appeared at this divisive moment, in the midst of confrontational rhetoric over the war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The White House issued a stern condemnation of this global push for "a sickening promotion of anti-Semitic and racist hatred." The spokesman added that "this goes against the fundamental values of the United States"
It was only six words that unleashed this storm, for which big companies (Apple, Comcast, Disney, Lionsgate, Paramount...) announced their boycott of X by stopping advertising. "You have told the real truth", wrote Musk in a message that had passed without making a noise until the owner of the network magnified it.
The message referred to the comment of a white supremacist account, with little relevance, which had spread the conspiracy of Jewish hatred of gentiles and their attempt to replace them with immigrants. The White House described this as a “horrible lie” which, moreover, is the same one that Robert Bowers appealed to in 2018 to cause eleven deaths in a synagogue in Pittsburgh.
Rain on wet Over the course of these months, allegations of racial hatred and, specifically, anti-Semitism have piled up online. A day before this message, IBM anticipated it with its withdrawal of advertising from a platform for which Musk paid 44 billion dollars in October 2022 and which a year later is worth 19 billion .
The IT company said enough once it saw the platform place its ads alongside memes portraying Nazism as a spiritual awakening, alongside Hitler quotes presented in inspirational style.
If you are on the right side of history, the answer to hero or villain is clear.
