The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

But Is It ‘Actual Truth’?

Posted on | November 20, 2023 | 1 Comment

Over the weekend, I saw a lot of headlines about Elon Musk endorsing or promoting an “antisemitic conspiracy theory,” e.g.:

Advertisers Flee X as Outcry
Over Musk’s Endorsement
of Antisemitic Post Grows
— New York Times

Antisemitism was rising online.
Then Elon Musk’s X supercharged it.
— Washington Post

Ron DeSantis refuses
to condemn Elon Musk’s endorsement
of antisemitic conspiracy theory
— USA Today

The problem here is that these news reports do not include the full context — which is why I’ve posted the screenshots above — so that readers can evaluate these accusations for themselves. Before condemning someone as an anti-Semite, we ought to first look closely at the proffered evidence. What happened was that Charles Weber, a self-described Jewish conservative, issued a defiant message to “cowards hiding behind the anonymity of the internet and posting ‘Hitler was right,'” telling them to “say it to our faces.” The account @breakingbaht then responded to Weber’s message with a hasty post (typos suggest haste) saying that “Jewish communities” have (a) “pushed . . . dialectical hatred against whites” and (b) supported “hordes of minorities . . . flooding [western] countries.” It was by replying to @breakingbaht with his “actual truth” endorsement that Musk is alleged to have promoted an antisemitic conspiracy theory. But there are several questions here.

First of all, how did the message from @breakingbaht come to Musk’s attention? Was the owner of The Social Media Platform Formerly Known as Twitter actually following the @breakingbaht account? Or did he see the message from someone else’s RT? This matters, because if @breakingbaht can be fairly described as an anti-Semite, what does Musk’s response say about the kinds of accounts he follows? But then again, I haven’t researched the @breakingbaht account enough to know whether he is generally anti-Jewish, or if this particular message was a one-off. He seems to be reacting to the “hordes” of immigrants participating in anti-Israel protests — an observable fact, especially in Europe — and connecting this to the alleged role of Jews in promoting both mass immigration and “dialectical hatred against whites.”

Well, are these accusations true? Is it true that, generally, “Jewish communities” support an open-borders policy that has brought “hordes of minorities” into Western countries in recent years? And is it also true that “Jewish communities” have promoted “hatred against whites”? On that latter count, I suppose @breakingbaht could be referring to what is called “critical race theory,” and readers may investigate for themselves whether Jews have generally supported or opposed this kind of “dialectical hatred.” As for the position of “Jewish communities” on immigration enforcement, again, readers can research this question on their own. However, no one can deny that certain Jewish individuals and organizations have actively opposed efforts to restrict immigration. Furthermore, exit-poll data show Jewish voters in the United States supporting Democrats over Republicans by more than a 2-to-1 margin, a fact which might attract your attention, if you consider Democrats to be the anti-white open-borders party (as perhaps you should).

So where is the antisemitism here? And where is the “conspiracy theory”? Well, on the first count, there are lots of non-Jewish people on the Left who support the harmful ideas and policies criticized by @breakingbaht, so why single out “Jewish communities”? Ah, but recall what prompted this message from @breakingbaht — Charles Weber’s complaint about anonymous “cowards” posting “Hitler was right” message online. If these anonymous Jew-haters are mainly part of the immigrant “horde,” then the actual argument being made is: Jews should stop supporting open-borders policies, which are ultimately harmful to Jews.

That is not antisemitism, but I will not be so disingenuous as to pretend I don’t know why people are concerned about what @breakingbaht posted (and Musk’s agreement with it). The Pittsburgh synagogue shooting in 2018 was perpetrated by a man whose motive involved the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, an organization whose spokesman said: “As far as the migrant caravan goes, we are actively advocating for asylum seekers.”

This in turn involves what’s called “The Great Replacement,” taking its name from the title of a book by French author Renaud Camus. The problem with describing this as a “conspiracy theory” is that when you look at the facts — the impact of immigration on demographic trends — it’s hard to deny that something like this is actually happening.

You don’t have to be an anti-Semite to be concerned about the real consequences of mass immigration, and there are plenty of Jews (including many of my personal acquaintances) who are every bit as “right-wing” on this issue as any conservative Republican. Some on the Left have taken to denouncing anyone and everyone who opposes an open-borders policy as a Jew-hating conspiracy theorist, which is just as wrong in its own way as the Pittsburgh gunman’s obsession with the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society. There are all kinds of groups — including Quakers and Catholics and mainstream Protestants — who are part of the open-borders lobby (not to mention the Chamber of Commerce), so why the obsession with Jews? But meanwhile . . .

Why was CNN demanding that Ron DeSantis denounce Elon Musk over this? As I’ve pointed out, there are issues involved which could be cited in defense of Elon Musk’s “actual truth” message, and it is a crude over-simplication to describe Musk as having endorsed an “antisemitic conspiracy theory” and then demand that everybody denounce him.

This is why people don’t trust the media. They’re always running around looking for some kind of bogus “scandal” like this about anyone remotely conservative, and then demanding that Republican politicians denounce the targeted person. You never see them doing things like this to Democrats. Liberals get away with saying all kinds of crazy stuff, without CNN ever demanding that Democrats denounce their craziness.



 

Category: Israel, Racism

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One Response to “But Is It ‘Actual Truth’?”

  1. From The Daily Read List… – Average Bubba-Part Deux
    November 21st, 2023 @ 11:23 am

    […] from The Other McCain, a piece referring to the brouhaha over Elon Musk’s being an “alleged” […]