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Tuesday, January 23, 2024

Oh Elon, just stop talking

The headline of the New York Times piece is "Elon Musk, on Rehabilitation Tour, Calls Himself ‘Aspirationally Jewish’".

"Aspirationally Jewish"? Really?

Elon Musk made his remarks after a tour of Auschwitz, the infamous Nazi death camp in southern Poland. Now, to be clear, I hope Musk was moved by what he saw. I hope the visit truly changed his heart by making him comprehend, at least a little, just how fucking not funny or daring his dalliances with and encouragement of white supremacists have been. In a word, I hope he has matured.

But if this passage is any indication, he faces an uphill battle to convince us he has learned anything.

Speaking later at a conference on antisemitism organized by the [European Jewish Association] in the nearby Polish city of Krakow, Mr. Musk said he had been “somewhat naïve” about the dangers posed by anti-Jewish sentiment because “in the circles I move in, I see no antisemitism.”

“Two-thirds of my friends are Jewish,” he said. “I’m Jewish by association. I’m aspirationally Jewish.”

In the circles I move in, I see no drug abuse. Does that mean drug abuse doesn't exist? Or might it mean I don't know what drug abuse looks like, perhaps because it's so widespread that I think it's normal?

If two-thirds of my friends are Christian, am I Christian by association? If I'm aspirationally Christian, does that somehow make me Christian?

(That would be a pretty sweet deal, getting the perks without going to church or believing Jesus died for my sins. Somehow I doubt it works that way.)

If Musk's profoundly insulting remarks belong anywhere, it would be in the mouth of a cringey, profoundly tone-deaf character in a modern sitcom. (And for that sitcom to get away with it, the show would have to be exquisitely well-written.)

Either Musk is one of those cringey, exquisitely tone-deaf people, or he's punking us in the mistaken belief he's being funny. (Come to think of it, both could be true.)

Either way, Elon, just stop talking.

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