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.