cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/11125375

“I’m aspirationally Jewish,” Musk said. “So I was like, ‘What are people talking about with this antisemitism?’ Because I never hear it at dinner conversations."

Elon Musk said he is “Jewish by association” during a conversation with conservative commentator Ben Shapiro after a visit to the former Nazi concentration camp in Auschwitz, Poland.

Musk, the Tesla CEO and owner of social media platform X, made the comments during a conference on antisemitism organized by the European Jewish Association. The association had arranged for Musk to make a private visit to Auschwitz, where an estimated 1.1 million Jewish people were killed during the Holocaust.

“I must admit to being somewhat frankly naive about this. In the circles that I move, I see almost no antisemitism. … Two-thirds of my friends are Jewish,” the billionaire tech mogul said in a video posted on YouTube by Bloomberg Technology. “I have twice as many Jewish friends as non-Jewish friends. I’m like Jewish by association.”

  • mhague@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    He says there’s no antisemitism in his close circles, as if that matters, but it’s also a lie because he himself backed a “Jews are trying to replace whites” post on Twitter.

    Also, he said he was Jewish by association because he has a lot of Jewish friends. Different brand of ridiculousness from what the headline implies.

    • GenderNeutralBro@lemmy.sdf.org
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      9 months ago

      Yeah, this would be a dumb thing to say even if wasn’t bullshit.

      I mean, plenty of people don’t encounter antisemitism in their daily life. So what? I don’t either, for the most part, because I don’t associate with antisemites, but I’m not dumb enough to imply that my social bubble represents the wider world. I am capable of reading, so I do have some idea of what goes on outside my bubble, and I am cognizant of the limits of my personal experience. The conversations I personally have at the dinner table do not have broad social implications.

    • cabbage@piefed.social
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      9 months ago

      If you read between the lines he’s not saying he’s Jewish by association because he has so many Jewish friends; he’s saying he’s Jewish by association because he’s a billionaire.

      Scum of the earth.

  • EvilBit@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    When Trey Parker and Matt Stone had a bunch of lily-white Mormon missionaries sing the line “Africans are African but we are Africa”, they were making a joke. This fucking guy, however…

  • MNByChoice@midwest.social
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    9 months ago

    “Jewish by association”

    Sounds pretty not good. Cultural appropriation with a side of self centeredness.

    Also, pretty antisemitic.

    Are there better words to clearly label this?

  • RememberTheApollo@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    What did he “by association” himself after his visit to the US southern border?

    Did he stop at a McDonalds along the way and “by association” make himself a minimum wage worker with two jobs and three roommates struggling to get by?

  • anarchrist@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    9 months ago

    The world would have been better off if he had been friends with the submarine guy and got imploded by association.

  • ares35@kbin.social
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    9 months ago

    he’s got boot lickers, ass kissers, and ‘yes’-men…

    and people paid to put up with his shit…

    i doubt he has any actual friends.

  • edgemaster72@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    What’s that saying? If you don’t know who the asshole in your friend group is, it’s you? Also, the level of antisemitism we were looking for was none. None.

  • intensely_human@lemm.ee
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    9 months ago

    This has got to the be the most misleading headline I’ve ever seen. His comments about “almost no antisemitism” had absolutely nothing to do with his visit to Auschwitz.