Elon Musk: Diversity-based hiring is antisemitic – POLITICO Europe

KRAKW, Poland Elon Musk has upped his war on woke by saying that diversity-oriented hiring policies are fundamentally antisemitic and discriminatory, shortly after a private visit to the Auschwitz-BirkenauNazi concentration camp.

The controversial tech billionaire was speaking at a European Jewish Association (EJA) conference in the Polish city ofKrakw, amid rising criticism that his social media platform X, formerly Twitter has allowed rampant hate speech to spread. Musk himself sparked outrage in November when hepublicly agreedwith an antisemitic tweet claiming that Jewish communities have been pushing the exact kind of dialectical hatred against whites that they claim to want people to stop using against them.

While his trip to Poland allowed him to push back at the charges of antisemitism, he also seized the opportunity to turn his fire against one of his favorite bugbears: Diversity, equity and inclusion policies.

Always be wary of any name that sounds like it could come out of a George Orwell book. Thats never a good sign, Musk told American right-wing commentator BenShapiro, who joined him on stage. Sure, diversity, equity and inclusion all sound like nice words, but what it really means is discrimination on the basis of race, sex, sexual orientation and its against merit and thus I think its fundamentally antisemitic.

Musk, who confirmed that he does indeed write all of his own posts on X, has been vocal about his feelings toward diversity, equity and inclusion, including by claiming, without evidence, that diverse hiring initiatives at Boeing and United Airlines have made air travel less safe.

His comments feed into a broader debate on inclusive hiring policies, most especially on U.S. college campuses. The resignation ofHarvard President Claudine Gayover a plagiarism scandal was seized upon by Republicans, who claim top schools are examples of American institutions in the throes of a leftist political transformation. Critics argue this radical leftist culture on campuses is stoking antisemitism, and top university leaders hit heavy flak last month for their poor handling of a congressional hearing on the bullying of Jews.

On Monday, Shapiro went easy on Musk, steering the conversation towards meritocracy rather than Musks increasingly controversial social media outbursts and allowing the Tesla boss to continue his attacks on a subject he has made a great deal of mileage out of.

I think we need return to a focus on merit and it doesnt matter whether youre man, woman, what race you are, what beliefs you have, what matters is how good you are at your job or what are your skills, Musk said.

At the EJA conference a daylong summit on the rise of antisemitism in the aftermath of the October 7 attack on Israel by Hamas Musk also defended X against accusations of antisemitism and hate speech, saying freedom of speech must be protected even when controversial. According to the billionaire, who cited audits without offering further details, X has the least amount of antisemitism among all social media platforms, adding that TikTok has five times the amount of antisemitism that X has.

Relentless pursuit of the truth is the goal with X, Musk said. And allowing people to say what they want to say even if its controversial, provided it does not break the law, is the right thing to do.

Musk has faced widespread criticism over the rise of disinformation and hate content since he bought the social media platform for $44 billion in 2022, criticism that intensified in the weeks following the escalation of the Israel-Hamas war last October.

The reported spread of fake and misleading content on the conflict led the EU to launch an investigation into X. And things got worse for Musk after progressive watchdog groupMedia Matterspublished a reportalleging that X had run ads for major companies next to neo-Nazi posts.

The Media Matters report and Musks endorsement of an antisemitic post sparked a backlash fromseveral public figuresand culminated in an advertiser exodus, as multiple companies pulled their adsfrom the site, including giants such as Apple, IBM, Disney and Coca-Cola. According to aNew York Times report, this could result in a loss of up to $75 million for X.

Musk has since apologized for the antisemitic post admitting he should not have replied to it and then traveled to Israel to meet with President Isaac Herzog and Prime Minister BenjaminNetanyahu, in what could be seen as an apology tour.

Speaking about his visit to Israel, Musk said indoctrinated Hamas fighters have to be killed or imprisoned to prevent them from killing more Israelis. And the next step is fighting further indoctrination in Gaza, he added.

The indoctrination of hate into kids in Gaza has to stop, Musk said. I understand the need to invade Gaza, and unfortunately some innocent people will die, theres no way around it, but the most important thing to ensure is that afterwards the indoctrination stops.

According to Gazas Health Ministry, Israeli airstrikes and ground attacks have killed over 25,000 Palestinians and wounded more than 60,000 since the attack by Hamas onOctober7, in which Israeli officials say the militant group killed over 1,200 nationals and foreigners and took 240 hostages.

Musk said the West has shifted to a mentality that equates smaller, weaker groups with goodness.

We need to stop the principle that the normally weaker party is always right, this is simply not true, Musk said. If you are oppressed or the weaker party it doesnt mean youre right.

Musk who joked multiple times that he considers himself Jew by aspiration and by association was supposed to visit the Auschwitz-BirkenauNazi concentration camp on Tuesday alongside other speakers and political leaders from the EJA conference, but he instead took a private tour of the site with his young son.

The Auschwitz Museum itself was among one of the entities that had called out Musk for failing to contain antisemitic content.

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Elon Musk: Diversity-based hiring is antisemitic - POLITICO Europe