48 Comments

Elon Musk was born and raised in South Africa’s apartheid government. You can take a white supremacist out of South Africa but you can’t take South Africa’s history of apartheid out of a white supremacist.

Expand full comment

I left Twitter the day he purchased it. It seems a plot overall for these people who have money or perceived power to control the different avenues of communication. And those who are far right work very hard at it.

I also note the hypocrisy of Victor Orban of Hungary: he promotes white supremacy but depends heavily on the benefits of the European Union, enjoying all the perks there. I’ve heard these European white supremacists would love to destroy the unity of the EU. His Country wouldn’t last a week without it. Like Musk, they are all paper tigers .

Expand full comment

I didn't leave Twitter quite as quickly as you did, Jan, but I did walk away the day he allowed professional Jew-hater Andrew Anglin back on.

Expand full comment

This man is behaviorally like Trump.

Expand full comment

He is not the only one. The white medical examiner who testified for the defense in Derek Chauvin’s trial was born in Zimbabwe (or Rhodesia at the time) and educated at the University of Wittersrand in South Africa. I heard his accent and thought, “Oh no, this must be a joke.”. And he had been the Chief Medical Examiner for South Carolina - giving excuses for numerous white cops who killed black men while on duty. I felt sick to my stomach.

Expand full comment

I watched his testimony. He was the "expert" who disingenuously claimed that George Floyd died because he was under the influence of drugs, which absolutely was not true.

If Neely has even a trace of THC in his blood, he will be deemed to have been a raving junkie whose death was justifiable. But it's actually the medical establishment's inability to look past the color of his skin. BTW, I doubt Penny was tested for drugs.

Expand full comment

Was going to write this but you did, so I say, "Well done!"

Expand full comment
May 9, 2023·edited May 9, 2023

While commenting on a true human tragedy, Musk uses anything to distract from what actually occurred. To make himself the victim in a glorious and modern feat of transubstantiation.

The former Marine killed an innocent man, policing someone who needed help, not punitive action from an individual not authorized or empowered to do anything but what any normal person would do. Call 911.

No one's life was at stake and if he (the tough Marine) feared for his own, his DI should cringe in shame and smack this pogue warrior about. The shitbird grabbed a man from behind, placed him in a choke hold and killed him.

Shitbird is what we Marines call one of our own who is, less than satisfactory we'll say.

As for Musk, can we conclude that he is somewhat, biased perhaps?

Kudos to Judd and Tesnim for continuing on a daily basis to supply this forum with much needed and accurate reportage. We are in your debt!

Expand full comment

Americans love the military. To them, they're all "heroes," especially on the right, many of whom are former military. Trump fed this big love by fawning over servicepersons by calling them "warriors" and "heroes," and giving many of them the impression that they can do no wrong. Penny had no right to attack this anguished man; he wasn't threatening anybody but was just vocalizing, something you see all the time on the subways and streets of NYC and every city on earth.

Expand full comment

Precisely! Was he loud and inconvenient? Hell yeah. He was in crisis. This is what it looks like when communities are under-resourced and folks go without what they need to be healthy and productive for so long, they become inured to the lack and fail to even recognize it's absence anymore.

Then they're on the street. Part street preacher and part street crazy, but all too human, altogether suffering, desperately in need of kindness, not punishment for having fallen so low.

Expand full comment

About 5 minutes ago I read an opinion piece in the Philadelphia Inquirer that voiced another issue very clearly, that being the reluctance of the other subway riders to intervene when it was apparent that Penny was killing Neely. It asks, who and what have we become? I would have at least asked him if I could do anything to help him. Jesus, the man was hungry, couldn't someone have offered to buy him a sandwich? A long time ago, I was homeless and spent a month in a shelter - I felt dehumanized and as if I had disappeared. I'm heartbroken that Neely died bereft of even the most basic acknowledgment of his humanity and his pain. His death really is about who we've become.

Expand full comment
May 9, 2023·edited May 9, 2023

Indeed. I hope enough of us retain enough of our sensibilities to remain able to ask oneself, "what have I become" before we spin off the rails, as a catalyst to positive change.

Expand full comment

I know how crazy I can get when I'm distraught. I simply cannot shake the feeling that all Neely was looking for was someone to listen, and it cost him his life. A homeless, flat broke black man surrounded by people with money in the bank and homes to return to, they were afraid of him.

Expand full comment

I jst re-read your original reply to my comment and I am so sorry that you had to experience that. I too have been bereft of home and hearth. In 2008, I lost everything ending up working for minimum wage in a warehouse and sleeping on my ex's couch.

She let me stay in return for preparing meals, cleaning and taking care of all of those blasted cats. Izzy, Tabby, Mad, Louie, Barnaby & Penelope, Tiger, Black Kitty and Chin-Lee. I loved those damn cats as much as she did tho. They were a bright spot in an otherwise harsh period.

I had tried for SNAP benefits and was archly informed that I made $50 too much per month to qualify. And the way they looked at me, a skilled professional brought low by circumstances outside of his direct control, as though I were a bit of shite on their shoe.

Dehumanized indeed.

Expand full comment

“Musk is clinging to anything he reads that suggests the media has an anti-white bias. But the evidence suggests the opposite is true. “

Elon Musk is an Afrikaner, and white South African, born and raised there. You know, the Country of Apartheid fame. We’d I say more?

Expand full comment

This is a very interesting article. You have offered up facts I was unaware of and with regard to Mr. Musk, well it is evident where he is coming from.

Expand full comment

Good points, but I just don’t take anything Musk says or does seriously. The man is an egotistical wind bag. Unfortunately there is little common sense a do to change the views of his far right followers. They feel cheated, why I don’t know, and are very satisfied complaining about their self inflicted woes.

Expand full comment

One of the worst things about Musk is he paid 40 billion for a mouthpiece where he can spread his views to millions of followers. The more he says with his "poor me/white folk, and anti-white lingo media bias," the more normalized it becomes. The WaPo and NYT would love such an audience, as I am sure the video media casts envious eyes upon him and his reach. If he were not so busy cluttering the sky with Starlink, blowing up rockets and peddling electric cars, he could take Tucker Carlson's place at Fox as he already has the followers.

Expand full comment

The only problem with this is "The far right, unable to defend Penny's conduct..." I'm seeing plenty of defenses of the Subway Strangler's conduct -- as in this bizarre thread with Thomas Chatterton Williams scraping hard for an "imminent danger" angle https://twitter.com/jbouie/status/1655713841735499779?s=46&t=LFoKWR1z2BVEIQEHJhZfpA

Expand full comment

I'm convinced that Elon only bought Twitter so he'd have a soapbox to perform on. Like DJT he says and does the outrageous to maintain an audience. You can put both of them in the same box. Nutty self-serving lunatics who should NOT get the ink and breaking news! They are both unhinged pariahs.

Expand full comment

It is a disquieting reminder that especially now, during the so called information age, MSM as well as any media, are less and less intent on uncovering and ensuring truth. Money buys mouthpieces, and a lot of money buys the loudest. Musk and Murdoch demonstrate this daily.

Expand full comment

Well said Carmen. I am utterly aghast at what these miscreants get away with. How they sleep at night? Poorly one would hope.

Expand full comment

Sadly, Adam, I bet they sleep just fine. They have no moral compass to direct any concern for others. I remember that GWB once stated that he had no trouble sleeping, all while sacrificing our military to his vanity and lies. Remember extraordinary rendition?

Expand full comment

O.M.G. What arrogance eh? To go anywhere in the world and disappear folken.

Expand full comment

Elon Musk is the Henry Ford of our times.

Expand full comment

Maybe we should simply stop paying attention to Elon Musk? He's not a god and he's clearly biased when it comes to anything race related. I think we know which way he leans...

Expand full comment

What these charts don't show is the billionaire on people, billionaire on climate, billionaire on housing crimes. And they are immoral and unjust. And the little man w/ the Twit followers is a case in point.

Expand full comment

Yes! Excellent points. I would like to see charts like those you suggest and I am convinced that they would be illuminating, no?

Expand full comment

Thanks for this.

I've been seeing this weird obsession with black on black violence popping up in comments, and it seems a weird thing to be obsessed with. After all, America is segregated, and crime is committed by the people you live with.

But now I understand the racist narrative that it serves.

Expand full comment
founding

Elon Musk, a true apartheid South African! How fitting that he'd transfer his conscious and unconscious bias to the anti Black racism of America. Your exposure of his literally distorted "facts" contributes to our understanding of how deep and unrelentingly false Musk's thinking is!

Expand full comment

Cherry picking statistics is exactly what I would expect from a malignant narcissist like Musk. He was born into racist culture, and due to the fact that he isn't the genius he thinks he is, has not escaped that paradigm made up of hate. As a former marine, I'm all for charging Daniel Penny. He stole a life without any valid reason for doing so.

Expand full comment

Growing up rich and white in apartheid South Africa has hard-wired Elon Musk as a white supremacist. I don't understand why anyone who has any self respect would continue to use Twitter or buy a Tesla. The excuses people make for using Twitter are just that - excuses. Why is Twitter so important when you know you're giving a bullhorn to a racist screwball?

Expand full comment

I deactivated Twitter when it came out Musk was buying it. I kept waiting for the sale to fall through and I would rejoin. It didn't, so I didn't. I get articles from different publications about Musk and what he's done or said now, but I really couldn't care less. I don't read them. This latest is him showing his white supremacy once more. Anyone that listens to him and more importantly believes him, has to be a white supremacist themselves. Heaven forbid anyone research anything for themselves. They take what these ash holes say as facts. You can't tell them otherwise, they don't comprehend facts.

I don't know New York City. I've never been on a subway. I am a human being though. I always carry water with me, because I'm always drinking water. Jordan Neely hollers out he's thirsty? I would have gladly given him my water. Out of all those people, you're going to tell me no one had a granola bar or a candy bar on them? Nobody? When this piece of shite grabbed Jordan from behind, I'd have jumped on the 2 of them. It's my understanding the choke hold lasted several minutes. Passengers did nothing? Oh wait. Lemme guess. There's video, right?

This was murder. Anyone who says differently doesn't belong to the human race.

Expand full comment