Rightwing personalities use X to bring antisemitic theories to light in US

[Celerity]

Experts say figures like Elon Musk and Tucker Carlson bringing ‘great replacement’ theory mainstream signals growing extremism

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/nov/21/great-replacement-theory-antisemitism-racism-rightwing-mainstream



The racist and antisemitic “great replacement” theory is encroaching out of the far right and more visibly into mainstream US politics in the wake of its platforming by major figures like Elon Musk and Tucker Carlson, in a move experts believe shows the growing extremeness of rightwing politics in the US. High-profile users of Twitter/X including rightwing personality Carlson and the platform’s proprietor Musk, are helping to mainstream extremist narratives that are increasingly prevalent on the site, experts and advocates say. Despite Musk’s aggressive responses to organizations that criticize X for promoting extremism, white nationalists and other extremists last week took to the platform to celebrate the role of Musk, his platform and star attractions including Carlson for “shifting the Overton Window” on antisemitism.

The “great replacement” is a racist conspiracy narrative that falsely asserts there is an active, ongoing and covert effort to replace white populations in current white-majority countries. In many versions – such as those rehearsed in the manifestos of mass shooters in Christchurch, New Zealand; El Paso, Texas; and Buffalo, New York – the purported replacement is being coordinated by Jewish people. From the middle of last week through the weekend, events on X followed a pattern that has become increasingly familiar since Musk assumed control of Twitter in October 2022: extremist remarks from Musk and other high-profile users received widespread criticism, more advertisers abandoned the platform, and Musk furiously portrayed his critics as unfairly picking on him.

On Wednesday, Musk described another user’s claim that Jewish people had pushed “hatred against whites” and implied they were responsible for “hordes of minorities … flooding” western countries. The comments drew condemnation from Jewish groups, media commentators and even the White House. Heidi Beirich, extremism expert and co-founder of the Global Project on Hate and Extremism (GPAHE ), pointed to Twitter’s response to a 31 October GPAHE report showing that members of the white supremacist Generation Identity (GI) movement had returned to Twitter after widespread bans in 2020. Following the report’s publication, 31 GI accounts were suspended, but 26 were reinstated within 24 hours. “Somebody was trying to content moderate according to the rules and had the decision reversed,” Beirich argued. “I don’t know if that’s Musk or [X CEO] Linda Yaccarino or someone else, but clearly they don’t care to impose their own rules any more when it comes to this type of hate content,” she added.

Last week, on Carlson’s self-produced show which has run on X since his acrimonious exit from Fox News, he and guest Candace Owens discussed what they called the hypocrisy of pro-Israel donors in threatening college funding over pro-Palestinian protests after allegedly remaining silent during Black Lives Matter protests and the implementation of diversity initiatives. At one point Owens – on the show to discuss her public feud with the Daily Wire founder Ben Shapiro over Israel’s actions in Gaza – claimed that discussions of race on college campuses were designed to “breed white people out of the population”. Carlson asked donors: “Where were you the last 10 years when they were calling for white genocide?” Carlson later added: “You were paying for it, actually … You were calling my children immoral for their skin color, you paid for it.”

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[ck4829]

1. K&R

[tanyev]

2. And Elon thinks he's entitled to keep all his advertisers,

no matter what he says or does.