Maccabee Nation Podcast

We all have the capacity for both good and evil and most of us are complex, especially transformational people that end up leaving a mark on the world. Elon is no different. He may be a powerful person, but he is human.

His ability to be radically candid with the public about his thoughts, feelings, and motivations (often in real time), makes many of us feel like we know him on some level, whether that’s true or not. That’s probably one of his biggest superpowers, not unlike the big orange, who whether you like him or hate him, you at least feel like he’s being authentic.

I began first learning about Elon decades ago in my 20s. As an avid tech enthusiast, I first became aware of him during the early days of the internet boom while following PayPal’s talented team who would later go on to found some of the worlds most influential startups. I have followed his career closely since, read his biographies, and drawn inspiration from his unique management philosophy that prioritizes tangible results over corporate BS. I also love his pragmatic approach to environmental sustainability with Tesla and Solar City and his desire to make humans an interplanetary species with SpaceX. I often find motivation watching his interviews in terms of how he thinks from first principals and believe he’s truly a once in a lifetime entrepreneur.

As an Elon fan, like many others, I’ve often found myself in the precarious position of having to defend him in public and private spaces over the years. Whether defending an “insensitive” tweet or meme, the fact that billionaires should be able to exist at all as long as they are playing by the rules, or his positions as a free speech absolutist and all the thorns that come with it, I’ve been in Elon’s corner.

I first began having doubts when Elon retweeted a popular Jewish conspiracy theory that Jewish communities push “hatred against Whites.”

As a Jewish person, I’m hypersensitive to not wanting to be caught on the wrong side of history. I don’t speak for all Jews (and I certainly don’t want them speaking for me), so I can only tell you how it made me feel personally. It stung. It made me wonder, am I suffering from selection bias in terms of the information I’m consuming? Is Elon really a fascist with some type of sick agenda and I just can’t see it?

I took a step back and really thought about it.

The more I thought about it the more I realized my own frustration with parts of the Jewish community, especially those in the left leaning western Jewish diaspora. Staunch unexamined Jewish support for “progressive agendas” around this time had been grating on me too. Many Jewish Americans were embracing politicians who supported open boarder policies, identity politics, and at times extremist stances that, in my view, are at odds with what’s best for Americans, Westerners, and also Jews.

Still, “Jews’ are not a monolith and we can’t all be bucketed together. Indeed, Jewish support for Democrats in the last election did decline significantly, although the majority still did lean left. Looking back, I feel like I understood Elon’s sentiment at the time, even if I wouldn’t have used those words and felt that due to the size of his platform he needed to be more careful. Maybe that’s some mental gymnastics, but I was able to get past it and move on.

Now a year later, I find myself in a similar position of harboring Elon doubts after what can only be described as a double Nazi salute. His initial response, posting or reposting videos of other politicians making speeches with their hands raised in various positions was a weak defense that wasn’t going to make this controversy go away.

Prior to the controversy, Musk posted on X: "In the past I voted Democrat, because they were (mostly) the kindness party. But they have become the party of division and hate, so I can no longer support them and will vote Republican. Now, watch their dirty tricks campaign against me unfold." Although it’s easy to claim all criticism we receive is because we are being targeted personally or politically, it’s much harder to look inward and do a little introspection. Because of Elon’s capacity to be so critical about solving problems, my hope was we’d see more of that analysis applied to himself to give us a more reasonable explanation. I could probably get behind a lot of explanations, if I felt like they were genuine, and I think that’s what has bothered me the most about this recent news cycle.

Although I’ve felt disappointed lately with Elon, I also still believe context matters. Making these hand gestures while saying “My heart goes out to you” is not the same as doing it while shouting something that could be construed as antisemitic like “Free Palestine” or “America first.”

The need to come to Elon’s defense is becoming more frequent and is beginning to drain my batteries. I’m finding myself defending Elon more quietly and less quickly than in the past. It’s hard for me to reconcile these negative feelings in light of other important times where Elon has made me proud to have supported him.

If we’re going to draw attention to some of Elon’s cringeworthy moments in regard to Jews, we should also be honest about what he’s done for our community too. Elon went to Israel to bear witness to the horrors of October 7th, and he stood up for our people at a time when it was deeply unpopular to do so at great personal cost to his reputation, especially his willingness to alienate many of his far right supporters. When it counted, Elon showed up more than most. How many antisemites do you know who wear dog tags to bring the hostages home?

So does Elon truly harbor Nazi, fascist, or antisemitic sympathies? Middle of the night… gun to my head… yes or no answer… I don’t believe he does.

The reason I’m late to the party here in my defense of Elon is because I needed more time to think about it. When you’re not sure what side you’re on it’s okay to shut up and listen for awhile.

I’ll leave you with why I think Elon is so special and why we shouldn’t leave him to the wolves every time he screws up.

Elon’s capacity to dream big and his understanding that sometimes accomplishing a critical mission is more important than being well liked is rare. The number of people with this type of ethos who also have the capacity to endure pain should be celebrated, especially in America.

The world would probably be a better place if we had more Elon’s, and that should be the litmus test for judging someone. We are the sum of all our actions and not just snippets of our best or weakest moments.

A lot of people talk about problems and wish for change, but Elon actually goes out there and tries to make it happen. He’s not perfect. He f*cks up. A lot. He also succeeds a lot. I’m going to charge my batteries and continue defending Elon. If one day he tries to shove me into some type of solar powered oven or self-drive only the Jewish peoples cars off a cliff, you can tell me “I told you so.”

Until next time. Stay classy Maccabee Nation.

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Sources:

Elon reaction to the controversy https://www.express.co.uk/celebrity-news/2006195/elon-musk-jimmy-carr-salute-controversy-trump

Elon Retweets anti-Jewish conspiracy theory https://www.cnn.com/2023/11/17/business/elon-musk-reveals-his-actual-truth/index.html

Jewish support for Democrats drops https://nypost.com/2024/10/19/us-news/jewish-support-for-democrats-lowest-since-reagan-era-poll/