On May 16 (local time), Twitter’s owner and billionaire Elon Musk said he would prefer freedom of speech over money and say whatever he wants during an interview with David Faber for CNBC. Faber had questioned him about the recent tweets about George Soros, where Elon Musk drew a parallel between Soros and the fictional comic villain character Magneto and said that George Soros hates humanity.
In a tweet, Musk said, “Soros reminds me of Magneto”. Magneto is a fictional character from Marvel Comics who appears in the X-Men series. He is a powerful mutant, a fictional humanity subspecies with superpowers. Magneto can control metal the way he likes. Initially, he worked with good intentions but later became an enemy of humanity.
Coming back to Musk’s tweet, a journalist named Brian Krassenstein of Krassenstein News got irked by his tweet and replied that Magneto’s experiences during the Holocaust as a survivor shared his perspective as well as his depth and empathy. He mentioned George Soros was also a Holocaust survivor, and he often gets attacked for his “good intentions”, which some Americans think are bad because they disagree with him because of his political affiliation.
To which Elon Musk replied, “You assume they are good intentions. They are not. He wants to erode the very fabric of civilisation. Soros hates humanity.”
When Faber asked him about the tweet during the interview, Musk said it was his community’s opinion. Faber questioned him about the need to share such views on social media and if people who bought Tesla did not like it or advertisers on Twitter may not agree with him.
Musk said it was “Freedom of speech. I am allowed to speak what I want.”. Notably, Musk has been a staunch supporter of freedom of speech on the platform. Since he took over Twitter, many conservative and right-wing accounts were unsuspended and thrown out of the platform for speaking of something that the previous team “did not like”.
Faber further asks if people say his views were ‘anti-Semite’, terms used for people who are hostile and prejudiced against Jews. Musk said, “I’m a pro-Semite if anything.” Faber further said what if Tesla owners do not agree with this, and people on Twitter say he has to stop as advertisers may not like what he tweeted?
Musk said the conversation reminded him of a scene from the movie “The Princess Bride” where the character Inigo confronts Rugen, the person who killed his father and said, “Offer me money. Power, too, promise me that.” Musk said, “I’m reminded of the Scene in “the princess bride where he confronts the person who killed his father, And he says, offers me money, Offer me power, I don’t care.”
When Faber asked if Musk “just don’t care”, he said, “I will say what I want to say. If the consequence of that is losing money, so be it.”
As Elon Musk slams George Soros, here is Soros’ anti-India stand
George Soros has been spending a lot of money to influence the Indian public and change the government at the centre. He himself has been said to have allocated a billion USD for his crusade against the Modi government. His funded media houses and organisations often run campaigns against India. In a recent address, Soros drew insinuations about the connections between the Modi government and the Adani Group. OpIndia’s detailed coverage of George Soros can be checked here.