(Jacob Bruns, Headline USA) Billionaire Elon Musk had a stern message for companies that planned to boycott Twitter after the George Soros-backed propaganda outlet Media Matters waged a smear campaign that accused Musk of endorsing an anti-Semitic post, Time magazine reported.
“What it’s going to do is it’s going to kill the company, and the whole world will know the advertisers killed the company,” Musk said at a conference on Wednesday, suggesting that Twitter could take a major financial hit after woke companies like Apple and Disney pulled out.
Nonetheless, Musk rejected the suggestion from interviewer Andrew Ross Sorkin that a recent visit to Israel was part of an “apology tour” or that he would make any effort to rehabilitate his standing with the former advertisers.
“Somebody’s going to try to blackmail me with advertising?! Blackmail me with money?” he said. “Go f**k yourself. Go. F**k. Yourself. Is that clear? I hope it is.”
Musk then specifically called out Disney CEO Bob Iger, who had spoken earlier in the conference.
The entertainment giant has faced its own share of backlash and controversy from conservatives who have boycotted over its left-wing political grandstanding and child-grooming.
Several of its 2023 movies have bombed at the box-office, and a recent annual report from the Securities and Exchange Commission warned investors that it could continue to shed investors if the trends continue.
“Hey, Bob, if you’re here in the audience,” Musk said, addressing Iger following his profane outburst. “Sorry, that’s how I feel.”
Despite his defiant attitude, Musk expressed regret for the offensive post that triggered the boycott, wherein he appeared to endorse the claim that Jewish people adhered to a “dialectical hatred” of white people, noting that it was among “worst and dumbest I’ve ever done.”
The Twitter CEO said that not only was he not anti-Semitic, he was “philosemitic,” a lover of the Jewish people.
Yet, “Once in a while I will say something foolish,” Musk admitted.
In clarifying what he meant by his post, he explained that the Jewish people in some ways are paying the price for indiscriminately backing minority groups through the decades.
“You have seen protests for Hamas in every major city, and they receive funding from prominent people in the Jewish community,” he said, noting that if you “fund persecuted groups in general,” some may eventually “want your annihilation.”
