On January 6, 2024, the Wall Street Journal published a highly offensive article against Elon Musk. Based on a tweet Musk tweeted 6 years ago and a subsequent interview, the article claims that he is using drugs and that this has caused concern among Tesla and SpaceX board members. It continues with a threatening message that it is not possible for drug users to do business with the state.
From this perspective, it makes one wonder if the timing of the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) story is related to Musk’s recent feud with MediaMatters and the ADL. After all, where have you been for 6 years? That tweet and interview are 6 years old.
As you know, after Musk took over Twitter, he said, “I’m going to increase freedom of speech,” paving the way for messages from conservative-right-wing Americans that had previously been caught in the “Community Guidelines” as “hate speech.”
Some of these messages are anti-Semitic. Naturally, after the recent attacks on Gaza, they have become even louder.
Tesla and SpaceX Board members worried
The Wall Street Journal substantiates the allegations that Elon Musk has been using illegal drugs, which has caused great concern among senior executives and board members at Tesla and SpaceX, with the following tweet from 2018 and the following interview.
At the time, this tweet was penalized by the SEC with 40 million dollars for affecting the stock market. Musk was also ordered to step down as Tesla chairman and two independent directors were appointed to the Tesla board. The SEC’s lawsuit against Tesla and Elon Musk is still ongoing.
Here is the WSJ, 6 years later, making the claim that Elon Musk is using drugs. According to the WSJ, Tesla board members were privately concerned that Elon Musk might be on drugs when he tweeted in 2018 that he was considering taking the company private.
Following that tweet, Musk gave an interview to the New York Times and said that running Tesla was “excruciating” and that the previous year had been the “most difficult and painful year” of his career.
Wall Street also reports that Tesla’s board is concerned about Musk’s use of Ambien (a sleeping pill), which may have contributed to his late-night tweeting.
Musk, for his part, says he doesn’t like taking illegal drugs. In contrast, the WSJ notes that Musk took multiple acid tablets at a Los Angeles party he hosted and psychedelic mushrooms in Mexico in 2019.
Last year, the WSJ reported that drug use was widespread among Silicon Valley executives.
Companies whose executives use drugs cannot contract with the US government
By the way, Elon Musk is cooperating with the US government (space, broadband, etc.). According to the US Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, companies must comply with the Drug-Free Workplace Act to receive these contracts.
“Illegal drug use would likely mean violations of federal policies that could jeopardize SpaceX’s multibillion-dollar government contracts. It has the potential to put at risk the value of Musk’s companies, nearly $1 trillion in assets held by investors, tens of thousands of jobs and much of the US space program.”
People familiar with Musk and the companies told the WSJ that they fear the SpaceX CEO’s drug use could have significant consequences not only for his health, but also for the six companies he runs and billions of dollars in assets. Musk currently has a $14 billion contract with the US government.
NASA had opened an investigation
After smoking the weed he was offered (and which is legal in California) on celebrity podcaster Joe Rogan’s show in 2018, NASA launched a $5 million investigation into Musk’s drug use. Six years later, NASA still has not announced the outcome of this investigation.
On January 7, 2024, after the WSJ news, Musk denied allegations that he used illegal drugs such as LSD, cocaine, ecstasy and ketamine, reminding that no trace amounts of drugs or alcohol were found in his body after 3 years of random drug tests.
Anti-Semitic messages on X (Twitter)
Elon Musk has been very antipathetic during and after the acquisition of Twitter. Therefore, the number of people who dislike him has increased. Jews dislike him the most because of the hate speech on X (Twitter). Especially after the Gaza attack.
The hashtag #BanTheADL on Twitter has been trending since Musk took over. ADL stands for “Anti-Defamation League”. It’s a non-governmental organization. It is called the Jewish Anti-Defamation League. The ADL was founded in the US in 1913 during the trial of Leo Frank, a Jewish factory manager convicted of murdering one of his workers. After Georgia Governor John Slaton commuted Frank’s death sentence to life imprisonment, Frank was lynched. Since then, the ADL says it aims to combat anti-Semitism and secure “justice for all people, not just Jews”. Musk had previously accused the ADL of trying to “kill” X and threatened to sue. He blamed the ADL for a 60 percent drop in X’s revenue.
After taking over X, Musk allowed the expression of the right (conservatives) in the US in particular, citing “freedom of speech”. These are often people with extreme messages (e.g. racist). After the Israeli attacks on Gaza, these people increased their anti-Semitic messages.
Netanyahu, who was in the US for the UN General Assembly, even went to Musk for a meeting. Part of this meeting was in the form of a public panel. There, Netanyahu was expected to bring Musk in line on these messages, but Musk pushed Netanyahu (by asking him about events and reactions in his own country against Netanyahu)”. In the end, they seemed to come to some kind of agreement. But then Media. Matters’ ad-blocking campaign started and Elon Musk went to Israel, or even had to.
Rabbis and activists put pressure on advertisers
The Media Matters incident began after Musk commented on another user’s critical message on X that he had told the truth. An account identifying itself as a conservative Jewish Floridian criticized people who wrote “Hitler was right”. “The Jewish people practiced the kind of dialectical hatred against whites that they claim they want people to stop using against them,” the account, which appears to be a neuroscientist and cybersecurity expert, responded. Musk responded to this Tweet by saying, “You told the whole truth.”
That’s when all hell broke loose. Musk, who had already lost 60 percent of his advertising after taking over Twitter last year, saying he would give “free speech to everyone”, lost 100s of millions of dollars in advertising after 164 rabbis and activists personally called on Apple, Google, Amazon and Disney to stop advertising. Media Matters sent the major advertiser footage of the racist X messages running underneath it, with the message “your brand is being polluted”.
In fact, Musk claimed that in the year after he took over X, some non-governmental organizations put pressure on advertisers and blocked advertisements. So we have a better understanding of what he meant.
Below you can see a poster by the organization “Media Matters” – which has since been taken down – that shows some antisemitic messages in combination with X ads by famous companies – and urges them to cancel the ads. Musk filed a lawsuit against this organization.
To summarize, Elon Musk is in trouble with Jewish organizations and associations in the US. As one of the most innovative people in the world, he is on the list of the richest people in the world today, but he is in a lot of trouble.
Füsun Sarp Nebil’s article was translated from Turkish to English by the editors of fikrikadim .com. Source of the article: T24
