THE FLAG
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🇺🇸 Elon's ADL War

🇺🇸 Elon's ADL War

Plus, a hamster wheel boat.

September 12, 2023

Good morning, and happy Tuesday. An enterprising and inspiring young man, along with his siblings, worked together to remove 2.6 million pounds of trash from Indonesia’s rivers in just 3 years.

Plus, the Coast Guard arrested a man trying to run a giant hamster wheel across the Atlantic.

Also, your connection to private real estate…

QUICK CLICKS

Recusal Request, Kīlauea Eruption,

US: Trump formally asks judge in federal election meddling case to recuse herself (NBC News)

US: Kīlauea alert level raised as Hawai'i volcano erupts for 3rd time this year (Axios)

US: Gov. Glenn Youngkin pardons Loudoun County dad who protested school board after daughter's sexual assault (FOX News)

US: Mark Meadows files emergency stay request in Georgia case (Axios)

Business: Disney and Charter strike last-minute ‘transformative’ deal to avoid ‘Monday Night Football’ blackout on ESPN (CNN)

Business: Google’s search engine dominance is at the center of the biggest US antitrust trial in decades (AP)

World: US threatens sanctions if North Korea sells arms to Russia (Al Jazeera)

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ELON MUSK

Elon’s ADL War

Over the last week, Elon Musk has engaged in a feud with a leading Jewish anti-hate group. In a series of posts on X (the site formerly known as Twitter), Musk repeatedly blamed the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) for a 60 percent decline in the site’s revenue. Musk is alleging a coordinated effort by the group, which monitors extremism, to push advertisers away from Twitter after Musk purchased it last year.

Reporting from the Left: Elon Musk, Who Is “Against Anti-Semitism of Any Kind,” Is Now Threatening to Sue the ADL (Vanity Fair)

Reporting from the Right: Elon Musk threatens to sue ADL for allegedly trying to ‘kill’ X/Twitter by 'falsely accusing' antisemitism (FOX Business)

From The Flag: In response to these allegations, Musk stated, “To clear our platform’s name on the matter of anti-Semitism, it looks like we have no choice but to file a defamation lawsuit against the Anti-Defamation League … oh the irony!” Here’s how both sides are covering the developing story.

LEFT-LEANING SENTIMENT

Musk Is Going Too Far

It’s notable and troubling that given all of the critics Musk regularly faces, he has chosen to single out ADL.
Musk’s approach to free speech is ‘free speech for me, but not for thee’ in his world. If he doesn’t like what you say, he sues.
Elon Musk’s conceit that Jews cause themselves to be persecuted is as old as anti-Jewish bigotry itself.

The twisted logic of Elon Musk’s defamation threat against the Anti-Defamation League Zeeshan Aleem, MSNBC: “It’s also troubling that Musk has singled out the ADL among many organizations and critics as the one to blame for his difficulty getting advertisers to stick around on his chaotic platform. Ironically, it seems Musk is toying around with antisemitic tropes in his attempt to clear his name of antisemitism. In targeting the ADL as his scapegoat, he appears to be hinting at the old antisemitic trope that Jews pull the strings in the world economy. Even given Musk’s penchant for provocative posting, his comments about the ADL are still surprising. He alleged the ADL ‘has been trying to kill this platform by falsely accusing it & me of being anti-Semitic.’ He said that ‘based on what we’ve heard from advertisers,’ it’s the ADL specifically that’s responsible for ‘most’ of X’s advertising revenue loss. ‘Document discovery of all communications between The ADL and advertisers will tell the full story,’ Musk said.”

Elon Musk’s hypocrisy about free speech hits a new low Margaret Sullivan, The Guardian: “Twitter was far from great under its co-founder Jack Dorsey, but at least an army of content moderators tried to restrain the worst offenders. Under Musk’s control, many of those employees have been fired or have departed in disgust. But a few days ago, things got much worse. Over the weekend, Musk engaged with posts from far-right figures by ‘liking’ or responding to them. When the ADL called him out, he threatened to sue and got his ardent followers to go on the attack. The hashtag #BantheADL went viral, fanning the flames of antisemitism, already ablaze in the US and around the world. ‘It is profoundly disturbing that Elon Musk spent the weekend engaging with a highly toxic, antisemitic campaign on his platform,’ said Jonathan Greenblatt, the non-profit’s chief executive, noting the effort has been promoted by ‘individuals such as white supremacist Nick Fuentes, Christian nationalist Andrew Torba, conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and others.’”

One more opinion piece from the Left: There’s a Word for Blaming Jews for Anti-Semitism Yair Rosenberg, The Atlantic

RIGHT-LEANING SENTIMENT

Mixed: Musk Is Holding the ADL Accountable vs. This Isn’t The Right Approach

Musk’s criticism of the ADL isn’t antisemitic, and the ADL has no moral standing to dictate appropriate speech,
The ADL may be a left-wing activist group worth criticizing, but Musk is wrong to single it out and exaggerate its influence.
The ADL is a branch of the Democrat Party that’s attempting to silence those engaging in legal speech. Musk is right to fight back.

Elon Musk’s Legal Threats Aside, The ADL Doesn’t Speak For Jews David Harsanyi, The Federalist: “Perhaps he has a case, perhaps not, but neither Musk nor anyone else has a responsibility to let a mob of online nuts dictate their reactions to the ADL’s activism. For another thing, the ADL isn’t a ‘Jewish’ organization in any genuine ethnic or theological sense. Its primary mission is no longer to stop the defamation of Jews. The ADL’s CEO, Jonathan Greenblatt, a former Barack Obama appointee who often appears on MSNBC to chat it up with anti-Semite Al Sharpton, has created a partisan leftist social justice outfit. And its primary goal these days is cynically using the organization’s historical position to advance often illiberal, completely irreligious, leftist ideas. One of the ways it does this is by dishonestly framing an endorsement of free expression as an endorsement of the things people say using free expression, including antisemitism. That’s what it has done with Musk.”

Elon’s Ugly War With the ADL Philip Klein, National Review: “The reality is that there are valid reasons to criticize the ADL, a left-wing activist group that has become useless in combating antisemitism, but there are also reasons to take issue with Musk’s exaggerated assertions about the organization being somehow disproportionately responsible for financial losses at X (formerly Twitter), his social-media company. … Musk, by contrast, is not advancing reasoned, good-faith criticism of the ADL. Instead, in a series of posts, he pointed the finger at the ADL for his own business losses since taking over Twitter, which he renamed X. He has been arguing that the group’s pointing out antisemitism on the platform has caused advertisers to flee. In one post, he claimed, ‘In our case, [the ADL] would potentially be on the hook for destroying half the value of the company, so roughly $22 billion.’ Here, Musk is conflating the amount that he paid for the company with its actual value…”

One more opinion piece from the Right: The ADL goes to war against X (Twitter), but Elon Musk vows to fight back Andrea Widburg, American Thinker

FLAG THIS

Musk More Popular on the Right, Less So With the Left

In a Quinnipiac poll conducted near the end of last year, among US adults, Republicans (63 percent) and white men (51 percent) were the most likely to view Musk favorably. Democrats (9 percent), Black respondents (17 percent) and women (25 percent) were the demographic groups least likely to harbor positive opinions toward Musk (FiveThirtyEight)

Do you view Elon Musk favorably or unfavorably?

FLAG FINDS

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WATERCOOLER

JFK weds Jackie, Outrun a T-Rex, Rubik’s Rubik’s Cube

On This Day in 1953: Massachusetts Senator John F. Kennedy, the future 35th president of the United States, marries Jacqueline Bouvier in Newport, Rhode Island on September 12, 1953. Seven years later, the couple would become the youngest president and first lady in American history.

WIRED: How to Outrun a Dinosaur

TIME: Why You Should Cultivate a Fluid Sense of Self

Lifehacker: The Best Ways to Stay Awake Without Caffeine

Today I learned that it took Erno Rubik, inventor of the Rubik’s Cube, one month to solve his own invention.

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