Elon Musk has defended his tweets directed at fellow billionaire, George Soros, saying he would rather lose money than allow his right to free speech be curtailed.
Musk, who owns Twitter, took to the microblogging site to attack Soros on Tuesday, claiming the 92-year-old hates humanity.
He compared Soros to X-Men villain Magneto, who like Soros was a survivor of the Holocaust, according to the comics’ back story for the character.
When a Twitter user defended Soros as having good intentions which are criticized by those who disagree with his politics, Musk responded, “You assume they are good intentions. They are not. He wants to erode the very fabric of civilization. Soros hates humanity.”
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Musk’s remarks came days after the notable financier disclosed that he had sold his modest Tesla shares. Musk is the CEO of Tesla.
In a chat with CNBC’s David Faber, Musk defended his stance on Soros, saying, “I’ll say what I want to say, and if the consequences of that is losing money, I’ll say it.”
Reacting to Musk’s controversial tweets, the CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, Jonathan Greenblatt, said that the Tesla CEO was feeding into antisemitic tropes by comparing Soros to a Jewish supervillain.
“Soros often is held up by the far-right, using antisemitic tropes, as the source of the world’s problems.
“To see Elon Musk, regardless of his intent, feed this segment — comparing him to a Jewish supervillain, claiming Soros ‘hates humanity’ — is not just distressing, it’s dangerous: it will embolden extremists who already contrive anti-Jewish conspiracies and have tried to attack Soros and Jewish communities as a result,” Greenblatt tweeted.
But a defiant Musk told the CNBC host: “That’s my opinion.”
Faber then asked: “Why share it when people who buy Teslas may not agree with you? Advertisers on Twitter may not agree with you?”
Musk replied, “This is freedom of speech, and I am allowed to say what I want.”
Faber said, “You absolutely are, but I am trying to understand why you do because it puts you in the middle of a partisan divide in the country; it makes you a lightning rod for criticism. Do you like that?”
The CNBC host added that the topic of Musk’s tweets even came up at the Tesla annual meeting and may be an issue with new Twitter CEO Linda Yaccarino as she seeks to boost advertising.
Replying, Musk said, “I’ll say what I want to say, and if the consequence of that is losing money, so be it.”