Elon Musk backs antisemitic claim; Tesla shares tumble

Elon Musk on Wednesday wrote "You have said the actual truth," in response to an X post that claimed Jewish communities support "dialectical hatred against whites."

The big picture: No investment firms that backed Musk's takeover of X, nor those that have backed his other ventures, made public statements of opposition or condemnation. Instead, they cowered.

• Musk later tried to backtrack, suggesting (without evidence) that he was primarily talking about his advertising nemeses at the ADL. But he never removed his original reply.
• Tesla stock sank on Thursday, losing tens of billions of dollars in market value.

Of note: The original poster also implied agreement with the statement, "Hitler was right."

The bottom line: If the venture capital firms don't believe they've invested hundreds of millions of LP dollars with someone who is outwardly antisemitic, and there's plenty to support each side of that question, then they must instead believe they've invested hundreds of millions of LP dollars with someone so clumsy as to not realize when he's endorsing tropes that have been used to justify mass murders of Jews.

• Were this almost any other founder or top executive, there already would have been meetings about demanding an apology. At the very least.