How Elon Musk Spent Three Years Falling Down a Red-Pilled Rabbit Hole

His tweet endorsing an antisemitic theory that sent advertisers fleeing comes after years of increasing interaction with extremist content.

Musk

Photographer: Leon Neal/Getty Images

Elon Musk’s tweet endorsing an antisemitic conspiracy theory seemed to take his business partners by surprise. On Nov. 15 he responded to a social media user who articulated a version of the racist “great replacement theory,” which says that Jews are secretly conspiring with immigrants to destroy White culture. The idea was the inspiration for the deadly shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh in 2018. “You have said the actual truth,” Musk wrote.