Elon Musk’s non-apology for antisemitic posts on X was no mean tweet

Poor Gerald Ratner. If he had watched Elon Musk’s appearance at a Jewish conference in Krakow today, following a not-very private tour of the memorial and museum at the former Nazi death camp Auschwitz-Birkenau, he could be forgiven for spitting out his coffee.

Three decades ago, Ratner was on top of the world, running the UK’s biggest jewellery chain when he stood up at the Royal Albert Hall and infamously said: “We also do cut-glass sherry decanters complete with six glasses on a silver-plated tray that your butler can serve you drinks on, all for £4.95. People say: ‘How can you sell this for such a low price?’ I say: ‘Because it’s total crap.’”

And with that, he flushed his business down the toilet.

Amid a media storm, Ratner tried to apologise during an appearance on BBC One chat show Wogan, but the damage was done. His business never recovered. While he subsequently resurrected his career, he’s never lived that moment down.

Musk’s appearance at the European Jewish Association’s conference was something of a stop-off during an apology tour. Last year, the Tesla boss had used his social network, X (formerly Twitter), in a spectacularly stupid and offensive way – one that prompted advertisers to flee the site. He had replied “You have said the actual truth” to a post that had made the false claim that Jewish communities push hatred against white people. Accusations that antisemitism thrives on X abound.

Presented with a prime opportunity to show some contrition, in the run-up to International Holocaust Remembrance Day this Saturday, he blew it. Instead, he used his livestreamed appearance in Poland to big up his own products, including the StarLink internet service; to proclaim himself to be “aspirationally Jewish”; and to give voices to a string of some of his favourite conservative/liberatarian talking points.

From his polite chat with conservative political pundit Ben Shapiro, we learned that X is bravely standing up for free speech, and has much less antisemitism than rival platforms. According to Musk, it’s also superior to the “legacy media” as a news source. Did you know, for instance, that there are only “about five editors” who decide what the world reads? (That was certainly news to me.) American universities, meanwhile, he insisted, have become cesspits of wokeism.

The offending tweet – ultimately, the reason Musk made his trip to Poland in the first place – was not directly mentioned at all.

Shapiro did ask Musk about his tweeting habits, and the research he conducted before clicking ‘send’. Musk went so far as to admit that some of his words were “dumb” – “but no one can bat a thousand!”

However, he even (somehow) managed to turn this to his advantage, urging world leaders to follow his lead and take control of their X accounts, rather than leaving it to their social media teams. What could possibly go wrong with that?

Unedifying as Musk’s performance was, by his own grisly standards it almost represented contrition. His favoured modus operandi is to double down (remember the ugly – and baseless – “pedo-guy” tweet aimed the British caver who helped in the rescue of 12 boys trapped in a cave in Thailand?).

He has also regularly clashed with financial regulators in the US over his tweeting, such as his using the network to suggest that he might take Tesla, his electronic car maker, private.

Indeed, the only time he’s ever really been called to account for one of his social media statements was when he attempted to wriggle out of his offer to buy Twitter. That one hasn’t gone so well. The mutual fund manager Fidelity reportedly downgraded the value of its holding by 71 per cent.

These days, Elon Musk is not only the world’s richest man, he’s become the world’s top troll. And he gets away with it. You’d think the investors in his companies might at least ask to see his time sheets, given how much they pay him. But they indulge him, too. So why should he change?