EDITORIAL: Henry Ford and Elon Musk — Antisemitic, Anti-Labor and Controlling the Media

Monday, December 04, 2023

EDITORIAL

 

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Henry Ford and Elon Musk PHOTOS: Public domain

The more things change, the more things stay the same.

Henry Ford and Elon Musk, about 100 years apart, share so many similarities: automotive innovators, antisemites, union busters, and media buyers to try and control the message.

Ford was a change agent who transformed the auto industry and manufacturing. His “moving assembly line” elevated mass production and built Ford into an American corporate power.

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His trailblazing pioneering was celebrated, but at the core of the man was vicious antisemitism and brutal anti-labor union strategies.

And, to control the narrative, as American Experience reported, “In 1918, Henry Ford purchased his hometown newspaper, The Dearborn Independent. A year and a half later, he began publishing a series of articles that claimed a vast Jewish conspiracy was infecting America. The series ran in the following 91 issues. Ford bound the articles into four volumes titled 'The International Jew,' and distributed half a million copies to his vast network of dealerships and subscribers. The rhetoric was not unusual for its content, as much as its scope. As one of the most famous men in America, Henry Ford legitimized ideas that otherwise may have been given little authority.”

The PBS documentary recited how “a close friend recalled a camping trip in 1919 during which Ford lectured a group around the campfire. [Ford] ‘attributes all evil to Jews or to the Jewish capitalists,’ the friend wrote in his diary. ‘The Jews caused the war, the Jews caused the outbreak of thieving and robbery all over the country, the Jews caused the inefficiency of the navy…’”

Ford was adamantly against labor unions and repeatedly violently crushed labor activities.

Hmm. Sounds familiar. 

Fast forward about 100 years, and Musk, the newest groundbreaker in cars, has repeatedly spewed and promoted antisemitism or promoted antisemitic comments via social media.

As CNN reported, “Musk has publicly endorsed an antisemitic conspiracy theory popular among White supremacists: that Jewish communities push 'hatred against Whites.'

That kind of overt thumbs up to an antisemitic post shocked even some of Musk’s critics, who have long called him out for using racist or otherwise bigoted dog whistles on Twitter, now known as X. It was the multibillionaire’s most explicit public statement yet endorsing anti-Jewish views.”

On labor issues, Musk has blocked union organizing in his factories and, has been found to have broken U. S. labor law in 2018 after tweeting that Tesla factory workers would lose their stock options if they chose to unionize, according to a federal appeals court. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a ruling from the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) that Musk made unlawful threats regarding employee compensation.

It was just one of just dozens of statements that Musk has made against organized labor.

Like Ford, Musk has delved into the world of media ownership. In 2022, he purchased Twitter; at the time of his purchase, it was one of the five largest social media platforms.

Now, due in part to Musk's antisemitism, has become a pariah for advertisers.

Keep Tweeting, and keep driving.

An editorial is the opinion of a publication — specifically, the ownership.

While based on facts and news reporting, it is an opinion intended to discuss critical community issues. Often, the opinion is written with the intention of positive change.

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