If you haven’t read my last article, it broke down, moment by moment, how Media Media took a simple three-word phrase out of context and manipulated public opinion to the point where even Google’s AI was proclaiming Elon Musk to be anti-Semitic. In this article I’ll be exploring the question that kicked off that whole firestorm. Is X really promoting anti-Semitic content?

Does X Promote Anti-Semitism?

Let’s go back to the original Tweet and the claim from the Foundation to Combat Anti-Semitism: that 70,000 people posted “Hitler was Right” on social media platforms.

To recap: this video was Tweeted by a man in Florida who challenged anyone who posted “Hitler was Right” to say it to his face. One of the people responding to him was a man who did NOT ever say that phrase, but instead spoke against the use of white actors to portray anti-Semites, when the true anti-Semites were minorities. Elon Musk agreed with this second man’s point, and then all hell broke loose. You can read all about it here.

Hundreds of reporters and news outlets chased ONE story: “Is Elon Musk an Anti-Semite”?

Let’s think about questions that this incident raises that NO reporter is investigating.

  • Is FCAS’s claim that 70,000 people posted “Hitler is Right” valid?
  • If yes, are the majority of these people white people living in middle America and the Bible Belt, as the media produced by organizations to fight anti-Semitism imply?
  • If not, then who are the people typing “Hitler was right”, and do they pose a real and present danger to our Jewish neighbors and friends?
  • Does X “promote” these accounts, as the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) is telling its advertisers?
  • If not, does X contain this kind of “hate speech” and should “hate speech” be banned?

I can’t find one news outlet in the world who is in the least bit intellectually curious about these questions. And yet these questions are so much more important to our lives as Americans than questions like “Did Elon Musk Support the Tree of Life Synagogue Shooter’s Insane Theories?” (Spoiler alert: the answer is no).

So, in the words of the great Sharyl Attkisson, I decided to do my own research.

Was the FCAS’s Report of 70,000 Posts saying “Hitler Was Right” Accurate?

I decided to do some analysis. Specifically, I looked at a complete day of Tweets and identified all the Tweets that used the phrase “Hitler was Right”.

I chose November 14, 2023, one day before the firestorm. On that day there were 115 Tweets that had the phrase “Hitler was Right” in it. I documented every example in a spreadsheet, including the context in which the statement was made.

  • Out of 115 Tweets, 56 of them (49% of the total) were using the phrase to DENOUNCE the use of the phrase. Most often, they were in response to hearing the phrase shouted at the pro-Palestinian rallies and demonstrations that happened during that time.
  • 6 of the 115 Tweets (5%) were just s***posts insulting Democrats, Republicans, Trump, etc.
  • The remaining 51 posts (44%) DID mean the phrase in a purely anti-semitic context. These 51 people hated Jews, and meant the phrase as an insult.

Of course one day of posts isn’t statistically meaningful, but just as a thought exercise let’s assume that this pattern held for a whole year. Extrapolating the one-day numbers to 365 days here’s what we’d see.

Over 365 days…

  • 41,975 posts on X would contain the phrase “Hitler was right”
  • Of those, 20,440 would have used the phrase in the context of CONDEMNING people who used it
  • 18,615 would have used the phrase WITH THE INTENT of hating Jewish people

A few things become clear. The claim from the FCAS that 70,000 people posted “Hitler was Right” on social media is credible. In fact, it’s probably an understatement when you include posts on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok in light of recent events in Israel.

The FCAS may have been a bit intellectually dishonest in showing the number “70,000” when more than half of those were probably people condemning the use of the phrase. But I’ll give them a pass on that one; their overall point is valid.

With that said, let’s break this down a little more.

So Who Posts Anti-Semitic Content?

Of the 51 posts that used “Hitler was Right” in the anti-semitic context, I could positively identify four (8% of the 51) as coming from accounts that appeared to favor “white supremacy”. These posts are all but invisible to users; all four were viewed a total of less than 50 times in an entire week.

That leaves 47 Tweets. Most of these accounts identified themselves as Arab or Muslim accounts, including from countries like Pakistan, Turkey, India, Algeria, Bangladesh, Egypt, and Jordan. In short, 92% of these anti-semitic posts on X that day were from accounts outside the United States identifying themselves as Muslim.

92% of these anti-semitic posts on X were from accounts outside the United States identifying themselves as Arab or Muslim.

Which is precisely the point that The Artist Formerly Known as Eric and Elon Musk were making. While groups like the ADL put all their focus on “white supremacist” activity on social media, the most vocal hate speech does NOT come from white people in America.

Should “Hate Speech” from Muslim Accounts Be Banned on X?

Let’s break down those 47 posts a little more.

Let me start out by saying that personally, I think anyone who would utter this phrase should be ashamed of themselves. Regardless of whatever political point they are trying to make, implying that the mass murder of 6 million innocent human beings, including grandparents, women, and children, was somehow justified reveals both a certain darkness in their souls and an inability to articulate their thoughts in an intelligent way. Everyone should condemn people who say things like this.

But let’s look a bit closer. What would compel these 47 people to utter a phrase so vile?

When I looked into people who Tweeted this phrase, a large number of them did so in response to Tweets they say from one of two accounts: Anastasia Maria Loupis (@DrLoupis) and Jackson Hinkle (@jacksonhinklle). Here’s just a very sample. I blurred out the images here, but on X they’re viewable and they’re very graphic.

Both are accounts with over one million followers who have posted pro-Palestinian content and what some might argue pro-Hamas propaganda. Many of their videos and images show graphic pictures of children, including toddlers, babies, and infants, who have been injured or killed as the result of the war in Gaza.

The goal of these photos, as with all propaganda, is to fill their readers with outrage. It works.

  • Thousands of people respond expressing their outrage at Israel.
  • Hundreds make an argument that there is outrage over the death of innocent children in the Holocaust and yet no outrage over the killing of the deaths of these Palestinian children.
  • And a few dozen express their outrage in the form of vile statement, “Hitler was right”.

Taking just this one day of Tweets, when the ADL demands that X remove “hate speech” who is it asking to be banned?

The dozens? The hundreds? The thousands? Or maybe the two influencer accounts that stirred up all the trouble in the first place?

How about all Muslims from outside the United States? How about all Muslims?

Should “Hate Speech” from Neo-Conservative Accounts be Banned on X?

Maybe you said “yes” to all of those questions. But I’ll ask you another one.

On October 8, one day after the brutal attack of Hamas on Israel, Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley took to the airwaves and to X to send this message to Israel. FINISH THEM.

That’s all she said. Finish them.

  • She didn’t say: “I’m not talking about the Palestinian people, I’m talking about members of Hamas”.
  • She didn’t even imply “I want to help Israel find a way to bring the perpetrators of this atrocity to justice while protecting the lives of innocent Palestinian children”.

There are many who feel this is “hate speech”. Should she be banned? How about the thousands of others who share her sentiments?

Why “Hate Speech” is Protected

Everyone knows that the First Amendment guarantees “free speech”. Most of us know that under United States law, “hate speech” is also protected. A lot of people don’t understand why that is.

Think about it.

  • Speech that everyone loves doesn’t need protection.
  • And there is certain speech that is NOT protected. You can’t ask or encourage someone to break the law. You can’t use your speech to defame people, commit fraud, or threaten individuals.

So it’s really only speech that people offends someone else that needs protection.

What are the benefits of allowing “hate speech?

  1. All speech from one person can be seen by someone else as “hate speech”. Try this exercise. Say the first sentence that comes to your mind. I guarantee that I can twist that into something that someone will call “hate speech”, either because of what you said or because of who you are.
  2. Allowing everyone to speak allows for dialogue. There is almost always a grain of truth on both sides of a debate. Unless you’re talking to someone who is clinically sociopathic or insane, there will be a grain of truth even in the most vile speech that they utter. If you try to find that common ground, you not only help bring them to your side, you might learn something yourself.
  3. It allows fools to expose themselves. What if someone doesn’t want to engage in dialogue, repeats the same insults over and over, and refuses to even listen to reasonable counterpoints? Usually it means that they don’t have a leg to stand on in their arguments. So let them speak, and expose their foolishness for all to see. Ban them, and you turn them into a martyr.

Conclusion

Is there a “grain of truth” to the phrase “Hitler was Right”? Of course not. But should the thousands of Muslims who typed this phrase into X in the last few weeks be banned, or should someone, somewhere, on any side try to understand why they are saying it?

Can those who support Israel admit that the deaths of innocent Palestinian Arab children are tragic?

Can those who support Palestine, once and for all, admit that whether you look at the rules of diplomacy OR the rules of war, Israel has conquered that land “fair and square”? And that Yasser Arafat was wrong in 2000 for refusing to negotiate given Ehub Barak’s offer of giving land for peace? And that everyone in Hamas, from the leaders to the footsolders, who was associated with the horrific events of October 7, 2023 MUST be brought to justice for violating every standard of international law?

I’m sure I just made everyone mad. But these are the positions that most Americans support. X is the only social media platform where this dialogue can take place. It must be protected from those who want to shut it down. But as long as it is not shut down, it also must be used by everyone who has a voice, not to shout down the other side but to find SOME tiny spark of common ground to start talking with each other.