'An idiot who consumes garbage': Elon Musk dragged for denying Texas mall shooter’s neo-Naziism

17 May 2023

Twitter owner Elon Musk in an exclusive Tuesday interview with CNBC correspondent David Faber defended his conspiracy theory that Mauricio Garcia — the thirty-three-year-old gunman who was killed by police after he murdered nine people at the Allen Premium Outlets in Allen, Texas on May 6th — was wrongly indentified as a neo-Nazi.

An investigation quickly found that Garcia "had neo-Nazi ideation," Texas Department of Public Safety Regional Director Hank Sibley said at a news conference last week. "He had patches. He had tattoos."

The Dutch group Bellingcat also conducted research on Garcia and discovered that his internet history "leaves little doubt that he harbored deeply negative views of Jewish people, people of color and women, according to an analysis of his posts conducted by the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, an Alabama-based nonprofit that tracks extremist groups online," the Associated Press reported on May 10th.

Musk, meanwhile, has been baselessly alleging that Bellingcat "specializes in psychological operations." AP noted that Musk "offered no evidence to support his claim, but the attack led to a barrage of harassment directed at Bellingcat from Musk's online fans."

Nonetheless, Musk doubled down on his counternarrative in his conversation with Faber.

"But I mean, when you, when you, when you link to somebody who's talking about the guy who killed children in a mall, in, in Allen, Texas, and you, you say something like, 'it might be a bad PSYOP,' I'm not quite sure what you meant, but..." an uneasy Faber remarked.

Musk stammered through his response.

"Oh, in, in that particular case, uh, there was, uh, a, somehow that, that, that's not, not, not that the, the, the, the, that obviously people, people were killed. But the, it was, I think, incorrectly ascribed to be a white supremacist action. Um, and the evidence for that, uh, was some obscure Russian website that no one's ever heard of that had no followers. Um, and the, the, the company that ca that found this is Bellingcat," Musk said.

"Right," Faber replied.

"And do you know what Bellingcat does? PSYOPs," Musk insisted.

"Right. I couldn't really even follow exactly what it was you were trying to express there. So that's in part why I was curious," Faber conceded.

Musk was unmoved.

"But I'm, I'm saying that I thought this, the, the, the, the ascribing it to white supremacy was bullsh*t. Okay. And, and, uh, and, and, and, and that the information for that, uh, came from an obscure Russian website and was somehow magically found by Bellingcat, which is a company that does PSYOPs," Musk reiterated.

"And there's no proof, by the way, that he was not," Faber asserted.

"There's no, I, I would say that there's no proof that he is," Musk declared.

"And that's a debate you want to get into on Twitter?" Faber retorted.

"Yes," Musk affirmed. "Because we should not be ascribing things to white supremacy, uh, if, if they're, if it's false."

On Wednesday morning, Bellingcat founder Eliot Higgins tore into Musk in a Twitter thread where he pointed out that the "obscure website no one has heard of" has two hundred million registered users:

So when this first became public I was obviously appalled, as it doesn't represent Bellingcat accurately, so I asked for the basis of this claim. I was told a third-party organization who put together this report based it on a Sputnik article and a claim by a Russian journalist.

As for our work with the Zinc Network, it mainly involved providing workshops, with exactly the same content we provide in our other workshops, open-source investigation skills.

If @elonmusk thinks Bellingcat is a psy-op then it's a reflection of the absolute garbage he consumes from the likes of Aaron Mate. As a 'tech guy' I'm sure he's familiar with the phrase 'Garbage in, garbage out.' That's how his brain works.

And to be clear, I don't think Musk knows he's lying, or that he's a Russian op, I just think he's an idiot who consumes garbage media and incorrectly assumes that makes him smart and well-informed, just like thousands of other idiots on this website. Many of whom have blue ticks and think Bellingcat is the CIA.

Others further blasted Musk for giving a documented neo-Nazi the benefit of the doubt.

Republicans against Trump: "Why is Elon Musk so determined to downplay the danger of white supremacists in our country? TX police already confirmed that the shooter has a Nazi tattoo."

ClearingTheFog: "Elon Musk is really going out of his way to defend the ideology of white supremacy. The police in Allen, TX said the guy had Nazi tattoos and patches. This never had anything to do with Bellingcat - they weren't even the ones who originally found his profile. Only verified it."

The Masked Blue Texan: "Elon Musk promotes yet another neo-Nazi conspiracy theory. Why does this delusional fascist have government contracts with a government he wants to overturn. How is SpaceX different from Krupps in Nazi Germany?"

Sir Brian Lee: "Still can't believe people are still working for Elon Musk after he goes on National TV telling everybody that people with Swastikas tattooed on their chests aren't White Supremacists."

Brian Guest: "Did @bellingcat tattoo the swastika on his chest?"

Dude_In_The_Desert: "A guy who grew up in South Africa, the birthplace of apartheid, refusing to believe someone had white supremacist beliefs? Shocking."

GRUDGIE THE WHALE: "HE HAD NAZI TATTOOS YOU MORON."

Watch the segment below or at this link.

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