Whoever would have thought that Elon Musk would be a First Amendment hero? Not me. Pfft. He sure has stood up since his rather rash purchase of Twitter, now X. Musk has riled up all of the right/wrong people since the acquisition went through. He pissed off a lot of narcissists by taking away their free blue check. The Department of Justice is suing him for not hiring the right illegals? He just settled a lawsuit about a 2018 tweet about taking Tesla private. And, Musk is talking big about suing the Anti-Defamation League for threatening to put X out of business. This is a cautionary tale about sticking your neck out and not following the approved narrative.

There are quite a few organizations not well pleased that X is a “free speech zone”. Elon opening up the Twitter files and allowing journalists to expose the twisted relationship between the U.S. government and the Twits only made it worse for Musk.

Just why are the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and Musk threatening each other? Well, Victory Girls’ Nina reminded me last night that the ADL has always been a Left-wing group and not exactly clean on Israel. We are both old enough to remember when the pit bull Abe Foxman was Chairman of the ADL. He is Chairman Emeritus now. The new Chairman is Jonathan Greenblatt and in November of 2022, he tweeted:

The ADL does not have good intentions. Somehow, X (formerly Twitter) is a "threat to American democracy" for unbanning people like Trump and the vast majority of people who got caught up in the 2020 ban wave that struck conservatives. pic.twitter.com/z6HVMVeOIf

— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) September 4, 2023

In case you don’t know, Chaya Raichik runs the fabulous “Libs of TikTok” account and Miss Raichik is an Orthodox Jewish woman. She doesn’t think the way Mr. Greenblatt of the ADL does though. She has asked Elon to release communications as he did with the Twitter Files:

Now it will be a battle in the courts. From Yahoo Life:

In a series of posts on Monday, Elon Musk said X, formerly known as Twitter, may have no choice but to file a defamation lawsuit against the Anti-Defamation League (ADL).
Musk, who purchased Twitter in April of 2022 and subsequently renamed it X, directly blamed the ADL for declining US advertising revenue, which is down 60%, at the platform. Musk claimed that the ADL is “trying to kill” the platform by “falsely accusing” him and it of being anti-semitic. Though it’s unclear how serious Musk’s threat of legal actually is, he said that if X were to win a lawsuit, he would insist that the organization drop the “anti” portion of their name.
“To be super clear, I’m pro free speech, but against anti-Semitism of any kind,” Musks posts began. “Our US advertising revenue is still down 60%, primarily due to pressure on advertisers by @ADL (that’s what advertisers tell us), so they almost succeeded in killing X/Twitter!”

I can see this happening. A business doesn’t want to be called anti-Semitic anymore than being called racist. Here’s more:

Musk’s latest comments come after ADL CEO Joseph Greenblatt posted on X about a meeting with CEO Linda Yaccarino in which he raised the issue of hate speech on the platform.
Following their meeting, the hashtag #BanTheADL began trending on X, with some users calling for the organization to be removed from the platform. Musk himself liked some of these posts, including one from self-described anti-Semite Keith Woods.
The ADL, founded in 1913, describes itself as the “leading anti-hate organization in the world” and has for decades fought against antisemitism and hate speech against other marginalized groups. The ADL has documented a rise in hate speech on X since Musk took over the company in late 2022, calling out what it sees as failures by the platform to enforce its own content moderation policies.
X did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson for the ADL declined to comment on Musk’s threat of legal action but issued a statement about the trending #BanTheADL hashtag.
“ADL is unsurprised yet undeterred that antisemites, white supremacists, conspiracy theorists and other trolls have launched a coordinated attack on our organization,” the spokesperson said in an email statement to Insider. “This type of thing is nothing new.”

I don’t like the Ban the ADL hashtag. I don’t like banning. But, that’s what the culture has come to expect. Jonathan Greenblatt was a part of the Obama Administration that enabled and encouraged the cancelling of anyone or organization that didn’t repeat talking points verbatim. Misinformation and disinformation, anyone? It was people like Greenblatt who gave cover to Obama and the Democrats. Tucker Carlson weighed in:

Tucker Carlson Calls ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt an ‘Apparatus of the Democratic Party’

“The ADL was such a noble organization that had a very specific goal which was to fight anti-semitism…Now it’s operated by a guy who is just an apparatus of the Democratic Party.”… pic.twitter.com/wUQhNgMj8D

— Chief Nerd (@TheChiefNerd) September 5, 2023

I am sad if the lawsuit comes because it will tear us apart even further. On the other hand, isn’t it better to rip the bandage off all at once?

Featured Image: Jim Merrithew/Wired.com/flickr.com/cropped/Creative Commons