--- title: "Elon Musk Deletes Nazi Apologist Tweet After Near-Universal Backlash" description: "Junk History Elon Musk seems to have had second thoughts about platforming far-right nonsense on his own account. As Business Insider and other outlets note, Musk has deleted a quote-tweet in which he called a Tucker Carlson podcast featuring a Nazi apologist \"very interesting\" and \"worth watching\" after getting ample backlash. In the original Carlson post, […]" date: "2024-09-05" modified: "2024-09-05" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/elon-musk-deletes-nazi-apologist-tweet" categories: - "Elon Musk" - "Finance" - "Future Society" - "The Industrialists" - "Universal Basic Income" tags: - "elon musk" - "holocaust" - "the digest" - "tucker carlson" --- # Elon Musk Deletes Nazi Apologist Tweet After Near-Universal Backlash ![Elon Musk seems to have had second thoughts about platforming Holocaust denial on his own X-formerly-Twitter account.]() *\Image: Marc Piasecki via Getty / Futurism\* ## Junk History Elon Musk seems to have had second thoughts about platforming far-right nonsense on his own account. The flailing executive [deleted a quote-tweet]() in which he called a Tucker Carlson podcast featuring a [Nazi apologist]() "very interesting" and "worth watching" after near-universal backlash. In the [original Carlson post](), which is still live, the ex-Fox pundit interviews [purported historian Darryl Cooper](), an apparent Holocaust denier who says, among other things, that then-UK Prime Minister Winston Churchill was the "chief villain" of World War II. As with other forms of Holocaust denial, Cooper's points were less pro-Adolf Hitler and instead tended more on the side of erasure, as evidenced by his claim that "millions of people ended up dead" in Nazi concentration camps — without naming either the Jewish victims of those atrocities or their genocidal perpetrators. Quote-tweeted on the heels of his promotion of an overtly sexist take about [women's brains and leadership](), Musk's since-deleted insistence that the junk historian's takes are "interesting" was [met with revulsion](). As [one ]()[Lithuanian ]()[noted](), the post would likely be considered illegal in the Eastern European country because rather than finding "Holocaust denial 'very interesting', we find it a massive threat to our safety." "That finding comes from horrific real life experience," the user continued, "not from the whisperings of ketamine fairies." ## In Denial As *Mother Jones*' DC bureau chief David Corn noted, the Holocaust denial evidenced in Carlson's interview with Cooper goes way back, too. "Imagine someone saying drag performers at the Olympics was worse than Hitler's conquest of Paris. Well, you don't have to," he wrote, [screenshotting another Cooper post](). "And Tucker Carlson and Elon Musk enthusiastically amplify this guy." Writer [Alheli Picazo also pointed out]() the alleged historian's antisemitism in prior posts on the Musk-owned platform, including one that seems to suggest that Jewish people are making too big a deal out of the Holocaust as compared to other groups who've been subjected to genocide. In about as close as he ever comes to admitting a mistake, Musk later posted a [screenshot of an X Community Note]() debunking the historian. Rather than providing an apology or explanation, however, he simply plugged the social network's context tool. https://www.twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1831365045277860179 Given the frequency and increasing severity of Musk's opinionated gaffes, it is notable that he made the [fairly rare choice]() of deleting his promotion of the Carlson interview with a Holocaust denier. Unless someone leaks any internal conversations or communications from X's lawyers about it, though, we'll probably never know exactly why he did. More on bad Musk takes: [*Hypocrite Elon Musk Attacks Voting by Mail, But Records Show He's Done It Himself*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()