Elon Musk’s rightward turn includes a fringe fascination: Civil war

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Elon Musk’s rightward turn includes a fringe fascination: Civil war

Tech billionaire Elon Musk has repeatedly prophesied a future civil war related to immigration.

Musk has posted about the subject on his social media platform X at least eight times in the past 10 months, according to a review of his posts by NBC News. And his posts usually include a specific prediction: He thinks that Europe in particular is headed toward a “civil war” due to the arrival of refugees from other continents. 

Musk’s interest in the subject of a civil war poked into public view earlier this month when he weighed in on anti-immigration street riots happening across Great Britain. “Civil war is inevitable,” he 

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The post received 9.8 million views and it 

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 among some in the U.K., initiating a heated back and forth with the office of British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who was dismissive of Musk’s prediction, saying there was “no justification” for such comments. Other U.K. critics said Musk was only inflaming tensions by making such a dire prediction. 

Musk’s rhetoric is unheard-of for a corporate executive speaking in public, but the prediction of a civil war has become a frequent talking point among some far-right activists who view a civil war in Europe or the U.S. as not only unavoidable but also as something to be welcomed. 

“What you’re seeing in these calls for civil war is a white supremacist clarion call. It is a dog whistle,” said Jon Lewis, a research fellow at George Washington University’s Program on Extremism. 

Musk has stopped short of issuing a call to arms and has not mentioned the race or religion of refugees arriving in Europe, but Lewis said that Musk doesn’t need to be explicit to get his message across. He said he sees similarities between Musk’s posts and the language in white supremacist chat rooms where commenters are obsessed with changing demographics. 

“Rhetorically, there is very little difference, and at this point it’s barely coded language. It’s everything but explicit incitement,” he said. 

“It’s only a matter of time, unfortunately, before someone listens,” he added, warning that Musk’s words could inspire ********* by others. 

Musk did not directly respond to questions about his civil war predictions in an email to NBC News.

Hyperbole about civil war is common on the far right. White nationalist Nick Fuentes 

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 that Ireland was “on the brink of civil war” because of immigration, and followers of the “Boogaloo” anti-government movement have for years 

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. 

The far-right’s rhetoric around a future civil war is part of a philosophical framework 

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. Extreme practitioners of the philosophy believe that stoking tensions around topics like immigration could lead to wars and hasten a larger societal collapse, creating an opportunity to reformulate society in a way that’s more favorable to extremists. A gunman who attacked a synagogue in Poway, California, in 2019 said his goal was to 

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 over religion, race and firearms. While some progressives also talk about dismantling existing systems, predictions of a civil war are less common on the left.

Katie Paul, who tracks online extremism as director of the nonprofit Tech Transparency Project, said that many Boogaloo adherents are now active on Musk’s app X after other social media apps kicked them off. 

“They all share this interest in the dismantling of the systems that we currently live in,” Paul said. 

Musk’s profile gives his civil war predictions unusual reach. One of the world’s wealthiest people as the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, he is an increasingly influential media figure as the owner of X. On Monday, Musk hosted a conversation on X 

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 the *********** nominee for president, and he has 

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 Vice President Kamala Harris for a similar event. She has not accepted.

Musk has received encouragement on X for sharing the idea of a civil war, including from prominent figures. 

“Not inevitable…it’s underway,” 

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 Michael Flynn, a former national security adviser in the Trump administration, in response to a tweet from Musk about civil war earlier this month. Flynn 

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 by Trump after pleading guilty to lying to the FBI about his communications with a Russian diplomat. Flynn did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday about his civil war statement. 

Musk has invoked the idea in relation to numerous conflicts. Last October, days after the ****** ********** attacks on *******, he responded to pro-************ demonstrations in Europe with a call for reduced immigration onto the continent. 

“If current trends continue, civil war in Europe is inevitable,” he 

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. It was a reply to Konstantin Kisin, an 

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, podcaster and Russian-born immigrant to the U.K. 

Kisin responded to Musk: “Civil war implies someone will ****** back. Based on current evidence, I’m not even sure that will happen.” 

In a phone interview, Kisin said he does not favor fighting back in a literal sense, and he said it was “preposterous” for anyone to suggest that Musk’s prediction is a dog whistle that encourages *********. 

“What Elon Musk is doing is pointing out the fact that Europe is moving in a particular direction on demographics, on economics, on multiculturalism, and these are all perfectly valid points,” he said. 

Asked about his views on demographics, Kisin said that, with migration at current levels, “the inevitable outcome is inter-******* tension.” 

Immigrants to Europe come from many places. In the U.K., four of the top five non-E.U. countries of origin are former British colonies, 

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: India, Nigeria, Pakistan and Zimbabwe. 

Musk repeated his forecast four times in October, 

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 that mass migration “lays the groundwork for civil strife, if not war”; that Europe “is 

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 towards civil war”; that Europe “is 

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 for civil war”; and again that it is “

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 towards civil war.”

In November, Musk continued his prophecy of a civil war but pivoted his rationale. In response to an article about Germany rearming its military after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, he 

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, “Civil war is brewing.” Then, several days later, he returned to the subject of immigration and 

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, “Europe appears to be headed for civil war.” 

A civil war, though, has not come to pass. 

A civil war is different from ********** attacks, violent street demonstrations or other political *********. It 

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 by the emergence of an organized rebel army engaged in armed conflict seeking to overthrow a government. Some researchers argue that a conflict should have 

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 before people label it a civil war. 

In his X posts, Musk has not gone into detail on how he sees a civil war playing out. Does he think, for example, that migrants will form a rebel army to overthrow Westminster? Or that native Britons will? Or is he using “civil war” as a catch-all term for street *********? 

Experts in civil wars said that Musk is out of his depth on the subject. They said it’s very unlikely that Europe will experience a civil war due to immigration, and they said Musk appears to greatly overestimate the power and organization of people arriving in Europe. 

“Immigrants are not an organized rebel group ready to commit *********,” said Megan Stewart, an associate professor of public policy at the University of Michigan who studies political *********. 

“They are often fleeing dire and dangerous situations and just trying to live their lives,” she said. 

She said that, historically, the much more common dynamic in the U.S. and the U.K. is that immigrants are victims of ********* perpetrated by right-wing extremists with white supremacist ideologies. 

In the past two weeks, far-right activists in Great Britain have used misinformation about an ******* on a Taylor Swift-themed dance class 

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. There have been mob attacks 

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, immigrant-owned shops and 

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. The suspect in the dance-class ******* in which three children ***** is a 17-year-old who was 

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, according to police. 

Thomas Zeitzoff, an associate professor of public affairs at ********* University who studies political *********, said that Musk’s prediction of war is likely to feed into false fears about immigrants. 

“It amplifies this misperception that these groups are wanting to ******,” he said. 

Zeitzoff said he believes Musk’s posts could encourage some anti-immigrant forces to take up arms. 

“If you start thinking that they’re ready to ******, then maybe we need to be, too,” he said. 

Some of Musk’s posts about “civil war” have received thousands of replies. The sentiment has been split, with some X users agreeing with him and others accusing Musk of “***** mongering.” Still others say they wonder why he’s spending his time on social media. At least one account said they were ready to ******. 

“Yep, ready cocked n loaded,” one X user responded to Musk last year, referencing firearms. 

Musk used similar “war” language when talking about immigration Monday with Trump in a live ****** event on X. 

“We don’t have a secure border, and we have people streaming over. It looks like a ‘World War Z’ zombie apocalypse at times,”  he told Trump. He was apparently comparing immigrants to zombies and referring to a 

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 starring Brad Pitt. 

Musk has a record of spreading false information that could stir up ***** of immigrants. Last year, 

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 the debunked “great replacement” theory, which says that there is a top-down plot to replace the white population with nonwhite “hordes.” He 

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 as cannibals, and he has 

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 that non-citizens are registering to vote in the U.S. 

After those claims were debunked, Musk has had various responses. He 

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 for his post about the great replacement theory but left it online. After criticism of his Haitian posts, he said 

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 “screen immigrants for potential homicidal tendencies and cannibalism.” And after his claims about immigrants voting were found to be false, he 

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Last year, the Justice Department sued Musk’s rocket company SpaceX saying it had discriminated against refugees in hiring. Musk called the case a 

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and said the company had been warned that hiring people who were not permanent U.S. residents would violate the law. SpaceX countersued, saying the regulatory system violates the Constitution, and it has 

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. 

Musk’s posts about civil war typically have a ******* dimension. One of his posts came as a reply to an account criticizing “demographic pressure” from immigrants. Another time, Musk responded after the same account expressed dismay at the lack of assimilation by immigrants. 

“They are not there to be part of French or ******* or Italian or Swedish culture. They are there to replace you,” the account wrote. 

“Europe is trending towards civil war,” Musk replied. 

Musk’s ****** daughter 

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 said in 

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 that her father once called Arabic the “language of the ******.” She told NBC News that Musk made the comment after she said she wanted to learn the language when she was 6 years old. 

Asked for comment about that episode, Musk replied in an email to NBC News that Wilson “was ******* by the woke mind virus. Now it will ****.” 

Musk, a U.S. citizen who was born in South *******, sometimes visits Europe including for business reasons. His companies including Tesla have operations there. 

But there are now calls for Musk to be held accountable in Europe for the impact of his words. British lawmakers told Politico 

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 before Parliament to answer questions, and some British columnists have suggested that Musk 

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 over his comments. 

“Were Musk to continue stirring up unrest, an arrest warrant for him might produce fireworks from his fingertips, but as an international jet-setter it would have the effect of focusing his mind,” wrote Bruce Daisley, a former executive at

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, which is now the Musk-owned X, 

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 on Monday. 

Musk reacted to Daisley’s column on X, calling him “insufferable.” He said in response to a 

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 that the newspaper “should be on trial for aiding & abetting the destruction of Britain.” He also accused the British government of 

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. 

In a different context, Musk once celebrated the idea that the U.S. could devolve into civil war, with him emerging in the end as president. 

In an end-of-year set of predictions on X in December 2022, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev forecasted that California and Texas 

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 and that Musk would win the presidential election “after the new Civil War’s end.” 

Musk 

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 to Medvedev: “Epic thread!!” 

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#Elon #Musks #rightward #turn #includes #fringe #fascination #Civil #war

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