On Tuesday morning, world’s richest man Elon Musk went to his drowning social media platform X (formerly known as Twitter) to post a meme supporting the thoroughly (and repeatedly) debunked “Pizzagate” conspiracy theory. The meme uses images from the popular television show “The Office” and makes a claim that the “expert” who debunked the original Pizzagate conspiracy theory was convicted on child pornography charges.
Musk replied to his own tweet with an NBC News story about former ABC investigative journalist James Gordon Meek, who pleaded guilty to possession and transportation of child pornography in July. Musk seems to have doubled down on his idiocy by relying on a fake New York Post headline that circulated months ago wrongly claiming Meek was the journalist who “debunked” Pizzagate. The New York Post ran a story about Meek’s conviction, but did not run the fabricated headline that made its way around the internet.
The Pizzagate conspiracy theory revolved around a vague claim that there was an elite network of child sexual abuse traffickers, led by Hillary Clinton and other prominent Democrats and run out of a popular Washington, D.C., pizzeria. The ludicrous conspiracy theory reached its zenith when 28-year-old Edgar M. Welch of North Carolina walked into the Comet Ping Pong in northwest Washington and fired off shots during his attempt at investigating this imaginary child abuse ring. Welch was sentenced to four years in prison in 2017.
This is not Musk’s first flirtation with the strange Pizzagate theory. Shortly after he threatened Media Matters for exposing X’s nonexistent moderation, which allowed major corporate ads to run alongside antisemitic content, Musk interacted with a now-deleted tweet claiming that Media Matters’ founder “was the Boyfriend of James Alefantis, owner of Comet Ping Pong Pizza, yes the Pizzagate restaurant. Alefantis, a pizza shop owner at that time, was on GQ’s 50 Most Powerful People in DC list.” Musk has since filed a very time-consuming and frivolous lawsuit against Media Matters. So much for free speech.
This is just the latest piece of hate-filled conspiracy theory misinformation Musk has boosted on X in recent months. Earlier this year, Musk promoted an old “blood libel” antisemitic conspiracy theory on the platform. A few weeks ago, Musk endorsed a wildly antisemitic tweet on his site, leading him to make a PR pilgrimage to Israel to let the ever-corrupt Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu launder his bigotry.
This is just another reminder that the people who are the loudest about pretending to care for children are the most cynical political players of them all
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