The same day that an Iraq War veteran loaded his truck with incendiary devices, hoisted American flags on it and drove into a Sunday church service to open fire in Michigan, killing at least ten and destroying the building, Elon Musk marked the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) on X as a hate group because he said it was anti-religion.
Musk claimed that the ADL "hates Christians, therefore it is a hate group." His announcement was in response to the ADL's inclusion of Christian Identity, a far-right ideology, in its "extremism and hate glossary."
The ADL also classified Turning Point USA as extremist due to its Professor Watchlist and founder Charlie Kirk's promotion of conspiracy theories about vaccines and skepticism about Joe Biden's electoral win. In the wake of Kirk's assassination, many have sought to soften the rhetoric between the right and left sides of American politics -- while others are doubling down. Dozens of people have been fired from their jobs, removed from social media, and more for celebrating Kirk's assassination or for calling for more violence in its wake.
Notably, when Musk was accused of making a Nazi salute when he got very visibly excited during a GOP event with Donald Trump and held his arm out in salute, the ADL came to his defense, saying "Musk made an awkward gesture" and urging grace.
After being marked on X as a purveyor of hate speech, the ADL clarified their position on the Christian Identity movement, writing it's, "a virulently antisemitic and loosely organized movement that has nothing to do with mainstream Christianity." They added the FBI has been tracking the movement for years because it inspires people to violence.
For his part, Musk's own AI chatbot Grok disputed claims that the ADL hates Christians. If you ask it, Grok says the ADL "targets the Christian Identity movement, not Christianity itself, and collaborates with Christian groups to combat anti-Semitism."