OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Actress and left-wing activist Alyssa Milano got major pushback online after she appeared to take verbal aim at Twitter boss and billionaire Tesla founder/CEO Elon Musk.
“I gave back my Tesla,” Milano tweeted on Saturday, going on to say she purchased an electrified Volkswagen.
“I bought the VW ev. I love it. I’m not sure how advertisers can buy space on Twitter. Publicly traded company’s products being pushed in alignment with hate and white supremacy doesn’t seem to be a winning business model,” she claimed.
I gave back my Tesla.
I bought the VW ev.
I love it.
I’m not sure how advertisers can buy space on Twitter. Publicly traded company’s products being pushed in alignment with hate and white supremacy doesn’t seem to be a winning business model.
— Alyssa Milano (@Alyssa_Milano) November 26, 2022
Following her tweet, Milano was hit with a brutal history lesson, however.
“Volkswagen was literally founded by the Nazi’s and Hitler,” the Hodge Twins wrote in a post that included a clown emoji.
Musk himself responded with the LOL emoji and another signifying “100 percent.”
🤣💯
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 26, 2022
For its part, the automaker has acknowledged its Nazi-era founding on its website under “history,” noting that the car company’s origins were as a “Nazi prestige project”:
The history of the Volkswagen brand began with the “Käfer”; development work on this Nazi prestige project began in 1934. On May 28, 1937, the “Gesellschaft zur Vorbereitung des Deutschen Volkswagens mbH“ (Company for the Preparation of the German Volkswagen Ltd.) was formally established. The name was changed to “Volkswagenwerk GmbH” in 1938, and the company built its main plant in what has become Wolfsburg. However, the outbreak of war and integration in the arms industry prevented mass production of the Volkswagen (“people’s car”) – instead, military vehicles and other armaments were produced using forced labor.
“Wait till you learn who founded Volkswagen!” political strategist Pete D’Abrosca tweeted.
Wait till you learn who founded Volkswagen!
— Pete D’Abrosca (@pdabrosca) November 26, 2022
Last week, Musk set liberals off again when he posted a video of a discovery he made in a ‘secret’ closet at Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters.
In a tweet, the Tesla CEO showed a closet stocked with shirts that read “stay woke” and shared the video with laughing emojis.
“Here we are at the [merchandise] thing and there’s an entire closet full of hashtag woke,” he said.
An unnamed person not seen on camera said, “A secret closet.”
Found in closet at Twitter HQ fr 🤣🤣 pic.twitter.com/3xSI3KvvHk
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 23, 2022
The video came as Musk has made several changes to the company while shredding some top Democratic politicians, such as New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
“Shout out to all the workers at Twitter. You all built a vital place for connection and deserved so much better. Millions of people appreciate the space you built and the hard work that went into it. Thank you,” Rep. Ocasio-Cortez said.
Musk responded with two simple words, “You’re welcome.”
You’re welcome
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 18, 2022
He also took on The Associated Press last week after the newswire published a story about how “dangerous” it is for Musk to grant amnesty to a banned account before sharing the story to Twitter.
“New Twitter owner Elon Musk said he is granting ‘amnesty’ for suspended accounts, which online safety experts predict will spur a rise in harassment, hate speech and misinformation,” it said on Twitter.
New Twitter owner Elon Musk said he is granting "amnesty” for suspended accounts, which online safety experts predict will spur a rise in harassment, hate speech and misinformation. https://t.co/aZ0NyUP7Fp
— The Associated Press (@AP) November 24, 2022
The AP reported:
On Oct. 28, the day after he took control, Musk tweeted that no suspended accounts would be reinstated until Twitter formed a “content moderation council” with diverse viewpoints that would consider the cases.
On Tuesday, he said he was reneging on that promise because he’d agreed to at the insistence of “a large coalition of political-social activists groups” who later ”broke the deal” by urging that advertisers at least temporarily stop giving Twitter their business.
A day earlier, Twitter reinstated the personal account of far-right Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, which was banned in January for violating the platform’s COVID misinformation policies.
Musk, meanwhile, has been getting increasingly chummy on Twitter with right-wing figures. Before this month’s U.S. midterm elections he urged “independent-minded” people to vote Republican.
“AP is such an expert in misinformation. Twitter couldn’t hope to compete!” the CEO said.
“But you have piqued my curiosity … who are these ‘online experts’ you speak of?” he said.
But you have piqued my curiosity … who are these “online experts” you speak of?
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 25, 2022
