Mark Ruffalo has been attacking the proposed Paramount–Warner Bros. Discovery merger. On Friday, though, he introduced a rather remarkable new reason to oppose it: Israel.
Ruffalo reposted a video of Oracle executive Safra Catz discussing assistance Oracle provided to Israel after October 7. Catz said there were things Oracle had done for the Israeli military that she could not discuss publicly and referred to some of the company's technology as "really profoundly scary." Ruffalo then connected Oracle, Israel, Larry Ellison, David Ellison and the Warner Bros. deal into a single argument against the merger.
If you are wondering what the IDF has to do with an entertainment company, you aren't alone.
Paramount responded unusually strongly. A spokesperson said the company was "troubled when antisemitic tropes are invoked in purported service of a business dispute," and called Ruffalo's invocation of "genocide" and "apartheid" in connection with the transaction "a bridge too far." Variety's report
Ruffalo was outraged by the accusation.
"The accusation that I am antisemitic is appalling and fundamentally dishonest," he responded. He insisted that criticizing Israel, a military technology contract or the executives involved "is not the same as criticizing Jewish people," and emphasized his love and respect for Jews.
Let's look at the actual words Ruffalo wrote:
This is the company that Larry Ellison is using to fund his son David’s Warner Bros acquisition.
These “really profoundly scary technologies” will most likely be merged into one of the largest media conglomerates in the world and one day used on you. Look how she revels in what we now have come to see as a genocide, which was built on an apartheid system of oppression powered by Oracle.
...Larry Ellison will own most of “Para Bros”. Larry is a classic Oligarch. They are crushing workers and consolidating the wealth of the world for their own power and concentrated dominance.
There is quite a lot packed into those few sentences. When you diagram the argument, the problem becomes much easier to see.
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Some of the arrows are perfectly ordinary. Larry Ellison made much of his fortune through Oracle. Larry is financially backing his son David's deal. David Ellison runs Paramount Skydance. Paramount seeks to combine with Warner Bros. Discovery.
But then there are three extraordinary leaps.
The first is from Oracle technology is used by Israel to Oracle technology is used for genocide.
Ruffalo has no idea what the technology was used for. Neither do we. It might involve intelligence, cybersecurity, logistics, communications, hostage recovery, missile defense, battlefield management or any number of other military functions.
Ruffalo supplies the missing information himself. Israel is committing "genocide"; Oracle helped Israel; therefore Oracle technology helped power genocide.
The hidden premise is that technology provided to Israel during this war is presumptively used for criminal acts. If any other country used any other software for its military, no one would assume it was being used for war crimes. Only Israel.
The second leap is even stranger. Ruffalo goes from Oracle possesses scary technology to that technology will most likely be merged into Warner Bros.
Why?
Oracle isn't merging with Warner Bros. Oracle and Paramount are different companies. Larry Ellison's wealth having come from Oracle and Larry helping finance his son's acquisition does not cause Oracle's database technology to migrate into a movie studio. Money doesn't carry software inside it.
Yet Ruffalo doesn't merely speculate vaguely about this possibility. He tells his readers that these technologies "will most likely be merged" into the media conglomerate.
How can that make sense?
Then comes the third leap. Ruffalo predicts that this same technology will eventually be "used on you."
Again, how? What is Warner Bros. going to do with classified technology Oracle supplied to the Israeli military? Use it to track viewers of Batman movies? Attack subscribers of HBO Max? Murder CNN viewers?
This all sounds like some conspiracy theory, but even conspiracy theories have some logic. And so does this one, if you approach all these incredible leaps as a Jew hater.
And that is where Paramount's antisemitism accusation becomes much more interesting.
There are old antisemitic ideas that make Ruffalo's otherwise bizarre inferential leaps seem perfectly natural. One is that extremely wealthy Jews don't merely operate separate businesses and pursue separate interests; they form interconnected family and financial networks that coordinate political power behind the scenes. The most notorious version of that fantasy is The Protocols of the Elders of Zion: Jewish financiers, businessmen and political actors are secretly cooperating to dominate society according to that mindset.
Another old trope concerns Jews and Hollywood: Jewish money and ownership of entertainment institutions supposedly give Jews the ability to shape what non-Jews think, see and believe.
Put those assumptions into Ruffalo's argument and suddenly all of his disconnected dots connect.
Oracle helps Israel. Israel is doing something evil. Oracle belongs to Larry Ellison. Larry's money goes to his son. His son controls Paramount. Paramount acquires a huge chunk of Hollywood. The technology used by Israel therefore enters the media empire, and eventually that Jewish-controlled technological-media apparatus will be "used on you."
Without those background assumptions, the chain is nonsense. With them, it has an internal logic.
It doesn't make any sense except to antisemites - and to Mark Ruffalo. QED.
Ruffalo's defense therefore misses the issue. The accusation is not that he criticized Israel, Oracle or the Ellisons. It is not even that he used the words "genocide" and "apartheid."
The problem is the connections he draws between them. Because without these antisemitic inferences, saying that Oracle genocide software will be used by Paramount against American citizens sounds as unhinged as it is.
That is why I think Paramount has a point. Either Ruffalo is completely insane, or he holds the antisemitic assumptions necessary for his theory to make any sense.
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