On Friday’s broadcast of HBO’s “Real Time,” Twitter CEO Elon Musk stated that the anti-meritocratic and anti-free speech aspects of “the woke mind virus” are dangerous to society and that the “woke mind virus” is due to “the amount of indoctrination that’s happening in schools and universities” that is “far beyond what parents realize.”
Host Bill Maher asked, “You have talked about this woke mind virus in really apocalyptic terms. I don’t — you should explain why you don’t think it’s hyperbole to say things like it’s pushing civilization towards suicide. First of all, what is the woke mind virus? And if we don’t deal with this, nothing else can get done. Tell me why you think that.”
Musk answered, “I think we need to be very cautious about anything that is anti-meritocratic and anything that results in the suppression of free speech. So, those are two of the aspects of the woke mind virus that I think are very dangerous, is that it’s often very anti-meritocratic, and you can’t question things. Even the questioning is bad.”
Musk added, “I really can’t emphasize this enough, we must protect free speech. And free speech only matters — it’s only relevant when it’s someone you don’t like saying something you don’t like. Because, obviously, speech that you like, that’s easy. So, it’s — and it’s — the thing about censorship is that, for those who would advocate it, just remember, at some point, that will be turned on you.”
Maher then asked, “So, this woke mind virus, how did it start? Was it bats, [did] it escape from a lab? What is your assessment? Because it’s fairly recent, how did it start and why?”
Musk responded, “I was trying to figure out where it’s coming from. I think it’s actually been a long time brewing, in that it’s — I think it’s been going on for a while. And the amount of indoctrination that’s happening in schools and universities is I think far beyond what parents realize. And I only — I sort of came to realize this somewhat late, but the experience that we had in high school and college is not the experience that kids today are having, and hasn’t been for, I don’t know, ten years, maybe 20 years.”
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