Billionaire Elon Musk continued sounding the alarm over the “woke mind virus” as he joined comedian Bill Maher for an interview that addressed censorship, indoctrination, and even Tucker Carlson.
With a sit-down discussion lasting over twenty minutes, Musk’s laughter-filled first appearance on HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher” incorporated plenty of serious issues. Part of that took place when the host praised the entrepreneur for taking on “big civilizational issues and problems” as it pertained to the acquisition of Twitter.
“I mean, you have talked about this woke mind virus in really apocalyptic terms. 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?”
“So I think we need to be very cautious about anything that is anti-meritocratic and anything that results in the suppression of free speech,” Musk stated. “So, you know, those are two other aspects of the woke mind virus that I think are very dangerous is that it’s anti-meritocratic. You can’t question things. Even the questioning is bad.”
“It’s bizarre that we’ve come to this point where — free speech used to be a left or a liberal value, and yet we see from the ‘left’ a desire to actually censor. And that seems crazy. I mean, I think we should be extremely concerned about anything that undermines the First Amendment. There’s a reason for the First Amendment…people came from countries where they could not speak freely and where saying certain things would get you thrown into prison. And they were like, well, we don’t want that here. And by the way, in many parts of the world, including parts of the world that people might think are relatively similar to the United States, the speech laws are draconian,” he warned.
The self-described free speech absolutist also made clear, “Free speech only matters — it’s only relevant when it’s someone you don’t like saying something you don’t like…obviously, speech that you like is…it’s easy,” and chided those would push for any sort of censorship. “For those who would advocate it, just remember at some point that will be turned on you.”
As to his specific drive in purchasing the social media platform, Musk explained, “My concern with Twitter was to that it is somewhat of the digital town square. And it’s important that there be both the reality and perception of trust for a wide range of viewpoints. And there was a lot of censorship going on and uncovered a lot of that with the ‘Twitter Files,’ including a lot of government-driven censorship. It seems like that’s got to be a constitutional violation what was going on there.”
“And since I’m an avid Twitter user, I could detect that, like, something’s not right here. And so that’s really why I did the acquisition. It wasn’t because I thought this is an easy way to make money or something like that,” he added.
Maher also addressed the suggestion that he himself had been red-pilled and remarked “You and I are both in that little group of people, maybe it’s a bigger group now, who are called conservative, who haven’t really changed.”
In response, Musk referred to himself as a “moderate” and pointed to Tesla and similar initiatives in the name of the environment as “not exactly far right.”
However, the billionaire did warn against prevalent brain-washing in public institutions and said, “The amount of indoctrination that’s happening in schools and universities is, I think, far beyond what parents realize.
Regarding the recent separation of primetime host Tucker Carlson from Fox News, Maher quipped as to whether Musk’s appearance on the program the week prior was an “omen” for his own future.
In response, Musk joked, “I’m not the Typhoid Mary of talk shows,” before he spoke on the number of views that Carlson’s video posted to Twitter after the fact had amassed and how it had blown away typical cable news ratings.
“Twitter has a tremendous audience. So there’s 250 million people that spend an average of half an hour a day on Twitter. It’s about 120 to 130 million user hours per day and it’s been increasing,” he noted.
“Finally got to talk to the guest I’ve wanted to have on @HBO @RealTimers more than any other.- Thank you, @ElonMusk!” Maher said after the interview aired.
The entirety of the interview can be viewed below:
Full interview of Elon Musk on Real Time with Bill Maher pic.twitter.com/xO5MZnGIig
— Eric Abbenante (@EricAbbenante) April 29, 2023
Native of Brooklyn, NY, Kevin Haggerty is a graduate of Hunter College where he studied Cultural Anthropology and Geography. An avid reader and truth seeker, he currently resides in Texas with his wife and their dog and, when he isn't researching current events and their impacts, you'll find him spending time with friends and family or working on his next novel.
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