Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk has provided more insight into why he believes the “woke mind virus,” or woke ideologies, are posing an existential threat to human civilization.
The Tesla CEO said the so-called “woke mind virus” has been brewing in society for a long time, pointing to the indoctrination of “woke” policies at schools and universities as a possible foundation.
“You have talked about this woke mind virus in really apocalyptic terms,” Maher said to Musk. “You should explain why you don’t think it’s hyperbole to say things like it’s pushing civilization toward suicide. First of all, what is the woke mind virus?”
In response, Musk said: “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—that it’s often very anti-meritocratic and you can’t question things. Even the questioning is bad.”
“So, you know, another way to ... almost synonymous would be cancel culture,” he added.
Maher then asked the SpaceX founder where the “woke mind virus” originated. Musk began using the term more often around the period he acquired Twitter, occasionally issuing grave warnings about woke ideologies destroying America.
“This woke mind virus, how did it start? Was it bats? Did it escape from a lab?” Maher asked Musk in a joking manner, prompting laughter in the audience. “I mean, what is your assessment of what—because it’s fairly recent. How did it start and why?”
“I think it’s actually been a long time brewing,” Musk responded. “The amount of indoctrination that’s happening in schools and universities is I think far beyond what parents realize,” he added.
Musk then argued that the educational experience present-day children are going through is vastly different from what he and others of his generation experienced, noting that there’ve been fundamental changes in educational policies over the last decade.
