Tesla CEO Elon Musk was featured in a wide-ranging interview with the staff of satire site the Babylon Bee, giving his thoughts on wokeness, California, and his business.
Musk started the interview by shooting the breeze, discussing sustainable energy and sipping a White Claw; then the group turned to the “woke mind virus.”
“Wokeness wants to make comedy illegal… Do we want a humorless society that is simply rife with condemnation and hate, basically?” Musk asked.
“At its heart, wokeness is divisive, exclusionary, and hateful,” he said. “It basically gives mean people a shield to be mean and cruel, armored in false virtue.”
Musk went on to discuss how he used to read sites like “The Onion,” but has moved away from them because of their incessant wokeness and targeting of right-wing figures.
He also questioned the intent of sites like “The Onion” and their unwillingness to poke fun at the left’s sacred cows:
“There are just a lot of no-fly zones with a lot of comedy. And then you realize it’s like, wait a sec, is the comedy getting to an essential truth or is there a propaganda element?” Musk said.
“Or is it trying to put us in a direction or getting to an essential truth that is humorous?” he asked. “And when it stops trying to get to an essential truth that is humorous, then, you know, it’s just not that funny.”
When asked why he has not done an interview like this on CNN, Musk stated “I’m not perverted enough,” referencing a Babylon Bee article titled “CNN HR Department Considers Adding ‘Are You a Creepy Pervert?’ to Employment Application.”
Musk also addressed his recent Twitter quibble with Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., where he called her “Senator Karen.” Musk said, “She struck first.”
“Yes, she did actually call me a freeloader and a grifter who doesn’t pay taxes,” he said.
“I’m literally paying the most tax that any individual in history has ever paid this year, ever, and she doesn’t pay taxes, basically,” Musk said. “And her taxes and salary is paid for by the taxpayer like me. If you could die by irony, she would be dead.”
