Elon Musk Warns Italy Against Importing ‘Woke Mind Virus’
Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk warned Italians of the dangers of importing the “woke mind virus” from the U.S. Interviewed at a conservative youth forum, he called it “bad” and said it is responsible for “very, very divisive identity politics.”
Musk was a guest of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. With his young son in tow, he told the receptive audience that this negative way of thinking amplifies racism “and all the isms.”
The Tesla and SpaceX CEO added, “while claiming to do the opposite, it actually divides people and makes them sort of hate each other and it makes people hate themselves.”
Musk said wokeness leads to condemning others instead of celebrating different people. He called it a way of thinking that is “being divisive” and “just evil frankly.”
He said that advertisers who jumped ship from X, formerly Twitter, are coming back on board. Then he restated his belief that entertainment giant Disney is a victim of wokeness, though he added “I think that will eventually change.”
Euronews reported the Atreju festival is a four-day Christmas event featuring the conservative youth of Italy. Meloni launched the first gathering in 1998, long before she became the nation’s prime minister.
Musk further warned the audience that the future of Italy and Europe depends on reversing declining birth rates ravaging the continent.
He explained, “I’m very much in favor of humanity expanding — and creating a bright and exciting future for the world. But the fundamental furthering of human civilization is having more humans.” Musk called the lack of sustainable reproduction “a bit depressing.”
The X owner took climate alarmists to task for attempting to create panic where none is necessary. He acknowledged that planetary changes are “still a concern in the long term. I think it’s exaggerated in the short term.”
Musk said world leaders “should not demonize oil and gas because that is obviously necessary oil and gas in the short-term and medium-term — and possibly even several decades to become sustainable.”
This defeatism, he said, caused people to lose hope in future prosperity.
Musk ended his enlightening talk by defending free expression as the bedrock of a free society. “Free speech is incredibly important because if people cannot speak their minds, then we won’t have a democracy.”
