Tech mogul Elon Musk took aim at the “woke mind virus” taking over the West in a long-awaited interview with Canadian psychologist and author Jordan Peterson.
Peterson told Musk in the interview, which was livestreamed on X Monday afternoon, that woke politics have made his hometown of Toronto more divided and racist despite the ideology’s stated tenets of “anti-racism” and “inclusivity.”
Musk said the diversity, equity and inclusion policies the Democratic party in America have been championing are “fundamentally anti-meritocratic” and “really just another form of racism and sexism.”
“This group identity nonsense has made things much more (divided.) It insists on dividing people by groups as a primary conceptual distinction between individuals, race, ethnicity and sex,” Peterson said. “I can see it in Toronto. When my kids grew up in Toronto, downtown, they were race-, ethnicity- and gender-blind. They had an unbelievably diverse range of friends. And no one cared.”
He said that woke politics have caused division all over the Western world, even in Toronto, a city known for its multiculturalism and many coexisting ethnicities.
“That started to shift around with this emphasis on group division. It’s a really ugly thing to see,” Peterson said.
The two spoke about cultural Marxism and the “woke mind virus’” effect on children’s identity, including Musk’s son.
“I’m particularly unhappy with what my colleagues in the psychological field have done with regard to gender-affirming care,” Peterson began. “I think they are a pack of contemptible cowards, and everyone who’s been involved in this relationship with minors should go to prison.”
Musk agreed.
“The so-called ‘gender-affirming care,’ which is a terrible euphemism – it’s child mutilation and sterilization,” Musk said.
“Under the guise of gender-affirming care and compassion,” Peterson added.
Musk was particularly upset about minors “far below the age of consent” who are enabled to undergo permanent life-altering treatments such as puberty blockers, double mastectomies and genital reassignment surgeries.
“The reality is that almost every child goes through some kind of identity crisis. It’s just part of growing up,” he said. “It’s very possible for adults to manipulate children who are having a natural identity crisis into believing that they are the wrong gender.”
Musk thinks puberty blockers are deceptively named, saying they are sterilizing drugs which ensure that many who take them will never be able to have children.
“We have an age of consent for a reason,” Musk said. “There are ages in which you could do things (drive, drink, get tattoos) because if we allow children to take permanent actions when they’re ten, 12, and 14 years old, they will do things that they subsequently greatly regret.”
Musk said that he was tricked into signing off on his son Xavier’s transition and that his son is now dead, killed by the “woke mind virus.” Musk’s child is still alive but now living as a woman named Vivian Jenna Wilson following a legal name change in 2022.
“I was told Xavier might commit suicide if he (didn’t get the treatment,)” he said. “I was tricked into doing this. And it wasn’t explained to me that puberty blockers are actually just sterilization drugs.”
Peterson added that he believes clinicians knowingly lie to parents about the necessity of gender-changing treatments and surgery to save their children.
“If there’s a higher suicide rate, the reason is because of the underlying depression and anxiety, not because of the gender dysphoria and every goddamn clinician knows that too and they’re too cowardly to come out and say it,” Peterson said.
Musk feels like he lost his son because of transgender ideology.
“They call it deadnaming for a reason. The reason it’s called deadnaming is because your son is dead,” Musk said. “My son Xavier is dead. Killed by the woke mind virus.”
Peterson said the woke ideology characterized by an emphasis on group identities and victimhood has led to many “demolished kids.”
Musk has vowed to “destroy the woke mind virus” ever since his son Xavier’s transition.