Elon Musk, the billionaire founder of Tesla and SpaceX, and Ben Shapiro, a conservative political pundit, spoke about the future of college campuses and the perils of DEI practices at the European Jewish Association conference.
A clip of their brutally honest conversation is played by Dave Rubin.
Shapiro started, “Some of these pro-Hamas rallies on college campuses — I mean, they unite the weirdest coalitions, maybe, in human history.” “You’ll notice LGBTQ flags supporting Hamas, which is ironic since, of course, if an LGBTQ person were in the Gaza Strip, they wouldn’t be there anymore—they would be dead.”
Musk said, “Exactly.” “ThShapiro continued, “There is a coalitional idea here that, basically, power structures must be torn down at all costs, and if that means allying with people who hate me, then I’ll ally with people who hate me.” She noted that since October 7, there has been a growing fervor for this paradoxical support.
He questioned Musk, saying, “What do you think of the future of the West if the West continues to embrace that idea?”
The idea that the typically weaker party is always correct must be abandoned. Musk retorted, saying that “weaker groups want to annihilate you, that does not make them good.” If you are in the “oppressed or the weaker party,” it doesn’t mean you are right at is incredibly disconnected.“
The idea that someone is inherently good just because they are weaker has to be abandoned, he said. “You evaluate any group or individual based on unwavering moral principles, regardless of whether they are perceived as oppressors or oppressed.”
A good response, but Shapiro wanted more.
Given that it seems as though moral relativism has corrupted entire universities, what do you think the future holds for American higher education? … Do you believe that the universities are about to undergo a major transition? … “What is the remedy for both American and foreign universities?” he asked.
“I believe that a return to merit-based thinking is necessary, or at least what things were (or largely were). Musk clarified, saying, “That’s the least racist [or] sexist you can be. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a man or a woman, what race you are, or what beliefs you have; what matters is how good are you at your job.”
“You might be a green, three-legged Martian who consumes yak milk and dresses in a kimono. Who gives a damn? … It only matters how good your work is, he said in an analogy.
Dave is impressed by Musk’s response as well as the way that, “as absolutely brilliant as he is,” he conveys “complex things in very simple ways.”
He reiterates Musk’s remark, saying, “Just because you are the perceived weaker group (in this case, the Palestinians), it does not mean you are good, no matter what your perceived oppression is.”
“It does not make you good or just to burn babies alive and put them in ovens; it does not make you to rape women and murder men, women, and children, but sadly, that is what a large portion of the modern left now believes.”