1 00:00:15,436 --> 00:00:23,436 Speaker 1: Pushkin Tesla ceo Elon Musk offering to buy Twitter for 2 00:00:23,436 --> 00:00:27,076 Speaker 1: forty three billion dollars. Muscu has accused the social media 3 00:00:27,156 --> 00:00:29,556 Speaker 1: platform of limiting free speech analysis. 4 00:00:29,796 --> 00:00:33,236 Speaker 2: In April of twenty twenty two, Elon Musk launched his 5 00:00:33,316 --> 00:00:36,836 Speaker 2: takeover of Twitter, offering forty four billion dollars for it. 6 00:00:37,156 --> 00:00:39,556 Speaker 3: Why make that offer? Well, I think it's very important 7 00:00:39,596 --> 00:00:44,796 Speaker 3: for be it be an inclusive arena for free speech. 8 00:00:45,796 --> 00:00:46,076 Speaker 4: Yeah. 9 00:00:46,156 --> 00:00:50,036 Speaker 2: So, he'd also started talking a lot about something he 10 00:00:50,116 --> 00:00:54,756 Speaker 2: called the woke mind virus. Must didn't coin the term, 11 00:00:54,996 --> 00:00:58,236 Speaker 2: but he popularized it. Musk is a man of many 12 00:00:58,236 --> 00:01:02,036 Speaker 2: interests and many masks. There's the batman mask and then 13 00:01:02,076 --> 00:01:05,156 Speaker 2: there's the would be philosopher hat. And making his bid 14 00:01:05,196 --> 00:01:08,876 Speaker 2: for Twitter, Musk wore both of these so online, he 15 00:01:09,956 --> 00:01:13,356 Speaker 2: complaining that the science fiction on Netflix, for instance, had 16 00:01:13,356 --> 00:01:18,076 Speaker 2: gotten too woke. But in conversations with serious people at 17 00:01:18,116 --> 00:01:21,636 Speaker 2: a Ted Talks event in twenty twenty two, he talk 18 00:01:21,676 --> 00:01:24,476 Speaker 2: about the stakes of buying Twitter in grander terms. 19 00:01:24,836 --> 00:01:28,596 Speaker 3: It's important to the function of democracy. It's important to 20 00:01:28,596 --> 00:01:31,796 Speaker 3: the function of the United States as a free country 21 00:01:31,916 --> 00:01:34,436 Speaker 3: on many other countries, and help freedom in the world. 22 00:01:34,756 --> 00:01:39,156 Speaker 3: Civilizational risk is decreased, the more we can increase the 23 00:01:39,196 --> 00:01:42,276 Speaker 3: trust of Twitter as a public platform. 24 00:01:42,556 --> 00:01:44,996 Speaker 2: People in the media talk about Twitter all the time, 25 00:01:45,596 --> 00:01:49,036 Speaker 2: but that's because they're on it. Most other people aren't. 26 00:01:49,436 --> 00:01:52,076 Speaker 2: In the US, only about one in five American adults 27 00:01:52,116 --> 00:01:56,196 Speaker 2: even have accounts, and most posting about politics is done 28 00:01:56,236 --> 00:02:00,476 Speaker 2: by fewer than ten percent of users. Twitter isn't, and 29 00:02:00,596 --> 00:02:05,596 Speaker 2: never was, a town square. Musk buying it just put 30 00:02:05,596 --> 00:02:09,636 Speaker 2: a private platform into different private hands. As his purchase 31 00:02:09,676 --> 00:02:12,276 Speaker 2: went through in October of twenty twenty two. 32 00:02:12,396 --> 00:02:14,836 Speaker 5: Twitter users are waking up to find that that little 33 00:02:14,916 --> 00:02:18,796 Speaker 5: blue bird has flown. The coup owner Elon Musk, changed 34 00:02:18,836 --> 00:02:22,196 Speaker 5: the iconic bird logo to the letter X. 35 00:02:23,716 --> 00:02:27,996 Speaker 2: The way Musk talked about X got increasingly grandiose. He claimed, 36 00:02:28,356 --> 00:02:31,196 Speaker 2: the woke mind virus is either defeated or nothing else 37 00:02:31,276 --> 00:02:35,356 Speaker 2: matters a mind virus, as best I can tell. The 38 00:02:35,436 --> 00:02:40,836 Speaker 2: idea came from Richard Dawkins, evolutionary biologist and prominent atheist, 39 00:02:41,316 --> 00:02:44,876 Speaker 2: who wrote a tirade in nineteen ninety one, seemingly because 40 00:02:44,916 --> 00:02:47,716 Speaker 2: he was furious that one of his ex wives was 41 00:02:47,756 --> 00:02:52,036 Speaker 2: sending their six year old daughter to Catholic school. Dawkins 42 00:02:52,076 --> 00:02:57,916 Speaker 2: considered religion a mind virus. Computers can get viruses, he explained, 43 00:02:58,196 --> 00:03:01,676 Speaker 2: and so can the human mind. At the very least, 44 00:03:01,956 --> 00:03:06,156 Speaker 2: Dawkins wrote, the mind is a plausible candidate for infection. 45 00:03:07,356 --> 00:03:09,996 Speaker 2: But what even is the virus that Musk so worried about? 46 00:03:10,516 --> 00:03:12,476 Speaker 3: Lork bind myrus is communism rebranded? 47 00:03:12,836 --> 00:03:16,556 Speaker 2: Sometimes, though, must give a different definition using the expression 48 00:03:16,836 --> 00:03:20,076 Speaker 2: woke mind virus for something that had been a truly 49 00:03:20,116 --> 00:03:23,956 Speaker 2: horrible feature of Twitter and of much public discourse for years, 50 00:03:24,796 --> 00:03:28,636 Speaker 2: the suppression, especially on the left of political dissent. 51 00:03:31,716 --> 00:03:34,876 Speaker 3: You can't question things. Even the questioning is bad. 52 00:03:35,556 --> 00:03:40,116 Speaker 2: Questioning is good. Here we agree. So I've got some questions. 53 00:03:43,636 --> 00:03:46,796 Speaker 2: Welcome to x Men, the Elon Musk origin story. I'm 54 00:03:46,876 --> 00:03:49,516 Speaker 2: Jill Lapour. I'm a professor at Harvard. I'm a US 55 00:03:49,636 --> 00:03:52,676 Speaker 2: political historian, and for a long time I've been studying 56 00:03:52,676 --> 00:03:57,836 Speaker 2: the relationship between technological and political change. In this series, 57 00:03:58,116 --> 00:04:00,676 Speaker 2: I've been looking into how Musk is in many ways 58 00:04:00,716 --> 00:04:05,796 Speaker 2: an invention of science fiction, and so is Muskism, which 59 00:04:05,996 --> 00:04:09,676 Speaker 2: I've been arguing is less a form of futurism than 60 00:04:09,716 --> 00:04:13,556 Speaker 2: a throwback. I think that's true of Musk's concern about 61 00:04:13,556 --> 00:04:19,956 Speaker 2: a woke mind virus, too. First of all, let me 62 00:04:20,036 --> 00:04:22,276 Speaker 2: just say for the record that Musk has a point 63 00:04:22,316 --> 00:04:26,316 Speaker 2: about the assault on free speech, including in higher education, 64 00:04:27,076 --> 00:04:28,916 Speaker 2: and he has a point that there are indeed some 65 00:04:29,076 --> 00:04:34,116 Speaker 2: malign consequences of wokeness. Fair enough. But what I'm interested 66 00:04:34,196 --> 00:04:37,516 Speaker 2: in is the very idea of a mind virus. Where 67 00:04:37,516 --> 00:04:39,956 Speaker 2: a Musk got that language, what he means by it, 68 00:04:40,476 --> 00:04:43,676 Speaker 2: and what effect it has. Because other people might muse 69 00:04:43,716 --> 00:04:46,676 Speaker 2: about this kind of thing, but Musk, he spent forty 70 00:04:46,716 --> 00:04:50,356 Speaker 2: four billion dollars to buy Twitter to kill the virus. 71 00:04:53,836 --> 00:04:56,796 Speaker 2: This story doesn't really start with Richard Dawkins in the 72 00:04:56,876 --> 00:05:00,556 Speaker 2: nineteen nineties. It starts in the nineteen fifties. 73 00:05:01,076 --> 00:05:02,596 Speaker 6: What is it? What's going on? 74 00:05:03,076 --> 00:05:03,556 Speaker 3: I don't know. 75 00:05:03,676 --> 00:05:06,516 Speaker 6: A strange neurosis, evidently contagious. 76 00:05:06,756 --> 00:05:09,916 Speaker 2: In the nineteen fifties, a lot of people were very suddenly, 77 00:05:10,356 --> 00:05:12,676 Speaker 2: very worried about mind control. 78 00:05:13,036 --> 00:05:15,356 Speaker 6: It's an malignant disease spreading through the whole country. 79 00:05:15,916 --> 00:05:19,236 Speaker 2: Fear of communism and at the same time, fear of 80 00:05:19,276 --> 00:05:23,636 Speaker 2: anti communism in the form of McCarthyism. Both fears are 81 00:05:23,636 --> 00:05:27,036 Speaker 2: the subject of the nineteen fifty six film Invasion of 82 00:05:27,076 --> 00:05:32,116 Speaker 2: the Body Snatchers, where everyone seems suddenly not quite themselves anymore, 83 00:05:32,876 --> 00:05:33,716 Speaker 2: and what causes it. 84 00:05:34,276 --> 00:05:35,756 Speaker 3: Worry about what's going on in the world. 85 00:05:35,836 --> 00:05:41,636 Speaker 7: Probably this actually. 86 00:05:41,436 --> 00:05:45,316 Speaker 4: Was a panic of concern to the military in the 87 00:05:45,556 --> 00:05:48,796 Speaker 4: early years of the Korean War that American troops seem 88 00:05:48,876 --> 00:05:52,916 Speaker 4: to be succumbing to some sort of mysterious techniques. 89 00:05:53,156 --> 00:05:56,036 Speaker 2: Rebecca Lamov is a historian of science at Harvard a 90 00:05:56,076 --> 00:05:59,396 Speaker 2: colleague of mine. She's written a new book, The Instability 91 00:05:59,436 --> 00:06:04,516 Speaker 2: of Truth, A History of brainwashing, mind control, and hyper persuasion. 92 00:06:05,196 --> 00:06:08,556 Speaker 2: Beginning during the Korean War, when the Chinese government under 93 00:06:08,596 --> 00:06:12,796 Speaker 2: Chairman now held Americans as prisoners, they were. 94 00:06:12,676 --> 00:06:16,236 Speaker 4: Held in prison camps. Initially these camps were run by 95 00:06:16,236 --> 00:06:18,836 Speaker 4: the Koreans and later by the Chinese. The troops were 96 00:06:18,876 --> 00:06:22,316 Speaker 4: subjected to re education as a sort of experiment to 97 00:06:22,316 --> 00:06:24,836 Speaker 4: see if it would apply to westerners. One of the 98 00:06:24,876 --> 00:06:27,156 Speaker 4: soldiers had brought back his journal in which he had 99 00:06:27,196 --> 00:06:28,796 Speaker 4: been forced to confess. 100 00:06:29,156 --> 00:06:31,556 Speaker 2: Being an evil capitalist, basically. 101 00:06:31,116 --> 00:06:34,316 Speaker 4: Being an evil capitalist or having had a hand in oppression, 102 00:06:34,436 --> 00:06:38,076 Speaker 4: or in this case he was African Americans. So sometimes 103 00:06:38,076 --> 00:06:43,276 Speaker 4: they would actually incorporate a racial sort of liberation analysis 104 00:06:43,316 --> 00:06:45,476 Speaker 4: into it. But at any rate, ninety one percent of 105 00:06:45,516 --> 00:06:48,836 Speaker 4: the prisoners reported that they were forced to journal. 106 00:06:48,796 --> 00:06:50,476 Speaker 2: Because part of the re education is you have to 107 00:06:50,516 --> 00:06:52,196 Speaker 2: retell the story of your own life. 108 00:06:52,356 --> 00:06:55,916 Speaker 4: Exactly what the US military and then later the press 109 00:06:55,956 --> 00:07:00,116 Speaker 4: were seeing when these prisoners were returned was something they 110 00:07:00,676 --> 00:07:04,676 Speaker 4: felt was quite mysterious. They would appear vacant and sort 111 00:07:04,716 --> 00:07:10,236 Speaker 4: of dissociated, and would be quoting Communist propaganda, which used 112 00:07:10,276 --> 00:07:13,956 Speaker 4: that very formulaic language that their families wouldn't recognize. So 113 00:07:13,956 --> 00:07:17,796 Speaker 4: they seemed to be not themselves. And there was evidence that, 114 00:07:18,116 --> 00:07:21,036 Speaker 4: as a New Yorker reporter later put at, something new 115 00:07:21,076 --> 00:07:23,956 Speaker 4: in history was happening, and they called in troops of 116 00:07:23,956 --> 00:07:27,956 Speaker 4: psychiatrists and sociologists and any expert to see see if 117 00:07:27,956 --> 00:07:29,516 Speaker 4: they could break the spell. 118 00:07:29,836 --> 00:07:33,396 Speaker 2: I mean, it's terrifying. Is they're terrifying, terrifying prospect. 119 00:07:33,596 --> 00:07:33,796 Speaker 6: Yeah. 120 00:07:33,796 --> 00:07:37,236 Speaker 4: There were also American pilots who gave false confessions to 121 00:07:37,276 --> 00:07:40,716 Speaker 4: having dropped biological weapons over China, and there were American 122 00:07:40,716 --> 00:07:44,396 Speaker 4: businessmen who also seemed to be turning up having been brainwashed. 123 00:07:44,436 --> 00:07:47,636 Speaker 4: So it was quite terrifying that the Communists had something 124 00:07:47,636 --> 00:07:49,596 Speaker 4: that just was not understood. 125 00:07:52,596 --> 00:07:55,396 Speaker 3: New York. Well, American executive Robert bogla Is home with 126 00:07:55,476 --> 00:07:58,236 Speaker 3: his wife after confinement in a Hungarian Communist prison camp 127 00:07:58,276 --> 00:07:59,196 Speaker 3: for seventeen months. 128 00:07:59,636 --> 00:08:03,116 Speaker 4: So Robert Vogeler was an American businessman, an executive who 129 00:08:03,156 --> 00:08:07,316 Speaker 4: was working in Hungary for IT and T, the International 130 00:08:07,356 --> 00:08:10,996 Speaker 4: Telegraph and Telephone Company. He entered the headlines because he 131 00:08:11,316 --> 00:08:14,276 Speaker 4: was returned after being imprisoned by the secret police. 132 00:08:15,116 --> 00:08:19,396 Speaker 6: I was shoved into a sixth feet by nine feet cell, 133 00:08:20,676 --> 00:08:24,396 Speaker 6: and the cold was unbearable. The worst of it, however, 134 00:08:24,956 --> 00:08:29,156 Speaker 6: was the endless routine repeated every six minutes, of the 135 00:08:29,156 --> 00:08:33,596 Speaker 6: steel people being opened and clang shut. 136 00:08:34,196 --> 00:08:37,076 Speaker 4: He couldn't quite remember what had happened to him. He 137 00:08:37,156 --> 00:08:40,636 Speaker 4: had been converted to communism initially. When he came back 138 00:08:41,036 --> 00:08:44,436 Speaker 4: then he sort of decompressed and returned to himself. Later, 139 00:08:44,476 --> 00:08:46,796 Speaker 4: when he reflected on it, he said, the very body 140 00:08:46,916 --> 00:08:49,436 Speaker 4: is forced into league against one's personality. 141 00:08:50,076 --> 00:08:54,076 Speaker 6: The important thing to be learned from my experience is 142 00:08:54,116 --> 00:08:59,756 Speaker 6: that it can happen to anyone. It can happen to you. 143 00:09:00,996 --> 00:09:04,676 Speaker 2: Lamov says that the public learned about brainwashing from a 144 00:09:04,676 --> 00:09:06,036 Speaker 2: writer named Edward Hunter. 145 00:09:06,956 --> 00:09:10,756 Speaker 4: He actually was quite an experienced OSA agent Office of 146 00:09:10,796 --> 00:09:14,356 Speaker 4: Strategic Services, which was the precursor to the CIA essentially, 147 00:09:14,836 --> 00:09:17,476 Speaker 4: and he had been working in China for several decades 148 00:09:17,756 --> 00:09:20,996 Speaker 4: and had been an anti propaganda that was his beat, 149 00:09:21,116 --> 00:09:23,876 Speaker 4: and he had also worked as a journalist. He had 150 00:09:23,876 --> 00:09:26,996 Speaker 4: an extensive collection of propaganda. So he wrote an article 151 00:09:27,156 --> 00:09:30,556 Speaker 4: in nineteen fifty announcing that the Communist had developed a 152 00:09:30,596 --> 00:09:33,156 Speaker 4: new super weapon. He called it brainwashing. 153 00:09:33,756 --> 00:09:36,676 Speaker 2: But it's a very evocative phrase. So that becomes the 154 00:09:36,796 --> 00:09:40,276 Speaker 2: language with which Americans talk about this process of malist 155 00:09:40,316 --> 00:09:41,836 Speaker 2: indoctrination exactly. 156 00:09:41,876 --> 00:09:44,516 Speaker 4: It takes off, and he publishes a book. He goes 157 00:09:44,516 --> 00:09:47,436 Speaker 4: on a lecture circuit. He explains more deeply, and he 158 00:09:47,436 --> 00:09:53,116 Speaker 4: connects this brainwashing to Communist techniques and hypnosis, and also 159 00:09:53,236 --> 00:09:57,636 Speaker 4: to Soviet programs to build new types of human beings. 160 00:09:58,196 --> 00:10:01,156 Speaker 2: The US government was concerned enough that in nineteen fifty 161 00:10:01,156 --> 00:10:05,716 Speaker 2: three it started its own brainwashing program MK Ultra, led 162 00:10:05,716 --> 00:10:10,676 Speaker 2: by the CIA, horrifying human experiments. The public didn't know 163 00:10:10,716 --> 00:10:13,636 Speaker 2: about it for decades, but you can see the fear 164 00:10:13,676 --> 00:10:16,676 Speaker 2: of brainwashing reaching a kind of apex with the film 165 00:10:16,796 --> 00:10:21,236 Speaker 2: adaptation of the nineteen fifty nine novel Manchurian Candidate. 166 00:10:21,676 --> 00:10:25,596 Speaker 7: I have conditioned them or brainwashed them, which I understand 167 00:10:25,676 --> 00:10:26,916 Speaker 7: is the new American work. 168 00:10:27,476 --> 00:10:30,596 Speaker 2: It was as if these men had been made into machines. 169 00:10:30,956 --> 00:10:33,956 Speaker 7: His brain has not only been washed as they say, 170 00:10:34,236 --> 00:10:35,836 Speaker 7: it has been dry clean. 171 00:10:38,956 --> 00:10:42,076 Speaker 2: In the midst of all this, one man in Pretoria, 172 00:10:42,116 --> 00:10:44,396 Speaker 2: South Africa, was frantic. 173 00:10:45,156 --> 00:10:49,276 Speaker 7: Every day the brainwashers repeat and emphasize the things they 174 00:10:49,436 --> 00:10:50,636 Speaker 7: want us to believe. 175 00:10:51,396 --> 00:10:55,756 Speaker 2: Remember Elon Musk's maternal grandfather, J. N. Haldeman. I talked 176 00:10:55,756 --> 00:10:59,196 Speaker 2: about him in an earlier episode. That's an actor, reading 177 00:10:59,196 --> 00:11:03,356 Speaker 2: from a tract Haldeman published in South Africa in nineteen sixty. 178 00:11:03,476 --> 00:11:07,276 Speaker 2: In it, Haldeman described himself as having been a student 179 00:11:07,436 --> 00:11:12,476 Speaker 2: of social engineering who had directed a number of scientific, social, economic, 180 00:11:12,516 --> 00:11:16,356 Speaker 2: and political organizations. In the nineteen thirties, He'd been a 181 00:11:16,436 --> 00:11:20,196 Speaker 2: leader of the technocracy movement in Canada. Then he joined 182 00:11:20,236 --> 00:11:24,636 Speaker 2: the anti Semitic Social Credit Party, becoming its national chairman. 183 00:11:25,436 --> 00:11:28,076 Speaker 2: In nineteen forty nine, he began thinking about moving to 184 00:11:28,116 --> 00:11:32,836 Speaker 2: South Africa, attracted by its newly announced policy of apartheid. 185 00:11:33,196 --> 00:11:37,596 Speaker 2: He moved there in nineteen fifty. In May of nineteen sixty, 186 00:11:37,876 --> 00:11:42,596 Speaker 2: Haldeman wrote the International Conspiracy to establish a World Dictatorship 187 00:11:42,636 --> 00:11:46,236 Speaker 2: and its Menace to South Africa. The tract was a 188 00:11:46,276 --> 00:11:49,276 Speaker 2: response to a speech by the British Prime Minister. 189 00:11:50,196 --> 00:11:53,396 Speaker 7: The window Chaine is blowing through this continent. 190 00:11:54,716 --> 00:11:55,916 Speaker 3: Whether we like it or not. 191 00:11:56,516 --> 00:12:00,836 Speaker 6: This growth national consciousness is a political fact. 192 00:12:02,676 --> 00:12:06,956 Speaker 2: In February nineteen sixty, Harold McMillan, the PM, had addressed 193 00:12:06,996 --> 00:12:12,236 Speaker 2: the South African Parliament disc countenancing apartheid and urging acceptance 194 00:12:12,316 --> 00:12:14,516 Speaker 2: of the inevitability of independence. 195 00:12:15,316 --> 00:12:17,036 Speaker 8: We was all accepted as a fair. 196 00:12:18,396 --> 00:12:21,636 Speaker 2: Only weeks later, South African police opened fire on a 197 00:12:21,676 --> 00:12:25,316 Speaker 2: crowd of thousands of black South Africans protesting outside the 198 00:12:25,356 --> 00:12:30,196 Speaker 2: Sharpville police station. Police killed sixty nine people, including children, 199 00:12:30,596 --> 00:12:32,436 Speaker 2: and wounded nearly two hundred. 200 00:12:34,556 --> 00:12:38,516 Speaker 3: There was a rattle of machine gun and people started running. 201 00:12:38,556 --> 00:12:44,036 Speaker 6: Pocerta children were screaming around the street crying for the amadas, 202 00:12:44,396 --> 00:12:48,116 Speaker 6: and some other policemen's were busy shooting those children. 203 00:12:49,036 --> 00:12:52,676 Speaker 2: The killings were captured on television and the coverage reached 204 00:12:52,716 --> 00:12:57,116 Speaker 2: around the world. In the ensuing protests and state of emergency, 205 00:12:57,676 --> 00:13:02,276 Speaker 2: Nelson Mandela was among eighteen thousand people arrested and jailed. 206 00:13:03,156 --> 00:13:07,836 Speaker 2: Haldeman wrote this tract that spring, suggesting that the uprising 207 00:13:08,076 --> 00:13:09,036 Speaker 2: had been staged. 208 00:13:09,556 --> 00:13:12,836 Speaker 7: Questions to be asked who were the white leaders in 209 00:13:12,876 --> 00:13:16,956 Speaker 7: the Shopville Native riot? Who escaped. Who were the ones 210 00:13:16,996 --> 00:13:20,276 Speaker 7: who fired the shots at the police that would guarantee 211 00:13:20,276 --> 00:13:22,836 Speaker 7: that a major event would take place at that time? 212 00:13:23,436 --> 00:13:24,596 Speaker 7: What are their connections? 213 00:13:25,316 --> 00:13:28,796 Speaker 2: He believed apartheid had come under attack due to an 214 00:13:28,836 --> 00:13:33,076 Speaker 2: international conspiracy spreading dangerous ideas like these. 215 00:13:33,516 --> 00:13:42,476 Speaker 7: The natives are ill treated, underpaid, underprivileged. Separate development is wrong, 216 00:13:43,396 --> 00:13:46,356 Speaker 7: apartheid is un Christian. 217 00:13:46,436 --> 00:13:50,836 Speaker 2: And Heldemann believed that the media itself was doing the brainwashing. 218 00:13:51,516 --> 00:13:59,196 Speaker 7: Every day newspapers, magazines, commercial radio newscasters drip this into 219 00:13:59,236 --> 00:14:02,836 Speaker 7: the conscious and subconscious minds of the public. 220 00:14:03,396 --> 00:14:05,756 Speaker 2: He pledged to stop the spread of the virus. 221 00:14:06,196 --> 00:14:09,516 Speaker 7: People who know it is ninety nine percent un true, 222 00:14:09,956 --> 00:14:15,716 Speaker 7: repeat these lies emphatically and emotionally. The facts of history 223 00:14:15,796 --> 00:14:19,556 Speaker 7: show that the white man has always developed the country 224 00:14:19,676 --> 00:14:24,396 Speaker 7: he inhabits to the benefit of all concerned. The black 225 00:14:24,476 --> 00:14:28,396 Speaker 7: people of Africa have been in close contact with civilization 226 00:14:28,836 --> 00:14:35,356 Speaker 7: from the earliest times, but on their own built nothing, discovered, nothing, 227 00:14:35,956 --> 00:14:37,196 Speaker 7: not even the will. 228 00:14:39,116 --> 00:14:42,236 Speaker 2: Now, let me state again what I've said before. Elon 229 00:14:42,356 --> 00:14:45,716 Speaker 2: Musk is not responsible for the ideas or actions of 230 00:14:45,756 --> 00:14:49,036 Speaker 2: his grandfather, who died when Musk was only two years old. 231 00:14:49,996 --> 00:14:53,676 Speaker 2: I mentioned him here because he's an excellent illustration of 232 00:14:53,756 --> 00:14:56,796 Speaker 2: the persistence of fears of mind control. 233 00:14:57,396 --> 00:15:01,556 Speaker 7: People have become misled on the proven traditional attitudes of 234 00:15:01,636 --> 00:15:03,916 Speaker 7: what is right and wrong and what is good and 235 00:15:04,036 --> 00:15:07,836 Speaker 7: bad for themselves and for their country by an intensive 236 00:15:07,996 --> 00:15:14,476 Speaker 7: psycho political warfare which has been conducted to change people's minds. 237 00:15:13,636 --> 00:15:16,796 Speaker 2: For everything Heldeman blamed brainwashing. 238 00:15:17,436 --> 00:15:22,436 Speaker 7: Psychopolitics is now one of the chief weapons of the internationalists, 239 00:15:22,836 --> 00:15:25,276 Speaker 7: and it is in this field that they are having 240 00:15:25,396 --> 00:15:31,676 Speaker 7: so much success and practically no opposition. An intensive mass 241 00:15:31,876 --> 00:15:35,636 Speaker 7: mind conditioning has been going on for a century. 242 00:15:36,236 --> 00:15:39,436 Speaker 2: This was being done, he alleged, not only by the media, 243 00:15:39,516 --> 00:15:41,036 Speaker 2: but also by universities. 244 00:15:41,396 --> 00:15:45,196 Speaker 7: It is no wonder that so many university professors come 245 00:15:45,236 --> 00:15:50,276 Speaker 7: out with liberalistic, anti nationalist statements, although they may be 246 00:15:50,436 --> 00:15:56,676 Speaker 7: professing Christians and sincerely feel they are patriots. Throughout university 247 00:15:56,756 --> 00:16:00,436 Speaker 7: courses to get their degrees, they were subjected to a 248 00:16:00,516 --> 00:16:02,756 Speaker 7: materialistic inductrination. 249 00:16:03,556 --> 00:16:06,516 Speaker 2: While we're at it, it's curious that another of Heldeman's 250 00:16:06,556 --> 00:16:09,196 Speaker 2: big evils was government waste. 251 00:16:09,356 --> 00:16:12,116 Speaker 7: Most of this waste is a result of following the 252 00:16:12,276 --> 00:16:15,996 Speaker 7: tax and debt system of the Internationalists. 253 00:16:16,356 --> 00:16:20,076 Speaker 2: He wanted to set up a finance committee to combat inefficiency. 254 00:16:20,436 --> 00:16:24,356 Speaker 7: A watchdog financial agency is needed. 255 00:16:24,396 --> 00:16:26,676 Speaker 2: And he wanted one to combat brainwashing too. 256 00:16:27,196 --> 00:16:31,116 Speaker 7: Another watchdog committee must have power to counter erect the 257 00:16:31,156 --> 00:16:35,876 Speaker 7: psycho political warfare that is being directed against South Africa. 258 00:16:36,836 --> 00:16:40,476 Speaker 7: This must be done or the Finance Committee, which soon 259 00:16:40,556 --> 00:16:43,636 Speaker 7: find they had no public support for their efforts to 260 00:16:43,716 --> 00:16:47,996 Speaker 7: save the country. People must be warned and become fully 261 00:16:48,076 --> 00:16:52,476 Speaker 7: aware that when they read the international English language newspapers, 262 00:16:52,956 --> 00:16:56,756 Speaker 7: these are not really British or American. They are more 263 00:16:56,876 --> 00:17:01,076 Speaker 7: likely to be psychopolitical organs of Moscow and Wall Street. 264 00:17:01,916 --> 00:17:04,916 Speaker 2: Heldeman was writing in nineteen sixty just as the public 265 00:17:04,956 --> 00:17:09,036 Speaker 2: panic about brainwashing was beginning to wind down. After that, 266 00:17:09,236 --> 00:17:13,196 Speaker 2: people stopped talking about it so much. Rebecca Lamov says 267 00:17:13,316 --> 00:17:16,276 Speaker 2: the public fear about mind control didn't really start up 268 00:17:16,316 --> 00:17:19,476 Speaker 2: again until the nineteen nineties, the end of the Cold War, 269 00:17:19,916 --> 00:17:23,316 Speaker 2: the beginning of the Internet. That's when Richard Dawkins started 270 00:17:23,316 --> 00:17:27,996 Speaker 2: writing about viruses of the mind spreading like computer viruses, 271 00:17:28,916 --> 00:17:34,356 Speaker 2: and then the worry became those viruses are spreading by computer. 272 00:17:38,516 --> 00:17:41,796 Speaker 2: Full disclosure. I hate Twitter. I hated it when it 273 00:17:41,876 --> 00:17:45,116 Speaker 2: was leftier, and I still hate it now that it's rightier. 274 00:17:46,116 --> 00:17:48,516 Speaker 2: I hate all social media. I've never had an account 275 00:17:48,556 --> 00:17:50,676 Speaker 2: on any of these things. I think social media is 276 00:17:50,676 --> 00:17:55,276 Speaker 2: a disaster for democracy, for fairness, for decency, for humanity. 277 00:17:56,076 --> 00:17:59,276 Speaker 2: On the other hand, Musk's plan for fixing Twitter. It 278 00:17:59,276 --> 00:18:01,596 Speaker 2: brings to mind the adage that the cure is sometimes 279 00:18:01,636 --> 00:18:05,236 Speaker 2: worse than the disease. If history is any guide to 280 00:18:05,316 --> 00:18:08,556 Speaker 2: the fear of mind control, it is the backlash that 281 00:18:08,636 --> 00:18:11,316 Speaker 2: you have to work watch out for, which brings me 282 00:18:11,356 --> 00:18:16,196 Speaker 2: to Mosque's admiration for the writings of a Canadian marketing professor. 283 00:18:17,116 --> 00:18:19,676 Speaker 3: The Parasitic Mind Stray good book. It recommended to everyone. 284 00:18:19,676 --> 00:18:21,716 Speaker 3: In fact, I did recommend it to everyone. It really 285 00:18:21,756 --> 00:18:24,116 Speaker 3: does hit the nail on the head with respect to 286 00:18:24,916 --> 00:18:28,516 Speaker 3: the sort of ork mind virus that is damaging civilization. 287 00:18:29,116 --> 00:18:32,036 Speaker 2: That's Musk in twenty twenty four talking to the author 288 00:18:32,116 --> 00:18:36,716 Speaker 2: of The Parasitic Mind, how infectious ideas are killing common sense? 289 00:18:37,276 --> 00:18:40,796 Speaker 2: A man who's described his book as the mind vaccine 290 00:18:40,836 --> 00:18:44,396 Speaker 2: against all of the idea pathogens that have been destroying 291 00:18:44,596 --> 00:18:49,236 Speaker 2: the West. Name of Gad Sad. He's got a big 292 00:18:49,236 --> 00:18:53,236 Speaker 2: following on x and a YouTube show called The Sad Truth. 293 00:18:53,796 --> 00:18:56,476 Speaker 4: He was educated in the nineteen nineties interestingly in a 294 00:18:56,476 --> 00:19:00,956 Speaker 4: PhD program. He's an evolutionary behavioral scientist, but he's a 295 00:19:00,956 --> 00:19:05,276 Speaker 4: professor of marketing. So he basically spent the first twenty 296 00:19:05,476 --> 00:19:07,916 Speaker 4: or thirty years of his career applying the insights of 297 00:19:07,956 --> 00:19:11,796 Speaker 4: evolutionary behavioral science, or he would say, evolutionary science to 298 00:19:12,756 --> 00:19:16,876 Speaker 4: commerce and to marketing, and so basically, how do you 299 00:19:17,476 --> 00:19:20,596 Speaker 4: best sell you know, high heels to women when they're 300 00:19:20,796 --> 00:19:23,516 Speaker 4: its best when they're menstruating, or can you target these 301 00:19:23,556 --> 00:19:27,076 Speaker 4: particular moments because there's evidence that women are more receptive 302 00:19:27,116 --> 00:19:29,556 Speaker 4: to certain messages at certain times, or things like that. 303 00:19:29,956 --> 00:19:32,716 Speaker 2: And then he ran into a wall. Here's how Sad 304 00:19:32,836 --> 00:19:36,156 Speaker 2: tells it in a conversation with Musk last year on X. 305 00:19:36,676 --> 00:19:40,516 Speaker 8: I first noticed all of these mind viruses in my 306 00:19:40,676 --> 00:19:44,156 Speaker 8: academic work when I was trying to introduce, you know, 307 00:19:44,196 --> 00:19:48,276 Speaker 8: evolutionary psychology evolutionary biology in the business schools, and most 308 00:19:48,316 --> 00:19:51,516 Speaker 8: of my social science colleagues were so that set against 309 00:19:51,596 --> 00:19:54,516 Speaker 8: using biology to explain human phenomena. So that was my 310 00:19:54,756 --> 00:19:57,556 Speaker 8: original sort of at ha moment, we have a problem. 311 00:19:57,796 --> 00:19:59,636 Speaker 4: I think he had trouble in academia, and this is 312 00:19:59,636 --> 00:20:01,676 Speaker 4: what caused him to sort of move in the direction 313 00:20:01,756 --> 00:20:04,436 Speaker 4: he has is that people were resistant to listening to 314 00:20:04,476 --> 00:20:08,436 Speaker 4: his ideas at any moment. He identified sex differences between 315 00:20:08,476 --> 00:20:12,396 Speaker 4: men and women. If it happened to reflect poorly on women, 316 00:20:12,436 --> 00:20:14,556 Speaker 4: he said that people were just unwilling to listen to 317 00:20:14,556 --> 00:20:18,036 Speaker 4: his ideas, especially the smart people who are actually dumb. 318 00:20:18,156 --> 00:20:21,796 Speaker 2: Yeah, and he's not wrong that there's a tremendous rejection 319 00:20:21,956 --> 00:20:25,676 Speaker 2: of those ideas without inspection. And that's a common part 320 00:20:25,716 --> 00:20:27,836 Speaker 2: of academic life, Like I don't think in terms of 321 00:20:27,876 --> 00:20:32,556 Speaker 2: diagnosing the closed mindedness of a lot of academics, they're 322 00:20:32,556 --> 00:20:33,596 Speaker 2: not wrong about that. 323 00:20:33,796 --> 00:20:36,716 Speaker 4: Yeah, exactly. So then you could maybe say that because 324 00:20:36,796 --> 00:20:39,516 Speaker 4: these things are associated with what they would say the 325 00:20:39,516 --> 00:20:42,036 Speaker 4: far left, it is a form of communism be branded 326 00:20:42,036 --> 00:20:44,716 Speaker 4: and the way that we I suppose we can both 327 00:20:44,996 --> 00:20:47,996 Speaker 4: identify moments in academia where it does feel like there's 328 00:20:48,036 --> 00:20:49,036 Speaker 4: a kind of lockstep. 329 00:20:49,156 --> 00:20:52,276 Speaker 2: Absolutely, Yeah, I get it right. 330 00:20:52,476 --> 00:20:56,836 Speaker 4: I agree it's uncomfortable because I think I wouldn't want 331 00:20:56,876 --> 00:20:58,276 Speaker 4: to just say this is absurd. 332 00:20:58,756 --> 00:21:01,356 Speaker 2: Where I get off the train. Where I leap off 333 00:21:01,396 --> 00:21:05,916 Speaker 2: that train is when Sad's argument, Musk's argument runs this way. 334 00:21:06,476 --> 00:21:10,356 Speaker 2: I don't like these ideas. Therefore, these ideas are bad ideas. Therefore, 335 00:21:10,356 --> 00:21:13,276 Speaker 2: these ideas are mind viruses, and therefore I will kill 336 00:21:13,316 --> 00:21:14,996 Speaker 2: them in the name of free speech. 337 00:21:15,716 --> 00:21:20,396 Speaker 8: All of these parasitic ideas originated from the university ecosystem. 338 00:21:20,476 --> 00:21:24,396 Speaker 2: The parasitic mind is an argument against a collection of 339 00:21:24,476 --> 00:21:28,916 Speaker 2: bad ideas spawned on university campuses what Sad describes as 340 00:21:29,036 --> 00:21:34,836 Speaker 2: anti science, anti reason, and illiberal idea pathogens, including postmodernism, 341 00:21:35,156 --> 00:21:40,156 Speaker 2: radical feminism, and transgender activism. Musk read the book, loved it, 342 00:21:40,596 --> 00:21:43,596 Speaker 2: and started tweeting about it, said it gave him nightmares. 343 00:21:44,116 --> 00:21:46,356 Speaker 8: When was it for you that you noticed that something 344 00:21:46,476 --> 00:21:46,796 Speaker 8: was wrong? 345 00:21:46,916 --> 00:21:50,476 Speaker 3: I'd say about five years ago, come in in the climate, 346 00:21:50,596 --> 00:21:54,556 Speaker 3: just before COVID. The degree of panic over COVID was 347 00:21:54,596 --> 00:21:58,316 Speaker 3: exacerbated by this unwillingness to question science or question the 348 00:21:58,356 --> 00:21:59,076 Speaker 3: accepted view. 349 00:21:59,836 --> 00:22:03,276 Speaker 2: In his book, Sad argues that Google, YouTube, Facebook, and 350 00:22:03,316 --> 00:22:06,356 Speaker 2: Twitter have more global control over us than all other 351 00:22:06,436 --> 00:22:10,436 Speaker 2: companies combined. He writes, it is an hyperbole to say 352 00:22:10,636 --> 00:22:13,356 Speaker 2: that they have more collective power in terms of the 353 00:22:13,356 --> 00:22:17,036 Speaker 2: information they control than all of the rulers, priests, and 354 00:22:17,156 --> 00:22:22,956 Speaker 2: politicians in all of history. Hence, Musk is saving civilization. 355 00:22:23,716 --> 00:22:27,796 Speaker 8: In my view, your purchase of Twitter will go down 356 00:22:28,236 --> 00:22:31,996 Speaker 8: historically as the most important of all of your great initiatives. 357 00:22:32,156 --> 00:22:33,036 Speaker 7: Do you feel that. 358 00:22:33,316 --> 00:22:35,756 Speaker 8: Was that a right calculation on my part? Or was 359 00:22:35,836 --> 00:22:36,956 Speaker 8: I overstating the case? 360 00:22:37,076 --> 00:22:40,316 Speaker 3: Well, you might be right. It's possible. It's possible that 361 00:22:40,316 --> 00:22:42,876 Speaker 3: you're right. I mean, I didn't do the purchase because 362 00:22:42,916 --> 00:22:44,996 Speaker 3: I thought it was a great way to make money, 363 00:22:45,196 --> 00:22:47,836 Speaker 3: or because I thought it would improve by quality of living. 364 00:22:47,876 --> 00:22:51,636 Speaker 3: But it really felt like if it was a civilizational danger, 365 00:22:51,796 --> 00:22:53,996 Speaker 3: it was just no place to actually get the truth. 366 00:22:54,476 --> 00:22:57,236 Speaker 2: There ought to be some kind of watchdog committee, right, 367 00:22:57,476 --> 00:23:00,476 Speaker 2: And so Musk bought Twitter to stop the spread of 368 00:23:00,516 --> 00:23:04,036 Speaker 2: the woke mind virus. Musk, by no means shares all 369 00:23:04,076 --> 00:23:06,716 Speaker 2: of his grandfather's views, and in fact, many of his 370 00:23:06,836 --> 00:23:08,196 Speaker 2: views are of course very different. 371 00:23:09,196 --> 00:23:12,236 Speaker 3: Rice maybe the work bind virus. It consists of creating 372 00:23:12,396 --> 00:23:19,676 Speaker 3: very divisive identity politics. So it actually amplifies racism, amplifies sexism, 373 00:23:19,716 --> 00:23:23,076 Speaker 3: and only isms, and while claiming to do the opposite, 374 00:23:23,676 --> 00:23:28,076 Speaker 3: it actually divides people and makes them sort of hate 375 00:23:28,076 --> 00:23:30,516 Speaker 3: each other, and it makes people hate themselves. 376 00:23:31,356 --> 00:23:34,276 Speaker 2: Still, Musk also does echo a lot of his grandfather's 377 00:23:34,276 --> 00:23:38,916 Speaker 2: fears from decades ago. Last year, Musk warned that Christianity 378 00:23:39,156 --> 00:23:40,396 Speaker 2: might soon perish. 379 00:23:41,196 --> 00:23:44,556 Speaker 3: Also, the work Bindvirus is communism rebranded, and. 380 00:23:44,596 --> 00:23:47,476 Speaker 2: Musk has said he wanted to correct for Twitter's long 381 00:23:47,516 --> 00:23:49,236 Speaker 2: time leftward tilt. 382 00:23:49,276 --> 00:23:51,796 Speaker 3: And on the past Twitter was controlled by fall left 383 00:23:51,836 --> 00:23:56,116 Speaker 3: activists objectively, they would describe themselves as that, though what. 384 00:23:56,076 --> 00:23:59,356 Speaker 2: Musk actually did when he bought X was to limit 385 00:23:59,436 --> 00:24:02,916 Speaker 2: content moderation and restore the accounts of people who'd been 386 00:24:02,956 --> 00:24:08,156 Speaker 2: banned for extremism or for spreading misinformation. Musk also gave 387 00:24:08,196 --> 00:24:12,156 Speaker 2: another reason for by Twitter, a personal one. It involves 388 00:24:12,196 --> 00:24:15,516 Speaker 2: one of his kids, one of J. N. Haldeman's great grandchildren. 389 00:24:16,356 --> 00:24:19,676 Speaker 2: Musk spoke with Anguish about what he called child mutilation 390 00:24:20,036 --> 00:24:21,436 Speaker 2: and child sterilization. 391 00:24:22,196 --> 00:24:24,996 Speaker 3: It happened to one of my older boys. Where I was, 392 00:24:25,916 --> 00:24:30,036 Speaker 3: I was essentially tricked into signing documents for one of 393 00:24:30,076 --> 00:24:32,756 Speaker 3: my older boys, Xavier. This is before I had really 394 00:24:32,756 --> 00:24:34,596 Speaker 3: any understanding what was going on and that we had 395 00:24:34,636 --> 00:24:37,756 Speaker 3: COVID gone on, and so there was a lot of confusion, 396 00:24:38,676 --> 00:24:40,876 Speaker 3: you know. I was told, oh, you know, Savior might 397 00:24:40,876 --> 00:24:41,876 Speaker 3: commit suicide. 398 00:24:42,356 --> 00:24:45,116 Speaker 2: That was in twenty twenty, the year Musk and Grimes 399 00:24:45,156 --> 00:24:48,156 Speaker 2: had a son they named x. It was another child, 400 00:24:48,196 --> 00:24:51,676 Speaker 2: an older child from Musk's first marriage and now sixteen, 401 00:24:52,116 --> 00:24:55,956 Speaker 2: who transitioned that year and who disputes Musk's account of 402 00:24:55,996 --> 00:24:56,596 Speaker 2: what happened. 403 00:24:57,196 --> 00:24:59,636 Speaker 3: I lost my son. Essentially, they call it dead naming 404 00:24:59,676 --> 00:25:02,596 Speaker 3: for a reason. Yeah, all right, So the reason it's 405 00:25:02,636 --> 00:25:08,476 Speaker 3: called dead naming is because your son is dead, killed 406 00:25:08,516 --> 00:25:09,956 Speaker 3: by the walk line virus. 407 00:25:10,236 --> 00:25:13,916 Speaker 2: In twenty twenty two, this child turned eighteen, changed her 408 00:25:13,996 --> 00:25:17,636 Speaker 2: name to Vivian Wilson and cut off all contact with 409 00:25:17,716 --> 00:25:18,156 Speaker 2: her father. 410 00:25:18,756 --> 00:25:20,756 Speaker 3: So I vowed to destroy the my virus. 411 00:25:20,756 --> 00:25:25,556 Speaker 2: After that that year, Musk bought Twitter and renamed it x. 412 00:25:30,076 --> 00:25:33,996 Speaker 2: Rebecca Lamov, expert on the history of brainwashing, does think 413 00:25:34,156 --> 00:25:35,196 Speaker 2: there's something to fear. 414 00:25:35,676 --> 00:25:38,276 Speaker 4: I think that we live in an environment, including an 415 00:25:38,516 --> 00:25:42,356 Speaker 4: information environment, where you know, the stakes are quite high 416 00:25:42,436 --> 00:25:47,396 Speaker 4: and the tools are incredibly powerful, and therefore the countervailing 417 00:25:47,436 --> 00:25:51,156 Speaker 4: pressures are also very strong, so that we need to 418 00:25:51,156 --> 00:25:54,756 Speaker 4: be extremely aware of the possibilities that our minds are 419 00:25:54,796 --> 00:25:56,996 Speaker 4: being changed in tiny, tiny ways. 420 00:25:57,436 --> 00:26:00,236 Speaker 2: And here's what haunts me in this decade's long story 421 00:26:00,516 --> 00:26:05,036 Speaker 2: of the fear of mind control. Who is actually in control? 422 00:26:06,036 --> 00:26:10,356 Speaker 2: In nineteen sixty, when Elon Musk's grandfather wanted to warn 423 00:26:10,396 --> 00:26:14,596 Speaker 2: the world about the international conspiracy against white Christian civilization 424 00:26:14,956 --> 00:26:18,076 Speaker 2: that involved mind control through the media and the universities. 425 00:26:18,996 --> 00:26:21,716 Speaker 2: He got out a typewriter, typed up a tract or 426 00:26:21,756 --> 00:26:25,876 Speaker 2: two and a newsletter, and made a few dozen mimeographs. 427 00:26:26,636 --> 00:26:29,836 Speaker 2: He mailed them to a few friends, maybe I don't 428 00:26:29,876 --> 00:26:34,796 Speaker 2: know fifty copies, and then they mostly disappeared. In the 429 00:26:34,836 --> 00:26:38,076 Speaker 2: twenty twenties, when Elon Musk decided that he wanted to 430 00:26:38,076 --> 00:26:41,876 Speaker 2: warn the world about a woke mind virus, he bought Twitter. 431 00:26:42,276 --> 00:26:46,956 Speaker 2: Twitter is not a typewriter. Musk spent forty four billion 432 00:26:46,996 --> 00:26:49,636 Speaker 2: dollars on it. He could do that because he is 433 00:26:49,676 --> 00:26:51,356 Speaker 2: the richest man in the world, and he can do 434 00:26:51,436 --> 00:26:54,916 Speaker 2: things like that. Every time he wants to speak, he 435 00:26:54,956 --> 00:26:58,716 Speaker 2: reaches over two hundred million people. He runs a company 436 00:26:58,796 --> 00:27:03,036 Speaker 2: that feeds people information. And this is liberating us from 437 00:27:03,076 --> 00:27:09,076 Speaker 2: mind control. No, this is the dream of the brainwasher. 438 00:27:14,236 --> 00:27:17,396 Speaker 2: Next time on x Man Elon Musk's plan to save 439 00:27:17,516 --> 00:27:22,436 Speaker 2: humans from being destroyed by artificial intelligence Muskism and the 440 00:27:22,556 --> 00:27:24,076 Speaker 2: AI Apocalypse