August 22, 2024, 08:44 AM
Elon Musk took to X to tweet a minute-long clip of then-prime minister Lee Hsien Loong's take on the movement called "Wokeness" in the west.
The clip of Lee, who is now senior minister, was derived from an exit interview he gave to the media, where he spoke on a wide range of topics before passing the baton of his prime minister role to Lawrence Wong.
SM Lee, 72, stepped down as prime minister in May 2024 after two decades in the role.
Wisdom
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 21, 2024
Musk, 53, shared the clip with a one-word caption, "Wisdom".
Reactions
In less than 12 hours, the tweet elicited closed to 19.3 million views, according to X's own stat counter, and had been retweeted some 45,000 times, with 204,000 like reactions.
Context of tweet
The Tesla chief executive and billionaire has been a major opponent of the "woke" culture.
He has, in recent years, spoken out against the "woke mind virus", which has been abbreviated as "WMV", as a nod to "WMD", which stands for "Weapons of Mass Destruction".
The first mention of the words "woke mind virus" that could be found in Musk's feed showed up in December 2021, according to Snopes.
traceroute woke_mind_virus
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 19, 2021
He then tweeted in April 2022 that a "woke mind virus" was supposedly why streaming giant Netflix was facing financial woes.
Netflix Shares Crater 20% After Company Reports it Lost Subscribers For the First Time in More Than 10 Years https://t.co/rH2AklZJsl
— Slashdot (@slashdot) April 19, 2022
On May 18, 2022, he tweeted that he believed Yale University was "the epicenter of the woke mind virus attempting to destroy civilization".
I’m not surprised at all. That was to inoculate the public. As a prominent vaccine advocate, you should understand that.
Yale is the epicenter of the woke mind virus attempting to destroy civilization.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 18, 2022
Musk's outspoken views about the Left and dismissing the embrace of social justice are well-documented.
He went as far as to say that he would make his chatbot, Grok, to be trained not to be woke.
SM Lee's comments praised previously
SM Lee's take on woke culture was previously praised the moment it was aired.
@mothershipsg "It does not make us a more resilient, cohesive society with a strong sense of solidarity. We must be more robust." #singapore #tiktoksg #sgnews ♬ original sound - Mothership
The same clip that Musk shared was lauded on Australian television in May 2024.
The sentiments shared by those who praised it were that it was measured and a reasonable response.
Top photos via Wikipedia & Elon Musk X
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