What Is The ‘Woke Mind Virus’ That ‘Killed’ Elon Musk’s Child?

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has waged yet another war against the imaginary new-age ‘woke mind virus’. It is the same virus that prompted Musk to buy Twitter and infamously rename it to X, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The 2023 piece explained that while Musk had initially embraced his transgender child’s identity, he later grew to believe that his now-daughter “went beyond socialism to becoming a full communist and believing that anyone wealthy is evil” as a result of their transition. After noticing a growing trend of a similar liberal mindset on Twitter, Musk decided to take matters into his own hands and spent a whopping $44 billion to acquire the platform.

A year later, Musk’s war cry echoed through his micro-blogging platform after his heart-to-heart with Dr Jordan Peterson in July 2024. The Canadian psychologist is known for sharing his radical views and despise towards the left community. Needless to say, the conversation between the two controversial figures became a huge topic of discussion online especially after Musk vowed to “destroy the woke mind virus” that figuratively “killed” his son.

While most netizens were enraged by the claim, some were confused as to what this ‘woke mind virus’ even meant. So what is it actually? Let’s find out.

What is the ‘woke mind virus’ Elon Musk is fuming about?

Keeping Musk’s feelings aside, the term ‘woke’ is often employed as a call to remain vigilant of societal injustices. According to the Cambridge Dictionary, the decades-old term was derived from African American Vernacular English (AAVE) to urge people to be ‘aware of social problems’ like racism and inequality. However, over the years, the term grew popular culturally and politically with varying interpretations.

In modern times, being ‘woke’ surpasses the original focus on racial discrimination to also cover broader social justice issues like gender equality, LGBTQ+ rights, environmental concerns, and more.

‘Woke’ has now turned into a negative political buzzword after its criticism of being oft-used in a performative way to appear progressive and liberal. This trend is popularly seen in Disney live-action films, where classic princesses are reimagined with diverse ethnicities to promote diverse representation in media. (Something Musk has also tweeted about.)

‘Wokeism’ also became a key point in identity politics after the emergence of superfluous pronouns like Ze, Zir, Zirs, Xe, Xem and Xyrs among others. Failure to address an individual by their preferred pronouns would often guarantee a person’s entry into the hall of fame of Cancel Culture — a practice Elon Musk wants to eradicate.

According to Elon Musk, the ‘woke mind virus’ is an ideological trend that makes people overly sensitive and excessively progressive regarding social and cultural movements. Over the past couple of years, he has used his latest possession, X, to criticise this cultural phenomenon vehemently. Describing it as a threat to “modern civilisation”, the SpaceX founder claimed that the “woke mind virus” feeds off of “dividing the people” and making them “hate each other and themselves”.

Why is Elon Musk against the ‘woke mind virus’?

Elon Musk has been caught up in the debate over LGBTQ+ rights since his child, Xavier, transitioned and legally changed their birth name to Vivian Jenna Wilson, which is their mother Justine’s maiden name, in 2022. Vivian also publicly severed ties with Musk by stating, “I no longer want to be related to my biological father in any way, shape, or form,” as quoted by TMZ.

In his conversation with Canadian psychologist Dr Jordan Peterson, Musk questioned the ethics of medical professionals performing sex change procedures and administrating puberty blockers. He also claimed being ‘tricked’ into permitting the said procedures to his then-son Xavier.

He said, “I was essentially tricked into signing documents for one of my older boys, Xavier. This was before I had any understanding of what was going on. COVID-19 was going on, so there was a lot of confusion and I was told Xavier might commit suicide if he doesn’t”. Both Musk and Peterson agreed on calling the practice “incredibly evil”. Musk segued the discussion by vowing to destroy the “woke mind virus” that he claims “killed” his son.

Musk’s personal war against being ‘woke’ is not limited to figuratively losing his eldest child. Over the years, the tech billionaire employed several attacks on the left community via X. His hatred towards the ‘woke mind virus’ grew strong enough to prompt him to move his SpaceX headquarters out of California, following the introduction of a bill that protects students from being outed as transgender to their parents.

From declaring his undying support to controversial former US President Donald Trump to suggesting that we must extensively procreate and flee the planet, Elon Musk has had his fair share of ‘Boomer’ moments.

Elon Musk x J.K Rowling: The anti-woke warriors

Elon Musk is not the only renowned personality to criticise gender-affirmation care or treatment for gender dysphoria. Harry Potter author J.K Rowling, who made millions of lives magical through her novels, has often lashed out at people advocating treatments for gender dysphoria. She argued that people should just let “nature take its course” for teenagers dealing with identity crises.

Even the real-life Harry Potter and Hermoine, aka Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson, publicly took a stance for trans rights by going against her, igniting debate within the Harry Potter fan community.

However, Musk did not waste any time highlighting Rowling’s statement on X.

Nevertheless, Musk, at the very least, admitted that he is open to the idea of providing gender-affirming care to ‘consenting adults’ should they still wish to transition given they are provided with the knowledge of all the risks involved in the treatment.

(Hero and featured image credits: Frederic J. Brown/AFP)