Elon Musk rocked up on The Joe Rogan Experience once again this week – and as you’d expect, there were plenty of talking points.
His appearances on the show have always raised eyebrows. The first time he was on The Joe Rogan Experience, Musk made a splash by smoking (and choking on) a large joint.
This time was no different, with Musk kicking off by lighting a cigar and speaking to Rogan, who was wearing a blonde wig and a Puerto Rico shirt throughout the interview to mark Halloween.
Here are the biggest talking points from the new interview.
Shooting a Tesla Cybertruck
The long-awaited Tesla Cybertruck is (finally) almost here, and the pair talked about the durability of the build construction of the new model.
Then, Rogan took things into his own hands and made a modest $1 bet with Musk, one of the richest people on the planet, that he could pierce the bodywork by shooting it with a bow and arrow. He then took himself down to the garage Musk’s car was parked in and shot it – in the end, it was Musk who won the bet.
Slamming George Soros
Musk once again criticised billionaire financier and philanthropist George Soros, who previously annoyed Musk by dumping Tesla stock.
“He is, I believe, the top contributor to the Democratic party. The second one was Sam Bankman-Fried,” Musk said.
“And Soros, he had a very difficult upbringing… In my opinion, he fundamentally hates humanity. That's my opinion.”
He went on to criticise Soros by saying: “He's doing things that erode the fabric of civilization - getting DAs elected who refuse to prosecute crime.
“That's part of the problem in San Francisco, and LA, and a bunch of other cities.”
Buying Twitter to prevent the “mind virus”
Discussing why he wanted to buy Twitter in the first place, Musk said that he wanted to save civilisation.
“This is going to sound melodramatic but I was worried that it was having a corrosive effect on civilization,” he said. “Just having a bad impact.”
He blamed the city of San Francisco, where the headquarters of the company is located, on liberal attitudes “infecting” staff.
“I think part of it is where it's located - which is downtown San Francisco. While I think San Francisco is a beautiful city and we should fight really hard to right the ship of San Francisco.
“But if you walk around downtown San Francisco, right near the X headquarters, it's the zombie apocalypse. It's really rough.”
He added: “That philosophy is one which was being piped to earth. So, a philosophy that would ordinarily be quite niche, and quite restrained, so the fallout area was limited, was effectively given as an information weapon.
Musk went on to say: “Information technology weapon to propagate what is essentially a mind virus to earth.
“And the mind virus is very clear if you walk the streets of downtown San Francisco. It is the end of civilization.”
Poking fun at Meta’s Threads
The pair then discussed the noise surrounding Meta’s Threads, which was launched as a rival to Twitter in the summer.
Rogan spoke about the mass emigration to the new social media platform. While it seemed popular at first, the number of regular users has dropped off dramatically.
The host said: “It just dropped off within a couple of weeks. Now it's a f***ing ghost town."
Musk added: "I mean, [Mark Zuckerberg] himself doesn't post. You gotta use your own product."
Claiming Zuckerberg pulled out of their fight
Remember back in the summer? It was a simpler time, when two of the richest men on the planet vowed to knock seven bells out of each other in a fight – that never actually happened.
Musk and Meta’s Zuckerberg supposedly agreed to fight each other a while back and it never happened. Now, though, Musk claimed during the interview with Rogan that it was Zuckerberg and not him who pulled out of the bout.
“I’ll fight you any place, anywhere, under any rules,” Musk stated.
Sharing Covid conspiracy theories and criticising people who choose to wear masks
Musk spent a chunk of the interview claiming that ventilators used during the pandemic damaged the lungs of patients, saying that the “treatment is worse than the disease”.
He and Rogan also went on to criticise people who still chose to wear masks, with Rogan saying: "I think you're gonna be okay [without the mask]. You're probably not gonna be okay breathing that f****ing same air in that mask and all the bacteria spitting out."
"Most of the time, a mask is not good for you,” Musk added.
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