Let’s take a look at the highlights of this viral conversation:
Musk regrets controversial, ‘foolish’ post
Musk apologised for endorsing a controversial social media post on X, the microblogging platform formerly known as Twitter. On November 15, he had labelled as “the actual truth” a post on X that was perceived to be anti-semitic. The post said that Jewish communities advocated a “dialectical hatred against whites”. His comment sparked a backlash online, as it was seen as an endorsement of a longtime conspiracy theory among White supremacists.
“It was foolish of me,” he said, calling the post “literally the worst and dumbest post that I’ve ever done.”
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Advertisers, go ‘f**k yourself’
Musk said that advertisers who had left X should not think they could blackmail him and they didn’t have to advertise with X. “If somebody‘s gonna try to blackmail me with advertising, blackmail me with money? Go f**k yourself,” he said. “Go. F**k. Yourself. Is that clear? I hope it is. Hey, Bob, if you’re in the audience,” he added, in an apparent reference to Robert Iger, chief executive of Walt Disney, which pulled ads on X. Iger had spoken earlier at the event and said that Disney felt the association with X following Musk‘s move “was not a positive one for us”.
‘If the company fails, advertisers will be why’
But the billionaire did acknowledge that there were business implications in the advertiser actions. Asked about the economics of X, Musk said the only thing the advertisers’ boycott will do is kill the company and make it go bankrupt. “The whole world will know advertisers killed the company.”
‘Judge the products I make’
He said that with his other businesses, the focus is on the best products, highlighting that Tesla got to where it is with “no advertising at all”. Musk insisted that customers who did not like him should consider the products that his companies make based on their quality, in reference to Tesla’s electric cars and SpaceX’s rockets.
Musk, the green leader
“Tesla makes twice as many electric cars as the rest of the US combined. Tesla has done more to help the environment than all other companies combined,” he said. Musk added that as the leader of Tesla, he arguably had done more for the environment than anyone in the world.
“What I care about is the reality of goodness, not the perception of it. And what I see all over the place is people who care about looking good while doing evil. F**k them,” Musk said.
Israel trip ‘not an apology tour’
After the backlash to his post, Musk travelled to Israel and toured the site of Hamas’ assault on October 7. He had a conversation with Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu in a meeting that was live-streamed on X. Musk clarified in the interview that this “was not an apology tour” and the trip had been planned before his message and was “independent” of the issue.
While there, he received a symbolic dog-tag from the father of an Israeli hostage taken captive by Hamas, which he promised to wear until all the hostages were free. He wore the dog-tag on stage on Wednesday.
Election time
Musk’s wide-ranging interview included discussions from freedom of speech to the environment to US presidential politics. Musk said he thought he would not vote to re-elect President Joe Biden but did not say he would vote for his likely challenger, Donald Trump.
