After years of speculation, Elon Musk has finally revealed the main reason he acquired Twitter for $44 billion in 2022. On a recent Saturday, the CEO of the now-renamed social network shared an update on the “traceroute” command from his December 19, 2021, post, announcing the discovery and erasure of the “Woke-Thought-Virus” from a local computer.
Musk likely used this metaphor to imply that he has successfully fought against overblown political correctness, censorship, and liberalism on his platform. In response to a user’s comment on the new fact-checking policy in Meta, Musk’s tech rival, one X user noted that it’s simply crazy how many companies are now backing off, and the tech mogul replied, “I decided in 2021 to destroy the Woke-Thought-Virus, and now it’s gone.”
Musk confirmed in the user’s follow-up question that this was the main reason for the Twitter acquisition.
In a July interview with psychologist Jordan Peterson, Musk claimed that one of his children had been “killed” by the Woke-Thought-Virus in a figurative sense, as he was deceived into giving permission to administer puberty-blockers to his child. He then swore to destroy the Woke-Thought-Virus, stating that there were already certain successes by the time of the July 2024 interview.
In a prior YouTube interview on December 22, 2021, the Tesla CEO referred to the Woke-Thought-Virus as one of the “possibly greatest dangers to modern civilization.” He claimed that the supposed “vigilant awareness” for racism and justice was a false virtue and only split society by fostering hate.