OPINION | This article contains commentary that reflects the author's opinion.
Elon Musk criticized Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) during a discussion with Ben Shapiro at the European Jewish Association conference.
Musk expressed concerns about the concept, stating that it promotes discrimination based on race, sex, and sexual orientation, and is fundamentally against merit.
He argued for a return to a focus on merit-based evaluation, emphasizing skills and job performance over identity.
“If you read Nazi literature, the Nazis literally promoted the idea that the Jews were, of course, this small caste of people who were running all major industries, who were standing behind all world power,” Shapiro said.
“That theory of power and group identity is really ugly, and we see echoes of it today.”
DEI “suggests that all of society is a vast pyramid of group identity, and at the very top are the people who are successful, and that those people are exploiting everybody else. And we can tell who is successful by their group identity; not by their level of success, their group identity. It matches up incredibly, almost a Venn diagram with the circle of anti-Semitism,” Shapiro said.
“You should always be wary of any name that sounds like it could come out of a George Orwell book,” Musk said.
“What it really means is discrimination on the basis of race, sex, and sexual orientation. And it’s against merit, and, thus, I think is fundamentally anti-Semitic,” Musk added.
“We really need to stop this principle that the nominally weaker party is always right. This is simply not true,” Musk said. “If some of those weaker groups want to annihilate you, that does not make them good.”
“I’m a big believer in moral absolutism, not moral relativism. There is good and bad in the absolute, and you judge any group or individual against absolute moral standards, not whether they’re the so-called oppressed or oppressor,” Musk said.
The conversation also touched on the rise of anti-Semitism in Europe and the impact of DEI on college campuses.
Both Musk and Shapiro highlighted the need to judge individuals and groups against absolute moral standards, rather than through the lens of oppression or relativism.
“You would think,” Shapiro said, “but the pseudo-sophisticates on college campuses seem to think differently.” Shapiro said.
“We need to return to what things mostly were, which is a focus on merit,” Musk said. “It doesn’t matter whether you’re a man, woman, what race you are, what beliefs you have. What matters is how good are you at your job, or what are your skills.”
“You could be a three-legged green Martian, wears a kimono, drinks yak’s milk. Who cares? It doesn’t matter. What matters is, how good is your work? That’s it,” Musk added.
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