Elon Musk is not afraid of anything or anyone.
The serial entrepreneur, whose influence and power have grown in recent months, never hesitates to share his opinion on any subject. In doing so, he does not shy away from controversy.
He attacks, scathingly criticizes his targets or takes positions that are likely to cause an uproar. His millions of Twitter followers applaud. They see his approach as the proof of his authenticity. They believe that he is true to himself. There is no artifice in him. They sometimes have the impression that Musk is saying out loud what they are thinking and dare not say.
This true side has thus created a direct link between Musk and his admirers. This link needs to be nourished in these times, when one attack, one strong statement drives out another. Musk seems to be aware of this and so delivers on a regular basis.
Pentagon Should Focus on Defending the Country, Musk Says
This is what he has just done by launching a scathing criticism of the Pentagon. The billionaire criticizes the Department of Defense for promoting its diversity efforts. He has made his point by reminding them of what is, according to him, their primary duty.
"Diversity is a strategic imperative critical to mission readiness and accomplishment," the Pentagon said on Feb. 18. "We were on site for the 2023 inaugural @DoD_ODEI. Summit as DEIA experts led forums to advance the DEIA and DoD mission -- because our people matter."
'DEIA' stands for diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility.
Musk had no hesitation in blasting this almost self-congratulatory tweet.
"Your strategic imperative is defending the United States," the billionaire slammed.
The Pentagon did not comment.
The reactions of Twitter users supported the billionaire's point of view.
"We've lost sight of purpose and principle in the morass of wokeism. It's time to come back to center ground," commented New York Times bestselling author James Arthur Ray.
"The Left seeks to turn our military into an enforcement arm of the "Party," wrote Tom Fitton, the president of conservative activist group Judicial Watch and an informal adviser to former President Donald Trump.
"The next @SecDef must eliminate all functions of Marxist DIE and reinstate defending the nation as the only @DeptofDefense strategic imperative," added another Twitter user.
Musk Wants to Defeat the 'Woke Mind Virus'
On the website of the Office for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion – Department of Defense, the Pentagon justifies the need for diversity in its ranks:
"The changing face of the Nation demands that we change," ODEI said. "As the demographic make-up of the American population continues to evolve, it is imperative that the Department of Defense focus its efforts on emerging talent to ensure that we successfully attract, recruit, develop and retain a highly-skilled total force capable of meeting current and future mission requirements."
As a result, the mission of the ODEI is to "develop and execute diversity management and equal opportunity policies and programs affecting active duty and reserve component military personnel, and DOD civilian employees."
Musk's criticism of the Pentagon's diversity efforts come as no real surprise given his determination to defeat the "woke mind virus," whose agenda, the billionaire says, is to impose progressive ideologies on the whole of the society. These progressive ideologies are, according to him, the beginning of a new culture war between the left and the right. According to Musk, the "woke mind virus" wants to impose its values such as racial diversity, gender identity, ESG on society, without worrying about diversity of opinions and free speech.
Two important points of the new progressive ideologies -- ESG and pronouns -- have been divisive and, for many months, have been the subject of a big pushback from conservatives.
ESG stands for environmental, social and corporate governance policies, while the term "pronouns" points to the gender-identity debate. It means people have to stop assuming that gender is binary and to accept that everyone has the right to decide how they want to be referred to: he/his/him, she/hers/her or they/theirs/them.
Musk believes that ESGs and pronouns are expressions of wokeism and lead to cancel culture: intolerance and the end of free speech. As a result, he's on a mission to defeat this "woke mind virus."
