Bill Maher and Elon Musk criticize ENGLAND for its anti-freedom of speech laws
Elon Musk and Bill Maher took aim at Britain on Friday night, with Maher criticizing Britain’s libel laws and instead praising freedom of speech under the First Amendment.
Musk, 51, was eagerly welcomed to Maher’s show, with the host tweeting that the Twitter owner was “the guy I wanted more than any other.”
The pair discussed Musk’s concept of a “Woke Mind Virus” infecting the nation, and asked Maher about his thoughts on censorship.
“In many parts of the world — including parts of the world that people think are relatively similar to the United States — the laws of speech are draconian,” Musk said.
“England is very different,” Maher replied.
Elon Musk appeared on Bill Maher’s chat show Friday night discussing the First Amendment and censorship
Musk said that in “parts of the world that people think are relatively similar to the United States – the laws of speech are draconian,” to which Maher replied, “England.”
The South African-born billionaire declined to comment, saying: “I won’t name any country, but…”
Maher interjected: ‘England – why are we protecting them? They don’t have a First Amendment. It is very easy to do libel in England, when here…’
Musk interrupted and said, “I love England.”
The host replied: Me too. But I wouldn’t say the wrong thing. Or you could be sued more easily.”
Maher also referred to France, where it is illegal to deny the Holocaust – a law that also exists in Spain, Switzerland, Germany, Israel, the Netherlands, Canada and several other countries. Holocaust denial is not illegal in the UK, but in a landmark February 2019 case, a blogger was prosecuted for the “grossly offensive” concept.
Maher said he found Holocaust denial “abhorrent,” but felt it should be protected under the First Amendment.
Maher said he felt Britain’s libel laws were too strict and he preferred the freedom of speech protected by the First Amendment
“I really can’t stress this enough,” Musk said.
“We need to protect freedom of speech — and freedom of speech only matters, it’s only relevant, when it’s someone you don’t like saying something you don’t like.
“Because the freedom of speech you love is easy, of course.
“So the point of censorship is that, for those who are in favor of it, remember, you’ll come back to it at some point.”
His remarks were met with thunderous applause.
“Freedom of expression is actually extremely important and it’s bizarre that we’ve come to this point,” he said.
“Freedom of speech used to be a leftist or liberal value.
And yet, from the left, in quotes, we see a desire to actually censor.
“And that seems crazy.”
Musk said he was concerned about “Woke Mind Virus” and the inability to question anything
Musk said he was deeply concerned about the “Woke Mind Virus,” describing it as a “deeply undemocratic” herd mentality.
“You can’t question things,” he said.
“Even the interrogation is bad.”
He said he considered himself a moderate, noting that he had spent “an enormous amount of my life energy building renewable energy,” which “wasn’t exactly right.”
But he said he suffered from the indoctrination of people, especially young people.
“I think in general the parents are just not aware of what their children are being told or what they are not being taught,” he said.
Musk said he had a friend whose child went to school in the Bay Area, and the parent asked the child what they knew about US presidents.
“You know, who are the first few presidents of the United States,” Musk recalled saying.
“They could name Washington, but I said what do you know about him.
“Well, he was a slave owner. What else?
“Exactly nothing.”
Musk is seen in Washington DC on Wednesday, having just left the office of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer
Maher asked Musk, who bought Twitter for $44 billion in October, about the two-minute clip of Tucker Carlson he posted Wednesday night — which has now racked up 76 million views, massively more than his Fox News show.
Carlson was fired by Fox on Monday: Maher joked that Musk had recently appeared on Carlson’s show and said he hoped Musk’s presence wouldn’t herald his own demise.
Musk chuckled at the idea of being, as he put it, “the Typhus Maria of talk shows.”
He said he only found out about Carlson’s post after it went live and didn’t tweak the algorithm to boost the video.
“We didn’t do anything,” he said.
‘To be clear, we didn’t do anything special at all.
“I found out afterwards that he had posted something on Twitter.”
He said Twitter had done that 250 million people spend an average of half an hour a day on the platform, which equates to 120 to 130 million user hours per day.
Carlson’s show averaged three million viewers per night—the most of any cable news host.
“So it’s just that Twitter gets a lot of people’s attention, and it’s usually the people who read a lot or are interested in current events.
“And are generally quite influential.”