4 issues to know from Elon Musk’s interview with Don Lemon

SAN FRANCISCO — Former CNN reporter Don Lemon blended it up with Tesla CEO Elon Musk in an interview Lemon posted on Musk’s X social community Monday. The interview was speculated to kick off Lemon’s new discuss present on X, previously referred to as Twitter, at the least till Musk canceled the present shortly after the interview was recorded.

Over the course of barely greater than an hour, the 2 males jousted over topics starting from the political penalties of immigration and the advantages and harms of content material moderation to Musk’s signs of despair and his use of ketamine to alleviate them.

Listed below are among the extra notable moments.

THE X GAMES: PLAYER VS. PLAYER

Musk mentioned he thinks of X because the “participant versus participant platform,” utilizing a time period for video video games that pit gamers towards each other, usually in fights to the pixelated dying. Whereas he wasn’t significantly clear about what he meant by likening X to a dying match, he did carry it up within the context of the occasional late-night posts through which he seems to be spoiling for an argument.

The topic arose when Musk described how he relaxes by taking part in video video games and his choice for these PvP contests — what he considers “hardcore” gaming. It is one method to blow off steam, he mentioned — and agreed, at the least to some extent, when Lemon prompt that taking over X opponents served the identical goal. Although not all the time, he mentioned.

“I take advantage of it to put up jokes, typically trivia, typically issues which can be of nice significance,” Musk mentioned of his X posts.

MUSK USES KETAMINE TO TREAT POSSIBLE SYMPTOMS OF DEPRESSION

Musk is “virtually all the time” sober when posting on X late at night time, he instructed Lemon. “I do not drink, I do not actually, y’know….” he mentioned, his voice trailing off. Then Lemon requested a few topic Musk has beforehand mentioned publicly — his use of the drug ketamine, a managed substance that can also be utilized in medical settings as an anesthetic and for treatment-resistant despair.

When Lemon requested, Musk mentioned he has a prescription for ketamine, though he pushed again, calling it “fairly personal to ask somebody a few medical prescription.” He described “occasions when I’ve a type of a detrimental chemical state in my mind, like despair, I suppose,” and mentioned that ketamine may be useful for assuaging “a detrimental mind set.”

Requested if he thinks he ever abuses the drug, Musk mentioned he would not suppose so. “Should you’ve used an excessive amount of ketamine, you possibly can’t actually get work carried out,” he mentioned. “I’ve loads of work.”

MEETING WITH TRUMP

Musk mentioned he met with Donald Trump in Florida not too long ago — completely by probability. “I believed I used to be at breakfast at a buddy’s place and Donald Trump got here by,” he mentioned. “Let’s simply say he did a lot of the speaking.” The dialog did not contain something “groundbreaking or new,” he mentioned. And Trump did not ask him for a donation, he added.

“President Trump likes to speak, and so he talked,” Musk mentioned. “I do not recall him saying something he hasn’t mentioned publicly.”

Musk has mentioned he is not going to endorse or contribute to any presidential candidate, though he prompt he may rethink his endorsement later within the political system. He is not leaning towards anybody, he mentioned, however added that “I have been leaning away from Biden. I’ve made no secret about that.”

IMMIGRATION AND THE GREAT REPLACEMENT THEORY

Musk mentioned he disavows the so-called “ nice substitute principle,” a racist perception that, in its most excessive kind, falsely contends that Jews are behind a plot to decrease the affect of white individuals within the U.S. However in his interview with Lemon he did argue, on shaky proof, {that a} surge of undocumented immigrants has skewed U.S. elections in favor of Democrats.

Lemon identified that undocumented immigrants cannot vote and thus cannot actually favor both political social gathering. Musk replied that such individuals are included within the U.S. Census and thus increase the recorded inhabitants of U.S. states with giant immigrant populations. In some instances that might theoretically improve the variety of congresspeople these states can ship to the Home of Representatives in Washington, though such reapportionment solely happens as soon as a decade.