Tech billionaire Elon Musk showed up Friday for a talk on Real Time with Bill Maher.

Musk, who bought Twitter last year, discussed with the host his acquisition of the company, freedom of speech, censorship and what he calls the “awakening virus.”

“I think we need to be very careful about anything that is anti-meritocratic and that leads to the suppression of free speech,” Musk told Maher. “So these are the two aspects of the ‘awakening virus’ that I find very dangerous… you can’t question things, even ask badly. Almost synonymous would be to abolish culture. And obviously people have tried to cancel you many times.”

Maher replied: “And it’s interesting, you and I are both in this small group of people, maybe now it’s a large group, who are called conservatives, who have not really changed. I don’t consider you a conservative.”

Musk said he “at least” considers himself “moderate”.

“I have spent a huge amount of my life energy creating sustainable energy, electric vehicles, batteries, solar energy and other things to help save the environment,” Musk said. – That’s not entirely correct.

When Maher asked Musk what he thought was the cause of the so-called “awakening virus,” Musk pointed to “the indoctrination that’s going on in schools and universities.”

“The experiences we had in high school and college are different than the experiences kids have today and haven’t been that way in 10, maybe 20 years… Parents usually don’t know what their kids are being taught or they don’t teach us,” Musk said. “I will give an example that my friend told me. His daughters go to high school in the Bay Area, and he used to ask them, “Who are the first few presidents of the United States.” They could name Washington, so he said, “What do you know about him?” — That he was a slave owner. ‘What else?’ ‘Nothing.’ Like, okay, maybe you should know more. Slavery is obviously a terrible institution, but we still need to know more about George Washington.”

The conversation then turned to Twitter, where Maher mentioned that the “crowd of mean girls” on the platform made him tweet less. “It’s so easy to undo and I don’t even know what’s pissing them off, these kids,” he said.

While Musk didn’t specifically mention his controversial Twitter Blue program, which recently abolished legacy verification except for users who signed up for $8 a month, he said the platform was close to bankruptcy when he acquired it, and so he had to “accept drastic measures.” ”

“I think that now the situation has stabilized enough. After the acquisition, the company was on the path to bankruptcy, so I had to take drastic measures, I had no choice, ”Musk said.

He also mentioned censorship on the platform, saying, “Twitter worries me because it’s kind of a digital town square and it’s important that there is both a reality and a perception of trust for a wide range of perspectives. And there was a lot of censorship, and I found a lot of it with the Twitter files, including a lot of government-managed censorship, which seems like it should be against the constitution, what was going on there.”

The interview ended with Maher telling Musk, “I’d like to smoke with you.”

The arrival of Real Time represents a major new stop on Musk’s media tour this month. Last week, the Twitter CEO appeared on Tucker Carlson Tonight for a two-day Fox News interview. The pair’s conversation touched on the implications of artificial intelligence and Musk’s justification for buying Twitter, which has since been valued at about half the price he bought it for.

Six days after Carlson’s interview with Musk aired, Fox News announced that the longtime anchor was leaving the network. Rupert Murdoch, chairman of parent company Fox News, has decided he will no longer support the conservative pundit.

A longtime controversial figure, Musk became even more intense last fall after he bought Twitter. Acquiring the company for $44 billion, Musk later described his takeover as facing “constant attack” from the media.

“It’s not like I have a stone cold heart or anything like that. If you are constantly criticized or attacked, and it is reported to you, including through Twitter, you know, it’s hard, ”Musk told the BBC earlier this month. “Now, at the end of the day, I think if you lose your feedback loop, that’s not good, so I think it’s important to get negative feedback. I don’t disable replies and have removed my entire blacklist so I don’t block anyone. That’s why I get a lot of negative feedback.”

The billionaire has come under fire for restoring Donald Trump’s previously suspended account and deleting an outdated Twitter verification program, among many other issues.