The big news Tuesday concerned Netflix, whose disappointing first quarter earnings report revealed that the streaming giant had lost over 200,000 subscribers—the first time it reported a subscriber loss in the last 10 years. (Netflix had previously estimated that it would gain 2.5 million subscribers in Q1; meanwhile, the suspension of its service in Russia cost it 700,000 subscribers.)
Netflix’s disappointing earnings report caused its stock price to tumble about 23 percent—and one person who appeared to celebrate the news was Tesla CEO Elon Musk, the world’s richest man with a net worth of over $260 billion.
Responding to a report about Netflix’s disappointing numbers, Musk tweeted late Tuesday night, “The woke mind virus is making Netflix unwatchable.”
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When a user responded to Musk that the “Woke mind virus is the biggest threat to the civilization,” Musk agreed, replying, “Yes.”
Another user who goes by @nichegamer tweeted at Musk, saying, “Not just Netflix. Movies in general, videogames, tv, it’s all infested with current year trend woke garbage for fear offending a green haired freak next to the ban button. Nothing original anymore at all, except for media coming out of places like Japan or Korea,ironically.”
Again, Musk replied, “True,” adding, “Can they please just make sci-fi/fantasy at least *mostly* about sci-fi/fantasy.”
It’s interesting for Musk—who recently gobbled up billions of dollars in Twitter shares in an effort to influence the company before making a $43 billion offer to purchase it outright—to criticize Netflix, given that the streamer has partnered with him on a number of fawning documentary projects, including Countdown: Inspiration4 Mission to Space, a docuseries chronicling the SpaceX Inspiration4 orbital mission, and Return to Space, an all-access documentary by Oscar-winning filmmakers Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi (Free Solo) taking viewers inside Musk’s aerospace company SpaceX.
By highlighting “the woke mind virus,” Musk appears to be taking issue with Netflix’s attempts to offer more diverse content on its platform. In recent years, the streamer has made a greater effort to highlight LGBTQ+ storytelling with its shingle Most—despite the recent backlash over Dave Chappelle’s transphobic stand-up special.
