So let’s talk about how smart the Chinese are versus how clueless many Americans still are. The Chinese, going back to the 1990s, actually sent students to the United States to study under the guise of attending university. What they were really doing was gathering information—i.e., spying—and then they would return home to be debriefed.

This is widely known; this is open information, and yet, unfortunately, many of us still don’t have a clue. Many of us in the United States still judge people by whether they act nicely, seem nice, or look nice. Now, I’m not saying that all Chinese students are spies; far from it.

I am saying we need to wake up; we need to operate in a reality mode instead of a fantasy mode. And, unfortunately, because Americans are so gullible, what happens is that we don’t get it, and then we do get it, and we start to go overboard in the other direction. An example of this is blaming all Muslims for the terrorist ideology of those who hold those ideas.

I’m not going to say whether it’s a minority or a majority—I’m not a pollster—but certainly, not all Muslims are terrorists. We need to be discriminating and discerning in our thoughts and think about behavior and risk profiles rather than broad-brush stereotyping of people, but at the same time, be aware that certain countries have certain strategies; certain state and non-state actors have certain strategies. Many of them have one thing in common: they want to feed off of our success, and they want to take us down.

They’re really not apologetic about it. What I love about Elon Musk is that he not only says the things that other people don’t want to hear, but that he has a very objective insight. I think if we could learn from that objective insight, it would do our country good, and it would sort of end the polarization around particular political figures and focus us on doing what is best for the nation as a whole. If we are American citizens, that’s what we should care about.