Outrage as Elon Musk claims ‘only AfD can save Germany’
Summary
Elon Musk sparked outrage in Germany by endorsing the far-right, anti-immigrant Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party on his platform, X, claiming “only the AfD can save Germany.”
The AfD, which polls second ahead of Germany’s February snap election, has been labeled extremist by German intelligence.
Political leaders accused Musk of election interference, while others criticized his remarks as harmful. Musk later doubled down, calling for Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s resignation.
Musk’s comments align with his past support for far-right and anti-immigration figures across Europe and beyond.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/dec/20/elon-musk-claims-only-afd-can-save-germanyOpen linkView original on lemmy.world790
Comments133
It's important to note that right after saying this...
A German AFD supporter who retweets Musk drove into a Christmas market in a terrorist attack
Germany has stricter laws about inciting violence, it's a long shot but maybe he'll get charges
Elon Musk is, as far as I am concerned, directly responsible for (so far and let's hope it stays that way) the murder of five people.
Im not aware of these 5 people Can you share more?
I'm guessing you are aware, but I'll play along.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/christmas-market-germany-car-dead-injured-magdeburg/
I fucking hate the guy. I just legit didn’t know.
Thanks for the link
Yeah it's pretty new information that chronically online people might already know, but others may not.
I just heard about it like an hour ago via NPR.
(and everyone in Germany and nearby countries)
Obviously local news is going to be heard by local people before international people hear about it by international news. You didn't need to say that.
I'm all for bashing Elon Musk, but how is he actually directly responsible for that massacre?
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/suspect-germany-auto-attack-killed-5-injured-200-self-identified-islam-rcna185119
Also:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incitement
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stochastic_terrorism
And the AfD's knee-jerk reaction was to assume he was a muslim jihadist, proving his point about German attitudes about Saudi refugees.
Ohhhh, that’s why I haven’t seen the regular racist memes on conservative social media. Pretty on brand
Wasn’t the driver himself an immigrant?
Yes. An atheist 50 year old Saudi man.
Wasn't trump voted by many Latinos?
Most Latinos still voted for Kamala, especially Latina women. There is a culture of machismo even worse than the US in some Latin American countries, so they see Trump as a strong man who does whatever he wants and gets away with it.
The worse part is that many Latinos who immigrated the official way, which is a huge pain in the ass, feel no solidarity with undocumented Latinos. I've heard worse anti immigrant shit on many occasions from Latinos than I've heard from black and white Americans.
Nazi supporting Nazi also supports other Nazis.
An apartheid-loving nazi calls for the nazi party to be the savior of Germany? Never would I have guessed.
The information, I as a not very politically interested German (understatement) have: We are holding re-elections on Feburary 23rd because the current government imploded. Basically, the rich guys' party doesn't want to make rich guys pay taxes and being children about it, most other parties seem desperate at this point, else they wouldn't have challenged that much. They have never cared that much, so I have no idea what changed. The populist nazi party Musk cheers for has a lot traction because people are beyond stupid and self-centered and I fear that they will get a significant amount of votes. Maybe they don't win outright, but they will realistically take second place. I regard everyone that considers to vote for AfD as a nazi.
I think the real problem is that most parties in Germany that held some power in the last decades did little to nothing to actually improve the economic situation of the "normal" people. For many it stayed the same, for many others it declined significantly starting with Corona and then with the energy crisis that contributed heavily to the inflation.
Paired with us being one of the few nations that raise no taxes at all on wealth but just on income the disparity between the rich and the poor is growing. So people have only the parties that haven't held power yet to turn to.
I think it's at least partially some weird form of misplaced hope that something will change for the better in the chaos that would be a AfD government.
But you are correct, supporting the AfD is directly benefiting Nazis. And while I don't think that all AfD supporters will always be Nazis, they currently are.
For someone not very politically interested you seem to know a good bit. Please vote in February.
Elon Musk is a danger to democracy all over the world
What the fuck does he even know about germany?
What the fuck does he know about America?
He knows that Nazis are from there, and that's pretty fckn rad baby
It doesn’t matter to him. All he knows that he’s a Dark Enlightenment fascist white supremacist. The poors and non-whites must die. Fascist governments must be in power everywhere so he can have his world where he is king, he has robots to do his bidding and can try to live forever.
His knowledge is mostly restricted to the years 1933-1945.
He didn't read the ending. No one tell him the spoiler.
How about a Life reenactment?
I, as Citizen of Germany by birth and Law, invite Elon Musk to Nürnberg. We bring some Judges and a Rope.
To be honest the ending for rich capitalist(the same that helped Hitler in power) in west Germany was pretty good. They profit heavily during the war and afterwards the mostly just kept there companies continuing to profit.
That's because the US rebuilt Germany, as a barrier to the USSR.
It's not an oligarchy yet.
He knows what benifits him. That's the entirety of his motivations. Evil greedy assholes are quite dull, he just knows what makes him more money and more power.
Elon grew up and enjoyed the South African Apartheid regime and he is a neo-Nazi.
Stfu Musk you know shit about Germany
English teacher here. Often editing to use less words can make your statements more concise and accurate. For example, try "STFU Musk, you know shit"
I'm not a native English speaker, thank you!
Don't listen to them, your statement was fine, your English is good, and I think what you wrote is better than their edit.
I think they're trying to be funny by implying that he doesn't know shit about anything, rather than just Germany, but it's not a well crafted joke if that was the intention.
Oh i knew that, my reply was purely ironically :)
Yeah this doesn't feel like the place for that kind of joke plus "you know shit" reads as "you know a lot of things" to my native speaking brain as well as the other meanings and it's very hard to tell intent from text.
Wooosh
Their advice is kind of bad... "you know shit" implies that he's intelligent and knows things. Especially if just written down. If speaking, you may be able to convey what you want with tone and context, but even still...
Despite it being technically incorrect, grammatically, what you meant to say was, "you don't know shit." E.g., "You don't know shit about Germany" = "You know nothing about Germany."
English is fucking weird, and I can't imagine learning all of these rules. Frankly, I couldn't even explain to you how I know 3/4 of them, it's just innate at this point.
Mm but we're also very contextual- the 'shut the fuck up' implies the negative. So a native speaker automatically fills in the missing 'all' after shit or 'don't' before know depending on regional preference
Yeah, I definitely read it the correct way, but I can see how someone who isn't a native speaker could be confused by the wording. "You know shit" just sounds weird, especially after such a negative prior sentence.
Fun part is that only really applies in the written format - spoken it would have been incredibly clear!
(Enflish isn't an inflection language my arse} )
Not even knowing shit = not even knowing the least (most worthless) amount possible = knowing nothing?
All languages are weird. English has very little in the way of inflection, which makes it fairly easy to pick up (in my opinion). For example, it only has one word each for “the” and “a(n)” whereas German has “der/die/das, des/der/des, dem/der/dem, den/die/das, die, der, den, die” and “ein/eine/ein, eines/einer/eines, einem/einer/einem, einen/eine/ein”. Yes, lots of duplicates, but each instance has its own distinct grammatical function, and its much the same with adjectives and nouns, and it all has to line up; “green” is different depending on the grammatical gender and number and noun case of whatever it is that is green… for example.
I think at some point you’re pretty much done actively learning rules unless you’re a proofreader, teacher, editor, translator, writer, philologist… you ’ll just have to move on to immersing yourself in English, whether it’s in person or via song lyrics, movies, books, forums, articles, documentation, video games. That way you’ll pick up idiomatic expressions like this one and ideally develop something like an informed sense for what sounds right (for example: “I could care less” doesn’t make much sense, and “irregardless” is a pointless double negative).
But that sounds like the other usage of shit. It can mean nothing or it could man a lot. I mean with the shut the fuck up (which is more impactful than STFU) connotation the meaning isn't lost but it's a more confusing statement.
Elon has a lot of money, therefore people listen to him, therefore he knows everything about anything he pleases.
We're running into the paradox of tolerance real quick here folks. Democracies need to legislate limits to the political influence of rich idiots and soon, otherwise we'll all end up like the US.
Rest of the world, please take us as a cautionary tale, not a model for emulation
Well, funny thing is we do have rules about what you can and cannot say, in Europe. I'm looking forward to him discovering those little subtleties, since he clearly cannot shut his trap.
These are rules that are supposed to already exist though. Foreign political influence is always considered a bad thing by the country receiving it. The UK and Germany should have strong protections against it but apparently they don't.
lol as if they don't like them. they themselves are rich idiots, the only difference is that ironically they don't have as much political influence as unelected rich idiots.
No country is safe from Elon Musk's election interference. It's urgent that we boycott Twitter and Tesla. If you have a Twitter account do the following now:
These could take as little as five minutes of your time but it will make a huge difference because of the ripple effect. When one person leaves it will automatically incentivize your friends to follow you. You have the power to make a difference.
Replace that with Mastodon and you're golden.
Either is better than X/Twitter for now. Bluesky is "easier" for many people. I prefer Mastodon myself, but there's a bridge so I can follow Bluesky profiles (and vice-versa) which is nice.
Does BlueSky utilize Activity Pub?
No. They use something called the "AT Protocol" and that's about all I know about it.
I imagine some sort of compatibility layer could be designed, but I don't know how much fidelity you could preserve.
Bluesky is not better, it's at best a sidegrade and possibly worse.
This is false. It still has areas in which it could improve, but it is a thousand times better than twitter.
It's ownership is a shadowy cabal of Billionaires (as opposed to a mutually federated network of independent sites (Mastodon) or a single, crazed, billionaire) and it's already proven it will censor and shape discussions how those billionaires see fit.
Shadowy cabal? They literally list their board of directors on their FAQ...
What about a group of public figures is a shadowy cabal?
If true, that would still make it not quite as bad as Twitter.
Do you have citations to support any of your claims?
It's at least half a decade earlier on the enshittification timeline.
It is better than xitter right now (almost anything is) but the earlier you quit the black-box-algorithm-skinnerbox needle, the better.
Mastodon just does t have features most users will want
Literal supervillain
This stupid POS doesn't even know that this already happened a few days ago.
Scholz didn't resign, he called for and lost a vote of no confidence, so the parliament will be dissolved by the German prime minister and new elections are due in late February, where Scholz can (and likely will) throw his hat in the ring again.
A resignation is something different.
No, that's exactly how resignation works for a chancellor in Germany. The only alternative would be for a new chancellor to be elected by the Bundestag (parlament), but since no candidate would have a majority he resigned by triggering a vote of confidence.
OK, yeah you're right.
There is nothing surprising about a white South African promoting a racist political party. White South Africans are the most openly and unabashedly racist people on the planet.
Japan and China will challenge your statement
The racism olympics is pretty competitive this year
It hasn’t been this competitive since 1945!
bro thinks hes henry ford
Well, the nazism, the car thing, the evil vulture capitalist…kinda similar.
TBH he is. Ford was a piece of shit and so is he.
Why do Putin and the billionaires he shepherds think that all this far-right democracy killing shit is so super duper? I marvel that they never seem to stop and think "this could eventually go badly for me."
They want every place to be like Russia. It's always been their main contention that democracy is just a sham and basically everyone is a fascist. This is one of the main reasons for invading Ukraine because he couldn't tolerate a democratic nation as his neighbour. It'll give the plebes ideas, you know.
Because Putin wants Russia to be the geopolitical superpower it was in 1960. It's a hell of a lot easier to tear the rest of the world down than it is to build up Russia.
That's part of why he's so eager for war. The last big shakeup of the global order was WWII. He doesn't have the patience to accomplish geopolitical power closer to the way China is, by slowly building up their economy over decades.
And he's right that a bunch of people dying often helps the economy. The black plage was 1350, followed by the Renaissance around 1400-1600. We're familiar enough with post WWII.
But that's the dumb and evil way to grant power to labor. You can create more demand for labor without literally killing half your laborers. And it turns out having a real, healthy middle class is great for the economy.
Personally, I believe you could accomplish a similar effect by having a ridiculously high minimum wage and mandating a maximum of 32 hour work weeks. Seems like it might be worth experimenting with when the alternative "fix" is to kill half your people.
How's the actions of the top US billionaire who just practically bought the American government the fault of Putin? Nah man, the US has to shoulder the responsibility for unleashing this fucking plague on the rest of the world.
Putin has done a lot of evil shit, but this one is all US all the way. In Russia, the state is the ultimate power, as evidenced by Putin's ultimatum to the oligarchs to bend the knee when he took power. Similar to China, where Jack Ma disappeared for a while after making critical comments on Chinese state policy, and every billionaire got the message. It's the US that has inverted this relationship so that the state bends the knee to insane billionaires like this one and let's them run amok. So Elon can hardly be blamed on Putin.
Because he’s racist. There’s no more logic to it than that.
Let's-a go DDD
American here. Can we begin our deportations with Musk?
Not while he's our president.
Please not to the EU, maybe our african friends can take him back?
He's a modern day Nazi leader, what do you expect him to say?
Matches up with history. Hitler had a giant portrait of Henry Ford in his office. American racism, genocide, and capitalism was a major inspiration for the Nazis
I do not understand the outrage on this (regard Musk being Far-Right supporter), everyone knows Musk has become an immensely Extreme Far-Right supporter and leans heavily into Fascism. He support all the Right/ Far-Right political parties and people.
As usual, his claims are immensely wrong, stupid and idiotic. I mean, the afD literally tried to do a coúp in Germany;
Unfortunately shows that lots of people in Germany are supporting Far-Right/ Nazism ideas, tactics and ideology. Especially since it has been proven that many of the afD are Nazi-supports (especially the leaders);
From article 3;
This text is to separate the quote of the article and the quote from OP's post.
Accussed? If I remember, he did interfere with the election in America by trying to 'purchase' votes (Insanity that this is allowed);
Citizens United ruling says money is speech. So in the US, this is unfortunately 100% legal.
Not in the EU though...
It doesn’t have to be surprising to outrage people though.
It should be unsurprising that he's trying to destroy other major economies around the world, seeing as that's the policy of those who he's aligned himself with politically.
was ein ekelhafter clown
So 1 Pimmel, Mann
🤏
Oh oh, das SEK hat das sicher gelesen und stürmt gerade deine Wohnung, um dein Fax-Gerät zu beschlagnahmen...
This country collapses when the far right party is in power.
We have a huge problem. Me need young people from other countries, because Germany is pretty old.
Having those clowns in power will worsen the problem.
An unfortunate truth is that this generation's youth is actually more conservative than the previous one...
Freedom
Brown people I guess.
The trans aliens ofc.
Antifa
Fascism loves capitalism.
Only Nazis can save Germany...isn't there precedent for that not working?
Well Elon isn't Jewish, gay, roma, disabled, Germsn, polish, French, Italian, Russian, British, …or a poor American so it isn't his problem
vietnamese people think elon musk and donald trump are right about everything because they are smart because they are rich and because america is a democracy
they are deified, basically. just like ho chi minh
Shut up musk. Go back to being Trump's little money bitch before he gets mad and divorces you.
You know what bothers me? Musk knows hes bullshitting everyone and it seems like its fucking laugh to him. Remember when the hyper rich built libraries and funded colleges and, i dunno, just gave back? To think, just a few short years ago, he was presenting as some kind of visionary. Turns out, hes just a capitalist asshole.
Noblesse oblige still exists, but the loudest morons with wealth don’t do it. Classy people with wealth certainly still do
Save Germany from what? Being a successful, modern country that takes care of its people?
Ugh, I must live in alternate-reality Germany. Not like AfD can improve things, but come on
I genuinely apologize for my ignorance. Germany looks like a damned paradise of free healthcare and other social welfare programs from the States. What issues are you facing over there?
Mainly missed opportunities due to inefficiencies and conflicts of interest in politics I'd say?
The biggest issue is a lack of investments due to us putting a block of taking on new government debt into our constitution so there never is enough money to invest in things like the infrastructure. That and too much bureaucracy in everything.
Just want to clarify that healthcare is not free; there are insurance companies and coverage is paid for.
The difference is they are more regulated and everyone must have insurance coverage
You should be more undersantding. Since Trump is now enraged because people call Musk the President, Musk needs to find a backup country where he'll be called the leader before Trump kicks him out. That's all just risk mitigation!
can we get an Alternative for Douchebag already
I propose flaming turd.
If luigi killed this guy I would not shed a single tear.
I would crack open an ice cold beer.
Aged like milk.
What clearer and more obvious sign does one need to call him a Nazi? Disabling his right-wing ex-twitter propaganda network in Europe (and other civilized places) should be a top priority.
Musks proclamations are about as valid as his orange boyfriends
Hi Elon, only Pasquale, the best pizza maker of my hometown, can save your Tesla truck
(A short fall a long way)
I can see how people might get a bit NIMBY about islamic terrorism. But he doesn't even live there, man idk
So in the news article from OP this was written;
This text is to separate the quote of the article and the quote from OP’s post.
But the thing about that is, news come out that the person who did the terrorist attack on the Christmas Market is anti-islam, pro-israel and pro-Wilders (leader of the Far-Right PVV Dutch party).
From article 1;
From article 2:
I think that's enough quotes from the article to show, he's immensely anti-islam. So, I'm confused as to why Musk blames Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
That is a bizarre twist... So a former Muslim who now hates Islam wants to pose as an islamic terrorist, hoping nobody finds out he's anti-islam afterwards, I just don't understand his plan. If he's right about the state of islamic terrorism (which I wouldn't know since I don't live there) he shouldn't have to contribute to it for people to notice
You don't have to go through such mental gymnastics. He's just a far-right terrorist. Period.
There's usually logic in people's decisions even if the logic ultimately derives from nonsense. Not that you have any obligation to understand it but I like to figure these kinds of things out
Seems like something that I would expect from Elon nowadays.
Musk reminds me of that Blofeld character that was in one of those lethal weapon flicks
Diplometic immunite