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.

  • realitista@lemmy.world
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    11 minutes ago

    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.

    • BigBenis@lemmy.world
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      6 minutes ago

      Elon has a lot of money, therefore people listen to him, therefore he knows everything about anything he pleases.

    • Imgonnatrythis@sh.itjust.works
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      3 hours ago

      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”

        • MutilationWave@lemmy.world
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          13 minutes ago

          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.

      • MutilationWave@lemmy.world
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        16 minutes ago

        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.

  • Supervisor194@lemmy.world
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    4 hours ago

    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.”

    • Diplomjodler@lemmy.world
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      3 hours ago

      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.

    • Serinus@lemmy.world
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      3 hours ago

      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.

  • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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    6 hours ago

    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

  • Karyoplasma@discuss.tchncs.de
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    7 hours ago

    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.

    • killingspark@feddit.org
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      6 hours ago

      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.